Natalie
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- Phantom Manor
This trip was just a short trip to make use of the other parks that are included on the Europa Park annual pass so it was a cheap trip at about £175 each for 3 days including flights, hotels, car hire and tickets for Toverland.
We flew out to Eindhoven Airport on a Sunday afternoon flight from Manchester with Ryanair, picked our hire car up and drove to Bruhl, where we stayed in the Ramada that is a couple of minutes down the road and is a lovely hotel.
Monday we spent the day at Phantasialand which neither of us had visited for 3 years, we got in the Klugheim holding pen where we waited until about 10:15 where a staff member walked us down into the area and through the queue line, I enjoyed not having a stampede to the station. I think there were two male German theme park geeks in front of us in the holding pen and into the station, where they got on the front row of the first train and we got on the 2nd row. I really enjoyed the ride especially when we got chance to ride it again in the afternoon once it had warmed up, on that run I felt like I was really being pushed and pulled about, in a good way! After our first go on Taron we went on Raik, again a really nice coaster and my favourite Jr Vekoma Boomerang. Next we did Chiapas, which was still in it's testing phase last time we went, It's a fun flume ride with good theming and the IMAscore soundtrack fitted beautifully, we then spent the rest of the morning going on Colorado Adventure, Winjas Fear and Force before having a Bratwurst for lunch.
After lunch we went and did Hollywood Tour and Temple of the Night Hawk, these rides are ok but could do with an update as hopefully with the removal of Atlantis and the admin buildings this side of the park might see some love soon? Next we went and did Geister Rikscha and Feng Ju Palace, which is my 3rd favourite madhouse after Hex and Villa Volta. We then did Mystery castle which was still in misery mode, Talocan, watched the ice show, went on Black Mamba, Hotel Tartuff, Maus Au Chocolat and then we tried Mystery Castle again which was in mystery mode instead of misery mode then we had our afternoon go on Taron, which as I said above was better than the morning ride we had on it before leaving before the park closed for our drive to the Ibis at Tilburg.
One the Tuesday we went to one of my favourite non Disney parks in the world Efteling, we stayed all day at this park getting all the rides done but I still haven't properly explored the fairytale scenes in my 3 visits. Whilst waiting for the park to open we were held in Pardoes Promanade we got a good look at Symbolica the new 35 million euro dark ride that is opening next year, the building is very well themed on the outside apart from one wall which they hadn't put any theming on yet. Once all the areas of the park opened we headed straight to Baron 1898, which was 10/15mins late opening but it was worth it, some people don't get that Efteling isn't about having the biggest, fastest or most extreme ride, they are about the story and how it's presented and Baron is just this, a good B&M Dive machine with a clever storyline with effects to follow this story from the queue to getting off the ride. We then did DVH which is one of my favourite queue lines in the world, then both sides of the duelling GCI wooden coaster Joris en de Draak and Python before we walked over to get our tickets for Ravelijn. We then had brunch at Polles Kitchen having pancakes in a magically themed restaurant.
After brunch we did Villa Volta, Dreamflight, Carnival Festival and Vogel Rok before going to watch Ravelijn which is a fantastic show compared to it's original format before Puy Du Fou helped Efteling make improvements. The rest of the afternoon we did Fata Morgana, Bob, Spookslot with rerides on DVH, Baron and Fata Morgana before watching Aquanura, which is enjoyable for a fountain show but I still want to see the summer Tiesto version! I love Efteling for it's future thinking whilst still looking out for it's history in a magical blend that makes everything work together.
Our final morning before we left for the airport was a morning in Toverland to pass a few hours, I loved the improvements to the bobsleigh with the theming and the IMAscore soundtrack, it was nice to see how Magic Valley was looking after it had been open 3 years which is still looks fine, Dwervelwind still a really fun kids Mack spinner, Troy is getting a bit rough, we only did it twice, it's a good little park but the staggered openings of rides is a pain with Troy not opening until midday and some of the shops not opening until 2pm! We left at 1pm to go get our flight back home after a busy but fun couple of days and back to reality.
