Efteling Discussion Thread

[SharkTums]

I'm actually really happy with both of these announcements! I love park resort hotels and I have no doubt Efteling will do an amazing job with this one.  Also, I was never a fan of Spookslot so they can put anything in there and it will be an improvement for me!

[Nrthwnd]

^^ For that much money, could it possibly be another trackless dark ride? Could happen.

And I will miss Spookslot.... a bit. I did see it every time I visited.

Was a fun several minutes to spend.*

EDIT To Add: Or maybe it could be an e-motion coaster, stopping and starting, like Pandemonium was at Parc Asterix in France?

 

*When there wasn't groups of screaming children, w/o being supervised by their teachers, etc.

[RCT3Bross]

19 hours ago, KarlaKoaster said:

  

I'm really happy that despite everything that's happened in the last couple of years, we're still seeing parks invest. I'm really surprised about Spookslot, I thought that was sacred ground (along with Python) and honestly thought it was a better fit within the park than the Vekoma, but I'm excited to see what replaces it.

Spookslot is iconic for sure, fans are not at all pleased to hear the park will tear it down they already have a petition against it , the park has also responded that they already paid for it and that it will go through and that they will try to give it a fitting farewell. In December there was some news about the Spookslot getting teared down or have something added to it to update the ride/area, so I already had a time to think and yeah while I hate to see it go knowing how much they will invest in the new I'm also excited to see that.

But I'm also of the opinion that if you really like something you support it. Something that bothers me right now is that fans complain about the ride getting teared down but, while I didn't visit the ride much, the times I was there almost nobody was at the ride didn't matter if it was a quiet day or a busy day I always got to go on it with the first group I joined. Yes nostalgia plays a role here but that doesn't pay bills, I doubt many if at all people go to the park just for Spookslot and after 44 years a majority of the visitors already seen the show I guess. It's not a 40 year old roller coaster that still holds some excitement.

 

[KarlaKoaster]

Yes, I totally agree. I have never been particularly sentimental, I was just a bit surprised as I know it's such a historic attraction so I'm not surprised there's uproar. From my experience Efteling seem to be very precious about their history (replacing Python, expanding Fairytale Forest etc) so I'm sure this 25m euro attraction will be a lot better than the cute-but-boring Spookslot.

 

[DBru]

As a giant fan of attractions-in-a-box... Spookslot sucked. When the end of the show came, I thought I had been Punk'd.

Great setting and queue, though! I hope they replace it with an equally *spooky* ride that actually has some entertainment/thrill factor.

 

[cfc]

Quote

 fans are not at all pleased to hear the park will tear it down they already have a petition against it

Not a . . . petition?
 

To be fair, I do find Spookslot entertaining, if dated. But I'm also in favor of a new, better attraction in its place. I agree with DBru about the queue and the setting.

[KBrylczyk]

Just replace Spookslot with a clone of Vogel Rok and theme it to a haunted castle. No complaints.

[DBru]

^This guy...

[Nrthwnd]

No matter what they do, I hope it turns out wonderful,

and something meaningful, to visit Efteling, for!

[Robin Hemerik]

Artist rendering of the new hotel.

[Nrthwnd]

^ Impressive design. With all the Efteling 'filagree' (is that even a word?) on it. Looks lovely.

[Robin Hemerik]

I hope the hotel is not too close to the main entrance. There is a certain wow-factor walking up to that main entrance from the parking spaces. Another big building would take away from that, if it's within view.

[Nrthwnd]

^ Yes, considering how they portray the park's ENTRANCE, on the left, there. I figure they might be putting the hotel (literally) opposite the park, with circle-drive ways etc. for traffic ... maybe all around a fountain, perhaps? Just my thoughts on it.

[Robin Hemerik]

I assume the far right on the picture is the excisting theatre, so it looks like the entrance will be wedged between the theatre and the new hotel. Which is fine (great actually) but if the hotel is too close, I hope it doesn’t take away from the impact of the entrance building.

[RCT3Bross]

This shows where they will put the hotel. The Archway in the middle of the hotel will go over the main straight and will effectively be the entrance to the park after the main entrance. The artwork above shows the hotel form the deck of the theater and shows the back of the main entrance. Hope this gives a idea how and where the hotel will come.

 

[RCT3Bross]

I know it's a double post, but because it has been 2 days and it has another purpose I hope it's okay.

Today I've been to the park because a lot is going on there and I wanted to document everything so people here have an idea how the state of everything is.

1: Parking place: So I didn't get everything on picture, there is work going on at the extra parking place for busy days, they are constructing solar panel farm there over the parking space meaning cars will be covered and power is won. As for the other things going on there:

At the edge of the park on the main parking side the last few rows have been closed for some unknown construction work.

On the smaller side (next to the fairy tale forrest)  they are busy with preparation work for the hotel.

