Alix
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- Balder BEEP BEEP
Just a warning this contains photos of the queue line for Danse Macabre so if you don't want to see don't read on...
After a very simple trip to DLP a couple of years ago (before becoming active on the forum) I wanted to up the complexity level for our next trip. Having discussed with @Poisson , trip planner extraordinaire, a plan was hatched for a trip which would take in Toverland and Efteling, plus a day in Amsterdam to visit the Anne Frank House museum as Chimpy had recently read her book.
This was a step up for me for multiple reasons, I’ve never driven abroad, I’ve never done a multi park trip abroad (I don’t really count the 2 DLP parks as separate as you can walk between them), and I’ve never tagged on a city day. So although for a lot of you this will probably look like a very basic trip, for me it was really pushing the boundaries of what I’m comfortable with. Add to that some annoying EasyJet changing flights faff, and my anxiety levels were through the roof before we’d even got to Bristol airport. There were moments in the run up to the holiday that I seriously considered cancelling the lot, or just not going. I managed to get a grip of myself though and I’m so glad I did.
The itinerary ended up as:
Day One – afternoon flight to Schiphol, night in hotel
Day Two – train to Amsterdam, Anne Frank House & wandering, collect hire car, drive to Tilburg
Day Three – Toverland
Day Four – Efteling
Day Five – Efteling
Day Six – lunchtime flight home
And so, if you're sitting comfortably, I'll begin... Once upon a time, there was a Chimp...
Day One: Flights and Trains: The travel turned out fine in the end – we even saw a double decker train, although sadly it wasn’t going where we needed so we just had to admire from afar. Once we got the hang of how Dutch trains work (thank you @Chimpy ) we were hopping on and off like locals.
Ride Count: 3 (airport bus, plane, train)
Fear count: 2/5
CHOO CHOO
CHOO CHOO (double decker train)
Day Two: Trains and the Dreaded Driving: We caught the train into Amsterdam for Anne Frank House which was very moving. Such an important story to be told, and the way they do it is very good. I would recommend to anyone in the area to visit if you can. Shame the weather was miserable so we ended up wandering about soggy until our time slot rather than the sunny sightseeing I had hoped for. We accidentally wandered past a special coffee shop, Chimp was surprised at the smell and also that it’s legal in the Netherlands
AFH done, it was time for the most terrifying part of our trip – driving. We caught the train back to the airport, collected our hire car and emerged out of the car park. I passed my driving test a very long time ago, and had never driven abroad, so this was an element of the holiday that was properly terrifying me. Like waking up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat terrifying. I was given some good advice, such as book an automatic, download the right Google map, and read up on Dutch driving rules so I was a prepared as I could be. However, with the Chimp as my co-pilot (when she put her phone down) we managed to make it to Tilburg before it got too dark with only one hiccup when we took the wrong junction and had to loop round the airport for a bit. Driving done it was time for WINE, and then an earlyish night ready for Toverland in the morning.
Ride Count – 2 (trains, choo choo!)
Fear Count 11/5 (driving)
Day Three: Toverland: After getting stuck in a huge traffic jam on our way there, we arrived at the park about 30 minutes after opening. We’d be warned not to expect too much from Toverland, as it’s a smaller park, but we were very impressed. The theming was very nice, Fenix is incredibly pretty, there’s a preshow for the Dragon Watchers ride which is totally unnecessary but very cute, we liked Water Dwarf Avenue and Merlin's Quest and got on all the creds except Dwervelwind which was down for maintenance. Highlights were Maximus’ Blitz Bahn for the queue building mainly, Fenix for the, well, phoenix, and the fact they sell woman shaped t shirts – HURRAH! Ops seemed great. Queues were shortish, and even when they were long they were in pretty places so we didn’t mind too much. We ate at the Flaming Feather which was gorgeous inside, and although my vegan lunch was very tasty, I’m not convinced it was actually vegan. We wandered through the pumpkin displays which were very nice, and did all the rides we wanted. We also tried the spiralised potatoes which although they sound good, are a bit disappointing, and then it was time to go back to the hotel after a couple of night rides on Fenix.
Ride Count: 15 including 5 on Fenix
Fear Count: 3/5 (driving not so bad now…)
Crazy Dutch with their farting pumpkin people
Really pretty displays too...
It was amazingly tasty but possibly not vegan...
Just gorgeous...
Day Four: Efteling: And now, the main event, Efteling. I’d been deliberately staying away from POV videos of anything and everything as I wanted everything to be a surprise. The only thing I’d done was download the app and looked at the map, and in my view this was definitely the right thing to do. We were blown away. The house of the 5 senses is HUGE and it just kept going from there. We entered the park 30 minutes early as hotel guests, and looked at the map to decide where to go first. We decided we would focus on the creds first, then try and get everything else done we wanted, allowing our second day to focus on Danse Macabre and any walkthroughs we hadn’t yet done.
