29 Friday Mar 2013
Posted in All Updates and News, Aquanura, Updates from 2013
Tags
Apparently, Aquanura 2 is already in the works, after Aquanura opening less than a year ago. The new version would include music that was not used in the first rendition, including George and the Dragon, Fata Morgana and more. There is no news as to when the new show will see the light of day, but is it too soon to be airing version 2? Many guests have not yet had the chance to see the first one!
Never mind though, all attention is on Raveleijn at the moment!
28 Thursday Mar 2013
Posted in All Updates and News, Sprookjesbos, Updates from 2013
Tags
efteling, efteling uk, facebook, mr langnek, mr long neck, pinterest, subscribe, twitter, youtube channel
Just a little bit of ‘housekeeping’ today for you all. We would like to thank our 150th ‘like’ on Facebook, who joined us over the weekend. We are gradually becoming a small army! We’ve said it before, but we really do appreciate you all sharing our posts and photos with your friends on Facebook, as well as any other social media.
Speaking of which, if you haven’t added us on Twitter yet, we’re @EftelingUK.
Remember also that we have a fair few videos over on our YouTube Channel, so please stop by and submerge yourself in some Efteling goodness! We hope to be adding new videos in mid August, fingers crossed, including Aquanura in the dark!
We’re also on Pinterest now (just getting the hang of that) so please look for us on there too. If you have StumbleUpon, please ‘like’ us on there too 🙂
Thank you also to the folks who translate large chunks of text for us on our Facebook page, and everyone else who has sent us images etc, we love receiving them!
Please also check out the links down the side of the page, there is some really cool stuff to be found in there!
If you haven’t subscribed yet, please enter your e-mail into the box at the top of the page, and every time we update, an e-mail will be sent out to you. We promise no spam!
If you do have any images/videos/general thoughts on Efteling that you would like to share with the world, please send them to info@eftelinguk.com or post them on our Facebook page; especially trip reports, we love those 🙂
As a side note, we’ve mentioned that Mr. Longneck was undergoing some maintenance (presumably to fix his static eyes), and today we have seen that he has actually been taken out of the park! Must need major surgery! Click here for a photo and a link to a lovely video taken by yours truly.
Have a magical day!
27 Wednesday Mar 2013
…In Breda’s Barones shopping centre to be exact. The definition of a ‘pop-up’ store is a temporary store, but I suppose you never know what may happen in the future! The store is open March 29th-April 21st. So if you are in or around Breda, be sure to check it out!
25 Monday Mar 2013
Posted in All Updates and News, Sprookjesbos, Updates from 2013
We’ve been waiting a while for this to happen, we love it.
25 Monday Mar 2013
Posted in All Updates and News, Sprookjesbos, Updates from 2013
We posted one of these videos a couple of weeks ago, but now there have been a few more! They are only around 10 seconds long each, but they made us giggle, especially the mushroom one 🙂 For those of us who do not speak Dutch, here is a rough translation of the titles:
What if the Wolf had no point in eating Red Riding Hood?
What if all the Red Shoes were dancing?
What if there was music from all mushrooms?
What if there was no paper for Holle Bolle Gijs?
This could go on forever! What if all donkeys popped out gold coins? What if all mirrors talked? What if Langnek got a stiff neck?
22 Friday Mar 2013
Posted in All Updates and News, Laaf, Updates from 2013
Tags
attraction, efteling, efteling uk, freefall, het lavenlar, laaf, laaf village, lummels
Last year Efteling announced that the Laaf village was going to receive a bit of a refresh with some new characters coming into play there, called the Lummels. While the Laaf village would not be changed, these new characters were to inspire new merchandise, a T.V series, and a new attraction on the land alongside the existing village.
Now, it has been unofficially reported by a number of sites that the new attraction is to be two free-fall towers that will be partially built into the ground. Charles Willemen is the chief designer of the ride, who previously worked on the Flying Dutchman, and he plans for this new attraction to be partially built inside a cave, which stays within the theming of the Laaf village. If everything goes to plan and these rumours are true, the ride should be opening in 2014.
