MattyB

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!

So I visited Phantasialand for the first time recently. We did a road trip and took in Efteling, a Center Parcs and Phantasialand. First off, F.L.Y and Rookburgh. Wow! My jaw dropped when we walked in through the hotel entrance. The area is stunning, the level of detail reminded me of the level of detail at Disney Sea. The way the coaster interacts with the land is amazing. Loved the various elements (steam coming out of the manholes, the zeppelin, train etc). I found F.L.Y to be a bit more intense than I had anticipated, however the ride was smooth, and I loved the small dark ride section at the start. Both launches were great, and the near misses were very well done. The IMAScore soundtrack tops off an amazing experience. Taron - this ride was insane, and I can totally see why so many people love this coaster. Again, the area theming is stunning and the ride just keeps on giving. Both launches took me by surprise at how powerful they are. Its one of the few coasters I've ridden where we got off and ran straight back round for another go! Black Mamba - again, theming was stunning. I found this ride reminded me more of Nemesis Inferno rather than Nemesis in terms of intensity, however was a decent ride. Colorado Adventure - this took me by surprise at how crazy this ride was. Was expecting a tamer Thunder Mountain, however the part in the dark took me by complete surprise. Winjas - these were fun, loved the trick track sections and the elevator style lift system. Again, the area theming was very good. Maus au Chocolat - having ridden Toy Story Mania I wasn't sure if this ride would work as well, however it was very good, and the level of theming in the queue line and ride was amazing. I think this ride type would do very well at Alton Towers. Geister Ricksha - I do love the old school omnimover attractions, and we got to ride two on this trip (the other being Carnaval Festival at Efteling). Would say Geister Ricksha is definitely showing its age, however was nice to see a different take on the haunted ride theme. The China area of the park was stunning. Talocan, Chiapas and River Quest were all closed for maintenance/cold season. We didn't do Crazy Bats as I'm not a fan of VR on rollercoasters (I had a bad experience on Galactica). We also missed Raik (as I'm getting on in my years going backwards on a coaster is not as fun as it used to be haha) and Mystery Castle (the person I was with doesn't like drop rides, however I will probably ride on my definite revisit). General Park - so, the toilets in the Berlin area are probably the best theme park toilets I have ever seen . Park ops were pretty decent, staff were friendly and helpful. Park was spotless in terms of rubbish and graffiti. I do love the fact that each area is screened off from the other which adds to the immersion, and can totally see why they have won the amount of awards it has. Park was very quiet with 5min waits for most things. Loved their version of "Main Street", the waffle place was delightful. And being able to sit along the street and soak in the atmosphere was very cool. They were setting up for Wintertraum, and it looked amazing. One of the things I think the park could improve on is its merchandise. It felt a bit lacklustre. We stayed at the Charles Lindbergh Hotel for 1 night. Thought the price was quite reasonable considering it included 2 days park entry, x2 F.L.Y priority passes each (even though we didn't need to use them), a 3 course dinner and breakfast. Also the views from the hotel were stunning. Unfortunately we couldn't walk around Rookburgh at night as they were testing the light show for their winter event, however we had awesome views from the observation point at the top of the hotel. The bar/restaurant was excellent, and the outdoor section of the bar gave some amazing close up views of F.L.Y. All in all, an amazing park, can't wait to see what they do next!

Just returned from my first Efteling/Phantasialand trip. Will write a full report at some point once I've recovered, however Danse Macabre is incredible!

Visiting this park next week for the first time. Can't wait!!!!!

Yep correct. Also CCR and the water ferries as they were quite large capacity rides/attractions.

Just to add to this, back in the early to mid 2000's we were reaching numbers between 18000-20000. However this did cause issues. I particularly remember some of the days the queue to get into the car park went back towards the Sainsburys by Staines bridge. For comparison, EPCOT at Disneyworld gets around 80000-90000 for their New Years eve celebrations

Just to chime in on this as I was involved with this project. The trucks used to deliver the material and the excavation machinery were used to compact the earth as it was filled in. I seem to remember we handed over the SAW island to the project team pretty much a couple of months after we had finished infilling. Same with SAW Alive. For The Swarm, think it was about a year, maybe 2 after infilling completed that they started on construction for that project. Any ride structures foundations actually go through the infilled material and into the bedrock below. From memory think the SAW foundations go to 50m

Yeah park looks amazing. Was looking at the show building for the new Harry Potter attraction, its massive!

