There aren't many theme parks in Europe more deserving of 'absolute bucket list park' status than Efteling. A sprawling wonderland of rides, walk-throughs and shows lined with ridiculously (wonderously) themed bins, ATM's, vending machines... well, everything really. You name it, Efteling has themed it.
Visiting Efteling was a dream of mine for a very long time. As soon as I learned of it's existence, I knew I'd have to find a way there one day. I'm very much a fan of the strange and unusual, with my favourite things in parks often being the random unnecessary details - shout out to the Legoland Mole Pole! So I'm very happy to say that Efteling is almost definitely the greatest place in Europe to find the unexpected.
We were able to visit on a lovely sunny Sunday in May and to my absolute amazement we were able to ride - in one day - every coaster and almost every dark ride (I'll be back for you Villa Volta!) Incredibly, out of these 11 attractions (I'm not even including the amazing walk-throughs here) there was only one that I considered not to be utterly exceptional - but more on that thing later.
I could quite easily write an entire novella about the joy that this park brought to me, so in an attempt to keep things (relatively) short and sweet, I'll break down some of the things that make this park so incredibly special.
Dark Rides
When talking through my experience of Efteling, where else could I start than it's dark rides? This is a park that spares absolutely no expense on theming, so you'd better believe that they're going to throw everything they've got at their dark rides. Probably the most well-known of these is Symbolica, at least it was to me! As the newest dark ride at the park - and the most expensive project in Efteling history, costing a wild €35 million - Symbolica is without doubt the most technologically astounding. I'm going to avoid going in to too much detail as I know a lot of people - including me - prefer to go in to rides blind, but parts of this ride were so beautiful that they reduced me to tears. Every set is physical, packed to the brim with detail and wonder, just waiting for you to waltz through onboard your trackless vehicle. The ride even offers three different 'tours' with different scenes on each. I was able to experience both the 'music' and 'treasure' tours and noticed two different scenes in each. It also - similar to Ratatouille over at Disneyland Paris - has a great single-rider line, but unlike Ratatouille you still get to see all the same scenes (including the astonishing pre-show) before loading. It was clear from the effort that goes in to directing guests that Efteling really went above and beyond to include a single rider line here and it is very much appreciated!
Of course, a dark ride doesn't need the latest technology to be best-in-class (I know a few pirates who would have a word to say on that matter) as is evidenced by the jaw-dropping beauty of Droomvlucht. Droomvlucht - or Dream Flight for us English speakers - is a suspended dark ride. Think Peter Pan's Flight, but with imagery pulled straight from the pages of a fairytale and the most beautiful music you could imagine. The sets throughout this ride had me simultaneously scooping my jaw from the floor whilst trying to hold back tears. This ride is nothing short of a masterpiece, and it's clearly beloved with (comparatively) long lines for this 29 year old dark ride all day. One thing is for sure, I'm almost glad I didn't experience this as a kid. I would have been completely and utterly obsessed. I still am at 28.
I'd heard Fata Morgana described as 'Pirates, but Arabian Nights' which I assumed referred mostly to it's ride system. Pirates comparisons are basically inevitable when you're a dark ride with a large boat vehicle. But no this really *is* like Pirates, both in system and in scale. This ride features an astonishing 137 animatronics throughout 14 scenes, with another fantastic soundtrack playing throughout. Whilst I was in awe at the lavish sets, this was our last (new) ride of the day and I was a little worn out by this point so didn't take in as much as usual. When I inevitably return, this will be top of the list for re-rides!
And then - *sigh* - there's this...
By the time we reached the corner of the park that is home to both Carnaval Festival and Vogel Rok, it was mid-afternoon. Up until this point, the day had consisted of absolutely astonishing experiences, leading me to believe that Efteling was a perfect theme park. Then came Carnaval Festival. I cannot recall ever riding a dark ride that made me feel the hatred that this ride inspired. Through it's 8 minute - though it felt like 800 - ride-time I felt myself beaten down by these vile clowns and their stupid, stupid song. Is this what people feel when they ride It's a Small World? Is this what I make my friends endure every time we visit Disneyland? If so, I'm so sorry to anyone who has ever visited a Disney park with me. I'm sorry for making you feel this way, because right now I feel an almost physical sickness at the idea of being made to ride this again. It's astonishing to me that this ride continues to exist in a park that is otherwise so sure of it's tone. Riding every other attraction in the park - except Python - no matter what the theme, the rides feel Efteling. There's a sense of wonder, magic and astonishing attention to detail that engulfs the entire park. It's just a shame that this hasn't yet encompassed these cursed clowns. Nice frogs though.
