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^Oh! Great question which I can answer! The lockers were great! Better than VelociCoaster in a few ways... - Bigger locker - Bigger locker area (not as cramped) - More lockers (so you're not waiting for a locker instead of waiting for the ride which I've seen a few times on VelociCoaster) They use your magic band/ticket and it was a fast process. If you don't have a band/ticket (phone bluetooth app doesn't work as of now) they give you an RFID card. There's also a little lighted cubby ON the bike itself where I would put my phone and keys. No metal detectors or anything so you can bring stuff with you as long as it's small.

Efteling has announced that an updated scene will be added to De Vliegende Hollander (The Flying Dutchman) coaster. The new scene will debut on April 1st, 2023. https://www.efteling.com/nl/blog/nieuws/20230202-nieuwe-scene-voor-de-vliegende-hollander Starting April 1, the new scene will have you sailing through a graveyard of derelict shipwrecks. Efteling Designer Karel Willemen explains the design. What do you think the new scene will look like? Karel: “The curtain of rain, where the ghost of a ghost ship suddenly approaches you during the ride, regularly provides extra maintenance. That is why we have chosen to replace this scene during the regular winter maintenance of De Vliegende Hollander. Nice detail: in the new decor we use the large wooden figureheads that were made years ago for the attraction, but which we have not been able to install until now.” The key visual of the new scene in the water attraction De Vliegende Hollander by Efteling Designer Karel Willemen. Audio directs the revamped scene “Previously, the pouring rain drowned out the audio, but in the situation from April 1, we can let the music and soundscapes play a greater role,” Karel continues. “Together with composer René Merkelbach, I looked at whether the existing music still needed to be adapted. We soon found out that it fits the new scene perfectly. We even let the music direct what you see while sailing: lightning strikes to the beat of the music, the water splashes up and the shipwrecks with their immense figureheads loom. I think it will be fantastic.” De Vliegende Hollander will open again on Saturday, April 1, 2023. In honor of the reopening, a new music album will be available on Spotify and other streaming services. Description of the first part of the ride in De Vliegende Hollander After embarking, we sail out of the seventeenth-century harbor in a sloop. We pass two impressive VOC ships and reach the open sea. The starry sky seems to predict a calm weather picture, but nothing could be further from the truth. We get into a dense fog with our sloop and hear lugubrious ghosts all around us and their echoes from past, present and future. In the distance, a ship's bell sounds panicked… When we sail out of the fog bank, we see driftwood floating in the night darkness, barrels and boxes on which ship rats have taken refuge. Then: a lightning strike! The seawater splashes meters up and the bright light briefly shows us a shipwreck with a mouldering, angelic figurehead. We are sailing through a ship graveyard! A second and third lightning strike reveals in a short flash several wrecks and figureheads that seem to sing to us like Sirens. Then suddenly: darkness and ominous silence, we hold our breath! Frontally in front of us, De Vliegende Hollander looms with much fanfare and comes straight at us. The infamous ghost ship, with a smoldering figurehead in the form of a bloodthirsty lion, was waiting for us, pulling us in and swallowing us! We crash into the depths of the underworld; the darkest part of the soul of De Vliegende Hollander… About The Flying Dutchman Since 2007 you can defy the age-old legend of ghost ship De Vliegende Hollander in this spectacular water roller coaster. At the beginning of 2004, a start will be made on the attraction on the site of the former open-air swimming pool. Karel Willemen is designing a harbor town with a 22.5 meter high tower for this purpose. A dune landscape and De Kombuys with terrace complete the surroundings. The Flying Dutchman tells the story of the greedy VOC captain, Willem van der Decken. Against all rules, he sails to the East on Easter Sunday 1678, in the middle of a heavy storm. His ship turns into a fiery ghost ship doomed to sail the world's seas forever. An encounter with this ship in the adventure attraction is not excluded at all…

This will be a great fit for the park...now get Falcon's Fury open again please!

Yeah, it just takes some practice to get on it if you have big legs or a big build. Most people have not ridden a real motorbike coaster like this before. That's the problem. They think they have! They think Hagrid's is a motorbike but it's not at all. This Vekoma version is the real deal and you lay down like on a sport bike. I saw people yesterday refusing to get in the proper riding position and then getting angry that they couldn't fit. If you can't get in the position or you have VERY large legs, just go ride in the back modified seats, no big deal.

I would agree. There were similar stories after FOP opened and I've heard little about it since. I worried about my own ability to fit there and I do about Tron, but I have had little trouble with FOP. I saw a YouTube video today from a guy making it on Tron on his second attempt. His biggest issue was the size of his calves and the leg bar and he figured it out at the test seat with a helpful cast member. For reference, his build (5'8", he said 42 inch waist and I would assume he was around 280 lbs) is similar to mine and I would have a similar worry about my calves.

The mindbender would be so inferior to anything that is currently at Knoebels. That is 100% not the place that this ride should end up. One of the best wooden rollercoasters in the world does not need the MindBender. Knoebles is a gem just the way it is.

Hmmmm, interesting. We rode it for the first time last Friday. Got two rides in with two different songs and I had just the opposite experience, fine on Ratatouille and F of P but bothered a bit both times by Cosmic Rewind. Frankly we were a bit underwhelmed but that may have been just due to it being overhyped. I like Guardians of the Galaxy and it was well themed but as far as the story I enjoyed Misssion Breakout at DCA much much more.

The park is starting to hire for the season. Potential hires can sign up on line or there will be a job fair this Saturday...........as you all know they were understaffed all of last year. They will hire as young as 15, although ride ops have to be 16....................so if you have teen family members or neighbors get the word out. Properly staffing the park is in my opinion the number one most important thing they can do right now to improve the guest experience. Training should begin in March.

Originated in Asia?!? Stop listening to distwitter. Vekoma had been making motorbike coasters long before one ended up in Asia. No, the ride was not made for Chinese or any asian country. And simply put, it's a thing now because we have gotten much fatter as a nation. Coaster designs that we weren't getting in America are now here. It's like how people blamed intamin because they couldn't fit the seats like they could on a beemer.

Because it costs more than $6 to operate and they're Busch Gardens Tampa.

I rode Mindbender back in the summer of 2001 on a family vacation. Both of my parents are teachers and that year my sister and I both got to choose one place to stop on a cross-country road trip. My sister chose the West Edmonton Mall because it was the biggest mall in the world (I might’ve had some influence in her decision because I knew there was a giant Schwarzkopf there) and I chose Cedar Point, which was my first ever visit there. Our trip started in Northern California, up to Edmonton and ended at Cedar Point before heading back home. We spent a good four weeks total on the trip stopping at other sights along the way. Keeping in mind that this was mere months before 9/11, I look back on that trip often as the last truly carefree time in my life. To a 15 year old at the height of his “coaster enthusiasm”, it was the most epic summer ever, and Mindbender didn’t disappoint. The first drop in the back car I swear is still in my top 10 “WTF moments” especially in that backward car. I think I rode it 10 times that day while the rest of my family did their rounds at the mall. I also remember that Intamin first gen freefall they used to operate with a bonkers pop of ejector airtime when the lift stopped almost instantaneously at the top. I always intended to make another trip there and try to re-experience some of those carefree memories. Something about Mindbender made me think that it would always be there so I never thought it was that urgent. Maybe I figured it was an indoor ride and would stay in good shape forever. Just goes to show that in this hobby there is no time like the present and nothing is guaranteed.

Jumanji opened at Gardaland a couple of days ago, here’s a POV of the attraction: