The Disneyland Paris, Europa Park & Efteling Halloween Roadtrip

[JLH]

Originally Posted by theCMG

hectic this week so haven't managed to finish writing up Efteling yet, Days 8-10 over the weekend should be do-able as have a bit more time then. After that the all important awards

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oh good , thought it was going to be one of those trip reports that gets started but never finished dont put them all up at the same time or knowing me I will go to the awards first! I do love a spoiler

[theCMG]

Originally Posted by JLH

oh good , thought it was going to be one of those trip reports that gets started but never finished dont put them all up at the same time or knowing me I will go to the awards first! I do love a spoiler

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Well if you look at my first ever dining report (links in signature), there was a break of 18 months but it still got finished and the next one was over 80 pages so don't worry it'll get it done with or without a few days break

[theCMG]

Day 8 - Efteling

After the luxury of a proper hotel room and a good nights sleep we were well up for a first day at Efteling. Breakfast in the hotel was good, a nice buffet selection including Dutch favourites like pancakes with syrup and that yoghurty drink stuff which only the Dutch and I seem to like

This is my seconds. I was accused of having the breakfast of a 4 year old

We then headed back across the carpark to the hotel’s back entrance to the park (which comes out near the kids playground/Vogel Rok area. Almost no queue to get in and the hotel gave us a 30 minute head start on joe van der public.

That said the choice of rides for early access was relatively limited. I think it was only about 3-4 but with things being fairly spaced out that wasn’t a huge issue. The best source of information tended to be the Efteling app, it said what was open early and also has a nice feature with your location plotted onto the park map (if you enable the location services) for easy navigation, they’ve re-skinned it to a winter version since we were there

I recommend to download the app before you visit, it is well put together and contains a wealth of useful information in English. We only found it in the first queue and it immediately started to influence our planning, especially as areas are further apart than you think at Efteling, it is green and beautiful but with the equivalent of small parks between ‘lands’

That first queue for us was Baron 1898. The theming is steampunk not my favourite but well done if you like that sort of thing. Anyway this is a frankly terrifying looking rollercoaster with a sheer drop at the start somewhat reminiscent of Saw at Thorpe Park Here it holds you hanging at the top for a couple of seconds before you plunge down and into the ground. Now I had thought hanging in the air would be terrifying, it wasn’t, the drop was!

This is a thrilling ride and unusually for DD and I, scared us enough that we didn’t go back on it for the rest of the trip. After that we realised we weren’t near anything else that was open early (the Bobseligh coaster was closed). We ended up waiting for the raft ride, Pirana. This was a good choice, not too wet but good fun from the jaunty dance music inside the Aztec temple to the ability of rafts to overtake each other fairly randomly around the watercourse

Aztec Bums

After this we went on the Symbolica ride which is a royal thing in a castle with similar mechanics to Ratatouille at DLP. This was good but didn’t blow us away, we also rode Droomvlucht which is a beautifully themed fairytale ride with a little bit of speed (note while it is good it is not as good as Arthur at EuropaPark - even if I completely forgot to mention that ride in my write-up ).

Droomvlucht, pretty magical

After a couple of lesser attractions it was time to grab a quick lunch. We weren't feeling that hungry so ended up with a couple of twistee potatoes - I’ve wanted one of these for ages, nice but very salty and I went for the paprika flavour not even the salted.

The potatoes are basically a bag of crisps on a stick and weren’t quite enough food so as committed Ladbaby fans both we found the one place selling sausage rolls.

Yes Mate

After lunch we rode Python which is a fairly vanilla but good loopy rollercoaster and then trekked over to Fata Morgana which is described as an Arabian Nights adventure.

Me taking the dog to the groomers

I loved this ride, it’s huge and somewhat reminiscent of an Aladdin themed Pirates. Really well done and lasts a good time too, don’t miss it. To the tune of Hakuna Matata I was singing “Morgana Fatana, it means no worries” after this.

Aside from a bit of shopping (fairly limited and heavily based on a younger crowd) that was about it because we needed to get over to the theatre to see Caro.

Stage pre-show

I won’t spoil the show itself but we both loved this Thought it was superb and the tickets are extremely cheap if you’re staying at the hotel. Up there with the best Disney in-park shows I’d rate this alongside the Lion King show at Animal Kingdom

After the show we had to leg it all the way back across the closing park to the back entrance and our hotel (they are not close). We could have done without the set menu tonight but I’d pre-booked and paid for the Kings Feast in the hotel restaurant. This was decent but the service was very slow and got on our nerves a little. Generally the service in the hotel restaurant was slow, all the service everywhere else was great though so not a complaint overall.

