Last week I visited two parks that could put ‘themeing’ in the dictionary - Efteling and Toverland. Got an early flight to Eindhoven, where it was chucking it down with rain.
Went straight to Efteling, which was empty due to said rain. No queues for any rides! Huzzah!
I’ve heard loads of high praise for Efteling, so was really excited to finally be there - but also slightly worried that I might be expecting too much, as all goons are prone to doing sometimes.
But I needn’t have worried. Efteling is the most magical place I’ve ever been too. (Yep, that’s right “Alton Towers In The 90’s” –it’s even better than you were!!)
It would take forever to write down every single detail that I noticed, from the elaborate structure of the park entrance to the imaginatively themed elements that strike you on every corner you turn. So I’ll just say that this place has to be seen to be believed, it’s so wonderful and unique.
Aware that it isn’t just a cred park, I came prepared with a list of all the dark rides that I didn’t want to miss. I called it the Eftelist.
The first thing I rode was Fata Morgana, an 8-minute long, Arabian-themed dark boat ride which featured some of the most amazing sets I’ve ever seen.
Each scene has doors that close behind the boat and open just before you leave it; which really helped create the illusion that you were the only boat on the ride, and allowed each scene to have your full attention. I loved it, it was so dark, atmospheric and immensely themed.
Next was the Intamin Bobsled – Bob. It was a tad sketchier than the Mack bobsleds due to steeper drops and sharper turns, but overall still an unremarkable coaster.
After this I headed to Spookslot expecting a ghost train.
The queue line, as seems to be the standard for all rides at Efteling, is superb – dark, atmospheric and immensely themed!
However, I didn’t realise that Spookslot isn’t a ride. It’s a show of animatronics through glass – where ghosts come to life and grave stones dance in time to music.
It’s really cool, but I thought it was a pre-show to a ride! So was a bit confused when the show ended and you just walk back out into the park.
Then I went over to the parks ‘Ruigrik’ section, which is the park’s main coaster area. Here I am, enjoying the neverending rain:
Rode both the fire and water sides of the fab GCI racer Joris En De Draak. What Joris lacks in height it makes up for with excellent pacing, a great layout and a huge animatronic dragon that breathes fire and splashes water. It’s amazing.
I also like how it has a lower height restriction for the middle of the train:
Plus, whichever side of the coaster wins gets cheering and banners falling from the ceiling when it enters the station – just another magical touch of Efteling!
Immediately re-rode both sides, but this time I tried riding Joris in de Baak.
Got a surprising amount of airtime actually! This coaster really puts the ‘great’ into ‘Great Coasters International’ <3 Loved it.
Time for another surprise in the form of De Vliegende Hollander – a water coaster made by Kumbak.
It doesn’t make much of a splash as a coaster, but has a jaw dropping dark ride section which is just incredible. And imagine my surprise when the ride station was dark, atmospheric and immensely themed too!
The coaster section has some ok drops, but isn’t anything special. But the dark ride section is so great, that I nearly put a very average coaster into my top 10! (And normally it’s only “rubbish” Gerstlauers that get into my top 10!)
Next up was Python, a Vekoma with a capital V – for Vintage. It has the slowest lift hill ever, 2 loops and 2 corkscrews. One and done.
Headed over to the west side of the park next, for the Vekoma G.I.B. cred – ie: Giant Indoor Bird coaster Vogel Rok. How cool is the entrance!
There were giant eggs dotted around in the dark, atmospheric, immensely themed queue line – which was an eggcellent touch. I’d never been so eggcited to ride a crappy indoor Vekoma! It has an on board soundtrack (which instantly makes any ride brilliant) and a hilarious bit where you dive into a giant birds mouth.
On its own, Vogel Rok would be rubbish - but the themeing made it fab.
The children's maze was fun, and the entrance was themed to Loyd Grossman's hit 90's tv series
You had to go through the keyhole to get in!
Went to the pancake place for lunch, which was delicious. It also had another 'key piece' of themeing outside:
Did Villa Volta next, which is the world’s first Vekoma Madhouse.
It has a long pre-show of an old animatronic man waffling on in Dutch. I couldn’t wait to get on the ride just to sit down. The inside of this madhouse is like a posh living room, it’s like the only dark ride at Efteling that isn’t literally dark.
The furniture, cream wall paper and mirrors certainly made this Madhouse feel more like a Madhome.
But as soon as the ride got going it just kind of felt like being drunk, because there was no darkness to make the ride disorientating. Of all the many Madhouses I’ve ridden, I’d say Villa Volta is the worst. It’s more like a Vekoma Badhouse.
After this, I rode Droomvlucht – a suspended dark ride themed to fairies.
