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Walibi Holland and Efteling: My Review

Rob

Rob

TS Team
Favourite Ride
Steel Vengeance
I have just returned from a lovely little road trip around northern Europe visting Walibi Holland, Efteling and Disneyland Paris. It was my first visit to both Walibi Holland and Efteling so it is these parks that I will cover in this review. My thoughts on Disneyland Paris can be read here.

We started off by getting the Eurotunnel on a Saturday and travelling to our hotel for the night in Breda. Everything was going very smoothly and we had been making great time until we were 20 minutes from our hotel and not far off the border between Belgium and Holland. The "STOP" warning light appeared on the dashboard of our car with the message "Engine Failure Hazard" - yippee! Sitting on the side of a Belgian motoway was not part of our plans; thankfully the sun was shining. After what was probably about 45 minutes our car was recovered to a nearby garage, though it was now Saturday evening and said garage was not open again until Monday morning.

Top tip - never take your car abroad without breakdown cover! We were covered by a policy taken out with the Eurotunnel booking and after a lot more waiting the AA sorted us out with a taxi to Brussels airport to collect a hire car which had been booked for the length of our trip. Phew. We knew that we would have to wait until Monday to hear any more news about our car and were told by the AA to carry on our trip as usual in the hire car. A drink in the hotel bar was much needed by the time we eventually reached our hotel!

Walibi Holland

It was up early on Sunday morning to head further north up to Walibi Holland. I've wanted to visit this park for quite a long time thanks to Goliath but the addition of Lost Gravity last year gave even more incentive to go.

The drive was interesting, mainly because thick fog meant we could not see any of our surroundings! However we arrived and all coasters were operating. After a stressful Saturday we decided to just buy the silver level fast lane which cuts queue times by 50%; this turned out to be a very good decision.

Walibi Holland is actually a really nice park which took me a little by surprise. It could do with a new entrance as this looks a little dated and the area featuring Space Shot and Goliath could do with a re-theme but apart from that the park is very quaint and pretty with some decent theming.

Our first ride of the day was Goliath. It's quite a treck to reach the ride meaning it does not really feel like it is part of the rest of the park; hopefully they can look into opening this up in the future. The ride itself is very very fun with some wonderful airtime. And as they day went on it really warmed up well; the front row at the end of the day was awesome! It's not as good as EGF but definitely one of the top coasters in Europe for me; the bunny hops at the end are a delight.

Next up was Condor, the prototype Vekoma SLC. I rode it on the front row and somehow managed to find a way of riding it without my head being slammed into the enlarged restraints. However this truly is an awful coaster.

Robin Hood, a Vekoma wooden coaster, is again fairly poor. Shakey and does not really do anything of note. It also had a huge queue when running on one train but they did add a second.

Now Lost Gravity, the only Mack BigDipper in the world at presnet. It looks spectacular with the yellow and back colour scheme and the well thought out theming. The fast lane queue is really cool in thay you actually have to go through an old bus! On to the ride and it is up a very fast lift hill before being thrown down what can only be described as an insane drop. Serious ejector airtime follows before a really weird turnaround which leads into another ejector airtime hill - wow! The second half of the ride is not quite as punchy however is still good fun, especially the zero-g roll. Overall I rate Lost Gravity very highly; it is a cross between a wild mouse and a Eurofighter with a theme that is weird but really works and some spectacular fire effects. The outside seats are a little shakey and hopefully this is something Mack can work on for newer models.

Speed of Sound - buckle up it's a thrill ride! This is just pure fun and by far the best Vekoma Boomerang that I have ridden. The new trains help of course but the soundtrack and the lights really add so much to the whole experience.

Another surprise at the park was Xpress: Platform 13. This is of course a Rock 'n' Rollercoaster clone but outdoors and the coaster itself is pretty boring. However the qeueue is phenomenal with some amazing and unexpected effects, Derren Brown eat your heart out! It builds up to the coaster so well.

In terms of the rest of the park; the rapids are pretty dire yet the log flume is good. Spinning Vibe, a Huss Magic, is really quite intense and runs on a very long programme; a good flat but I'm glad it didn't go on any longer! The Topspin and Frisbee were both down during our visit which was no great loss but we did ride Space Shot which was fun in the mist. Finally, Merlin's Magic Castle is bog standard Vekoma Madhouse with some nice lighting effects.

