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Old 18 Nov 19, 11:29 PM  
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Lily8
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Yet another great day. Looking forward to your final ratings
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Old 19 Nov 19, 07:51 AM  
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Love the tuffers/blowers link and the duelling coaster looks fun. Looks like the final ratings could be tougher than expected.
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Old 19 Nov 19, 08:06 PM  
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Day 10 Au Revoir/Auf Weidersehen/Vaarwel

A final day mini-update. We checked out late that evening ahead of a very early start tomorrow (@05:30). True to form, Efteling was great and offered us packed breakfasts to take on the journey which hadn't even occured to us.

The breakfasts were scoffed en route but came in these natty Efteling bags.


The bags were left in the car at the end of the trip. In fact I used one in Tesco the other day when I forgot the bags for life which was a little embarassing. I suppose I could have rotated it to the dragon side if I encountered any ruffians. Anyway these contained something like water, juice, an apple, ginger cake, three cheese rolls, two turtle doves and a kinder beuno. It was a lot of food.

Anyway, back to Efteling, we left early and hit quite a lot of traffic on the way back to Calais. It is busy heading through Belgium and with some road closures we only just missed some outer city rush hours. By the time we got to France I was suffering from a heavy foot.

yes like so many of my trips to Europe this one ended in a minor, non criminal conviction. That on top of the tolls = @€170 extra from the France legs

Eventually but slightly quicker than it might have been we ended up at the Eurotunnel terminal.
A surprisingly literary name!

Then we were off back on the train home...


A big thank you to everyone has read and liked and especially commented Awards will follow later in the week. Reminder of the categories:

Theming

Attractions

Dining

Value

Guest Experience
(renamed from Customer Service, I've been on a course)

and...Overall Score

Edited at 09:57 PM.
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Old 19 Nov 19, 11:42 PM  
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Fab trip pie - thanks for sharing and well done for getting it up so quickly 👍🏻. Looking forward to the final ratings 😀
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Old 21 Nov 19, 03:55 PM  
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Originally Posted by HEMANCLOFTY View Post
Fab trip pie - thanks for sharing and well done for getting it up so quickly 👍🏻. Looking forward to the final ratings 😀
Cheers, ratings will be up Friday/Saturday
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Dining & Trip Reports:
50 Shades of Beige (2022) xxl rated food
DLP, EuropaPark & Efteling Roadtrip (2019) 3 parks, which is best?
The Prisoner of Vineland Mall (2019) Orlando passion, romance and fine dining...ok so it's mainly eating
Scream if you want to go Fatter! (2018) This report contains images some dieters may find distressing!
The 12 Days of Easter (2015) Rumoured to contain up to one good joke. Let me know if you find it
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Old 21 Nov 19, 04:25 PM  
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Old 23 Nov 19, 03:48 PM  
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End of Trip Ratings (Part 1)

So which was our favourite park of the 3? Disneyland Paris, Europa Park or Efteling…

Theming

Starting with a category where Disneyland Paris had to have a good chance. With the unmatched line-up of all the classic Disney characters plus now Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars the sky’s the limit for what a Disney park can do with theming. On the theming/IP side I’d say they really aren’t maximising this yet. But new attractions for Star Wars Galaxies Edge, Frozen and the Avengers will change that radically. The MK park is beautiful and the Halloween theming very strong so for me DLP scored very highly.


I really liked the Coco related stuff over in Frontierland which fits well with Mexico and Halloween. DD also like the DLP theming a lot. It’s nice that movies like Ratatouille, Finding Nemo and Toy Story have unique rides in the Studios Park (and some great queues), that park just needs a lot more to do.

Me (4.5/5)
DD (4/5)

Europa Park by comparison has basically no characters that either of us recognised. You could tell that there were some things which were based on German language books etc. That said, the theming of the whole park into lands based on European countries works really well. It means everywhere is a little different while still blending together architecturally more than the World Showcase does at EPCOT.


This park is beautiful, they must have put out thousands of pumpkins and some of the sculptures made were astonishing A lovely mature green space with the park blended in albeit Ed the EuropaMaus is no Mickey outside of Germany.

Me (4/5)
DD (4/5)

Efteling has quite a specific fairytale theme and vibe. It’s another beautiful park, full of trees and green spaces for the kids to run around. The Enchanted Wood bit is particularly well done and delights children (and adults) of the right ages. From my point of view, the Fairytale theme isn’t really my thing. I could appreciate the charm, quality of the workmanship and humour in some areas. One criticism from me, I found the lands a bit samey.

