August 25, 2024, 4:10 PM ·
After leaving Billund, we made our way into Germany and our next hotel in Hamburg, Germany. When planning our itinerary, we had considered two different theme parks in the Hamburg area (Heide Park, which is operated by Merlin, and Hansa Park, an independent park northeast of the city), but we wanted to have two days in Amsterdam, so spending a full day in a theme park near Hamburg was not in the cards. Instead of a theme park, we ended up spending the morning at Miniatur Wonderland in the city’s historic shipping district. While not a theme park, Miniatur Wonderland was probably one of the biggest surprises of our entire 2+ week trip. Miniatur Wonderland is billed as the largest train set in the world, but it’s so much more. I could probably go on for a thousand words about this attraction, but for a place we were initially planning to spend an hour or two at, we ended up spending over three hours, and I can’t recommend it more if you’re ever in northern Germany.
After our Friday morning in Hamburg, we made our way to Amsterdam for a great weekend touring the city and many of its notable sites. Sunday afternoon, we made our way from Amsterdam to Efteling, which is about an hour’s drive south of the Dutch capital. We had made reservations at the onsite Loonsche Land Hotel, which includes admission to Efteling on both the day you check in and the day you check out (plus any days in between if you book a multi-day stay). Efteling also had some of the longest hours of operation of all the theme parks we visited during our trip, so arriving at our hotel shortly after 4 PM meant that we still had plenty of time to tour the theme park before it closed at 10 PM.
Loonsche Land is one of three on-site resorts (the others are the Efteling Hotel and Bosrijk) with a fourth currently under construction (Efteling Grand Hotel), and is comprised of a multi-story tower and a number of cabins nestled across a lush landscape with plenty of natural vegetation and water features. The design of the main hotel is evocative of a hunting lodge with natural wood accents throughout.
All of the rooms have families in mind with layouts that can sleep up to six guests. The room we selected was furnished with a single bed, a double bed, and two lofted beds. While there’s plenty of sleeping space, there’s not a lot of common space like you often find in American hotels that sleep five people, but for our one night here, it was perfectly fine for our needs.
In addition to theme park admission, guests at Loonsche Land also receive breakfast served buffet-style in the hotel’s restaurant De Proeftuyn. The breakfast included a number of breads, pastries, cereal, cured meats, cheeses, and a few hot items like scrambled eggs, bacon, and oatmeal. Like the room, the breakfast was more than adequate, but there was nothing to distinguish it from many of the other complimentary breakfasts we had at other hotels during our trip. Guests also receive free parking and are within walking distance of the theme park – though the walk was winding and a bit circuitous (it took a solid 12-15 minutes at a moderate walking pace to reach the park). There are small shuttle buses that run between the hotel and the park, but they recommend guests walk if they are able to allow seats on the shuttle to be used by those who really need them. The Efteling hotel is located right next to the park with an exclusive entrance, while Bosrijk is about an 8-10 minute walk to the gate, so guests are exchanging the generally lower room rates at Loonsche Land for a longer walk to the park.
Ultimately, it doesn’t really matter whether you’re a two-minute or 15-minute walk from the front gate, every step is worth it to experience Efteling, a theme park that continues to inspire and innovate theme park design across the globe.
The iconic entrance sets the tone with its curvilinear thatched roof and covered space with stained glass windows to establish the fantastic worlds and stories told beyond the gate.
While there are so many aspects of Efteling that are near perfection, my one main criticism would be the park’s layout that clusters almost all of the thrill rides in one corner of the park. Some people might prefer this since it allows you to experience all the of the big, intense rides without having to walk all the way around the park, but I tend to prefer parks that group rides of different types and intensities near each other so families and groups of people with different tastes can walk around and enjoy the park together.
The thrill rides at Efteling might not be the biggest or fastest, but what they lack in stats, they make up for in theming and subtle touches that are sure to please guests who appreciate nuance and the little things that separate a great attraction from a merely good attraction. Max + Moritz is a pretty standard-looking pair of Mack powered coasters.
However, from the queue into the station and extending onto the ride, the theming of the coaster around a mischievous pair of kids makes this an exceptionally cute and fun family attraction.
The on-board soundtrack is the finishing touch that gradually speeds up as you circle the course twice making that second time around feel much faster than it actually is. The dueling tracks are slightly different in their layout, so make sure you ride both sides, and each train triggers different effects in the station as you pass through to make a second loop of the course. I can’t say that I’ve ever ridden anything quite like this, and the dueling tracks not only increase the capacity of the attraction, but also increase the excitement for smaller guests that might not be ready for the big thrill rides. Having ridden this coaster, I’m actually quite surprised there isn’t an American park that has brought an excellent family attraction like this stateside.
The other dueling roller coaster at Efteling packs a lot more thrills than Max + Moritz. Joris en de Draak is a pair of GCI wooden coasters with a Medieval theme that instantly reminded me of Dueling Dragons/Dragon Challenge at Islands of Adventure.
While it’s not quite as elaborate as what those Orlando coasters had, the theming is some of the best of any wooden coaster I had ridden up until that point, bested only by another wooden coaster I would ride later in our trip. The red and blue trains are themed to fire and water, respectively, and the ride is essentially a race to see which train will make it through its course the fastest with effects at the finish line and in the station to indicate the winner. There’s also a large dragon along the course that is more easily viewed from the ground than either of the trains.