Food around the park is generally your typical theme park fare but we did find an outlet that did lovely freshly made toasties so managed to avoid burger and chips. I'm hoping that Walibi will look into adding more variety to their food offerings over the coming years.

All said and done I was impressed with the park and would certainly return again if in the area. They have two top class coasters and the potential to make the park even better than it already is. There was a tonne of halloween theming around the park and I believe that they put on one of the best halloween events in Europe.

Final ridecount:

Goliath x 4
Lost Gravity x 3
Speed of Sound x 2
Condor
Xpress: Platform 13
Robin Hood
Drako
Space Shot
Spinning Vibe
Merlin's Magic Castle
Crazy River
El Rio Grande

After the park it was back to the hotel in Breda via a tasy burger featuring egg from Maccies (egg in anything is always a good thing)!

Next up will be my review of Efteling!

:)
 
Great report from Walibi Holland, went a few weeks ago myself (visited Toverland and Efteling as well).

Have to agree with most of what you've said regarding the coasters. The queue line for Xpress - Platform 13 was certainly amazing! Loved Goliath and Lost Gravity as well. Speed of Sound was so much fun, first time I'd been on a boomerang in years as well. Whole park was set out really well, hopefully go back in the near future.
 
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Efteling

Before this trip Efteling was by far the biggest park in Europe that is easily accessible from the UK that I had not visited. So needless to say that I was really looking forward to finalling getting here and I had high expecations of the park itself, less so for the rides.

Unfortunately our day was slightly compromised by not knowing exactly what was going on with our car. We knew that we would hear from either the garage or the AA at some point during the day with a status report and there was a chance that we would need to be back at the garage in Belgium to pick up the car before 6pm if it had been fixed. Therefore we went to the park with the aim of getting as much as we could done before 3pm.

The park was much busier than we were expecting, I assume that there must have been some local holidays as plenty of families were present. This made it even more of a challenge to get things done but it turned out we were not able to collect the car and could stay until 6pm.

We arrived nice and early, a good 45 minutes before the park opened, and were one of the first cars in the car park and parked right by the main entrance, perfect! And what a main entrance it is, absolutely stunning, it has to be one of the most impressive theme park entrances in the world. After numerous photos it was off to get our free entry (thank you Roland) and in we went!

There's no two ways about it, Efteling is beautiful. I can see why they call themselves the worlds of wonder; the whole place has its own unique magic and quaint style. When walking around the park there is lots to look at and some of the vistas are incredible. One thing I noticed about the park is just how great it is for kids; there is so much to explore and plenty of play areas. I know I'd have loved to visit when I was younger!

Our first ride of the day was Bob, my first Intamin Swiss Bob coaster! It's rumoured that Efteling may be considering removing the coaster in the near future so I am pleased to have got on it, and it's actually really good fun!

The next ride was Baron, although I am relectant to call it a ride as it really is a complete attraction. It must be one of the best looking coasters there is with the detailed lift structure and station building all complemented with a lovely soundtrack. The coaster itself is what it is, a good fun mine dive machine; you can tell that the transition from the bottom of the drop to leaving the tunnel is tighter than on say Oblivion, this section is rather forceful. Baron is not just about the rollercoaster though, it is about the whole experience from getting a ticket to determine which row you sit on to the pre-ride and on-ride pre-shows. It just all works so well!

De Vliegende Hollander is a ride that I have known about for a long time and always been intrigued by. I knew beforehand that the coaster section was pretty poor but was still really looking forward to the whole experience. The queue for starters is phenomenal, in fact I think it may well be my favourite queueline. It leads up to what must be one of the best stations there is, a lovely harbour which is lit to perfection. I've seen it before in photos and can say that photos do not do it justice. Needless to say that the highlight of the ride is the darkride section. One part uses a really simple effect that just works so well - pitch blackness throuh mist with the only light coming from the front of the boat, it's really quite spooky. The coaster itself wasn't as rough as I was expecting and is fine for what it is. One of my favourite bits about the ride is actually the return into the station, the low tunnel entry just works well.

Joris en de Draak is a really fun wooden coaster that gives me even more hope for SW8 (although I expect Joris will be the better coaster). Joris is not at all big but it really packs a punch with a fair few double ups and downs. The dragon that you pass on the ride is impressive and there are some water effect that get you a bit wet when on the front row! We only rode each side once so I'm unable to say which I feel was the best, although we all got the impression that this was a coaster that rides better at the back than it does at the front.