Cashpoint, Efteling style


Like Europa Park they don’t have the strong characters to sell (the mascot is Pardoes the slightly creepy jester) but with more of a classic European fairytale vibe that’s maybe less of an issue. DD is closer to the target Efteling consumer than me and while she wasn’t into the kiddy stuff at all she still scored it the highest on this. She did spend a day there a few years back when she was @10.

Me (3/5)
DD (4.5/5)

Adding those scores up it’s 8.5/10 for DLP, 8 for Europa Park and 7.5 for Efteling. Disneyland Paris takes the first award!



Attractions

Mickey Mouse, we need to talk about maintenance And I don’t mean child support this time, we need to talk about why so many of your rides in Paris are unavailable. We visited and were unable to experience Indiana Jones, Rock ‘n’ Roller-coaster, Hyperspace Mountain, Autopia, Cinemagique, the Steamtrain/Railroad and the Pirates play areas (forget the name). Space Mountain wasn’t supposed to be closed but it was shut for the whole of the 2 days when we were around and we wasted a lot of effort checking if it would re-open without ever getting an answer or an explanation.


So the closures definitely affected the scoring here. The Magic Kingdom in Paris has plenty to do and can just about carry off those closures if Space Mountain was up. Without it Big Thunder became just about the only thrill ride open in that park...which doesn’t work with a teenage rollercoaster fiend, DD was pretty fed up with the closures of many of her favourites. Some of the rides they do have are great, Big Thunder Mountain is superb and Crush Coaster is unique for example. But in the Studios especially there just isn’t enough to do at the moment. Bring on the massive refurb!

We’ve scored based on what was open when we visited, the same was done across all parks.

Me (2/5)
DD (2.5/5)

Europa Park on the other hand is just ridiculous for the number of attractions (over 70 listed on the map ). You can’t turn around without tripping over something you haven’t been on yet and they really cram stuff to do into every available space. The park is owned by Mack Rides (leading rollercoaster makers) and they have lots of good and thrilling rides. Perhaps because they have mastered the technology, the load times are generally fast and no rides either went down or were closed for maintenance when we were there.

The only closure was Pirates of Batavia which is being rebuilt following a fire last year

I make it that we rode 10 different roller-coasters including the water ones and well over a dozen different dark rides, several car or boat rides, the number of attractions is remarkable. The coasters are top quality and well themed, the dark rides are...er characterful, a bit weird and wacky but probably no different to others where you don’t know who the characters are! Arthur was one weird ride not mentioned in my write-up that was absolutely superb so adding that here too. It helps that with so many attractions even on a busy Friday we found almost no queues >30 minutes.

Me (4/5)
DD (4/5)

Efteling has a relatively low number of attractions as opposed to discovery and play areas. It’s noticeable that there are a number of stand-out ones then a few fairly generic fillers. My impression here is that the good rides were really, really great. Across the whole trip, Joris en de Draak (wooden racing coaster) and Fata Morgana (Pirates-esque dark boat ride) were my two favourite experiences while Baron 1898 was properly scary as you drop and the other dark rides plus the water-coaster were also of a high quality.


The only ride closed when we were there was the bobsleigh ride. DD had ridden this on her previous visit a number of years ago and liked it. Pity as we were hoping to compare it to the short but exciting bobsleigh ride at Europa Park (and I also once went down a Winter Olympic bob track as a tourist thing - now that was fun!)

Me (4/5)
DD (4/5)



So a dead head on 8/10 for Europa Park and Efteling on the attractions. EP has amazing quantity whereas Efteling has some real quality. DLP with 4.5 is nowhere by comparison I guess until they open up the new lands which would be a good time for a re-review...
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Dining & Trip Reports:
50 Shades of Beige (2022) xxl rated food
DLP, EuropaPark & Efteling Roadtrip (2019) 3 parks, which is best?
The Prisoner of Vineland Mall (2019) Orlando passion, romance and fine dining...ok so it's mainly eating
Scream if you want to go Fatter! (2018) This report contains images some dieters may find distressing!
The 12 Days of Easter (2015) Rumoured to contain up to one good joke. Let me know if you find it

Edited at 04:00 PM.
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Old 23 Nov 19, 04:54 PM  
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BOB was closed for you as it is being replaced, we rode it on the last day it was open and they had already started to clear the site
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Old 23 Nov 19, 07:03 PM  
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thanks for the latest installment -I had a feeling Efteling wouldn't be right for our family as probably slightly too young so maybe Europa should be our next theme park trip(they are not keen on Disney either). I have a feeling that Europa may not fare so well on your value for money ratings though but I hope I am wrong !
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Old 24 Nov 19, 11:54 AM  
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Ratings Part 2

Now I like Disneyland Paris. But I like Europa Park and Efteling too. But which is better?



