AJMouse

Well I had to go today instead of tomorrow, so I was in for a very crowdy day. First official openingday of the Efteling (season 2007), and with so many papers and newsprograms spending time on the ride, it seemd like everyone in the Netherlands was checking it out. I made some pictures, they're not great, but as an enthousiast of rides, I know you also have the same feeling about never having enough pictures of some things . Warning, the text in this post can contain spoilers, the pics themselves are safe (just inside waiting rooms, no onride pics) I also made some pics in the park but not a lot to make a full TR from them. If anyone's interested I'll still put them on-line for yall to see. This small door is the official entrance to the ride. This is where you go inside to wait some more. Whilst riding the Pegasus I was able to shoot some pictures from it. I haven't seen the view from the Pegasus on any site yet, so I guess they're some unique pics. Although hard to make because of all the rattling Just after the splash (and on the lift hill hehe) It was very crowded, all the way in the back, before the trees, is the official cue. The line, as you can see, extends all the way to wards the water, and then to the right, all the way too. For those of you who know the layout of the park, the line was as far as the Whale ride, which is just next to the entrance of the Python rollercoaster (the one that has the same seatmaker as the Flying Dutchman I believe). Anyway, I've heard the most people had waited was around 3.5 hours. I 'only' waited 1.5 hours. another shot from high in the Pegasus rollercoaster. You probably know the layout by now. I love how low to the water the boat is outside (and inside). See how it goes into the building in the middle port? That's great. Yay, action splash photo woooot The track actually goes down right there, so the boat 'sinks' into the water a bit more. Awesome. See how the frontrow white-dot-shirt-girl is flirting with the camera. Yeah I know, I'm like that you see. Ahem. From the Pagode (sort of sky-viewing-tower but cooler) another shot. Pegasus in the back. Teh lion with the VHE logo (which looks like the VOC logo). The outside cue-line is really very short and has big bushes between them. It doesn't feel like a crowded cue which I always like. But, I was wondering how they will cope on hot crowded summer-days.. the line today was messed up well into the area of the Python. You just cannot have that. And there weren't any extra holes in the ground for more poles and ropes. Which is when I spotted... Important people who were just discussing the same thing! I don't recall the name of the guy in the brown suit, but I saw him on a documentary on the Flying Dutchman once. Btw. why is that woman sticking her tong out? On the right. I really didn't know what to expect inside before I entered. I ofcourse saw the docking room before, but what was going to come first? You pass through quite some rooms inside, but the waiting doesn't feel like boring or anything. It's okay. Randomness. The mirror in the back has some cool effects inside. Very unrealistic looking books. I guess because you can touch them they didn't want to use real props here. I wasn't happy with this picture but I decided to post it anyways. Inside, you walk through a rip in the painting and start walking down. I thought walking through a painting was a cool idea Then you come into the hall that slopes down. You can see in earlier posts an empty hall. This is what it looks like crowded. The ceiling cracks and smoke poors through every once in a while, and yellow and red lights flash as if stuff is burning. Scary and it adds greatly to the whole experience. And remember, we're still WAITING. It's actually pretty dark in here when the effects aren't doing anything. There are a lot of things to see when waiting. There were some bars with a heap of gold behind them. This is where another... 3 or so rooms start. The rooms have very short cue-space, but that makes it all the more fun. Very cool theming, it smelled pretty bad as well (as it's supposed to hehe). I only made a picture of this room. In another room there are some crates dangling (moving) right above your head. In every room you can look through the windows down to the docking station. Neat. First glimps of the dockingstation. Antoher. Hard to take a good picture with my cam here. Ah well check out the other pics for better versions hehe. The boat has 4 rows. Front row has 3 seats, then 4 seats, then 3 seats, then 4 seats. The front-row is the lowest row and you can barely look over the boat (not needed). The second row is higher which allows you to look over the first. The third row seems to be the highest, and I liked it the best. You look over everyone. The fourth row seems to be just a little bit lower than the third. My advise is to try and go with the 3rd, or if you can't, 2nd row. I wouldn't sit in the front row (as I usually try to do with new coasters). From the docking station you can't see the waiting rooms, which are actually located aboven where you can see the peeps in the docking station. People in the rooms above move around slowly, which from here look like shadows who move very naturally in their houses. How's that for theming, real people! hehe. Okay, we're out of the ride (no pics inside) and outside. I managed to capture this boat heading into the first tunnel after the first big drop. A huge difference from the first pictures that were uploaded: where is the fog??? It was there.. just not as much. Which really downed me, cause I wanted to get that cool pic. Ah well so be it. Oh the wind wasn't too bad today, it was great weather, so that wasn't it either. Concluding the pictures with just another random outside shot. And the tower, I tried making a very wide panorama shot of the cue, to show you what I tried to tell you earlier. Please see it here (watch out it's over 4mb in size). http://ajmouse.radavique.com/stitch-hollander.jpg *there are at least three chicks in this pic, so that should make you click. Hehe. I loved the special effects, theye were very scary, cool, new, amazing and omg I want to go again-ish. I want to emphasize that this is one scary ride the first time. All the water and lightning and effects around you make for a real eerie experience. I just hoped the inside would be longer, but maybe that was because I didn't have the option to go right back in again (because of the hughe lines). If TPRs European trip somewhere in the future has some ERT on this, I will go on that trip, hehe.