The scenes are very floral and pretty, but I felt the ride doesn’t utilise its suspended system as well as it maybe could. I would have preferred the track to go through the middle of the sets - with scenery surrounding the ride cars on all sides of the floor. I think that may have given a more immersive sense of floating through a dream world, as opposed to gliding past it.
It’s still a wonderful, immensely themed dark ride, but I preferred Fata Morgana to Droomvlucht.
Headed into the Fairytale Forest next, a sprawling forrest full of set pieces and animatronics themed to various fairytales. There's a donkey that poo's coins, trumpeters that come to life on the hour, fairies dancing on waterlillies, a Snow White mirror, a man with a really long neck, Hansel and Gretel's house:
Plus loads of other magical things. Despite now shivering from being in the rain, I spent hours outside in the Fairytale Forest and the time just flew by.
Before I knew it, I had little time left for re-rides so dashed back to Joris and the water coaster for one last go on each.
Then it was time to watch Efteling's 'water ballet' show on the lake. I heard it was not to be mist!
In all seriousness, the way they got the fire and dry ice to sit a top the water of the lake was mistifying.
It was a lovely show, and a great way to end a magical day.
Exited via the tat shop.
Which was home to plenty of quirky items (who knows, some may appear in this years GF faffle...
)
Anywho. To sum up my experience of Efteling, here is a graph plotting the adjectives most frequently used in this report:
I then had a fun-filled evening drying my rain-soaked clothes with the hairdryer in the hotel
Day Two:
Left the hotel for Toverland, and it was still p*ssing it down with rain.
I had come prepared with a (slightly shorter) list for today too
Arrived at Toverland and noticed the fab entrance music straight away. There's nothing better than a park with a catchy theme tune!
By passed the large indoor section of Toverland, and headed towards the giant GCI Troy first.
It has this lovely wooden horse as it's neighbour.
The ride area looks great, I've heard a lot about Troy being a great coaster, but not about how well-themed it is for a wooden coaster. I was pleasantly surprised by that.
Troy also has the greatest ride music of all time. "Troy..TROY! De sensaaatie..." I was singing and dancing along for the entire 0 minutes I spent queuing to ride
What a smashing GCI coaster! Easily my fave one I've ridden so far. The first drop is spectacular, the layout is nice and long, and the pace just feels relentless.
Immediately re-rode it several times, where the only issue was the pain of the rain hitting my face at that speed.
They have a cool self serve system outside the ride, where you can get your ORP emailed to you for just 2 Euro's. It was nice not to have to take out a loan to afford an ORP, so I bought the one where I look most like a tw*t:
Rode the new rapids ride Djengu River, which was also very nicely themed
It's one of those rapids where the water comes in the side of the boat, so I got rather wet.
Next up was Dwervelwind. A Mack spinning coaster, which I pretty much ended up sitting on all day. (Never thought I'd ever do that on a spinner! I usually hate them)
But Dwervelwind is so much fun.
It has long trains of spinning cars
An awesome ride station complete with smoke machine <3
It has on board sound, complete with amazing soundtrack. (Whoever writes the songs for Toverland is a bloody genius) and a superb layout.
Unlike other spinners, which tend to verge on the puke-enducing side, Dwervelwind just gets it completely right. It has a lovely horseshoe and some great S bends, even little bits of airtime here and there!
It's so full of DwervelWIN. <3
Booster Bike - the Vekoma motorbike coaster wasn't open yet cos of the rain, so I appreciated it's Nemesis-esque station complete with tentacles then headed to the indoor section of Toverland. Which is surprisingly large.
It has a Vekoma. Called Boomerang. Which ISN'T a Vekoma Boomerang. Ohh how I laughed like a goon at that.
It was ok, slightly better than Maximus at Crealy and Rhino Coaster at WMSP, because it had a more decent first drop.
There's a also a fun house, a bobsled (with an burdenously long queue) and a log flume themed to Yoda from Star Wars
With plenty of play-areas and cool games, this indoor section of Toverland was packed with kids and really, really noisy. I found it to be a bit toverbearing, so got the creds, log flume and some lunch, then headed back outside.
The rain had eased off and Booster Bikes started testing, so I waited by the entrance like a goon.
Luckily, I managed to ride it in the brief time it opened before it started raining heavily again, and had to be closed back down.
It was a fun-but-nothing-special coaster, very similar to Velocity at Flamingo Land.
Had to leave the park in the early afternoon to fly back home, so I spent the remainder of my time re-riding Troy and Dwervelwind. Was surprised when I realised I rode the Mack spinning coaster more times than a GCI, but I love when a ride you expect nothing from blows you away like that.
Spent the journey back working 'Troy' into other pop songs: ie: Pink's - Try "just because it's wood, doesn't mean you're gonna die, gotta get up and Troy, Troy, Troy'
And Sabrina's - Boys "Troy, Troy Troy, if you're looking for a good time!" etc.
