Efteling, Holland

[caj]

Thank you, to those that offered us encouragement to go, we were totally unplanned but willing to give a new theme park to us, a go!

We had done no research, had no plan, and the only way you could tell I was dibb trained, was the use of my Kipling bum bag and sketchers.

We were staying at Centre Parcs Kempervennan, about 40 minutes away. There is a lack of photos here, I didn’t manage many at all! Sorry, and those I have were taken on phones or a small camera.

We found the park really easy to find, well signposted from about 5 km away. We parked up and quickly entered another world.

There were 4 of us, DH, who doesn’t go upside down, me and 2 teens.
As we had no plan, we began by following our noses … first up was Piranha … a rapids ride. Why did we do this first? It was what we came across first, it was cloudy and chilly, so it was a coat on ride. We rapidly realised that we had no hope of working out what the story was about, so took the ride at face value. We also agreed to try and keep the WDW comparisons away. We failed and I will now too. It’s similar to Kali River Rapids, and the only blessing as it was chilly, was that it doesn’t get you totally drenched. It’s fun, we got overtaken by an empty ring!
Next up Baron 1898.

This is the main headliner. Now this was posted as 20 minutes queue, and I had heard people talk about 2 hours, so we were quickly in. We could have ridden single rider had we chosen to. Part way round the ride queue splits into front row and rows 2 and 3. After 10 minutes we were in the pre show, which had an English translation, but it made little sense! This is an over the shoulders, feet free ride. Beginning by going uphill, hanging over the big drop and then a fast looping coaster. Exhilarating, but o so short. On arrival back in the loading area, a CM stood in front of me and asked if we wanted to stay on … I completely didn’t understand what he was offering, so we got off … everyone else stayed on to do it again.
Fast ride, too short, so stay on for another go! I guess similar to the Hulk.

We next had to find a ride that DH would go on. And he chose the George and the dragon coaster. By this point we had realised that they cater for huge queues and so were working through the ‘top’ rides in case the queues built up later in the day. This is duelling dragons, where you do actually race. It’s a wooden coaster that actually seemed really creaky on our way in, but was not a concern once we started. We rode twice, once each side, and won both times! Medium fast, with twists and turns, but no loops. It has the padded lap bars for each individual.
What was odd, was that when the queue reaches the point where you start to stand in the rows, ready to ride, it was a free for all. No CM asking how many and where to ride, we had to work it out ourselves. This meant that there was a blockage by the front riders area, being the most popular, which everyone had to push past.

Onto the pirates of the Caribbean ride next, De Vliegende Hollander. I won’t say much about this one. It was not what I expected. I guess the lap bar should have warned me. I loved this ride and would ride it again and again, and I think it would surprise me again too! This was not POC, it was a ride that WDW should take ideas from.

Last of the big rides was our longest queue of the day, Python. A reasonable coaster, that had a few loops in it. I ended up riding as a Single rider, and was worried by something coming off a person near the front of the train so just didn’t feel it. Reasonable ride, not shaky or rattley like SM is.
We stopped for a quick drink and a bite to eat before setting off to explore other areas of the park. Up to this point, the rides were really close together and, with short queues, the boys had been enjoying themselves. We all had.
By now I had downloaded the app, which helped us know what to go on, and what was not worth it. We had also found a top 10 list and were happy to rattle through those. The very Bavairan setting was odd, consistent and really didn’t rate in our thinking, other than to score them on creepiness! There was plenty of space between the different lands, which would help to absorb the crowds on a busy day.

Next ... carnival festival … ISAW but far creepier and more dated. The teens were shocked at the ‘ignorance’ of the ride creators, picturing the ‘Africans’ as tribal carnivores etc etc. Probably typical of the 1960’s thoughts! It was, for that reason pretty funny. It is said that WD visited Efteling and then went to create WDW, this would add fuel to that fire!

Next was a dark ride, vogel Rok, this was great, really dark, darker than Space Mountain, and was fast. No complete loops, and so much smoother than SM. Really good fun!

On our round we stopped at a carousel,

there were other (to pay for) side shows, but they were not interested in those. We also walked through a ‘spooky forest trail’ that was a few statues in odd clothing. Finally stumbling across Gepettos’s cottage. It did prompt an interesting discussion about who owns rights to these stories.