Dining


A subject close to my heart - the whole family to be fair. For once this isn’t a dining report but the food is still important. In the past; DD and I had our issues with DLP Dining. Bad or average meals aplenty in Disney Village, King Ludwig’s Castle being the worst - featured cold inedible food, a fire alarm and a waitress whose only words were pppfffhhh. I sometimes wonder if there wasn’t a bad line when Disney execs in Anaheim first discussed their plans with Paris.

Disney Anaheim “We want American service and French Food. Got it?”
DLP “The line is bad. Can you repeat s’il vous plait”
Disney Anaheim “American…..Service French…..Food”
DLP “I can’t hear you”. Puts phone down and turns to colleague “They want French service and American food.”


This is all a bit misleading because since then we’ve picked places more carefully. I actually don’t mind the food there now. One thing I’ll say is that while there’s plenty of junk food options and several high end sit down meals (Walt’s, Ratatouille etc.) the middle tier for solid table service or higher quality QS is missing. Still, we had a good meal with the Buffalo Bills show, enjoyed our Halloween burgers and the trip to Earl of Sandwich. We were supposed to go to Inventions for the buffet but never made that one. DD scored this one more harshly than me.

Me
DD

Europa Park was completely new and we had little idea where we would be eating. The strategy of just turning up at places worked well here because they have loads of seating capacity across so many venues. We didn’t find anything that was high end aside from in the hotels (which covered the table service and signature type cuisine). Food in the parks was invariably a high quality of quick service, often served in a canteen style where they plate it up for you from behind the glass.
Dreadful pun, not from me for once


The selection aligned with the European countries the park was themed to so pizza in Italy, fish in Iceland etc. Draft German beer also served at some restaurants which helped my score

Me
DD

Efteling I was less impressed with the food options in the park. The hotel breakfast was decent, dinner too (although it did feature a beef and apple crumble main!). In the park the food was mainly fairground type junk, not bad but nothing substantial. There were some healthier salad type options dotted around but it wasn’t the season for those (when is it lol). We ended up eating sausage rolls, kebabs, chips etc. which is more like a trip to Blackpool.


Perhaps Efteling could do with a couple more restaurants? We were desperate to get to the Pancake Restaurant but despite the park not being that busy there was a 30 minute queue out the door for a table the whole two days. Others may have different experiences of the food there but I was mainly happy that we filled up on good breakfasts in the hotel. DD on the other hand from her score is a teenager who likes eating chips

Me
DD

Totalling it up the win goes to Europa Park on 8/10, DLP runner-up on 6.5 and Efteling on 6.



Value

In talking about value I’m excluding accommodation. Originally I’d hoped we could stay in an on-site hotel in each location but a combination of the exchange rate, the reality of how expensive theme parks are and DLP’s hotels ruled that out. So we stayed in a range. It was offsite DLP, onsite camping at EP and the park hotel for Efteling. These aren’t like for like for price or the quality of the stay so I’m leaving this out of the value test and don’t have accommodation as a category either.
That damn teepee

Disney is expensive and I’m not sure many people will defend the value. Fine if you go often enough to justify an annual pass but for one-off trips, the ticket price is heavy. We paid £284 for 2 days/2 park tickets which compares with a £518 total for Europa Park and £646 Efteling, prices which included 3 days of tickets and accommodation including breakfast.


With food also pricey and expensive souvenirs it adds up for DLP. The main reason however that they’ve been punished in the scores is the Studio Park, it simply isn;t worth a sticker price at the moment with so few attractions IMHO. One of the theatres was showing as an attraction previews (I assume the trailers) of the Maleficent 2 movie that was showing in the Disney Village cinema. Why on earth can’t they at least play Cinemagique instead (probably it costs them an amount in rights!)?

Me
DD

Europa Park was the cheapest of the 3 stays although the camping was not for us. Overall though the value was excellent with so much to do for the entry fee, some of the meals were astonishingly cheap for a theme park, in fact for anywhere. And reasonably priced beer...

The hot dog on the tray was €3,90

Me
DD

Efteling I reckon the overall package including the hotel was well priced. If we zone in on the park entry and food prices etc. it was good. Prices weren’t quite as cheap as EP and with there being less attractions it’s somewhere I don’t think you can spend as long in but definitely compared to DLP it was much better value.

Me
DD

That totals up to 8.5/10 for Europa Park and another win for Deutschland, Efteling is a well-placed second on 6.5 and DLP a sorry third on 4.

Final update to follow tomorrow.

Edited at 03:50 PM.
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