Thanks for reading, sorry for the poor quality of my crappy phone photos.
Went straight to Efteling, which was empty due to said rain. No queues for any rides! Huzzah!
I’ve heard loads of high praise for Efteling, so was really excited to finally be there - but also slightly worried that I might be expecting too much, as all goons are prone to doing sometimes.
But I needn’t have worried. Efteling is the most magical place I’ve ever been too. (Yep, that’s right “Alton Towers In The 90’s” –it’s even better than you were!!)
It would take forever to write down every single detail that I noticed, from the elaborate structure of the park entrance to the imaginatively themed elements that strike you on every corner you turn. So I’ll just say that this place has to be seen to be believed, it’s so wonderful and unique.
Aware that it isn’t just a cred park, I came prepared with a list of all the dark rides that I didn’t want to miss. I called it the Eftelist.
The first thing I rode was Fata Morgana, an 8-minute long, Arabian-themed dark boat ride which featured some of the most amazing sets I’ve ever seen.
Each scene has doors that close behind the boat and open just before you leave it; which really helped create the illusion that you were the only boat on the ride, and allowed each scene to have your full attention. I loved it, it was so dark, atmospheric and immensely themed.
Next was the Intamin Bobsled – Bob. It was a tad sketchier than the Mack bobsleds due to steeper drops and sharper turns, but overall still an unremarkable coaster.
After this I headed to Spookslot expecting a ghost train.
The queue line, as seems to be the standard for all rides at Efteling, is superb – dark, atmospheric and immensely themed!
However, I didn’t realise that Spookslot isn’t a ride. It’s a show of animatronics through glass – where ghosts come to life and grave stones dance in time to music.
It’s really cool, but I thought it was a pre-show to a ride! So was a bit confused when the show ended and you just walk back out into the park.
Then I went over to the parks ‘Ruigrik’ section, which is the park’s main coaster area. Here I am, enjoying the neverending rain:
Rode both the fire and water sides of the fab GCI racer Joris En De Draak. What Joris lacks in height it makes up for with excellent pacing, a great layout and a huge animatronic dragon that breathes fire and splashes water. It’s amazing.
I also like how it has a lower height restriction for the middle of the train:
Plus, whichever side of the coaster wins gets cheering and banners falling from the ceiling when it enters the station – just another magical touch of Efteling!
Immediately re-rode both sides, but this time I tried riding Joris in de Baak.
Got a surprising amount of airtime actually! This coaster really puts the ‘great’ into ‘Great Coasters International’ <3 Loved it.
Time for another surprise in the form of De Vliegende Hollander – a water coaster made by Kumbak.
It doesn’t make much of a splash as a coaster, but has a jaw dropping dark ride section which is just incredible. And imagine my surprise when the ride station was dark, atmospheric and immensely themed too!
The coaster section has some ok drops, but isn’t anything special. But the dark ride section is so great, that I nearly put a very average coaster into my top 10! (And normally it’s only “rubbish” Gerstlauers that get into my top 10!)
Next up was Python, a Vekoma with a capital V – for Vintage. It has the slowest lift hill ever, 2 loops and 2 corkscrews. One and done.
Headed over to the west side of the park next, for the Vekoma G.I.B. cred – ie: Giant Indoor Bird coaster Vogel Rok. How cool is the entrance!
There were giant eggs dotted around in the dark, atmospheric, immensely themed queue line – which was an eggcellent touch. I’d never been so eggcited to ride a crappy indoor Vekoma! It has an on board soundtrack (which instantly makes any ride brilliant) and a hilarious bit where you dive into a giant birds mouth.
On its own, Vogel Rok would be rubbish - but the themeing made it fab.
The children's maze was fun, and the entrance was themed to Loyd Grossman's hit 90's tv series
You had to go through the keyhole to get in!
Went to the pancake place for lunch, which was delicious. It also had another 'key piece' of themeing outside:
Did Villa Volta next, which is the world’s first Vekoma Madhouse.
It has a long pre-show of an old animatronic man waffling on in Dutch. I couldn’t wait to get on the ride just to sit down. The inside of this madhouse is like a posh living room, it’s like the only dark ride at Efteling that isn’t literally dark.
The furniture, cream wall paper and mirrors certainly made this Madhouse feel more like a Madhome.
But as soon as the ride got going it just kind of felt like being drunk, because there was no darkness to make the ride disorientating. Of all the many Madhouses I’ve ridden, I’d say Villa Volta is the worst. It’s more like a Vekoma Badhouse.
After this, I rode Droomvlucht – a suspended dark ride themed to fairies.
The scenes are very floral and pretty, but I felt the ride doesn’t utilise its suspended system as well as it maybe could. I would have preferred the track to go through the middle of the sets - with scenery surrounding the ride cars on all sides of the floor. I think that may have given a more immersive sense of floating through a dream world, as opposed to gliding past it.