Coasters
As a coaster enthusiast, it feels utterly bananas to talk about a park's rollercoasters and dive straight in with a water coaster. As a theme park enthusiast however, there's really nowhere else I can begin. Because this is not just a water coaster, this is De Vliegende Hollander (or The Flying Dutchman to us English folk). Before my visit, all I knew of The Flying Dutchman was the station. I had seen one photo - one of better quality than the blurry mess above - and that was all I needed for this ride to shoot right up to the top of my bucket list. Look at the paving for God's sake. Decorative paving! In an indoor station! There was not a single attraction at Efteling I anticipated more and dear lord did it live up to the hype. After traversing an incredible queue line, feeding through the buildings surrounding the dock, we walked down in to a station that was even more astonishing than photos had led me to believe. I spent almost the entire time (it wasn't long, they were smashing the operations) awestruck as I noticed that the facades of the buildings in the station corresponded with the rooms we had just walked through in the queue. For instance, whilst stood in the station I could see a window I had been peering through a few moments earlier from a room which had been a pub and there in the station was it's pub signage. Truly incredible.
Then there was the ride itself. Whilst the dark ride section was not even close to what I had imagined, I don't know if I've ever experienced such an atmosphere on a ride before. It was genuinely unnerving and entirely engrossing. Of course, after this comes the true coaster section. For a water coaster, this was really fun! I especially enjoyed swooping through a smoke filled tunnel and the final splashdown, which thankfully didn't send more than a gentle spray our way. As with almost every attraction at Efteling, the soundtrack to this was astonishing too. It's been one of my favourites on the soundtrack CD!
Not knowing masses about Efteling, we followed standard theme park logic and made a rope-drop bee-line for the newest of the thrill coasters, meaning Baron 1898 was our first ride of the day. Once again, I went in to the ride knowing as little as possible. B&M Dive Coaster with a big wheel on it just about sums up my prior knowledge of this ride but - of course - Baron did an absolutely fantastic job of introducing us to the wonder of this park. After a short outdoor cattle-pen we were handed paper tickets to assign our row (there was a separate queue for front-row), our bags were handed to a luggage desk and we were ushered in to the first of two pre-shows. Top tip: if you speak English, head straight to the opposite side of the room. On our first ride, I had no idea that there were English subtitles being projected right behind me - doh! With the story (rich mining baron finds cursed gold, I think?) explained through projections, we moved through to the second pre-show where we met with the Baron himself - a fantastic animatronic - before the factory doors swung open to reveal our train, ready and waiting. There's something special about not seeing the train until it's empty and waiting, maybe it helps suspend the disbelief if you aren't stood watching people return from the mine? I don't know, but I liked it. After dispatching, there is one final pre-show before beginning the ascent, accompanied - of course - by wonderful music. The drop itself was a lot of fun, though didn't pack the same punch as Oblivion over at Alton Towers. However, I loved the floater airtime sustained through most of the following elements. It's a fun little coaster, not one for the top 10 by any means, but as an experience it's something really special. That's Efteling all over really.
Next up in 'coaster corner' was Joris en de Draak (George and the Dragon), a pair of racing GCI coasters. I bloody loved these. Whilst Wicker Man remains my fave, both sides of this coaster had that familiar GCI fury whilst still being smooth enough to be able to ride both back-to-back. What really made the ride for me was all the effort that went in to celebrating the winners, with a medieval-style metal sign at the brake-run that swung around to declare the winners and banners that dropped on arrival in the station Joris really felt like a racing coaster worth winning - and we won both times!
Whilst we are on the subject of coasters, I have to mention the fact that I hit a milestone on this visit! Max (of Max and Moritz) was my 200th coaster! Whilst I do love counting down to a milestone and trying to decide what it will be, I don't care enough to have engineered our day at this wonderful park around it. So I was perfectly happy to make this joyous family coaster number 200. I really, really liked both Max and Moritz, particularly the onboard audio which reminded me strongly of Peppa Pig World. I also really appreciated that the single rider queue splits for the two coasters, making it super quick and easy to pick up the creds.
Rounding out the park's coaster line-up are Python and Vogel Rok. Python is the least themed attraction in the whole park, with nothing but a few flags lined up alongside it but it does at least run like a dream. It's still utterly mad to me just how smooth Vekomas can be after a bit of love. Vogel Rok is another older attraction which, behind that absolutely ridiculous façade (in a good way, more coasters should make you walk between the legs of an enormous bird) houses one of the most disorientating ride experiences I've had. I've done plenty of dark indoor coasters in my time, but this was just so dark. I couldn't see any track ahead at all, meaning a reasonably mild coaster felt wild. A lot of fun!
Fairytale Forest and Other Attractions
Of course, no visit to Efteling is complete without a wander around the Fairytale Forest. As the original opening-day attraction, the Fairytale Forest is without a doubt the heart and soul of the park. Staring with just 10 fairytales, the forest is now home to 30 stories all represented in different ways. From a single animatronic, to houses designed for exploration and even a coin-pooping donkey, each story is it's own unique attraction. As we were trying to see as much of the park as possible, we didn't have time to fully appreciate the entirety of the forest but half an hour of wandering was enough to see how this remains such an iconic theme park attraction. I cannot wait to come back one day and give the forest the half-day exploration it definitely deserves!