We ate at the White Horse and the Kasbah, both of which did vegan options and meaty options so we were both happy. They even had vegan cake (yay) but their oat coffee was cold and not very nice.
We were blown away by pretty much everything we did. The rides at Efteling may not be particularly thrilling, but the attention to detail and the size of the sets and effects just makes it my perfect park. Chimp and I spent a lot of time wandering about with eyes like saucers saying “wow!”. There wasn’t a single ride we didn’t like, except perhaps Pagode which I found a little too high and little too open for my liking. Feet firmly back on the ground we wandered past Danse Macabre and saw a little of the build up before the press night which we weren’t attending. We had a night ride on Baron, soaked in the atmosphere, and then walked back to our hotel in Loonsche Land.
Ride count: 18
Fear Count: 0/5 (unless on Pagode, then 11/5)
Look at it!
It was very high up...
Day Five: Efteling Part Deux – Danse Macabre
At breakfast we noticed a TV screen saying the park was opening at 9 not 930 because of Danse Macabre so we had a very speedy breakfast (continental, quite nice but lacking in vegan bits) and headed down the path to the entrance where there was already a significant queue. At 9am the side gate was opened and we made our way to the guest entrance and onto the park. There was crowd control in place so we were funnelled along a specific route past Symbolica to enter the DM queue. The queue was long, and we saw a member of staff wander past with 80 minutes on a sign, however we were near the front and ended up being on in 50 minutes. The queue was so interesting, and maintained a slow shuffle so it didn’t feel too bad at all. The little touches such as an actual herb garden, dents in the down pipe on the side of building, and bats hanging in the trees gave us so much to look at we didn’t get bored. At one point the queue goes out into the misty woods (sort of) with howling wolves and various spooky noises going on.
The ride itself was brilliant. Again, not a thrill ride, but just so amazing in the level of detail, what happens, what you can see and how it builds throughout the ride to the finale. The fact it’s based on a cat is just perfect for us too. We named the ghost Alan after Alan Davies – for those of a certain age the Danse Macabre music will only ever mean Jonathan Creek is starting. Ride done, we joined the queue for the shop, which took pretty much the same amount of time as our queue for the ride. We spent a small fortune, then decided to head onto other rides in the hope that the main queue would die down (it was at 240 by that point) and we would get a reride later.
After riding Danse Macabre, we used our second day to finish off rides we hadn’t managed on day one, such as Fata Morgana, and Joris Fire, and also go to the Raveleijn show. Chimp is a big pony fan, and loves the crazy ladies on horses show at Warwick so I knew this would be right up her street. It was very good, and you didn’t need to understand much Dutch to know what was going on. Goodies fighting baddies, there’s a dragon, goodies win in the end. We also wandered round the Fairytale Forest and I was surprised at just how good it actually is! The animatronic sections were really impressive, and when added to the number of dark rides the place has, it's definitely a candidate for a multi generation trip at some point in the future.
Before knowing that our visit coincided with the opening of Danse Macabre, I’d booked to see Caro in the evening. It looked like it would be good, was something to do in the evening, all seemed a good plan. However, it really wasn’t our cup of tea, and when we knew we could’ve been queuing for a re ride on Danse Macabre instead we were pretty desperate to get out of there. It finished at 1955 so we legged it to try and get to the end of the DM queue before closing. Sadly, they were very prompt with queue close and we were denied. Feeling a little deflated (and cross with that bloody clown in Caro going on so long
) we headed back to the hotel for our last night.
Ride/Show count: 10
Fear Count 0/5
Drain pipe spotter
An actual real life herb garden in the queue line...
Alan before his unfortunate incident...
Day Six: Journey Home. We didn’t have enough time to do anything at Efteling before we had to leave for the airport so our final day’s ticket was wasted. We really didn’t want to come home, and would’ve happily stayed longer if we could (if EasyJet hadn’t buggered about with our flights!)
The trip was a huge success. Chimp and I have found our new happy place, and are already making plans to go back – once the excitement over Danse Macabre has died down a bit and I’ve had chance to build up the holiday fund. I would love to ride it again a few times and just soak it all up – there was so much to see and do at Efteling that if you like to tick everything off you can definitely spend 3 full days there.
Best coaster was Fenix I think, with Baron as a close second. Joris was good but it’s not Balder. Best dark ride was Danse Macabre, closely followed by Symbolica – I love that whale!
Total cred count is now 148 – 150 so close hopefully I’ll manage it at HPWW. Chimpy has hit 100 (although she reckons she doesn’t care)
Thanks as always to @Poisson , @GooseOnTheLoose and @NuttySquirrel for excellent travel advice, moral support, and top tips re hire cars
And of course to @Chimpy – excellent co pilot, Dutch Trains guide, and all-round superstar – Phantasialand next?
