Efteling Discussion Thread

[Sven]

Efteling has published a new book because of its 60 year anniversary. The book is called 'Zijn we d'r al?' and it's even published in English 'Are we there yet?'

 

The text at the online webshop:

 

Holding this book in your hands, you can virtually hear yourself saying 'Are we there yet?'. You can almost feel the excitement generated by a visit to Efteling springing out from its pages. Experience Efteling theme park's fairytales and adventures, sensation and relaxation, amazement and enthusiasm, tranquility and nature, at home on the couch. This unique compilation is packed with beautiful photos and original drawings from the past and the present, enhanced by anecdotes and facts. Each page presents a gift from Efteling. Some of these you can unwrap yourself: stickers, photos, picture postcards, posters, a puzzle based on an original design by Anton Pieck and much more. The very best of sixty years of Efteling, assembled between two covers. Nostalgia and memorabilia for everyone with a fondness of Efteling: children and grandchildren, grandmothers and grandfathers, mums and dads, boyfriends and girlfriends. It gives us great pleasure to invite you all.

 

English - 208 pages - hardcover - 2012

 

The book is great, great pictures of the history and present.

I made some pictures of this book.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[d_gil72]

In my opinion you could better visit the Efteling on friday, because the weekends could be crowded. Summer school brakes are in Holland in July and August but in June their may be some schooltrips visiting the park.

 

Efteling is not in holland, so I looked it up. The southern parts of the Netherlands, were Efteling is, has their break 30th of June till 12th of August 2012. The other parts of the Netherlands later on.

 

Haha LOL my mistaken. I think the difernce between Holland and the Netherlands are so old fashioned. Even Six Flags didn't used 'the Netherlands' I think Holland is even common as the netherlands. Only we know the historicaly diference. And not only people of the southern part of the Netherlands visiting the Efteling. But the answer is indeed: their are no school breaks in the Netherlands at the 22nd and 23th of June.

 

 

Hi,

you can take a look at my trip report here:

http://themeparkreview.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=62976

Thanks again!

gil

[gk2b]

Wet & Efteling has made an improvement in the Water Show ( Aquanura ).

It has more fire, more water & smoke this time!

 

Enjoy!

 

[coaster-mm]

I have seen the show last saturday and I have to say: big improvement!

 

On par with Vegas as far as I'm concerned: a bit smaller, but the colours in the evening make up for it.......breathtaking! Bravo Efteling!

 

Paul

[julioot]

How didnt I find the thread before? Anyway...

 

This week the city of Kaatsheuvel agreed to change policies on the empte land owned by the Efteling. No plans are yet revealed and both the park and the city have said no future expansion will be expected within the next few years. Still the news is exciting since the empty lot is pretty massive.

 

 

Red = Efteling

Yellow = extra parking

Blue = holiday park

Green = possible expansion

Purple = golf course

[RCT3Bross]

^ I can't even watch that fault. Purple and Yellow are completely wrong and I don't want to start about the Missing hotels.

But Good to hear the news of possible expansion. Thats a lot of land and I hope they use it good like a second mini park or waterpark. Just 2 ideas I throw here.

[cfc]

How didnt I find the thread before?

 

If you're wondering whether a park has it's own discussion thread, just check here: http://themeparkreview.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=63853. There are links to discussion threads in the TPR Park Index, as well.

 

Thanks for posting your info here.

[jedimaster1227]

http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=nl&tl=en&js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.volkskrant.nl%2Fvk%2Fnl%2F2686%2FBinnenland%2Farticle%2Fdetail%2F3460253%2F2013%2F06%2F17%2FDirecteur-verlaat-de-Efteling.dhtml

 

Director Bart de Boer stops on 1 September at the Efteling. In consultation with the Supervisory Board decided to terminate his contract makes the amusement park in Kaatsheuvel Monday.

 

The Efteling says that after a period of very strong growth in the coming years the focus will be on consolidation. "Both parties are confident that this new phase a different kind of leadership requires', stands in a statement.

 

The announcement comes at a time when the Big Ben gets a lot of criticism from the staff. The company is in a conflict involved with some of the staff about the disappearance of the allowance for work on Sunday.

