Re: Efteling | unknown | B&M Dive Coaster
^ Droomvlucht did open at early 90s yes, but to this day it's still very popular by pretty much anyone in the Netherlands. Not just small kids and parents, but also tons of teenagers run towards the ride first thing in the morning. That's always something that interested me. When the day starts there are 4 gates where you can go to. One towards the main coasters (Joris, VH, Python), one towards Vogelrok/Carnaval Festival, one towards the Bob and Fata morgana area, and one towards Droomvlucht and Villa Volta. I'd say on an average day from what I've seen the split of people waiting is respectively 35%, 5%, 10%, 50% (I'm making the numbers up but that's just an estimate). Droomvlucht (almost) always has the longest line in the park, it is the most talked about ride, the most famous, and I've seen it winning polls of best ride in the park. Another thing, when Efteling asks about favorite rides on their facebook page, most people will mention Droomvlucht. The coasters are still very popular, especially Vliegende Hollander, but it doesn't get the same status as Droomvlucht, Fata Morgana and Sprookjesboos. Those 3 rides are just what makes the park so popular in the country. Ask a random dutch person to name a ride in the Efteling, and they'll most likely say one of those, and if they'd mention a coaster, they'd probably mention the Python, because THAT is a cult ride mostly loved because of nostalgia. I also think the ride still looks fine and it got a recent upgrade too.
About why they are adding coasters rather than dark rides, is because they want to make the park more internationally popular. They want to be one of the leading parks in the world. To achieve that, they feel that they need a better coaster selection too. Hartenhof (the new dark ride) was planned as the most expensive ride in the park, but nobody knows why it's delayed yet. It isn't officially cancelled though, so we'll have to wait to see. Efteling is really part of the Dutch culture, I'd say more than parks are in most countries. We all grow up with it, we learn about it in school, I think I've read somewhere that more than 90% of the dutch population has visited the park at least once in their lives, and more than half visit at least once a year. Efteling is/was the 3th most visited park in europe, and yet I've read that 90% of the visitors of the park are dutch. I'm guessing that is much higher than Disneyland Paris, Europa Park and other huge European parks. You can really see how much of a big thing the park is in this country.
The only things that the GP complain about a lot is the price (which is ridiculous I think, €32 is quite cheap for a park of its size), and how crowded it is, which is pretty much only in the summer, and even then, rides rarely surpass the 50-60 min in the very worst case on a saturday with nice weather. The capacity is great and the operations decent.
If theming, atmosphere, nature and dark rides aren't your thing, then I doubt you'll ever love the Efteling
.