Kumbak designed the track, the track itself is another company. Also the boats are from another company. Efteling did the theming. There are very much companys who worked on this one! And Efteling isn't known to sell their originals (Fata Morgana (Mirage), Droomvlucht (Dreamflight), Vogel Rok ) to any other parks. Anyone who can't go to the Efteling just like that, should probably consider saving up for a possible 2008 Europe TPR Trip! ^^

I was planning on visiting the first of April, when the park opens, but the ride is on the frontpage of like every major newspaper here in Holland. Or erm I mean, it's in there somewhere with a big picture. I was bummed. So I'm going monday 2nd of April, to avoid any peeps that didn't know about the ride, do know about it now, and will visit next sunday. I may be able to get some more pics in as well, but from what I can see you already covered a lot, thanks for that

Thanks for the Photo TR! The park looks very nice and tidy, I think I should start planning a visit there.

From all your edits it looks like you figured everything you needed to know out by now good for you. I was under the impression you thought that it was weird that you had to pay for your trip to Cincinatti, right? Anyway, the trip starts there. Everyone from all over the world can go to Cincinatti airport (and pay for their flights). Including plane-tickets into the total amount of money would be weird because well.. flying in from Amsterdam (like myself) is quite the bit more expensive than flying in from say Michigan ^^ So those are the two different costs you have: *Getting to Cincinatti airport *Paying for the trip (including hotels, food, tickets for the parks, busride etc.) If you ride to all those parks by yourself, you can meet up with the group (fun!) but you won't be getting the perks the group gets or anything. -- Just posting to make sure you had everything answered correctly

Thanks Jew for the information on that tour. I think one day will be enough. This is going to be great!

Really? That explains 6 hours.. Ah well as long as I get my 'private time' behind scenes on the backlot looking around.

Thanks. I will probably be able to make something of this now

I'm having trouble being convinced... I know you're all experts (all who suggest this), but I was looking at the list of rides and shows, and there is a lot to do! The park is open from 9am till 8pm. If we manage to do the tour within those 11 hours, we have 5 hours left to do rides and eat something and watch (all?) the shows. I'm not worried about the rides, since we have these VIP passes, the shows on the other hand worry me some. They have set starting times, and last time I went to a show it was in Disneyland Paris, the car show, and it took like 1 hour or more to see. With 5 hours on the clock (and that's not calculating all the rides and food), isn't that just too little time? I'm probably just being dumb. I have a 100usd ticket from CVG to LAX, might just keep that one then..

Will one day also be plenty when doing the 6 hour tour? Or does USH just not have that many shows and rides? And.. I was wondering what the difference was between the VIP day and a front of the line ticket, if we're JUST talking shows and rides, I can't seem to figure that one out. --- So flying to Burbank would be better? Thanks to all for answering