The coasters are both really good and reminiscent of Lightning Racer at Hersheypark (also a GCI creation). There are plenty of near miss and dueling moments along both courses, but Joris en de Draak is missing an extended racing section like Lightning Racer. Still, Efteling’s dueling woodies are really solid. Both tracks are really smooth with lots of variation, delivering pops of air as well as good positive and lateral g’s. Like Lightning Racer, I probably wouldn’t rate either of the coasters really high on its own, but when considered together, they make a really good attraction.
Python is an 80’s-era Vekoma looper that was retracked in 2018, and in combination with its more comfortable second-generation trains (installed in 2011) is quite possibly one of the smoothest coasters of this style I’ve ever ridden. While Python is as smooth as butter, its theming is severely lacking compared to everything else at Efteling. The glass paneled station suggests a Victorian-era theme, but there’s really not much else in the queue or station to tell any sort of story. It’s really a bit of an odd-ball attraction in a park full of rides and experiences that take theming to another level, and yet another odd part about Python is the absurdly slow climb to the top of its lift hill that had to take well over a minute (to reach 95 feet above the ground). I’m not really sure why this coaster exists at a park with so many story-driven attractions, but I guess it could be worse, like a Vekoma boomerang or SLC.
On the other hand, De Vliegende Hollander is a water coaster that is one of most elaborately themed rides of its type that I’ve experienced. Journey to Atlantis (prior to SeaWorld Orlando stripping much that ride’s theming a few years back) was previously the standard bearer in my book, but Efteling’s water coaster is on another level, and packs some solid thrills to go with its excellent theming. The attraction has a Scandinavian/Viking theme with elaborate sets throughout the queue. The indoor load platform looks like you’re departing from a Medieval shipping port complete with lighted windows and a darkened sky.
As your boat leaves port, you’re enveloped in darkness until you encounter giant haunted sailing vessels. There is a quick drop down a small hill and some spirit effects before the boat climbs the primary lift hill. The rest of the course is mostly outside with a quick run through a misty tunnel, a couple of airtime hills, and finishing with a splashdown in a massive lagoon. The ride provides enough splash to cool you down on a hot day, but not so much that the coaster is unrideable on a cool day. I would have like to have take another spin or two on this attraction, but wait times steadily over 45 minutes meant we were only able to get to experience this once.
The other big thrill ride, Baron 1898, is a B&M dive machine that was built in 2015, but with Efteling’s masterful theming, is one of my favorite coasters of this type despite its far from record-breaking stats. As with many of the attractions at Efteling, the experience starts in the queue as guests are sorted based on their party size and preferred row (there is a separate line for the front row and for single riders) and directed to the pre-show room where a background story told in Dutch (but with some limited English subtitles) plays out.
There are some really cool projection effects during the preshow, and afterward guests walk up a flight of stairs to another room where they are directed to doors corresponding to the rows of the train. There is an impressive animatronic figure speaking exclusively in Dutch in this room, so we weren’t able to figure out exactly what he was saying , but his motions were amazingly lifelike for what amounted to a 30-second interaction, because before you know it, the doors to the station open and a train is ready to be boarded.
It is a bit odd that guests have to walk down a couple of stairs from the final pre-show room into the station, but like most modern B&M floorless coaster stations, it’s a seamless walk across the train to your assigned seat. Loose articles can be placed in cleverly designed rotating cubbies to make sure guests on trains ahead and behind you cannot access your stuff (larger loose articles can be stored at a manned passthrough storage area prior to the preshow, or in the station if the storage area is not open). Once you are seated and secured, the train is dispatched into a block where characters from the preshow appear again through more projections and other special effects before the climb up the hill. While on the ride itself, there’s nothing terribly special about the lift hill compared to other B&M dive machines, but for guests watching from the ground, you can watch the giant wheel on the side turning and seemingly pulling the train to the top of the hill.
Once at the top, the train makes its trademarked slow tilt down the vertical drop before releasing into a misty subterranean tunnel and looping up into an Immelmann. Baron’s lift also utilizes a unique support structure to emphasize the turn of the century mine theme instead of standard tubular track supports (the only other B&M I’ve seen with themed supports like this is Alpengeist at Busch Gardens Williamsburg). After the drop and Immelmann, the train goes through a zero-g roll and then a pretty intense helix before finishing the course with a quick airtime hill. From beginning to end, Baron is a complete experience, and epitomizes Efteling’s commitment to taking those extra steps to make their attractions unique compared to a run-of-the-mill coaster. Without all the theming, preshow, and on-ride story, Baron would be just another decent small-ish B&M dive machine, but when considering the complete package, Baron is one of the best coasters of its type in the world.
There is one other roller coaster at Efteling, but it’s located across the park from the rest of the thrill rides. Vogel Rok is an indoor roller coaster located near the Efteling Hotel and its exclusive park entrance.
Vogel Rok is Efteling’s answer to Space Mountain, taking place mostly in complete darkness with a few lighting effects and scenes that you pass along the course. There are some decent forces on this coaster and the onboard soundtrack completes the experience to make it more than just a coaster in the dark. Efteling might not be on the top of a thrill seeker’s list of theme parks in Europe, its thrill rides definitely hold their own compared to other parks around the continent (and elsewhere around the world). However, Efteling has a long list of less intense attractions and experiences that don’t rely on thrills to make them among iconic.
Next up – The Efteling: Fairy Tale Wonderland
Previously – Legoland Billund and Liseberg
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