It’s still a wonderful, immensely themed dark ride, but I preferred Fata Morgana to Droomvlucht.
Headed into the Fairytale Forest next, a sprawling forrest full of set pieces and animatronics themed to various fairytales. There's a donkey that poo's coins, trumpeters that come to life on the hour, fairies dancing on waterlillies, a Snow White mirror, a man with a really long neck, Hansel and Gretel's house:
Plus loads of other magical things. Despite now shivering from being in the rain, I spent hours outside in the Fairytale Forest and the time just flew by.
Before I knew it, I had little time left for re-rides so dashed back to Joris and the water coaster for one last go on each.
Then it was time to watch Efteling's 'water ballet' show on the lake. I heard it was not to be mist!
In all seriousness, the way they got the fire and dry ice to sit a top the water of the lake was mistifying.
It was a lovely show, and a great way to end a magical day.
Exited via the tat shop.
Which was home to plenty of quirky items (who knows, some may appear in this years GF faffle...
)Anywho. To sum up my experience of Efteling, here is a graph plotting the adjectives most frequently used in this report:
I then had a fun-filled evening drying my rain-soaked clothes with the hairdryer in the hotel
Day Two:
Left the hotel for Toverland, and it was still p*ssing it down with rain.
I had come prepared with a (slightly shorter) list for today too
Arrived at Toverland and noticed the fab entrance music straight away. There's nothing better than a park with a catchy theme tune!
By passed the large indoor section of Toverland, and headed towards the giant GCI Troy first.
It has this lovely wooden horse as it's neighbour.
The ride area looks great, I've heard a lot about Troy being a great coaster, but not about how well-themed it is for a wooden coaster. I was pleasantly surprised by that.
Troy also has the greatest ride music of all time. "Troy..TROY! De sensaaatie..." I was singing and dancing along for the entire 0 minutes I spent queuing to ride
What a smashing GCI coaster! Easily my fave one I've ridden so far. The first drop is spectacular, the layout is nice and long, and the pace just feels relentless.
Immediately re-rode it several times, where the only issue was the pain of the rain hitting my face at that speed.
They have a cool self serve system outside the ride, where you can get your ORP emailed to you for just 2 Euro's. It was nice not to have to take out a loan to afford an ORP, so I bought the one where I look most like a tw*t:
Rode the new rapids ride Djengu River, which was also very nicely themed
It's one of those rapids where the water comes in the side of the boat, so I got rather wet.
Next up was Dwervelwind. A Mack spinning coaster, which I pretty much ended up sitting on all day. (Never thought I'd ever do that on a spinner! I usually hate them)
But Dwervelwind is so much fun.
It has long trains of spinning cars
An awesome ride station complete with smoke machine <3
It has on board sound, complete with amazing soundtrack. (Whoever writes the songs for Toverland is a bloody genius) and a superb layout.
Unlike other spinners, which tend to verge on the puke-enducing side, Dwervelwind just gets it completely right. It has a lovely horseshoe and some great S bends, even little bits of airtime here and there!
It's so full of DwervelWIN. <3
Booster Bike - the Vekoma motorbike coaster wasn't open yet cos of the rain, so I appreciated it's Nemesis-esque station complete with tentacles then headed to the indoor section of Toverland. Which is surprisingly large.
It has a Vekoma. Called Boomerang. Which ISN'T a Vekoma Boomerang. Ohh how I laughed like a goon at that.
It was ok, slightly better than Maximus at Crealy and Rhino Coaster at WMSP, because it had a more decent first drop.
There's a also a fun house, a bobsled (with an burdenously long queue) and a log flume themed to Yoda from Star Wars
With plenty of play-areas and cool games, this indoor section of Toverland was packed with kids and really, really noisy. I found it to be a bit toverbearing, so got the creds, log flume and some lunch, then headed back outside.
The rain had eased off and Booster Bikes started testing, so I waited by the entrance like a goon.
Luckily, I managed to ride it in the brief time it opened before it started raining heavily again, and had to be closed back down.
It was a fun-but-nothing-special coaster, very similar to Velocity at Flamingo Land.
Had to leave the park in the early afternoon to fly back home, so I spent the remainder of my time re-riding Troy and Dwervelwind. Was surprised when I realised I rode the Mack spinning coaster more times than a GCI, but I love when a ride you expect nothing from blows you away like that.
Spent the journey back working 'Troy' into other pop songs: ie: Pink's - Try "just because it's wood, doesn't mean you're gonna die, gotta get up and Troy, Troy, Troy'
And Sabrina's - Boys "Troy, Troy Troy, if you're looking for a good time!" etc.
Thanks for reading, sorry for the poor quality of my crappy phone photos.