Here they also advertise the hotel.

The lack of parking space has caused the park to use employees parking space for guests.

2: Hotel work has started:

Pipe work for the hotel is being layed down.

2.1: New main pathway:

Currently they are reworking the main pathway all the way up to Fabula. I added the Google maps image to see how the old and new pathway will be layed out. The work on the new path also means the path going from the main pathway to Fata Morgana is closed off (last picture). The new path seems mostly finished.

2.2: Restaurant getting closed and a new location:

The Vrolijke noot has been under the care of an other company for a while now, but it will need to go to make place for the Hotel. The park however doesn't stop with the other company and moves them to the Panorama restaurant near Vogel Rok, the restaurant is currently split in three sections, a take away, kiosk and traditional restaurant, only the take away and Kiosk will be supplied by the other company, the restaurant itself will stay in the care of the park itself, it will close however soon to be renovated and be added to the Sindbad theme soon (I don't know when).

2.3: Moved Fairytale Entrance:

They moved the entrance to the east, you no longer enter from the main entrance at the dancing shoes but form the pancake restaurant to Long neck (Don't know the english name).

That was everything Hotel related.

3:  Renovating the main entrance:

The main entrance is undergoing some renovations work this has caused the main entrance to move. The work seems to be done mostly as scaffolding was going down today.

3.1: Keeping up at renovation work:

Several renovations where going on at the park with George and the Dragon and Pagode being closed down because of that. (George is getting some retracking done)

Flying Dutchman despite the work was open however.

3.2: Aquanura gets a seprate entry:

Aquanura is completely empty ginving a unusual sight. But there is also a part of the decks being removed where the hotel is going to come.

3.3: Not really renovations anymore:

In the forest they are rebuilding one of the Fairytales after it had been taken down back in December 2019. Nothing to see here outside some foundation work.

4: Spookslot still nothing:

Spookslot has been untouched for now, they will take it down after the summer. Also I had to take a picture of the glut afther the attraction, this week it had caught fire, it's funny this was the one that caught fire (nothing serious but firemen had to come).

5: 70 years:

With plenty of barriers around the park they had plenty of space to promote the 70 year anniversary. Also Long Neck had been given a party hat. They also have song to celebrate but I haven't heard it because I always leave the park before it comes up. (there is a set time for it)

5.1: Pop-up fairytale:

Until October they will have this Pop-up fairytale in Alice in Wonderland theme. Throughout the day they have entertainment here. This is all for the 70 year anniversary.

6: New restaurant:

This backery has opend late last year I don't think there was any mention of it before here. It's near Max And Moritz.

7: World of Sindbad:

Forgot to rotate the picture sorry.

So as predicated it opened when the park reopened in January. Everything has been an upgrade form before. I also love that in the queue the water is already filled with money what a weird trend. Also Archipel is open but without water, in the summer it the entire floor will be covered with water with jets being placed under the queue of Sirroco.

8: Pictures I wanted to share:

Love this bird, there are anti bird spikes up there and this bird was like: "I don't care". Also despite no picture there is a nest in Baron 1898 station in the window, funny places to find nests if you ask me.

Some random pictures.

 

Okay this I had to share, this was piece of clothing number 3 I found on a random spot in the park without the owner in sight. Why? I mean it, Why?

 

Hope this gives a picture of how big the mess at the park is right now. To be fair I have no idea if I missed anything.

[KarlaKoaster]

Wow, so many updates going on around the park! My theory about the blue hoodie is that someone dropped it without noticing, and someone else hung it on the fence so it doesn't get trampled on. I often see this with gloves and kids' toys that are found, often people will pick them up and perch on a wall out of the way.

[RCT3Bross]

^ The hoodie was the least strangest. I also seen a couple of gloves and scarfs laying about over the years. But today this hoodie, a brown and a with T-Shirt. I can understand the hoodie as the weather was kind of nice so maybe somebody placed it on a cart or a bag and it fell off. But how do you lose a T-shirt? It just boggled my mind how I saw these three pieces of clothing on one day.

[timchat2]

Thank you for the park update! We have been considering our first visit to the park soon and it appears that we should maybe hold off a little longer for the dust to settle so to speak.

[RCT3Bross]

15 hours ago, timchat2 said:

Thank you for the park update! We have been considering our first visit to the park soon and it appears that we should maybe hold off a little longer for the dust to settle so to speak.

I understand if you want to wait, but keep in mind most of the park is still fine and other things will get worse before they get better. As for attractions:

Pagode will reopen July 4th, George and the Dragon April 22nd and Aquanura June 24th.

The main entrance I assume will be back in business soon (like I said scaffolding was going down) and I don't know when scaffolding will go down at the flying Dutchman but it will not close down.

