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Showing content with the highest reputation on 05/23/25 in all areas

  1. Jax

    Stealth

    Saw it testing a few times today
    2 points
  2. MattyB

    Efteling

    So I visited Efteling for the first time recently. This park exceeded my expectations, and I was going to say its a Disney quality park. However, considering Efteling is older than Disneyland, should I be saying "are the Disney parks Efteling quality?" We spent 2 days at the park arriving around midday on the first. We didn't realise there was a national holiday, so the park was quite busy, however queue times averaged around the 30min mark, with Danse Macabre having a 60min queue pretty much all day for both days. Symbolica - Loved this ride, the level of theming was very high, and refreshing to see they didn't resort to using screens inside the attraction. There is a bit where all 3 cars face a balcony, which would have been an ideal place to put some screens, however there was a lovely diorama with butterflies so props to Efteling. Also great to see the park celebrating their mascot Pardoes by giving them their own attraction. I also loved the fact that you can choose between 3 different alternate endings, however we only got to experience the one. When we returned to do a re-ride at the end of the 2nd day the ride had closed for technical issues and didn't reopen. Vogel Rok - Awesome indoor coaster, decent amount of theming in the queue. Quiet forceful in some places. Joris en de Draak - loved these dual coasters, probably one of my favourites of the whole trip. Loads of fun pops of airtime. Loved the little details, such as the flag spinning at the end to signify the winner and the flags dropping in the station on the winning side. Droomvlucht - loved this ride, the sets were impressively large. Also was not expecting the spiral ending. Pagode - I've never been on this type of ride before, and we rode it as the sun was setting. Beautiful views across the park. Python - I was surprised at how well this rode and was quite forceful. I think its great that Efteling decided to completely re-track and keep its first major thrill ride, where other parks would have removed it. De Vliegende Hollander - this ride was amazing, the level of theming in the queue and the station blew me away. Reminded me of PoTC. The bit of the ride that goes into complete darkness with the fog actually made me a bit claustrophobic, and the ships "jumping" out of the dark were a nice touch. The coaster portion was decent, and we got lightly splashed at the end. The area theming was amazing as well. Baron 1898 - decent ride, amazing theming. Probably the only "let down" ride of the trip (and I use that term loosely as it is a world class ride) as the only other dive coaster I have been to compare it to is Oblivion. Carnaval Festival - loved this, reminded me of Small World (although the tune is not as offensive as Small World haha) and Toyland Tours. Love to see these old school attractions still running. Fairytale Forest - we spent around 2 hours in this, and we missed a lot. We underestimated how big this area is! My standout for this first visit was the Indian Waterlillies. Danse Macabre - this attraction was the standout attraction for me of the whole trip. I don't think there's much more I can say about it other than its incredible. We waited both days until it got dark to ride this as the darkness really added to the atmosphere. I would say Efteling have knocked it out of the park with this ride, its so well done. Probably the best POV I have seen online is the DLP Welcome one (link here: NEW RIDE Danse Macabre FULL ON RIDE - Efteling - World Premiere Dynamic Motion Stage). Park Ops - this is an extremely well run park, each of the F&B units had at least 3 staff in them, and the park and toilets were spotless. All of the attractions were running multiple trains/cars and the queues moved quickly. On our 2nd day we guesstimated they had a gate figure of around 10-12,000 and the park just swallowed it up. Each attraction appears to have been built with throughputs in mind, and considering the park doesn't run a fast track system they appear to do well with this. I got asked by a member of staff on a coffee unit what I thought of the park, and when I gave my feedback (which was positive) they said "thank you". I got the impression the staff were really proud to work there, and took ownership of it. We ate at the pancake restaurant Polles Keuken (amazing pancakes, although I would recommend pre-booking as the walk up queue can get quite long). The thematic elements in the restaurant added to the whole experience. We had lunch/early dinner at the Het Witte Paard restaurant. This was was around 15 EURO for a decent hot meal and drink which is amazing VFM in my opinion. In fact, the whole experience I felt was really good VFM, with park tickets costing 38 EURO and parking 12 EURO. My only gripe is that the hot drinks were all one size (small) and were 5 EURO, but this wasn't a big deal. We also ate at the Fabula Restaurant which was very good. The indoor play structures looked a lot of fun for the kids. We visited the Winter area that they had just finished setting up which was very well done. Park merchandise was very good, and I spent a small fortune on gifts, something I rarely do at a theme park. They also sell the various scents from the attractions which was a very unique thing to see. Parkwide and attraction sound/music were on point and very memorable. Entry to the park was quick and efficient, and the park entrance building is amazing! Construction on the new hotel looks like its progressing well, and I'm sure will be an awesome addition once it opens. Attractions we missed: Fata Morgana - closed for maintenance Villa Volta - didn't get time to get round to it Pirana - didn't get time to get round to it Raveleijn - they were running one show a day and we set an alarm to ensure we would be there on time. However we forgot we set the alarm and the alarm went off when we were in the middle of the queue for Baron. Stoomtrein - didn't get time to get round to it Max & Moritz - didn't get time to get round to it I'm sure we missed a whole lot more as the park is massive, but gives me a reason for a return trip! All in all, an amazing park. This park and Phantasialand are filled with magic, wonder and whimsy which I think is missing from a lot of theme parks now. We stayed at the Center Parcs De Vossemeren onsite hotel which is around a 1 hour drive from the park. We payed 40 EURO (each) a night for 3 nights which included access to the waterpark and breakfast! We took a day out of our trip to chill at the Center Parcs which was awesome! Can't wait to see what Efteling do next!
    1 point
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