After a very simple trip to DLP a couple of years ago (before becoming active on the forum) I wanted to up the complexity level for our next trip. Having discussed with @Poisson , trip planner extraordinaire, a plan was hatched for a trip which would take in Toverland and Efteling, plus a day in Amsterdam to visit the Anne Frank House museum as Chimpy had recently read her book.
This was a step up for me for multiple reasons, I’ve never driven abroad, I’ve never done a multi park trip abroad (I don’t really count the 2 DLP parks as separate as you can walk between them), and I’ve never tagged on a city day. So although for a lot of you this will probably look like a very basic trip, for me it was really pushing the boundaries of what I’m comfortable with. Add to that some annoying EasyJet changing flights faff, and my anxiety levels were through the roof before we’d even got to Bristol airport. There were moments in the run up to the holiday that I seriously considered cancelling the lot, or just not going. I managed to get a grip of myself though and I’m so glad I did.
The itinerary ended up as:
Day One – afternoon flight to Schiphol, night in hotel
Day Two – train to Amsterdam, Anne Frank House & wandering, collect hire car, drive to Tilburg
Day Three – Toverland
Day Four – Efteling
Day Five – Efteling
Day Six – lunchtime flight home
And so, if you're sitting comfortably, I'll begin... Once upon a time, there was a Chimp...
Day One: Flights and Trains: The travel turned out fine in the end – we even saw a double decker train, although sadly it wasn’t going where we needed so we just had to admire from afar. Once we got the hang of how Dutch trains work (thank you @Chimpy ) we were hopping on and off like locals.
Ride Count: 3 (airport bus, plane, train)
Fear count: 2/5
CHOO CHOO
CHOO CHOO (double decker train)
Day Two: Trains and the Dreaded Driving: We caught the train into Amsterdam for Anne Frank House which was very moving. Such an important story to be told, and the way they do it is very good. I would recommend to anyone in the area to visit if you can. Shame the weather was miserable so we ended up wandering about soggy until our time slot rather than the sunny sightseeing I had hoped for. We accidentally wandered past a special coffee shop, Chimp was surprised at the smell and also that it’s legal in the Netherlands
AFH done, it was time for the most terrifying part of our trip – driving. We caught the train back to the airport, collected our hire car and emerged out of the car park. I passed my driving test a very long time ago, and had never driven abroad, so this was an element of the holiday that was properly terrifying me. Like waking up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat terrifying. I was given some good advice, such as book an automatic, download the right Google map, and read up on Dutch driving rules so I was a prepared as I could be. However, with the Chimp as my co-pilot (when she put her phone down) we managed to make it to Tilburg before it got too dark with only one hiccup when we took the wrong junction and had to loop round the airport for a bit. Driving done it was time for WINE, and then an earlyish night ready for Toverland in the morning.Ride Count – 2 (trains, choo choo!)
Fear Count 11/5 (driving)
Day Three: Toverland: After getting stuck in a huge traffic jam on our way there, we arrived at the park about 30 minutes after opening. We’d be warned not to expect too much from Toverland, as it’s a smaller park, but we were very impressed. The theming was very nice, Fenix is incredibly pretty, there’s a preshow for the Dragon Watchers ride which is totally unnecessary but very cute, we liked Water Dwarf Avenue and Merlin's Quest and got on all the creds except Dwervelwind which was down for maintenance. Highlights were Maximus’ Blitz Bahn for the queue building mainly, Fenix for the, well, phoenix, and the fact they sell woman shaped t shirts – HURRAH! Ops seemed great. Queues were shortish, and even when they were long they were in pretty places so we didn’t mind too much. We ate at the Flaming Feather which was gorgeous inside, and although my vegan lunch was very tasty, I’m not convinced it was actually vegan. We wandered through the pumpkin displays which were very nice, and did all the rides we wanted. We also tried the spiralised potatoes which although they sound good, are a bit disappointing, and then it was time to go back to the hotel after a couple of night rides on Fenix.
Ride Count: 15 including 5 on Fenix
Fear Count: 3/5 (driving not so bad now…)
Crazy Dutch with their farting pumpkin people
Really pretty displays too...
It was amazingly tasty but possibly not vegan...
Just gorgeous...
Day Four: Efteling: And now, the main event, Efteling. I’d been deliberately staying away from POV videos of anything and everything as I wanted everything to be a surprise. The only thing I’d done was download the app and looked at the map, and in my view this was definitely the right thing to do. We were blown away. The house of the 5 senses is HUGE and it just kept going from there. We entered the park 30 minutes early as hotel guests, and looked at the map to decide where to go first. We decided we would focus on the creds first, then try and get everything else done we wanted, allowing our second day to focus on Danse Macabre and any walkthroughs we hadn’t yet done.