Spread throughout the park there are also a variety of walk-through attractions/shows. Knowing nothing about it aside from this year being it's final season, Spookslot was a must-do. I don't really know what I was expecting from it, but it certainly wasn't the most eerie, disconcerting attraction of my life (I know I'm using a lot of hyperbole in this blog, but please believe me here). As an unsettling score played, we stood and watched as an animatronic graveyard came to life. Whilst many parts of this were whimsical, there was one particular scene that has haunted me ever since. The image of a corpse, hung by the neck from a rope. The rope that is used to sound the church bell. Standing there, hearing nothing but the toll of a bell as a body bounced up and down before me I felt more uneasy than a theme park has ever made me feel before - at least outside of Halloween events. I cannot wait to see what they're planning for the evolution of this attraction!
We also stopped in for a moment to view the Diorama, a gorgeous model full of detail, movement and trains! Again, the music in here was stunning and there was plenty of seating spread around to make the perfect rest stop on a hot or rainy day.
Food
If I were to make a list of all the things I completely adore, both theme parks and pancakes would be very near the top. So when I heard that there was a richly themed pancake house sitting in the middle of Efteling, a reservation was made immediately. Polles Keuken sits directly opposite Symbolica and ties in to the same narrative - if I remember rightly, the pancakes are being prepared by the palace cook? The interior is dominated by the enormous central oven, powering the wheels above which in turn move a belt around the ceiling. A belt with just about every kitchen utensil you could think of attached. Every now and again, this system 'malfunctions' and starts running at breakneck speed as the background music speeds up in-time. This gave me big Oga's Cantina vibes, and honestly I'm so here for it. The food too was completely divine. We both ordered pancakes with white chocolate, strawberry jam and 'crispy waffles'. These waffles turned out to be stroopwaffles, the only thing that could have made this lunch better! The pancake was delicious, filling and for two of us with drinks came to about 24€ which for a themed table-service restaurant in a theme park is very good value in my opinion.
One thing I noticed too whilst wandering around the park, was that food is everywhere. Whilst at some parks you have to strategize in order to obtain food without losing a good half-hour to the queue, here it seemed as though you were never more than a few minutes away from a food vendor ready and waiting to serve you. Plus, even if things did get too busy they even have vending machines full of 'proper' food! Whilst I didn't purchase anything from these, they had very large vegetarian spring rolls available for 1.90€ - amazing!
Entertainment
Raveleijn is a show I cannot quite believe exists in a theme park. I mean, sure at times it's a bit predictable and is clearly aimed at families but can we all just take a moment to look at that set. Those are real roof tiles for crying out loud. If you had showed me this photo before I began reading about Efteling, I probably would have assumed it was a small European town such is the quality of build. On this set, we were treated to a beautiful display of horsemanship, illusions and sword fights. The only downside for me was that the large central arch shown in the photo above did impact on sightlines. I was sat at the front in the middle and missed a key part of the show, so I would recommend grabbing a higher seat for better views. From the sheer volume of Raveleijn merch available across the park, it's clear that this show is beloved by park guests and for good reason.
Merch
As you'd expect - and as I hoped - Efteling has a great selection of merch. The best of all in my opinion, being a 2-disc CD featuring 2.5hrs of music from across the park. I really wish more parks would offer something like this. The CD has been in the car since I got home and I'm happy to say that it absolutely slaps, except you Carnaval Festival.
Aside from the CD I also picked up an 'Efteling 2022' pin (6€) and some stroopwaffles in a themed tin (10€), though I easily could have come away with more. Please know that if I lived alone, this would also have been making the trip back to England.
Overall my first visit to Efteling was an absolute joy. I cannot think of one single area in which this park fails. The staff were truly lovely (shout out to the cashier in the exit shop who knew where Bristol was), the rides were excellent and whilst the park was certainly busy, there is just so much to do here that we never had to wait an unreasonable amount of time. I think our longest waits of the day were 30 minutes for Joris and Flying Dutchman. It's abundantly clear than this is a park built and maintained with love, and long may that continue!
As to whether it's my new favourite theme park, I'm not sure I can make that call based on one visit. However, the attractions in this park made me feel a way that only rides at Disney (and Universal) parks have before. Add to that the fact that the park exceeds in areas that my beloved Disneyland Paris definitely struggles (looking at you food and beverage) and we have a very strong contender for favourite park on our hands. I guess I'll have to come back to be certain!
If you were thinking of visiting, just drop everything and get yourself to the Netherlands. You won't regret it.
Speak again soon,
Claire
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