We flew out to Eindhoven Airport on a Sunday afternoon flight from Manchester with Ryanair, picked our hire car up and drove to Bruhl, where we stayed in the Ramada that is a couple of minutes down the road and is a lovely hotel.
Monday we spent the day at Phantasialand which neither of us had visited for 3 years, we got in the Klugheim holding pen where we waited until about 10:15 where a staff member walked us down into the area and through the queue line, I enjoyed not having a stampede to the station. I think there were two male German theme park geeks in front of us in the holding pen and into the station, where they got on the front row of the first train and we got on the 2nd row. I really enjoyed the ride especially when we got chance to ride it again in the afternoon once it had warmed up, on that run I felt like I was really being pushed and pulled about, in a good way! After our first go on Taron we went on Raik, again a really nice coaster and my favourite Jr Vekoma Boomerang. Next we did Chiapas, which was still in it's testing phase last time we went, It's a fun flume ride with good theming and the IMAscore soundtrack fitted beautifully, we then spent the rest of the morning going on Colorado Adventure, Winjas Fear and Force before having a Bratwurst for lunch.
After lunch we went and did Hollywood Tour and Temple of the Night Hawk, these rides are ok but could do with an update as hopefully with the removal of Atlantis and the admin buildings this side of the park might see some love soon? Next we went and did Geister Rikscha and Feng Ju Palace, which is my 3rd favourite madhouse after Hex and Villa Volta. We then did Mystery castle which was still in misery mode, Talocan, watched the ice show, went on Black Mamba, Hotel Tartuff, Maus Au Chocolat and then we tried Mystery Castle again which was in mystery mode instead of misery mode then we had our afternoon go on Taron, which as I said above was better than the morning ride we had on it before leaving before the park closed for our drive to the Ibis at Tilburg.
One the Tuesday we went to one of my favourite non Disney parks in the world Efteling, we stayed all day at this park getting all the rides done but I still haven't properly explored the fairytale scenes in my 3 visits. Whilst waiting for the park to open we were held in Pardoes Promanade we got a good look at Symbolica the new 35 million euro dark ride that is opening next year, the building is very well themed on the outside apart from one wall which they hadn't put any theming on yet. Once all the areas of the park opened we headed straight to Baron 1898, which was 10/15mins late opening but it was worth it, some people don't get that Efteling isn't about having the biggest, fastest or most extreme ride, they are about the story and how it's presented and Baron is just this, a good B&M Dive machine with a clever storyline with effects to follow this story from the queue to getting off the ride. We then did DVH which is one of my favourite queue lines in the world, then both sides of the duelling GCI wooden coaster Joris en de Draak and Python before we walked over to get our tickets for Ravelijn. We then had brunch at Polles Kitchen having pancakes in a magically themed restaurant.
After brunch we did Villa Volta, Dreamflight, Carnival Festival and Vogel Rok before going to watch Ravelijn which is a fantastic show compared to it's original format before Puy Du Fou helped Efteling make improvements. The rest of the afternoon we did Fata Morgana, Bob, Spookslot with rerides on DVH, Baron and Fata Morgana before watching Aquanura, which is enjoyable for a fountain show but I still want to see the summer Tiesto version! I love Efteling for it's future thinking whilst still looking out for it's history in a magical blend that makes everything work together.
Our final morning before we left for the airport was a morning in Toverland to pass a few hours, I loved the improvements to the bobsleigh with the theming and the IMAscore soundtrack, it was nice to see how Magic Valley was looking after it had been open 3 years which is still looks fine, Dwervelwind still a really fun kids Mack spinner, Troy is getting a bit rough, we only did it twice, it's a good little park but the staggered openings of rides is a pain with Troy not opening until midday and some of the shops not opening until 2pm! We left at 1pm to go get our flight back home after a busy but fun couple of days and back to reality.