MannekenPis
Roller Poster
EFTELING
With my daughter in a stage (kid's club) for a week with a potential pick up as late as 6pm I actually had more time than I do termtime. So I decided that for 1 of the stage days I would indulge myself and go to a theme park.
Trying to decide where to go, and the closest place I hadn't been with a decent number of rollercoasters was Efteling. It seemed odd to go there, given how family focussed it is, but then I could suss it out, it's hard to tick off rollercoasters with a child and it would be perverse to go further to a less good park. I also understood Baron 1898 might be closed for refurbishment later this year. So Efteling it was.
I got there just after 10. First impression was I had made a mistake, the car parks so full, streams of people heading to the entrance. Surely this would be a nightmare? Not at all, the park is big enough, with so much to do, it swallowed the crowd.
I guess it was a long time since I'd been to this level of park and I had got used to uk parks theming levels. The entrance is incredible, the park is beautiful, the attention to detail is topnotch. All around the park are things like giant puppets, beautiful areas, fairies (human) on swings. The staffing levels are also extremely high, with helpful friendly staff.
I didn't download the app, so was oblivious to virtual queuing. This was a mistake as Droomvlucht was on a 40 minute queue all day, and I would have liked to have done it. I only realised there was virtual queue when I walked past late in the day. I maybe could have squeezed it in using virtual queue and a couple of other better decisions.
No matter, I started with Baron 1898, single rider queue on 5 minutes, and onto the front row. Absolutely amazing queue and ride theming. Really detailed and immersive. The ride itself kept it up with heavy smoke effects. It's a short ride, but at least does a bit after the signature drop. Very enjoyable, smooth, amazingly themed. Very re-rideable if I had the time. But, my caveat is, it's a more enjoyable experience than great roller coaster. That's fine, I'm glad I did it, would do again.
I then made a mistake on timing, I was heading to The Flying Dutchman showing as 5 minutes but went past Python on the way, and as that was also 5, thought might as well do it. By the time I had, Flying Dutchman was up at 30 and never came down, wheras Python spiked at one point, but was around 10 much of the day.
Anyway, Python was good, so smooth after retrack, bit short but plenty of fun. However the layout didn't demand re-rides, but I would have enjoyed them if time allowed. The only downside was that there's no real theming and that's out of kilter with the rest of the park.
Flying Dutchman had such good queue theming that I didn't mind the 30 minutes wait, it had a pirates of the Caribbean vibe, with lots of detail. This continued on the ride, with some animatronics perhaps a touch dated, but overall impressive. Great dark boat ride, with a fun little rollercoaster splash, but again the rollercoaster itself isn't top drawer.
Notwithstanding some errors on my part and the busy day in school holidays, I'd still done 3 rollercoasters in an hour and a half. I then headed to Joris en de Drakk single rider queue, showing at 5 minutes . I got on in that time, allocated towards the back on the red side. Excellent fun little woodie, plenty of airtime. Back round hoping for blue side (no way of choosing on single rider) and got lucky, last but one carriage, it seemed tighter and more intense, even better than red. Not rattley for a wood coaster, a lot of fun. Loved the duelling element, with great theming in the station. The best coaster in the park, though Baron is perhaps the best theme/coaster combo.
This park is way bigger than I'm used to so getting around takes time. So you do have to factor that in to your route. I wanted to tick off the coasters then do some eftelingy dark rides but spent a lot of time walking back and forth. It's a nice place to walk around, but not on my timetable!
Anyway, I then went to Vogel Rok, with the huge eagle outside. The queue was maybe a little faded but still had plenty of interest, and only took 10 minutes or so. This happened to be my 100th coaster, I realised later, and I really enjoyed it. Whilst the theming is probably getting on a bit the lighting lets them get away with it, and so it still looks really good in the dark, eg going into a sepent, or a light vortex. Good fun, I would happily reride with time, but not exactly an amazing coaster in hardware terms (Though writing that, it's comfortable for an elderly vekoma, Efteling must have great technicians).
After all that I'd done all the coasters, with only Max and Moritz, powered coasters which I wanted to ride to do. So with the pressure off, on the way to them I looked at some of the fairytale area, to get some Efteling vibe. My daughter could spend hours there, lots of detail, great theming, I'm glad to have seen some.
I then popped into Symbolica, in the castle in the middle. Seemed properly Efteling, touch bizarre, but so much to absorb, again, sure my daughter would love it and glad to have seen it.
Moritz and Max had a technical when I got there, so I went to Danse Macabre next door. It was highest on my list of non rollercoasters thanks to rave reviews here. It had a single rider queue which didn't advertise times but proved to be quick enough. The level of detail in the ride is incredible, very re-rideable as a result. I had been worried about it being a spinning ride, but I wasn't at all nauseous. I didn't think it was quite as ground breaking as some here, but the theming was excellent, the ride made me laugh a lot. Excellent. The ride got an ovation, how often does happen?