This is the hotel beer. It’s a proper Belgian one, not for the faint hearted

Starter plate

DD main

My main, Beef 2 ways, in a stew and within some sort of apple crumble

My dish was the King’s favourite according to the menu. He was clearly barking The mains took so long that we asked for our desserts to be boxed up and scoffed them in the room, it was a good decision

Tomorrow is Day 9/Efteling and the final proper day of the holiday.

[SuziQz]

Another good day, although it sounds like you hiked backwards and forwards quite a lot.

I like the look of the Baron, we like Saw but I think it looks more like Oblivion? Glad to hear there are some good rides there

[Pez01]

Looks fab ... especially the sausage roll ... is it as good as Greggs? The rides look brilliant - really enjoying your report it’s interesting to read about parks outside of Disney.

[Lily8]

Another great day!

It is a large park, and we found it a little tricky to navigate on occasion i.e. managed to go the wrong way This was a little frustrating later in the day, when everybody was getting tired.

The drop on the the Baron 1898 looks truly terrifying we stopped by to wave hello to those dangling at the top, but that's as close as we got.

I did wonder whether you rode Arthur at Europa Park as my daughter and I really like the look of it and thought it looked like Droomvlucht only better... I'm really pleased your omission wasn't because it was just meh.

The potatoes I thought looked better than they tasted; I thought they were a little dry and definitely too salty. My daughter, however, was a big fan and still speaks of this as one of her favourite theme park snacks ever. I have to say I was impressed with how cheap they were This is yet another aspect where I thought Efteling really stood out, just so affordable.

Speaking of snacks, have your tried anything from the snack vending machines? I remember seeing these when I first visited Europe as a child. I thought they were odd back than, but I was a little surprised they were still around. It's one of those things that had a retro quality even when it wasn't

[theCMG]

Originally Posted by SuziQz

Another good day, although it sounds like you hiked backwards and forwards quite a lot.

I like the look of the Baron, we like Saw but I think it looks more like Oblivion? Glad to hear there are some good rides there

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Yes looking at some pictures it seems exactly like Oblivion. I just haven't been to Alton Towers since the 90's One thing about Efteling, the good rides were very good

Originally Posted by Pez01

Looks fab ... especially the sausage roll ... is it as good as Greggs? The rides look brilliant - really enjoying your report it’s interesting to read about parks outside of Disney.

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Hmm I love a Gregg's sausage roll, this was of a similar quality but bigger. I'm not sure either is the pinnacle of sausage roll excellence though (not sure what is to be fair, need to ask LB!). Thanks for reading

Originally Posted by Lily8

Another great day!

It is a large park, and we found it a little tricky to navigate on occasion i.e. managed to go the wrong way This was a little frustrating later in the day, when everybody was getting tired.

The drop on the the Baron 1898 looks truly terrifying we stopped by to wave hello to those dangling at the top, but that's as close as we got.

I did wonder whether you rode Arthur at Europa Park as my daughter and I really like the look of it and thought it looked like Droomvlucht only better... I'm really pleased your omission wasn't because it was just meh.

The potatoes I thought looked better than they tasted; I thought they were a little dry and definitely too salty. My daughter, however, was a big fan and still speaks of this as one of her favourite theme park snacks ever. I have to say I was impressed with how cheap they were This is yet another aspect where I thought Efteling really stood out, just so affordable.

Speaking of snacks, have your tried anything from the snack vending machines? I remember seeing these when I first visited Europe as a child. I thought they were odd back than, but I was a little surprised they were still around. It's one of those things that had a retro quality even when it wasn't

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The app definitely helped with the navigation. There are some long walks, DD was too old/cool to be into the Enchanted Forest section and she wanted to kill me by the time we walked through the whole length of it to get to the train station. But that's Day 9

Arthur was a great ride. Very strange indeed, a cute fairytale bit, a weird BladeRunner-esque hiphop section (really!), a very fast bit and a cutesy end. One thing I will say is the single rider saved at least 30 mins on this so worth it if the kids are old enough!

You've asked the right man for a view on snacks of the world Spent some time in NL and have had many a dalliance with those uniquely Dutch vending machines. I recommend the frikandel which is the sausage thing, personally I'm not so keen on the deep fried croquettes which are the other prominent items I can remember. The cheese ones are okay but the mystery meat version makes me heave to think about it or is it mushroom paste

Cheers all. With a fair wind tomorrow will bring Day 9

[Lily8]

The Enchanted Forest is one of the places where we got lost, more than once I put it down to how immersive it is.

