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Efteling: General Discussion

I didn't even notice that the Joris dragon was dead on my visit...

Projection on Dutchman was working though...

One thing I did notice was they were batching a lot more on their coasters, rather than the usual free for all, plus have redone some single rider and disabled queues...

Some positive changes to consider...
 
Raveleijn has been down for quite some time; since the start of August at least I believe. It’s a big gap in the park’s line-up and I can’t imagine Efteling are just messing around so I can only assume it’s a major problem.

As for Joris’s dragon, I did notice it wasn’t moving in summer. I guess that it’s become too problematic to keep fixing, but I am surprised that it will just be abandoned. Efteling doesn’t have much history of neglecting their park.
 
This is what kills me, people get upset about the lack of the dragon on Joris or thirteen years of Disco Yeti at Animal Kingdom... I don't go out of my way to defend Merlin, but I really do think people don't realise, or perhaps don't acknowledge that things aren't all that different anywhere else.
There's a world of difference between a handful of effects not working and most of the effects not working!
I've worked in special effects maintenance and fully accept that some problems are too big to simply fix. But they should be the exception and not the norm.
 
Efteling have announced they're changing up their opening hours and ticketing for next year's Summer season. The main thing is that the 11pm closes have now gone, and in it's place is a 10pm daily close every day from mid July until the end of August. In addition, the park will close at 7pm minimum on every weekend throughout the season.

Now the bad news...Disney style variable demand based pricing has come in. There are now four categorisations for dates, ranging from calmest (€38), quiet (€41), 'nice and busy' (€43) all the way up to busy (€45). There's also a €2 discount on these prices for buying your ticket online. There's no information on which date is categorised as which yet, this will be online in January.

Nice to see them committing to longer hours, and it should help flatten out the peaks in crowds a little too. I've never been a huge fan of demand based pricing, but I guess that's aimed at further helping to ease the crowds a little too.
 
Whilst it looks like the summer entertainment lineup is changing, I hope they retain the festive atmosphere that made it so enjoyable. There were certainly enough people there until 11pm to make it worthwhile, so I guess their logic is the 10pm closes in the week will spread those crowds.
 
Groupon is always worth looking at preseason for deals. Failing that register on the Efteling mailing list and visit during the month of your birthday for a decent discount.
 
Efteling needs long hours - the park is absolutely huge and with long waits for star attractions you burn through a day quickly. It's a shame the late closes have gone though, I've done a couple of midnight closes there which were always pretty special despite the crowds.
 
Not really anything to add to the discussion, however it is a question I was dying to work out the answer to but just could not figure it out.

How on earth does the transfer track/maintenance bay work on Python? It is a drop below the station, almost like a ride in itself.

Where does the train get back onto the main track? I couldn’t see a further section to the front towards the bottom of the lift hill. It has mystified me.

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If I recall quite a few Vekomas and Arrows from that era have a similar system...

I presume drive wheels push the train in/out from the building, but could be completely wrong...
 
Loch Ness Monster is the same. I should know how the train gets back up as I've had a behind the scenes tour at BGW which included Nessie, however it was 8 years ago and I cannot recall!
 
I assumed it was a sliding transfer, is it not? Never seen them switch trains.

Arrow/Vekoma rides with storage or a maintenance bay at different levels like that are typically winched between.
 
If I remember correctly I think the rectangle box at the top of the transfer track is a winch. I remember trying to work it out the first time I rode it

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It’s winched out, the only reason for taking a train into the garage is for serious maintenance, if they just want a train off the truck they leave it on the outdoor bit.
 
Corkscrew used to have a winch, too.

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