My next big timing mistake followed, as Max and Moritz showed as open again, I went to single rider, and it had a technical. But as I was first in single rider, and as they didn't boot anyone out, I decided to wait. This gave me plenty of time to admire the funny and extensive station theming. It really is very good, as is the music. But I should have binned it, as I ended up waiting 30 minutes, and the ride itself doesn't offer much. Great with kids I expect. On a side note, even if you do count powered coasters, this is one ride, whichever side you start, you go through both stations, how are people thinking this is two coasters?
My efficient start had faded and I was now up against the clock, but nearby Fata Morgana which I understood to be a classic had no queue so I hopped on. The animatronics are past their best, and the whole concept which is a sort of unflattering middle Eastern stereotype has probably had its day. I quite enjoyed it but it's a history piece. I don't necessarily want it to be ripped out, but can you really update it? If not, can you continue to devote a big bit of real estate to it?
The madhouse villa volta had no queue and I figured it would be something Efteling would do well, so I made a massive treck to it, this was an error not because of the ride but because I forgot the size of the park. The madhouse's first pre show was not impressive but in the second room was a really realistic animatronic. A lot was lost on me because I don't speak Dutch but still impressive. The ride itself was extremely well done, with clever mirror placement enhancing the effect. One of the best.
I then had to really pace it to the car, and got back for collection by the skin of my teeth by underestimating park and car park size.
I didn't get to reride anything, and missed one major ride, but I had failed to download the virtual queue and made some poor choices. However I nonetheless did every rollercoaster, and 3 classic Efteling dark rides and a quick look around the fairytale woods to get Efteling vibe. All this in less than 6 hours in school holidays. Operations here are good.
There's loads I missed out on, shows, quirky touches, but they are things I can enjoy with family when I hope I go back.
My final observation is: the rollercoasters here aren't quite top class, but the theming is. There's nothing here as good as Kondaa at Walibi, my home park. But, (whilst I am a fan of the new area around Mecalodon at Walibi, and think they do a great and underated effort at Christmas), there is nothing there that comes close to the theming here, and it really does elevate the experience. Which is better? No idea, room for both.
Nb at some point I had a meatball and satay baguette for 6.50euro which tasted excellent, good bit of Indonesian Dutch fusion, fair price. Soft drinks were a rip off.
Nb I don't know why most photos are sideways!
With my daughter in a stage (kid's club) for a week with a potential pick up as late as 6pm I actually had more time than I do termtime. So I decided that for 1 of the stage days I would indulge myself and go to a theme park.
Trying to decide where to go, and the closest place I hadn't been with a decent number of rollercoasters was Efteling. It seemed odd to go there, given how family focussed it is, but then I could suss it out, it's hard to tick off rollercoasters with a child and it would be perverse to go further to a less good park. I also understood Baron 1898 might be closed for refurbishment later this year. So Efteling it was.
I got there just after 10. First impression was I had made a mistake, the car parks so full, streams of people heading to the entrance. Surely this would be a nightmare? Not at all, the park is big enough, with so much to do, it swallowed the crowd.
I guess it was a long time since I'd been to this level of park and I had got used to uk parks theming levels. The entrance is incredible, the park is beautiful, the attention to detail is topnotch. All around the park are things like giant puppets, beautiful areas, fairies (human) on swings. The staffing levels are also extremely high, with helpful friendly staff.
I didn't download the app, so was oblivious to virtual queuing. This was a mistake as Droomvlucht was on a 40 minute queue all day, and I would have liked to have done it. I only realised there was virtual queue when I walked past late in the day. I maybe could have squeezed it in using virtual queue and a couple of other better decisions.
No matter, I started with Baron 1898, single rider queue on 5 minutes, and onto the front row. Absolutely amazing queue and ride theming. Really detailed and immersive. The ride itself kept it up with heavy smoke effects. It's a short ride, but at least does a bit after the signature drop. Very enjoyable, smooth, amazingly themed. Very re-rideable if I had the time. But, my caveat is, it's a more enjoyable experience than great roller coaster. That's fine, I'm glad I did it, would do again.
I then made a mistake on timing, I was heading to The Flying Dutchman showing as 5 minutes but went past Python on the way, and as that was also 5, thought might as well do it. By the time I had, Flying Dutchman was up at 30 and never came down, wheras Python spiked at one point, but was around 10 much of the day.
Anyway, Python was good, so smooth after retrack, bit short but plenty of fun. However the layout didn't demand re-rides, but I would have enjoyed them if time allowed. The only downside was that there's no real theming and that's out of kilter with the rest of the park.
