If my first time visit to Walibi Holland was underwhelming, then this visit to Efteling was the complete opposite. In a word, Wow.
Not perfect - is anywhere? Negatives first - crowd levels. I chose to go on a day when the crowd prediction calendar said medium levels of visitors. For a Friday, it was absolutely heaving in the ride queues. But I suspect that these queue lengths would have been much better if Pirana had been open to begin with - it really got going about 1pm 'ish. Joris en de Draak would not be running the red track at all, and blue opened around about the same time as Pirana. De Vliegende Hollander suffered all day long, running, down, running, down etc. Villa Volta not operating, nor Fata Morgana. This is actually quite a number of main attractions.
I cannot blame the weather for a negative but it was the hottest, sunniest day of the year at the time of visit. Very hot. Thank goodness for the majority of rides having queue lines largely in the shade.
Everything else about the park was really positive. The food and drink options were excellent for a theme park, all staff everywhere were chilled and friendly. Honest about ride down times, and recommendations for returning times; also obliging for allowing me a rear seat on Joris when I asked.
The rides I did manage to go on were all really good or excellent. I have posted my recent cred coaster reviews already, but I want to mention Droomvlucht in particular. Whilst RCDB does not list this as a coaster, the whole ride experience is memorable from the animatronics, the music, the scenes and the final long helix. I was most surprised by this and preferred it to Symbolica. I wanted to ride Danse Macabre but ran out of time. Theming, well where do I start? Efteling is known for this and rightly so. But what lifts the theming is not just the quality, but the maintanence of the quality, the cleanliness of the park at the start of and throughout the day, the music everywhere and even some smells for some attractions.
Will I return? Yes, definitely. I will go back and take the next visit as it comes and not try and rush through everything. Efteling deserves to be enjoyed in a chilled fashion. Two days certainly, with time for the spectacular gardens, greenery and enjoying more of the fairytale forest scenes.
Efteling, a new top two theme park.
Not perfect - is anywhere? Negatives first - crowd levels. I chose to go on a day when the crowd prediction calendar said medium levels of visitors. For a Friday, it was absolutely heaving in the ride queues. But I suspect that these queue lengths would have been much better if Pirana had been open to begin with - it really got going about 1pm 'ish. Joris en de Draak would not be running the red track at all, and blue opened around about the same time as Pirana. De Vliegende Hollander suffered all day long, running, down, running, down etc. Villa Volta not operating, nor Fata Morgana. This is actually quite a number of main attractions.
I cannot blame the weather for a negative but it was the hottest, sunniest day of the year at the time of visit. Very hot. Thank goodness for the majority of rides having queue lines largely in the shade.
Everything else about the park was really positive. The food and drink options were excellent for a theme park, all staff everywhere were chilled and friendly. Honest about ride down times, and recommendations for returning times; also obliging for allowing me a rear seat on Joris when I asked.
The rides I did manage to go on were all really good or excellent. I have posted my recent cred coaster reviews already, but I want to mention Droomvlucht in particular. Whilst RCDB does not list this as a coaster, the whole ride experience is memorable from the animatronics, the music, the scenes and the final long helix. I was most surprised by this and preferred it to Symbolica. I wanted to ride Danse Macabre but ran out of time. Theming, well where do I start? Efteling is known for this and rightly so. But what lifts the theming is not just the quality, but the maintanence of the quality, the cleanliness of the park at the start of and throughout the day, the music everywhere and even some smells for some attractions.
Will I return? Yes, definitely. I will go back and take the next visit as it comes and not try and rush through everything. Efteling deserves to be enjoyed in a chilled fashion. Two days certainly, with time for the spectacular gardens, greenery and enjoying more of the fairytale forest scenes.
Efteling, a new top two theme park.