The Raft

In early December 2021, the Belgian Plopsa parks once again faced pandemic rules that directly affected their attraction line-up. Looopings reported that all indoor playgrounds had to close. Theme parks were not explicitly classified as indoor playgrounds, but the rules still had clear consequences for play attractions inside parks.

At Plopsaland De Panne and Plopsa Indoor Hasselt, Plopsa kept attractions such as a mat slide, a ball pool, a raft, climbing structures and playgrounds closed. For The Raft, known in Plopsaland as Het Vlot, that placed the attraction back in a vulnerable category: small, physical and built around touching, balancing and playing together. Those were exactly the kind of experiences that became difficult to manage during the pandemic.

For guests this was not a spectacular construction or opening story, but it did change the practical shape of a park day. Families visiting Mayaland for indoor activities had fewer options than usual. Historically, the article shows that the pandemic affected not only major shows and character encounters, but also modest family attractions that normally feel like an effortless part of a visit.

In July 2020, Plopsaland De Panne showed how dramatically a theme park visit could change under pandemic rules. Looopings described a park covered in green and red boxes, arrows, crosses and lines, all meant to guide guests through queues, pathways, shops and food locations. Many attraction queues were extended with barriers, and extra screens were installed where walking routes crossed.

For The Raft, the key detail was inside Mayaland. The indoor themed area switched to one-way traffic, while Het Vlot and the ball pool stayed closed. That meant a small, hands-on family attraction temporarily disappeared from the available line-up. The report shows that the ride's availability was shaped not only by operations, but also by hygiene and distancing rules that hit interactive play attractions especially hard.

For visitors, Mayaland remained open, but it no longer worked as a free-flowing indoor play area. In The Raft's history, this article captures an unusual moment when routing, cleaning and limiting contact became more important than the normal guest flow of a family attraction.