New promo for Epic Universe Introducing Universal Epic Universe And park fly through Epic Universe Flythrough Animation

The Difficult Creation of Thorpe Park: The Educational Era New vid by Expedition Theme Park

Disney Electrical Sky Parade - World Premiere - Disneyland Paris

Apparently concept art has been leaked. Not sure how authentic it is: [Universal Studios Great Britain] leaked concept art (picture from Coasterhub on IG)

Sinkhole opens under Busch Gardens

The World's Most Underrated Theme Park - Genting SkyWorlds Malaysia Review Great review of this park. One of the oddest ones out there I think. On top of a mountain, previously known as 20th Century Fox World Malaysia. Essentially a licensed Disney park with all of the IP's that probably don't fit into a normal Disney park. Its crazy how much IP Disney owns now!

Looks awesome!

Really like this. Concept art looks awesome!

I think its cool when done correctly. E.g. Disney having hidden mickeys, or the C3PO marking on the plane at TDS. Think its nice to have nods to earlier attractions in theme parks. Isn't there a museum at Europa Park that shows off the parks history? Think it would be cool if the UK parks did something similar.

Really good review of this park. I was lucky enough to visit a couple of years ago, and found the park to be a really enjoyable day out. Small & Mighty! - Universal Studios Singapore Review

Oh wow! Didn't realise queues for the rides themselves were that extreme. Thought it was just the mazes. Its a tough one. If you look at Disney/Universal, they are in a completely different game to the Merlin parks. I don' think they have quiet periods anymore, and can plan attractions based around massive throughputs, that they will get consistently throughout the year. They also have the infrastructure in place to support late operating hours (on site staff accommodation, transport to said accommodation that works around the clock). In fact, those sites are truly around the clock, 24 hour operations. Not sure what the answer is tbh. If you limit capacity, you potentially lose revenue. If you have extremely busy periods with +3 hour queues, you risk reputation. They are almost a victim of their own success.

Of course, agreed. End of season for TP has always been extremely busy. I think the issue is whether the park focuses investment to meet the demand for 1 week of the year. I remember doing Universal and it took us 3 nights to get around all the mazes. The Studios park was heaving and we couldn't get near the place on actual Halloween. I think my biggest issue is the upcharge (however I'm biased as I come from a time when the mazes were part of the entry ticket price). Universal charges an extra ticket price for the evening (or did when I visited in 2009), and I think it makes sense that Thorpe should. However, I think the way the mazes are currently designed don't meet the demand for this last week of the year from a throughput perspective. (I.e. batching in smaller groups, pre-shows etc). I think its nice that Thorpe are able to offer these experiences, however at some point as the park expands they would need to start looking at volume and throughputs. Granted, the conga line method may be a lesser experience overall, however I think it would be a great challenge for the design teams to do something different with it? Or they put more mazes on. I'm surprised that as part of the Hyperion development site, they didn't factor in a purpose built fright nights building as part of that development. Somewhere to store everything throughout the year and then maybe use the space for 1/2 mazes.

I think you misunderstood me. What I meant was, if the park closes at 10pm, some staff could potentially be working until 12pm. I remember when we had 10pm closes, and Megastore was still heaving at 11pm. I didn't get out until 1am. Luckily I lived locally and had understanding parents. If I lived in London or relied on public transport to get home, not sure I would have many options open to me. Regarding mazes, I think its a tricky one. Do you go down the conga line route (Universal), increasing throughputs, or just add more of them? If the park is struggling with capacity, I should imagine it would need to change it up a bit over the coming years, especially with Hyperia on the way.

Also if you factor in staff coming in to work from London, the public transport options are non existent after a certain time (from Staines/Chertsey). I do remember we did 24 hour openings at one point. Think it was in 1999

Having done Universal, I think the conga line would help in this situation, particularly if demand is high. RE closing at 9pm, the park has to ensure its staff can get home, particularly if they are using public transport. Considering some staff may stay up to 2 hours after park closing (depending on how busy it is). I don't know how we got away with the late night closings back in the day!

Yeah a behind the scenes look at Tron would be awesome. Maybe for another season

Trailer for Behind the Attraction Season 2 on Disney Plus. Looks like attractions covered are: Pirates of the Caribbean, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, Indiana Jones Adventure Also firework shows and food Behind the Attraction Season 2