As for the other stuff the entrance area will not get better as they will continue to work on the Hotel until 2024, I even assume that after summer things will get a lot worse there. Also the rebuilding in the forest will take until the end of the year.

As for future stuff: 

Obviously Spookslot will go down soon (there is no date other then after the summer). And attractions that will go into maintenance are:

Baron 1898 May 9th till May 25th, monorail (Village ride) June 7th till July 1st and Halve Maen June 20th till June 24th.

Like I said it's fine to wait, but for the upcoming time I say July till August is when most dust has settled with only work being done at the hotel and the small construction site in the forest. Hope this gives you a idea to plan a visit.

 

Edit: So the main path (in the report topic 2.1) has been moved already, guess I was one day to early for that. The new path however still isn't completly done as barriers and landscaping still takes place.

[timchat2]

Thank you for the additional info and encouragement! We are starting to look at August then. The park calendars are only showing through June 30th, but would the park hours be similar in August? We weren't sure when the "summer" season ended at Efteling.

[RCT3Bross]

On 4/17/2022 at 7:09 PM, timchat2 said:

Thank you for the additional info and encouragement! We are starting to look at August then. The park calendars are only showing through June 30th, but would the park hours be similar in August? We weren't sure when the "summer" season ended at Efteling.

Usually the park looks at July and August as summer months and has additional opening time. This means Sunday till Friday 10:00 A.M. till 8:00 P.M. and Saturdays 10:00 A.M. till 11:00 P.M. That's how things have been for the last couple of years.

[Robin Hemerik]

Is it just me or does that hotel look like a bottleneck to the pedestrian flow? They are removing the option to walk straight from the entrance to Fata Morgana, so everyone has to walk underneath the hotel. That will be a sight to behold on busy days.

[RCT3Bross]

Well it's been a month and I have a update from yesterday, some sense of order has returned to the park with the park not being a construction mess any longer.

1. Parking

Work continues at the parking area of the park still no idea what they're doing here, solar panels on the extra parking are still not done so far I know.

2. Hotel

No major movement on this front yet. 

2.2 New path.

 

The new main straight after the entrance has been set in use, the old one is completely gone, this change happened a day after I came to visit.

2.3 Path to Fata Morgana

So to also address Robin point here: The path going to Fata Morgana is coming back, but this will be straight after the hotel in the future. This will most likely not be a bottleneck situation, the park had the single railroad crossing for years. The only thing that will have changed after all these years is that there is no longer a access point to the fairytale forest at this point, even after the hotel opens.

3: Things are better:

Main Entrance is back in business.

No more scaffolding.

A lot more simple border.

Top is back, but still will take a while for it to be in use again.

3.1: Kind of better but still:

 

George and the Dragon reopened and not long after that a smoldering fire was detected on the fire track, they're fixing it but are using the water track as there is no danger to do that.

3.2: Kind of progress:

A new dock closer to the fountain is being build at the entrance side is being build.

3.3: Construction update

The renovation of the fairytale house has gone vertical.

4: New attractions in renovation.

Baron has closed for the first time for renovation.

Raveleijn despite running the show apparently (I didn't check to confirm) a problem with the mechanical dragon of the show and the show has do without it this has been a long running problem as it happens more and more that the dragon has issues and they're looking into a way to fix it more permanently this time.

 

Both new attractions Archipel and Sirocco are undergoing renovation work, Sirocco despite that was open in the weekend and closed last week and upcoming week, it just gets temporary parts replaced by permanent ones (supply issues during construction). Archipel is getting ready for water to be added to the ride this includes a coating on the floor among other things.

5: story time

Had double trouble at the Python yesterday. First I wanted to visit the ride and noticed single rider line was open at the entrance, went in and when I  came to the station there was nobody appoint seats and people had to walk into the station themselves, while they had removed the chain at the single rider queue at the end the normal queue was a five minutes wait and I felt not comfortable to cut the line like this so I turned around and refused to queue in the normal queue as I wasn't feeling it any longer. Then I sat in the flying Dutchman and noticed the ride had gotten stuck halfway up the hill, when I took this picture after getting out of the ride the train already started to move again.

That was everything.

[RCT3Bross]

I know it's a double post but this is unrelated to the previous post:

Efteling announces Danse Macabre for 2024. This is what the name will be of the attraction going on Spookslot's place, the name wasn't pulled from a hat as it was in the park for 44 years as the title of the song of Spookslot, the song will also be reused for the new attraction. 

While the park hasn't released much information of about the ride here is what they did:

There is a new 17000 m² themed area that includes the ride itself a place to get food and drinks (Restaurant or stall I don't know my guess will be on stall however) and shop.

While the ride itself hasn't been announced the hight of the building has been set on 20 meters.

 The ride will have the same theme as Spookslot.

Source: Efteling. For original article and video with the ride designer click on the ride name.