After the midwest trip, my friend and I are planning to visit at least Universal Studios (in Hollywood?). We have seen pictures and films of the studio tour (the one where a train rides you through studios and special effect stuff) but I have no idea which of the 2 Universal Parks have this (maybe both?) or which is better if they have both. Question 1 Which Universal Park should I attend that has the cool tour, and why that one? You need to know that I've never been to the States, and because of that, planning this sidetrip brings some difficulties with it for us. I thought the answer to question 1 would be Universal Hollywood in Los Angeles, so I'm basing my other questions on that. I believe to get to Universal Hollywood we need to book a flight to LAX. We have a nice option on a flight from Cincinnati (where the midwest trip ends) to LAX, so that's no problem.. Question 2 Which airport should we book a flight to and how do we get from that airport to the park? Is there a specia bus? Do we take a cab (and if so, is that very expensive? Cause in Holland cabs are very expensive) So now we're at the park.. but we need to loose our stuff. I've read about hotels near the park (park resorts) so those sound nice and nearby. Maybe a hotel a little bit further would be better... Question 3 Which hotel is the best to take? Ofcourse we don't want to pay thousands of dollars for a room, but I think we won't be staying that long. Which hotel do you like best? Good, we have our stuff at the hotel, checked in and everything. Lets go to Universal Studios (or maybe the next day). On the official site I've read about several different tickets I could buy. These are the ones I found very interesting (I'm looking at the Universal Hollywood site): VIP Experience: yes, expensive, but I'm going to study film and tv, and I would love to know and see every little bit of that 6 hour exclusive tour we're getting! I don't know if this involves the normal traintour as well though.. Anyway, it also includes front of the line stuff so we don't have wait times (does this actually work??) and VIP seatings at all of the shows. Dated Front of Line pass The name explains it. With reserved seatings at shows (same as VIP seating?) Hollywood Getaway!: This one has one night at a hotel and 2 days of Universal Studios. Also has a free bus between hotel and park I believe. I would still have to pay the fee for the tour (approx 90USD I believe). Now I'm more fond of the first one, but I don't know with a tour of 6 hours if we have enough time to catch all the shows and rides. How big is this park? I want to buy a second day as well. Question 4 If we want to catch all the shows/rides and do that VIP tour, do we need two days? Even with the front of the line passes? Question 5 Do these VIP tickets work? Are they different in the park than front of the line tickets? Question 6 Should I do it differently? These are my questions and it could be that I have more when I get answers.. you never know Thanks for reading and helping out if you can.

Should I join the Midwest trip instead of waiting for dropouts on the 16th for the Japan trip? I've been going on and on about it in my head. mousedit: thanks Elissa

Judgement day is coming soon (payday), I'm putting my hopes on that. That is, if not everyone has payed already Otherwise, I hope to make my midwest trip reservation real. time will tell. ^^

hoping to fill in one of the dropped places one of these days then ^^ I am again very excited. I think cause I didn't make the lottery I was like.. third on the waitlist. Need to check my old e-mails on that! So there are some drop outs in the MidWest trip. Also already for the Japan trip? Ahhh. I've been excited for months now, hehe.

Hi, happy new year, I hope it will be 3 great trips for you all. I'm just posting to let you know I'm still waiting and hoping for a spot on the Japan trip - or if I don't get on, getting my spot on the US trip. So no fallouts as of yet? Probably when the next payment is due I suppose. I erm hope anyway, hehe.

no0 i didnt make it... i think ill stay on the waitlist!

I preordered mine like a month ago :/ In the US, everyone had to preorder on the same day? (I didnt understand the waitingline)

"Keep in mind you still have until October 12th to have a chance at this once in a lifetime TPR Adventure Tour! " stop advertising!!! hehehe

Harold and Kumar for their next film are going to Europe.. so maybe?

great ^^ be sure to shake the box with names very good \o/

Thanks! About the lottery, for instance with Japan: There are 30 spots, number 31 in the lottery, is that the first person to get called upon when someone from those 30 people opt out? (I was just wondering if everyone would get a number, also the ones who don't make the first 30) Seemed like the most logical way to me, and since a lottery question was posted I thought more people would wonder about this.

I'm actually excited about the lottery, if I get in it will feel like a prize ^^ hehe. When will we get the results of that lottery (Japan)? If it's already written somewhere, I'll look for it myself (it's to early in the morning for me now and I have to go to work so I thought I'd ask).

somewhere in 2007: Because the Japan trip was such a succes, being adventure style and all, we decided to do another trip the same way! The Middle-Eastern trip is going to be what we are calling a TPR "Adventure Tour!" What does that mean? There won't be any main coach or bus, but instead we'll do the trip "Robb & Elissa Style" with bullets, bombs, jeeps, dessert-monorails, a bit of craziness and a LOT of fun! It will be a great exciting way to experience what getting around the Middle-East is really like! Think of it as an "Amazing Race meets Theme Park Review" style of trip. ==== "Adventure Tour"?? hmmmmmmm - I'd go on a dessert monorail though.

cant wait for that one!

Well I started at age 16.. because I live in the Netherlands.. so that would give me 5 extra experience years. I guess it would make me 27 by the time we go on the trip hehe, weird maths.