Hossoland is now officially open in Poland as Energylandia is set for some friendly competition in the Polish theme park scene as this fantasy themed park certainly has a lot of positives and potential but how does it stack up in person? We found out.
A short 40-minute drive from Szczecin airport (easy to fly to with RyanAir from Liverpool and London) is this brand new park which feels like it’s in the middle of absolutely nowhere.
The beautifully striking entrance certainly gives you that excitement of stepping into a new theme park for the first time and theming especially around the entrance is beautiful with a lovely viking ship entrance and very rugged building designs that lends a wonderful nautical theme and charm to proceedings.
What I noticed straight away was that a lot of the designs of the buildings were beautifully finished with lots of intricate details and even the smaller flat rides as you enter the park had lovely theming to them but there were certain things that were a little off.
The swinging ship was beautifully themed but the base of the ride looked like something you would see at a funfair compared to the nicely themed boat, I thought this was a strange design choice and as you venture towards the back of the park you can quite clearly see that the park isn’t exactly finished.
There were water pumps, wires, lots of dirt and machinery still in place, lots of soil around the place with many open areas just waiting for more additions to come in the future but what Hossoland is, is big. Approximately 40 hectares to be exact split into 4-themed zones and whilst there wasn’t one particular zone that felt finished it certainly looked in better condition and theme than Energyland did on their opening day 11 years ago.
Park Layout and Theming
After the striking entrance, the park opens up with a lighthouse centrepiece that leads guests into each individual land.
Whilst you can clearly see some vast areas unfinished you can take in the size and scale of the park and whilst it’s a work in progress each land is laid out very well indeed just awaiting new arrivals.
There are quite a few rides being constructed currently including a train ride through the park, a carousel and two water rides that were down when we visited but there’s just so much family-friendly fun scattered around that you can almost forgive some of the unfinished areas.
Walking through Hossoland you can clearly see the potential for the future of the park and concept art certainly looks like there’s plenty more to come with bigger thrill rides, indoor rides and even a water coaster spotted on the initial concept art.
These are rides the park needs to expand their current family demographic but these are investments that take time but the rides they currently have now are certainly a strange mix, especially the coasters.
Hossoland Roller Coasters
Currently the park has 4 roller coasters, three of them are manufactured by Vekoma (they no doubt got a 3-ride deal there) and one is manufactured by Preston and Barbieri and the latter is for very little children (mostly).
The three Vekoma rides consist of two family coasters that are almost identical and a suspended Vekoma coaster which is as smooth as butter and reminded me of flight of the pterosaur at Paultons Park.
What I didn’t understand is why the park went for nearly two rides that are exactly the same, it’s already sticking with Vekoma which Energylandia seem obsessed with doing so why follow in the same footsteps?
Don’t get me wrong, Vekoma are an incredible manufacturer and any park would be lucky to have such wonderfully smooth and fantastic machines within their park but there’s no real variety in ride experience here with two of the rides and that’s strange to me for a brand new park.
Whilst targeting younger thrill seekers I was expecting to see a much bigger variety of rides on offer as it currently feels like the whole park is featuring children’s themed rides or early-entry family rides with only one ride in the entire park that goes upside down.
There were also plans for a water rapids ride and even a gyro swing but nothing of the sort is there at this current moment in time.
Hossoland Food and Retail
There are a few restaurants, cafe’s and retail outlets dotted around Hossoland and whilst not all of them were open yet they were all nicely themed and had very affordable food and drink on offer.
A nice cappuccino and a cake cost less than £5 and a large pizza and drink came to £10 so it’s safe to say that your wallet is absolutely going to love Hossoland and the quality of the food was very nice indeed.
The merchandise is even cheaper with magnets and pin badges selling for around £2, caps were £5 and T-Shirts were around £10. Completely night and day from what UK theme parks charge for their merchandise.
Service was efficient on opening day as the staff were very clearly getting used to the coffee machines and equipment around them but they were all very friendly and whilst I was worried that not many of the staff would speak English all staff we encountered had a simple grasp of English (some even spoke better English than me) and were all very happy and joyful and that’s great to see at a theme park.
Entertainment
Live performances on two main stages added heart and charm, featuring characters like mermaids, Vikings, and dragons.
Unfortunately on this occasion the main amphitheatre stage wasn’t ready for any live shows and we couldn’t even find the second stage so I don’t believe it has been constructed yet.
A dinosaur was walking around the park along with some roaming actors who were interacting with guests but this felt very early doors and will continue to get better as the surroundings get more themed and the park almost compliments the acts.
Hossoland Pricing
Ticket pricing was reasonable, with low season tickets at 149 PLN and high season at 169 PLN. Children under 85 cm enter for free. Parking was easy to navigate and cost about 30 PLN per day.
Hossoland Negatives
Whilst the park looks beautiful, the staff are friendly and the pricing is affordable I can’t help but think that the park has opened prematurely.
It’s a beautiful looking park but the further towards the back of the park you go the more work you can see that needs to be done, theming pieces still covered up, dirt mounds everywhere, large open areas of nothingness before the next ride or attraction and buildings that lack character (towards the back) as they awaiting more theming.
The theming pieces the park has are staggering but with how open everything is currently they don’t really blend cohesively into a themed land, it’s too open planned currently and needs to be more condensed with a variety of attractions and indoor experiences.
Hossoland is crying out for a dark ride or two as their theming capabilities would be absolutely perfect for an indoor ride experience.
The lack of food stalls in the park currently was also an issue as they were quite spaced out but when the prices are that cheap it isn’t a huge deal but it just feels as though the park has opened before it was ready and whilst operations were amazing, they would be considering there was only around 100-200 people in the entire theme park on its opening day.
The quality and creativity are there for all to see as the park is aiming towards 1 million visitors a year, 300 jobs have been created which is amazing but I do hope that there are investment plans in place for the future of the park because it already looks better than Energylandia did on opening day but it certainly needs that one major attraction to draw people to the park and then you can build around that when the footfall comes.
As it stands it’s a beautifully themed environment perfect for younger kids but they just need to go that extra mile in attracting guests from afar.
But as far as opening days go, it was smooth (if albeit empty) and with the right investment and rides the future could be a very bright one for Hossoland.
