Efteling

[Mankey]

I HAVE to get to Efteling sometime in the near future. This place looks FIT!

[AstroDan]

It does look cute! Now, they need the quality of rides on the park to match the big boys - as for me, that appears to be where they are lacking (apart from 2 or 3 examples)

[John]

Efteling is primarily a family park, so I think their current ride line up suits them pretty well. They really excel at dark rides for one thing; dreamflight, villa volta and fata morgana are all outstanding. The new woodie should be a big improvement on pegasus, and their other coasters fit the family-thrill bracket pretty well too. Python may be a vekoma looper, but it isn't (wasn't?) too shabby, and is probably pitched at about the right level as their biggest ride, vogel rok and bobbahn are fairly solid family coasters too. I like to think of the park as a better themed version of Chessington.

Obviously there was a long period of under-investment, but the development of toverland seems to have woken them up. I'm really hoping to go back there soon, as my last visit was way back in 2001.

[evil cod]

I believe the plan was to open this new resort area in stages, soo I think what has opened now is just the castle bit shown in the opening ceremony and the rest from the artwork will be opening over the next few years. Could be wrong though.

[nickn5]

Ok, translated as best I can (not quite fluent in Dutch but know a fair bit) from the Efteling website:

"The World of the Efteling is so large, that your one day is actually not enough. Therefore from now you can stay and sleep in the new holiday park Efteling Bosrijk (Woodland Realm). When you make the arrangements to stay you also book the park entrance at the same time. So you can choose 3 or 4 days of relaxation and freedom and see everything in the park. In the fairytale, woodland setting you can totally rest. But... Efteling Bosrijk is not just a normal holiday park. The Efteling enchantment is also here to find."

"With Efteling Bosrijk you have a choice of a detached Boshuys (Wood Cottage), a cosy Dorpshuys (Town House) or an apartment, either in the characteristic Landhuys or the centrally located Poorthuys areas. You make the choice, lively or quiet, cosy or magnificent? Whichever accommodation you choose, your bed will be so comfortable so that you will be straight into dreamland. The accommodations are all large enough for groups of up to 4, 6 or 8 people."


Overall Map of the Holiday Park area:




Accommodation Areas:

Landhuys


Poorthuys


Boshuys


Dorpshuys


From what I can see in the details, if you book a 2 night stay at the Holiday Park, you can buy a 'Pas Pardoes' (Pardoes Pass) which for 2 adults is 116 Euros, which gets you 2 (or maybe 3, I can't tell) days entry pass with a 15 minute Earlier Entry too.

The Bosrijk is situated across the road from the main Efteling entrance, just a short walk away, and on the site there is a restaurant which serves breakfasts, various pizzas, set menus etc. There is also a bar and terrace, and you can hire bicycles on the site. Also there is a 'Bath House' with a small swimming pool and children's water playing area.

Hope the above helps...

[CorineC]

(I came across this website looking for information for our UK-holiday next year and saw the Bosrijk topic. I live near Efteling, so I thought let's give some more details on the holiday village).

Bosrijk is Efteling's new holiday village which can cater at the moment a maximum of 1100 guests. These 1100 beds are divided into all the houses shown on the pictures above. In the future, a large expansion of the holiday village is an option, depending on the park's success. Bosrijk is now only open in December and January and will close in February and March (to fix problems encountered during the winter opening) and will reopen in April, this time permanently. The park itself will also be open year-round.
Efteling will also target the UK-market with Bosrijk. Probably the reason that nobody heard about it in the UK is the fact of the February and March closing, mentioned above. They will just wait until the summer starts and are more confident with the day-to-day managing of Bosrijk.

The village has already had very positive reviews from the Dutch and Belgian press for the quality of the houses and overall looks. Negative remarks are the park's peculiar (pas pardoes system) that is mentioned by nickn5 which is mandatory for the full amount of days of your stay. While it is inflexible, they will have my appreciation if they can pull it off from an economical point of view.

Some pictures can be found here: [url=http://themepark.nl/ubb/ubbthreads.php/ ... 11/65.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;]http://themepark.nl/ubb/ubbthreads.php/ ... 11/65.html[/url] (just scroll through)

off topic: Currently, Winter Efteling is open and someone has taken the great risk of driving to the park on the Dutch icy-roads... and has been rewarded with some awesome pictures of the park covered in snow that I think are a must-see:

[url=http://themepark.nl/ubb/ubbthreads.php/ ... ost1262607" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;]http://themepark.nl/ubb/ubbthreads.php/ ... ost1262607[/url]

(Sorry for my English, your Dutch is better than my English, nickn5)

[nickn5]

[quote=""CorineC""]off topic: Currently, Winter Efteling is open and someone has taken the great risk of driving to the park on the Dutch icy-roads... and has been rewarded with some awesome pictures of the park covered in snow that I think are a must-see:

[url=http://themepark.nl/ubb/ubbthreads.php/ ... ost1262607" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;]http://themepark.nl/ubb/ubbthreads.php/ ... ost1262607[/url]
[/quote]

Wow! Just... wow!