The other two coasters in the park are both Vekomas: Python and Vogel Rok. The latter is short but actually quite good with some half decent theming effects throughout, far better than Tample of the Nighthawk at Phantasialand. Meanwhile Python is what you would expect, fairly rough but helped by the new trains.

All in all Efteling has a solid coaster line-up. I am looking forward to seeing what they're 2019/2020 coaster turns out to be and I have no doubts that it will be beautiful.

Of course there is much more to Efteling that just the coasters. New this year is Sybolica, a trackless dark ride from ETF Ride Systems. It is located in the centre of the park and looks spectacular from all angles, a real centrepiece. The ride istelf is a delight and so very Efteling. I won't pretend to know exactly what was going on but generally speaking you were on a tour of the castle and had gone down to the fantasy floor. Highlight scenes are the greenhouse/garden and the royal party. The trackless ride system is very good but not up there with Disney's, although this is not really a surprise. Overall a fantastic addition to the park and I cannot wait to ride it again when I next visit.

Fata Morgana is a really nice boat ride with some very pretty yet impressive scenes. Villa Volta comes with quite a reputation and although it looks very nice on the outside we were left not really knowing what was going on when inside.

Piraña, the parks rapids ride, is very good. It starts of quite slowly but builds well and has some waves that can give out quite a soaking! Halve Maen, the worlds largest swinging ship, is also good fun.

Carnival Festival was down for scheduled maintenance during our visit and due to time restrictions as well as the park being busier than we expected there we did not get the chance experience Dreamflight, Spookslot, Raveleijn or any of the Faiytale Forest. Another visit is certainly needed!

Food options seemed to be good with plenty of different options around the park. We opted for a freshly made baguette in The White Horse (plus I had a very tasty soup) and also tried some of the fried potato twists which are delicious!

Despite not getting to see or experience everything in the park I fell in love with Efteling. In terms of the feel of the park it is the closest to Europa-Park that I have yet to experience, it just has that vibrant atmosphere and a mix of stunning theming and greenery. Speaking of the theming, the standard is incredibly high and on par with Disney.

Final ridecount:

Baron 1898 x 2
De Vliegende Hollander
Joris en de Draak Water
Joris en de Draak Fire
Python
Vogel Rok
Bob
Symbolica
Fata Morgana
Villa Volta
Piraña
Halve Maen

After leaving the park it was on to our hotel in France before heading over to Disneyland Paris.

As previously said I have already summed up my DLP feelings elsewhere but we have four nights in Sequoia Lodge with free Plus meal vouchers. We also purchased the Disney Photopass+ which turned out to be very good value for money. Sequioa is a wonferfully relaxing hotel surrounded by trees and a nice distance from the parks. We had a brilliant time at Disney with some good food at Silver Spur Steakhouse, Bistrot Chez Remy and Walt's.

After Disney it was a long day of travelling back home via Belgium to collect our repaired car. Thankfully all went smoothly and we made it home!

We really are lucky to have so many fantastic theme parks just across the English Channel.

:)
 
I think it was the Curse of Efteling that knackered your car mate. It's a gorgeous park, but something always seems to go wrong whenever I visit!
 
Another great report!
Loved Efteling, the theming and general vibe around the park was great. Gutted both Bob and Fata Morgana were down when I visited (Morgana was listed as being closed that week, luckily the week before it was Joris). Only issue when I visited was the rain, chucked it down all afternoon. Did mean we had the chance to do all the Symbolica routes though! The coasters were all good fun, and I loved the whole experience of Baron. Only went for the day but felt in the end a second day would've been great to see the smaller bits like the fairytale forest.
Villa volta, spookslot, and droomvult (?) All very good experiences, and the little cafe after droomvult a great place to escape the rain for a bit.
 
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In hindsight we also would have liked a second day but at least not getting everything done still gives plenty of new stuff to look forward to on the next visit!

A shame that Bob was down for you, it's quite a unique experience.

:)
 
There was quite a queue to get in when we went past, plus on examination of the menu they use nuts in some of their pancakes so it could have been a cross contamination risk for me!

:)
 
I'll definitely be going back, have got Dutch relatives so it would be a good way to visit and combine it with seeing relatives. Definitely be back at toverland for the new area next year as well.
 
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