 

The Efteling has announced that the departure of the director and the conflict 'genuinely' independent of each other.

[Fredje]

I thought that this is pretty cool so I decided to share it with you.

It's a video of a flashmob in the vekoma madhouse at the Efteling where a choir sings the themesong of the ride.

 

[youtu_be]

[/youtu_be]

[StealthFan]

^Okay that was actually quiet cool. Would love to see Alton Towers attempt this with Hex and try to include an orchestra also.

 

-Craig

[RCT3Bross]

I know there hasn't been much news from the Efteling in a long time. But the park isn't standing still aether.

The park has is doing a lot of interesting developments, although there won't be a new ride for 2014 the park is determent to do at least something.

Their most iconic dark-ride Droomvlucht (Dreamflight) has gotten a major overhaul that started 2 months ago. The ride has reopened last Monday.

(source Efteling self)

Here's a list of what they've done to the ride:

- More trolls, Elf's and other weird things.

- Theming the queue. (Big thing for the park to do, the queue was basically a eyesore.)

(Source)

- Major track inspections and track fixing.

- The star tunnel Has been given a upgrade to make it look more like a endless tunnel.

- Final big scene has been given extra supports and extra tree covering to make it more like a jungle. Also the first words are within this scene.

It's a big upgrade this 20 year old ride.

 

Also the park is doing yet another renovation in the park. Their rapid stays closed from November 4 2013 to April 30 2014, this is one month longer then the other rides staying closed during the winter season. The rapid undergoes some really heavy renovations as the ride is partly broken down and they're already in the progress to rebuild those parts.

Rebuilding the ride.

These brick walls in the ground are new.

(Source and more here.)

What's odd about the Piraña renovation is that on the other side of the road there has been some excavation.

(Source)

 

With this we're still not done with the current big projects, this one is outside the park but still their ground. Their bus station is undergoing a complete change so buses can drive much easier in and out of the drop place. Their new bus stations are already being used, their first bus made entrance on November 22.

(Source)

 

With all that we got the constructions that have been in the past few days and currently going on. But where still not done, the park is in their holiday season and got some changes with last year. The park still have their winter choir walking through the park warming you up at the campfires.

anyway the change:

- Some red leaves in their giant E's at the end of parks main road.

- For the first time ever you can skate inside and outside of their IJspaleis (Icepalace) tent.

- Their 2 tents are combined as the children tent wasn't placed very smart all the years, so there IJspaleis (Icepalce) tent has gotten a little bigger this year.

- The park also brought back their Vogel Rok (Bird Rok) Christmas hat and scarf (Was missing the last few years).

- Also earlier this year the Dutch queen resigned and left this job to her son (now our king). The Efteling made a giant crown and placed this on the Pagode for this event, now they had this giant crown and had no idea what to do with it. So they made it white and placed it back for the winter.

(Source)

 

this covers up most of the recent news. What do you think, should a park spend this much money on renovation an improvement of existing rides or should they just have bought a new ride? Also what do you think about the latest changes?

 

I think this park is doing great so I hope 2015 brings at least a new fairy tale. Anyway I'm really glad they don't forget their existing rides and make plans like these to restore them to bring back the feeling you needed to have when they opened the ride.

[simon8899]

So have return to Efteling - such an amzing park with kind of magic feel aside from this only Disney delivered.

[BDG]

Beautiful footage with one of those camera drones:

 

[Belgiumcoasterfreak]

BREAKING NEWS!

 

The Efteling announced a new signature ride for 2015! They will build a Dive Coaster (builder unknown, but most likely B&M) with a 37,5 meters first drop. The ride will cost 18 million Euro (only the ride itself without theming I guess) and gets it's own storyline and theming (and we all know how great Efteling theming is!). The location and other statistics are still unknown, but this is a big announcement for the region!

 

Source (sorry, it's in dutch):

Brabants Dagblad

 

Efteling bouwt nieuwe achtbaan met val van 37,5 meter en investeert 36 miljoen

 

KAATSHEUVEL - De Efteling krijgt een nieuwe achtbaan, een zogenoemde divecoaster, met een val van 37,5 meter. Ook krijgt het vakantiepark bij de Efteling, Bosrijk, 400 bedden erbij.