By this point those that can cope with haunted mansions were pitching for that, but I needed a sit down. Thankfully we ended up near Raveleijn. For this you have to go to a ticket machine that you can choose your show time from (a little like the old FP machines). We got a walk in time. We were supposed to be able to get an English translation headset, but at no point did we see anyone remotely interested in either our tickets or headset. The app did give us the following to set our scene …. An anxious nation waits for their oldest prophecy to come true. One day five talented riders free the village from years of domination by the evil ruler, Count Olaf Grafhart and his five-headed monster forever. Watch the legend of Raveleijn come to life in this spectacular park show featuring stunt horse riders, a disappearing Princess and a fire breathing dragon.
We could have worked most of that out, it was clever in places, distinctly odd in others, but entertained us.

The teens were engrossed (judging by their faces during it) but declared it terrible … on exit!
We moved around the corner to what looked to be similar to Peter pans flight, but was set in the enchanted forest, called the Droomvlucht, a lot of scenes with fairies and a king and I can’t remember what else! Quite cute, but dated now!

Next was the bobsleigh run, which did exactly what it said it would, put several people in a sledge and send us down the run. We started on rails, then went down as a bob sled would and finally reconnect with the rails to pull us back to the start. Short, tame, but Dh who is not a thrill rider enjoyed it!
Running out of steam now, we hunted down the haunted house. I really cannot bear the haunted house rides, so opted out (my only opt out of the day). Apparently it was a good one. But got little else from them.
Opposite the entrance to the haunted house was a small sign for a 3D movie scene. Panda droom. It has a huge room, like Muppet vision, to collect everyone in. What amused me in there, was that the preview wildlife films, whilst beautifully shot, were in 2d, but people clearly thought this was the show! So, having spotted the doors on the right, had sidled across and waited by them, ready to go in. Others literally jumped as the doors opened. I’ve never seen such a reaction – anyway, small things amuse small minds! The 3D was poor for me and one of our DS’s, fortunately we could move back, having started about 1/3rd of the way back, we moved to almost the back. I found that if I squinted, I could resolve the focus. Then it became a really poignant film with a few extras in the style of tough to be a bug.
We were done in, as you can see, we did a lot of rides and had a good day. I would have liked to stay for the fountains dance, as we arrived they were playing/ dancing to music. There is a light show added in the evening. We had, though, done enough, we were all cold and gave in ahead of that.

Would we go again, yes, we would. It’s better than Thorpe park apparently, but without familiarity with the stories, not as good as WDW or US/IOA.

[Cantcook]

Cool, thanks for the TR. Always interested in the EU parks.

Have you been to Europa?

[porridge]

The thing we liked about Efteling, was amongst other things, the craftsmanship that has gone into some of the buildings and rides. Particularly the 'station' for the wooden roller coaster - all carved wood, rather than other theme parks that use plaster or something and then paint it to look like wood.

Plus, it had so many unique rides, and was super clean. We weren't sure about painting the (real) pigeons pink and blue though!

[caj]

Originally Posted by Cantcook

Cool, thanks for the TR. Always interested in the EU parks.

Have you been to Europa?

See more...

Hiya, thanks for reading.
I'm sorry, we've not been to Europa.

[caj]

Originally Posted by porridge

The thing we liked about Efteling, was amongst other things, the craftsmanship that has gone into some of the buildings and rides. Particularly the 'station' for the wooden roller coaster - all carved wood, rather than other theme parks that use plaster or something and then paint it to look like wood.

Plus, it had so many unique rides, and was super clean. We weren't sure about painting the (real) pigeons pink and blue though!

See more...

I agree it was very clean and tidy. The rides all had a twist, which was great. I wasn't so sure about the craftsmanship, I thought some was tired. But I wasn't looking too closely.

[Cantcook]

Originally Posted by caj

Hiya, thanks for reading.
I'm sorry, we've not been to Europa.

See more...

Neither have I but a lot of people say it's worth adding to the list! Often rated/voted one of the best parks this side of the world.

[Guest]

How did you miss villa Volta?! The best ride there. The worlds first mad house.