Our thoughts are not too positive on this one, although we do have faith in Efteling of course! Free-fall towers seem a bit extreme though, we think, for the subject matter. As stated in the story of the Laaf folk:
‘They had tunnelled below a place called the Efteling in the Netherlands. The Efteling is one of Europe’s oldest and most attractive theme parks. The Laafs decided to investigate the source of the music and made their tunnel to the surface. When they saw the beauty and the colours of the Efteling, the Laafs knew they had finally found a place where they could be happy again‘
This would suggest that they climbed out of their tunnel and took up residence in Efteling, not that they came shooting out of the ground like they had a firework stuck up their…yeah, you get what we mean…The Laaf people are a peaceful breed, so we can’t quite fathom the logic about creating two free-falling towers there, but maybe it will work! We live in hope.
For more info, check out parkwijzer.nl and loopings.nl
22 Friday Mar 2013
Posted in All Updates and News, Sprookjesbos, Updates from 2013
Tags
efteling, efteling uk, painting, prince, Sneeuwwitje, snow white
We noticed this a while back now, and believe that it is mentioned on Eftelist too, but if you have not noticed this before, it is rather amusing! As you enter the Snow White building, there is a painting on the wall of Snow White and her Prince on his horse. Whoever painted this clearly took a departure from the original story where the princess supposedly had ‘skin as white as snow, lips as red as blood, and with hair as black as ebony’. 
This Snow White has brownish hair, a tan, and lips that are…lip coloured. The Prince looks, shall we say ‘disturbed’ at the creature he has sitting on his horse; possibly because she looks a bit like a man in drag! And it isn’t just her face and hair that are questionable; she also has a peculiar looking hand…
Thankfully, the figure of Snow in her glass coffin is more in-keeping with the story, as she has the right hair colour etc and looks rather feminine. This painting, however, puzzles us!
18 Monday Mar 2013
Posted in All Updates and News, Sprookjesbos, Updates from 2013
According to Eftelist.nl, Mr. Longneck is currently under a tarpaulin, so hopefully his static eyes are getting fixed at long last! While we’re on the subject of Mr. Longneck, we wanted to share this video of him at Mini Efteling. We love Mini Efteling, and they did a great job at recreating Longneck (including his moving eyes!)
17 Sunday Mar 2013
Posted in All Updates and News, Updates from 2013
Earlier this year, Raveleijn closed down for a reboot, and although it has not been part of Efteling for long, it is already in great need of a freshening up. It is certainly one of the big draws of the park, reaching over 2 million guests since its opening in April 2011. One of the main problems with the show was the storyline (in our opinion) because it was very vague. When you bear in mind that Efteling is the third most visited theme park in Europe and that there will be a lot of guests coming and going who maybe don’t speak Dutch, an easily-understandable story is key. The story was written by children’s author Paul Van Loon, and tells the tale of 5 children who turn into knights and save a medieval city from its ruler, Count Olaf Grafhart. 
We can’t deny that it is a good show; Efteling spent over €30 million on it and spent two years getting it all together. However, some things definitely need tweaking. For a start, you certainly do not see any children turning into riders! The just appear as adults the whole way through.
So, who is going to thrust their magic at Raveleijn and make it even better? Puy du Fou, who have a ton of experience with shows that combine animals, actors and special effects. Not only that, but they are also sending over 30 of their own actors/stuntmen to get things going. CEO of Efteling Bart de Boer said this of the new show:
“The new version of Raveleijn will be epic with lots of action and suspense. Visitors will enjoy a magic gate, the transformation of children into knights as well as many other special effects using water and fire.”
A magic gate! (That is a key element in the story by the way!) Good to hear things are taking shape at least, and we look forward to seeing it when it reopens at the end of April.
With information from newsparcs.com
14 Thursday Mar 2013
Today was the day! A statue to commemorate the brothers Grimm was unveiled by Little Red Riding Hood in Efteling. We believe it to be situated near the other statues, next to the Chinese Nightingale building. Last December marked 200 years of Grimm fairy tales, and with 15 of the 28 fairy tales in the forest at Efteling being Grimm stories, it is of course a perfect choice to have the statue there! The photo comes from Efteling’s Facebook page, but we hope to see some better photos popping up in the near future.
Photo from Efteling’s Facebook Page
In other news, pancakes! If you come here often, you will know how much we love to talk about pancakes, and today is one of those days. Apparently yesterday marked the birth of the 200,000th pancake at Polle’s Keuken. Now, that does seem to be an awful lot of pancakes, but don’t shoot the messenger; n fact, that works out to almost 548 pancakes a day…Looks like we aren’t the only ones who love a good pancake after all! Thinking about visiting Polle’s Keuken? Take a look at the menu below, just give it a click!
The Menu. Click for a closer look!