Oooh Blade Runner is one of DH's favourite films, but I have to say it sounds like a very odd mix. How very continental :

My daughter had one of the cheese croquettes (from a stall, not the vending machine) and quite liked it. We were less than keen We don't eat anything with legs, and I have a mushroom phobia which I've passed on to the next generation, so I think these vending machines snacks (much like the Baron 1898) will have to be something we just look at from a safe distance

[Guest]

they did cheese filled things in the machines, they were exactly like findus crispy pancakes ( RIP Findus crispy pancakes )

at Amsterdam airport they had a " vegan food wall " and it was full of various vegan food, really interested me

[theCMG]

Day 9 - Efteling

We were better organised today at breakfast and ended up with more appealing plates. I think that was DD’s with my coffee also in shot, the muffiny looking things are pancakes with syrup (they got a bit tatty from being stuck together but tasted good).

Today was our last day proper and we were keen to finish off the big rides so to speak. Not my greatest photo day so a few inserts here!

First up, optimistically in the chilly morning was the water coaster which is The Flying Dutchman (De Vliegende Hollander). This is nicely dark and atmospheric at the start and overall a good ride. You get a bit wet but not crazily so and we agreed this was the best of the water coasters, edging out the 2 Europa Park offerings because of the dark start and more immersive theming inside the ride (the thrill ride aspects were similar on all three)

Then it was over to Joris en de Draak which is a wooden, duelling coaster. You split into teams near the end of the queue and we went over to team red. Fairly long queue, at about 30 mins probably the longest we waited all week but well worth it.

Bumpy as ever with a wooden coaster but the duelling was tremendously exciting. The adrenaline made me forget the physical battering and we celebrated wildly with a train when we beat the blue team to the finish. You then come into the loading area first with flags up as winners. Boosted! This was possibly the most enjoyable moment of the holiday (we are sadly over-competitive as a family, you should see us on the firefighting ride/game at Legoland Windsor ).

After that we re-rode the Piranha raft ride and Fata Morgana, both great again before deciding to walk over to one train station to get a train to the other station. This was as bad an idea as it sounds because we trekked all through the Enchanted Forest with grumpy teen.

Under-hood expression demonstrated by this tree

So I concluded 14 is a few years too old to be enchanted by the fairytale aspects of Efteling. The Enchanted Forest area is beautiful though and very well done. The park was full of smaller kids and I guess 3-8+ yrs would be perfect. We eventually made it to the train and after a couple of false starts took the ride across the park to the Food Court station. On the way it crosses the lake in rather a charming way.

Before lunch we did a vintage car track driving thing De Oude Tuffers (which I like to think translated as ‘Tuffers my dear old thing’ (best said in the voice of Henry Blofeld). We had a horn war in this one and basically deafened each other and the local squirrels as we went round the track

We were starving at this point and I convinced DD to join me at the Cheeky Monkey (kebab shop) for my second kebab of the week. Both of us chose the Turkish Pizza option, more of a wrap kebab with tomato bread than the open pitta traditional one. Of the two the classic was better, this one was perhaps a little spicy for DD but she ate most of it.

It was at this point that I noticed that no matter what each family was eating, the elder male always had a kebab This gave me a feeling of pride and I felt the respectful gaze of the other dads for schooling a teen so well in the doner arts (e.g. topping choice = critical life skills for late teen/early 20’s phase). I started to pitch my idea to her for a ‘Dads with Kebabs’ calendar but at that point DD threatened to leave in case I started taking photos

After that we did a pedally train race thing where basically I huffed painfully around the course while DD rammed me repeatedly from the back. Then we walked past this pretty maze.

Which she was too old for but it looks adorable. Instead we went into the Vogel Rok queue (through the legs of the giant bird no sniggering at the back).

The queue area was a bit of a whiffy hell portal but it moved fast and the ride was good, a little Space Mountain-esque. At least I think it was, if Space Mountain hadn’t malfunctioned for our DLP visit. We mooched around this area a bit and I thankfully won a giant sequinned donut in the fairground basketball game (under pressure for this as DD was desperate for one).

A bit of shopping and we were starting to flag for the day. The Haunted House show was not very good, and avoid Villa Volta (the Madhouse) if you don’t speak Dutch The last ride I can recall was ‘Carnaval Festival’ which is how I imagine Small World looked in the days before people got more sensitive to political correctness.

I’ve spared you the sombrero wearing Mexican riding a donkey

We went back to the hotel after that and packed and snacked so no proper dinner shots. A brief update on Day 10 will follow, mainly travel 2 final gifts from Efteling and one from France then the ratings will follow through the week