Flying Dutchman had such good queue theming that I didn't mind the 30 minutes wait, it had a pirates of the Caribbean vibe, with lots of detail. This continued on the ride, with some animatronics perhaps a touch dated, but overall impressive. Great dark boat ride, with a fun little rollercoaster splash, but again the rollercoaster itself isn't top drawer.
Notwithstanding some errors on my part and the busy day in school holidays, I'd still done 3 rollercoasters in an hour and a half. I then headed to Joris en de Drakk single rider queue, showing at 5 minutes . I got on in that time, allocated towards the back on the red side. Excellent fun little woodie, plenty of airtime. Back round hoping for blue side (no way of choosing on single rider) and got lucky, last but one carriage, it seemed tighter and more intense, even better than red. Not rattley for a wood coaster, a lot of fun. Loved the duelling element, with great theming in the station. The best coaster in the park, though Baron is perhaps the best theme/coaster combo.
This park is way bigger than I'm used to so getting around takes time. So you do have to factor that in to your route. I wanted to tick off the coasters then do some eftelingy dark rides but spent a lot of time walking back and forth. It's a nice place to walk around, but not on my timetable!
Anyway, I then went to Vogel Rok, with the huge eagle outside. The queue was maybe a little faded but still had plenty of interest, and only took 10 minutes or so. This happened to be my 100th coaster, I realised later, and I really enjoyed it. Whilst the theming is probably getting on a bit the lighting lets them get away with it, and so it still looks really good in the dark, eg going into a sepent, or a light vortex. Good fun, I would happily reride with time, but not exactly an amazing coaster in hardware terms (Though writing that, it's comfortable for an elderly vekoma, Efteling must have great technicians).
After all that I'd done all the coasters, with only Max and Moritz, powered coasters which I wanted to ride to do. So with the pressure off, on the way to them I looked at some of the fairytale area, to get some Efteling vibe. My daughter could spend hours there, lots of detail, great theming, I'm glad to have seen some.
I then popped into Symbolica, in the castle in the middle. Seemed properly Efteling, touch bizarre, but so much to absorb, again, sure my daughter would love it and glad to have seen it.
Moritz and Max had a technical when I got there, so I went to Danse Macabre next door. It was highest on my list of non rollercoasters thanks to rave reviews here. It had a single rider queue which didn't advertise times but proved to be quick enough. The level of detail in the ride is incredible, very re-rideable as a result. I had been worried about it being a spinning ride, but I wasn't at all nauseous. I didn't think it was quite as ground breaking as some here, but the theming was excellent, the ride made me laugh a lot. Excellent. The ride got an ovation, how often does happen?
My next big timing mistake followed, as Max and Moritz showed as open again, I went to single rider, and it had a technical. But as I was first in single rider, and as they didn't boot anyone out, I decided to wait. This gave me plenty of time to admire the funny and extensive station theming. It really is very good, as is the music. But I should have binned it, as I ended up waiting 30 minutes, and the ride itself doesn't offer much. Great with kids I expect. On a side note, even if you do count powered coasters, this is one ride, whichever side you start, you go through both stations, how are people thinking this is two coasters?
My efficient start had faded and I was now up against the clock, but nearby Fata Morgana which I understood to be a classic had no queue so I hopped on. The animatronics are past their best, and the whole concept which is a sort of unflattering middle Eastern stereotype has probably had its day. I quite enjoyed it but it's a history piece. I don't necessarily want it to be ripped out, but can you really update it? If not, can you continue to devote a big bit of real estate to it?
The madhouse villa volta had no queue and I figured it would be something Efteling would do well, so I made a massive treck to it, this was an error not because of the ride but because I forgot the size of the park. The madhouse's first pre show was not impressive but in the second room was a really realistic animatronic. A lot was lost on me because I don't speak Dutch but still impressive. The ride itself was extremely well done, with clever mirror placement enhancing the effect. One of the best.
I then had to really pace it to the car, and got back for collection by the skin of my teeth by underestimating park and car park size.
I didn't get to reride anything, and missed one major ride, but I had failed to download the virtual queue and made some poor choices. However I nonetheless did every rollercoaster, and 3 classic Efteling dark rides and a quick look around the fairytale woods to get Efteling vibe. All this in less than 6 hours in school holidays. Operations here are good.
There's loads I missed out on, shows, quirky touches, but they are things I can enjoy with family when I hope I go back.
My final observation is: the rollercoasters here aren't quite top class, but the theming is. There's nothing here as good as Kondaa at Walibi, my home park. But, (whilst I am a fan of the new area around Mecalodon at Walibi, and think they do a great and underated effort at Christmas), there is nothing there that comes close to the theming here, and it really does elevate the experience. Which is better? No idea, room for both.
Nb at some point I had a meatball and satay baguette for 6.50euro which tasted excellent, good bit of Indonesian Dutch fusion, fair price. Soft drinks were a rip off.
Nb I don't know why most photos are sideways!
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