We ate at the White Horse and the Kasbah, both of which did vegan options and meaty options so we were both happy. They even had vegan cake (yay) but their oat coffee was cold and not very nice.
We were blown away by pretty much everything we did. The rides at Efteling may not be particularly thrilling, but the attention to detail and the size of the sets and effects just makes it my perfect park. Chimp and I spent a lot of time wandering about with eyes like saucers saying “wow!”. There wasn’t a single ride we didn’t like, except perhaps Pagode which I found a little too high and little too open for my liking. Feet firmly back on the ground we wandered past Danse Macabre and saw a little of the build up before the press night which we weren’t attending. We had a night ride on Baron, soaked in the atmosphere, and then walked back to our hotel in Loonsche Land.
Ride count: 18
Fear Count: 0/5 (unless on Pagode, then 11/5)
Look at it!
It was very high up...
Day Five: Efteling Part Deux – Danse Macabre
At breakfast we noticed a TV screen saying the park was opening at 9 not 930 because of Danse Macabre so we had a very speedy breakfast (continental, quite nice but lacking in vegan bits) and headed down the path to the entrance where there was already a significant queue. At 9am the side gate was opened and we made our way to the guest entrance and onto the park. There was crowd control in place so we were funnelled along a specific route past Symbolica to enter the DM queue. The queue was long, and we saw a member of staff wander past with 80 minutes on a sign, however we were near the front and ended up being on in 50 minutes. The queue was so interesting, and maintained a slow shuffle so it didn’t feel too bad at all. The little touches such as an actual herb garden, dents in the down pipe on the side of building, and bats hanging in the trees gave us so much to look at we didn’t get bored. At one point the queue goes out into the misty woods (sort of) with howling wolves and various spooky noises going on.
The ride itself was brilliant. Again, not a thrill ride, but just so amazing in the level of detail, what happens, what you can see and how it builds throughout the ride to the finale. The fact it’s based on a cat is just perfect for us too. We named the ghost Alan after Alan Davies – for those of a certain age the Danse Macabre music will only ever mean Jonathan Creek is starting. Ride done, we joined the queue for the shop, which took pretty much the same amount of time as our queue for the ride. We spent a small fortune, then decided to head onto other rides in the hope that the main queue would die down (it was at 240 by that point) and we would get a reride later.
After riding Danse Macabre, we used our second day to finish off rides we hadn’t managed on day one, such as Fata Morgana, and Joris Fire, and also go to the Raveleijn show. Chimp is a big pony fan, and loves the crazy ladies on horses show at Warwick so I knew this would be right up her street. It was very good, and you didn’t need to understand much Dutch to know what was going on. Goodies fighting baddies, there’s a dragon, goodies win in the end. We also wandered round the Fairytale Forest and I was surprised at just how good it actually is! The animatronic sections were really impressive, and when added to the number of dark rides the place has, it's definitely a candidate for a multi generation trip at some point in the future.
Before knowing that our visit coincided with the opening of Danse Macabre, I’d booked to see Caro in the evening. It looked like it would be good, was something to do in the evening, all seemed a good plan. However, it really wasn’t our cup of tea, and when we knew we could’ve been queuing for a re ride on Danse Macabre instead we were pretty desperate to get out of there. It finished at 1955 so we legged it to try and get to the end of the DM queue before closing. Sadly, they were very prompt with queue close and we were denied. Feeling a little deflated (and cross with that bloody clown in Caro going on so long
) we headed back to the hotel for our last night.Ride/Show count: 10
Fear Count 0/5
Drain pipe spotter
An actual real life herb garden in the queue line...
Alan before his unfortunate incident...
Day Six: Journey Home. We didn’t have enough time to do anything at Efteling before we had to leave for the airport so our final day’s ticket was wasted. We really didn’t want to come home, and would’ve happily stayed longer if we could (if EasyJet hadn’t buggered about with our flights!)
The trip was a huge success. Chimp and I have found our new happy place, and are already making plans to go back – once the excitement over Danse Macabre has died down a bit and I’ve had chance to build up the holiday fund. I would love to ride it again a few times and just soak it all up – there was so much to see and do at Efteling that if you like to tick everything off you can definitely spend 3 full days there.
Best coaster was Fenix I think, with Baron as a close second. Joris was good but it’s not Balder. Best dark ride was Danse Macabre, closely followed by Symbolica – I love that whale!
Total cred count is now 148 – 150 so close hopefully I’ll manage it at HPWW. Chimpy has hit 100 (although she reckons she doesn’t care)
Thanks as always to @Poisson , @GooseOnTheLoose and @NuttySquirrel for excellent travel advice, moral support, and top tips re hire cars
And of course to @Chimpy – excellent co pilot, Dutch Trains guide, and all-round superstar – Phantasialand next?