 

Dat zegt Efteling-directeur Fons Jurgens (44) vrijdag in een interview met het Brabants Dagblad.

 

"Met de nieuwe achtbaan richten we ons ook op de 10 tot 15-jarigen," aldus Jurgens, die vrijdag zijn eerste officiële werkdag heeft. "Deze thrillride is een spannende aanvulling. Je valt 37 meter naar beneden, dus het is niet voor iedereen. Ook hier zal er natuurlijk een bijzonder verhaal bij verteld worden."

 

Ook vakantiepark Bosrijk krijgt een uitbreiding van 1150 naar 1550 bedden​. De totale investering van zowel de achtbaan als Bosrijk bedraag 36 miljoen euro. Met de investeringen zet De Efteling na een korte pas op de plaats een nieuwe stap naar de vijf miljoen bezoekers die het park in 2020 wil tellen.

 

They will invest 36 million Euro in the coaster and more chalets at Bosrijk (400 extra beds). They still want to build the mysterious 'Hartenhof' in 2020.

 

Man, first the big Kolmarden announcement and now this... So exciting!

[Jeroen_twee]

Dutch Newspaper

 

I am not going to translate the whole thing, Dutch is easy enough to understand, it's just like English. Just the main points:

 

- Efteling builds Divecoaster (with a 37 meter drop) and invests 36 milion Euro

- Bosrijk (I believe the English name is Efteling Village) gets 400 beds more

- Total amount of beds will be 1550

- Efteling still wants to get 5 milion visitors in 2020

- The coaster will get a story

 

EDIT:

- Fons Jurgen has it's first day as new CEO today.

[gerstlaueringvar]

Good for them, Efteling 's top level theme, music, stories can make it the best dive coaster ever.

[RCT3Bross]

Well wasn't expecting a thing next year, this makes me already love the new CEO of the Efteling. The first B&M here in the Netherlands and it will be at my home park. Never saw it coming and now I'm so exited for a visit next year. Finaly they build a ride to thrill more then a family style, I've been waiting for it a couple of years now.

[Jeroen_twee]

More info from the same newspaper:

- Bosrijk gets houses for groups of 25 people

- Efteling tries to attract people from further away

- New attractions will have four languages (I presume Dutch, English, German and french)

- Efteling will be the place to be for events and festivals

- The divecoaster should attract more people from the ages 10 - 15

- Fairytale Forest will get investments too

- Darkride Hartenhof is still on hold, but will be build before 2020

- Efteling is going to team up with zoo Beekse Bergen and nature parks Loonsche Duinen and Drunense Duinen

- Coming years the entrance fee will have a slight rise

- Last few years the number of seasonpassholder is doubled (to 70.000)

- After 2020 Efteling and Loon op Zand/Brabant will talk about an own road to the parking

[gerstlaueringvar]

Ages 10-15? Picturing something more tamed now. Hopefully this thing will open on time *cough* VH *cough*

[Jeroen_twee]

They learned a lot since VH... After that, they went with GCI for Joris and the Dragon, WET for Aquanura and Puy du Fou for Raveleijn.

According to Eftelist, this one will be B&M.

 

They know what they are doing, so I don't think the ride would be as delayed as VH.

[gerstlaueringvar]

^ Just joking I don't even think B&M ever had a delayed project.

[simon8899]

So I guess we might see a Dive-Coaster in the size of Krake at Heide-Park which has a total height of 41 meters and cost €12 million in 2010/2011 - sadly not seeing an installation like the Busch Gardens divers at 61 meters.

 

But quite sure Efteling will add some great theming to this coaster...

[rcjp]

^I do find it slightly odd that now some parks are building dive coasters (which are all about the first drop and its height) not so tall at all. It's obviously better than nothing, but I feel that they're kind of missing the point of the ride,

[julioot]

I think oblivion allready proved you don't need to be that high up for this kind of coaster to work.

[rcjp]

^But Oblivion's drop is 180 ft tall, much more than this will be.