[Sam]

[quote=""nickn5""]Whichever accommodation you choose, your bed will be so comfortable so that you will be straight into dreamland.[/quote]
Haha either that's lost in translation or they are rather oblique in their press release.

[Gloomy Dude]

Just came across this picture on RCDB. It was taken at the start of this month.

[Sam]

I think I just came.

Where's the bloody Thanks! button when you need it?!

[nickn5]

Wahey! Great photo, thanks for posting that Mr Gloomy Dude.

Think I know where my foreign holiday next year will be...

[Coaster Crazy Alex]

Just had a look on the POV of Pegasus and it does look quite tame and mild comapared to Tomahawk! (Which i have been on!)
Was Pegasus a CGI or a Vekoma or someone else? I can't find an answer...
Also is the new woodie a CGI?
PS - They were literally ripping the ride up in the video... Very weak timber!

[nickn5]

Pegasus was a sort of conglomeration - built by Dinn Corporation using Yellow Pine wood, with wooden architecture by RCCA and technical aspects designed by Intamin, apparently.

The new 'Joris en de Draak' is indeed a GCI coaster, and is costing 12-15 million Euros if the Dutch Wikipedia page is to be believed.

[Gloomy Dude]

Just found a veritable trasure trove of Joris en de Draak pictures taken just a week ago and a 6 minute video (which admittedly shows very little that the pictures don't... but still

Enjoy!

[Sam]

I used to think the way you built rollercoasters was pretty much just starting with the station, and then building forwards, as the ride itself would go. Like you build them on RCT or, if you like, the way Gromit builds that train track in real time in 'The Wrong Trousers' to escape the killer Penguin.

Anyone know why they don't do it like that?

[Michaél]

I would only assume that they build roller coasters the way they do is to save money, shorten construction time and be generally more efficient and organised. I believe they build roller coasters upwards instead of from start to finish because of being able to do it in stages. For example, the footer stage; all the people, equipment and materials arrive at the site when the footers are ready to be put into place, do all the footers that need to be done, then they can leave. Whereas if you were to go from start to finish like RCT does they would have to be there throughout the process of construction, do you not agree that it is far more organized and efficient if it is done in stages. Imagine how much of a shambles a construction site would be if everyone involved in the construction of the ride was there everyday? :P There would always be someone waiting on someone, whether the people doing the footers had not arrived so the supports can't be put in etc. It would just be madness on roller coaster construction sites and potentially the ride would take a lot longer to construct, which means the park would incur unnecessary construction fees and so on. Hope you get what I'm saying.

[Rollercoaster5000]

It's looking great so far and much higher than I expected .

[maneatingmonstrosity]

Thanks for that link Gloomydude. It's certainly looking pretty damn good so far. When it's done the lake area there should look pretty stunning with De Vliegende Hollander opposite.

An Efteling fan from Inverness eh? Who would've thought it... I stay in Drumnadrochit sometimes.

This page has some cool info and pics too, though it is in Dutch: [url=http://www.eftelist.nl/a_joris.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;]http://www.eftelist.nl/a_joris.html[/url]

[Gloomy Dude]

Glad you like the pictures.

Thanks for that link too maneatingmonstrosity. Just been feeding it through a crude Dutch translator. While it's hard to take much from it, this bit caught my eye...

Efteling een interactief element in de attractie van plan.

Don't think you need to be genius to work out roughly what that means

Frustratingly, while typing this at work, I'm sitting directly opposite a big desk full of lovely Dutch folk. Could ask them to translate, if if wouldn't be so hugely embarassing

I did see one of them drinking from what looked like an old mug from Duinrell once though, so maybe I've found a fellow enthusiast. Probably not though Anyway, that's a bit off topic.

Another intersting bit has come through the translation (very poor quality)

The eight meters high dragon have been nested in moerasachtige surroundings, and possibly is possible we, if the budget allows it descry, young ones in the dragon eggs. The dragon fire will spit to the water treintje and with its tail water concerning the fire treintje heenspetteren. Which in the fight against the dragon the race wins, it is honoured on a platform.

Big fire breathing, water splashing animatronic dragon anyone?

[AstroDan]

Wouldn't suprise me with Efteling's cute and quality theming. Hopefully the experience will make up for the low ride time! You should all remember that Troy is only down the road from here so the competition amongst guests is pretty huge - I bet a massive number of Joris en de Draak riders will have been on Troy too.