Autumn at Efteling, what a beautiful time! Now call me stupid, but I never realised that those little red and white toadstools were actually based on real toadstools. I simply had never seen them before and thought that they were a fabrication! So of course, when I saw a load of people on the ground at Bosrijk taking photos of something, I looked a little closer and saw these brightly coloured wonders. Their Sunday name is Amanita muscaria. It is suggested that you don’t eat them! Here they are in all their glory:
This past weekend, Efteling became the subject of the annual Corso Valkenswaard, a multi-day event originating from the liberation of the Brabant city of Valkenswaard in 1944. Back then, schools and other groups would decorate their bicycles and cars with flowers and parade them through the streets.
This year, the theme of the event was ’65 Years of Efteling in Flowers’. The parade consisted of floats decorated with thousands upon thousands of flowers, and included attractions such as The Chinese Nightingale, The Little Match Girl, and Villa Volta. Some floats were particularly impressive, such as ‘Geprikt’ (that’s ‘pricked’ to you and me) which displayed a giant spinning wheel and floating Sleeping Beauty castle, and Station de Oost: De Brutale Aap, which is represented by a huge monkey, with the station built around him and an Efteling train at the back. There’s even someone at the front of the float making food!
Station de Oost: De Brutale Aap
My personal favourite however, is the Steam Carousel; two horses attached to a steam engine wheel which rotates, and a handful of organ pipes on the back. They even had the ‘ticket booth’ in front which you can see at the entrance to the actual building in Efteling.
There was also a peculiar set of floats at the end of the parade which were there to represent ‘papier hier’, although it didn’t totally resemble any particular waste bins!
I’ll link a video of the whole parade with sound below, and a shorter one below that. It would be lovely to see something like this in Efteling one day!
At Tilburg Fair earlier this month, there was a special treat for Efteling fans. A miniature of the Steam Carousel (Carousel Palace) from Efteling could be seen in all it’s glory, with wonderful detail, including the drinks bar in the corner! Take a look at the video taken by Eftelwesley:
July 1st is here! Happy Symbolica day! We’ve waited a long time for this day, through the Hartenhof years and through the building of Symbolica, the day is finally here.
This is Efteling’s first trackless ride, situated in the park’s ‘brink’ at the end of Pardoes Promenade next to Polle’s Keuken pancake restaurant, which shares the same theme as Symbolica. Here’s what Efteling have to say about it:
Come and visit the new indoor family attraction Symbolica. An enchanting palace in which nothing is what it seems. Enjoy an audience with the King together. Magic Jester Pardoes will ensure that every visit is surprising and enchanting. Let yourself be led along the secret corridors through into magical rooms and be amazed time after time.
Many of you may remember that Pardoes was the park’s icon for a number of years, but more recently we haven’t seen as much of him. Now, he is immortalised in this new attraction along with Princess Pardijn.
Riders will be taken on one of three different routes through the palace; Heroes Tour, Treasures Tour or the Music Tour. Each tour has already been posted on YouTube, so if you can’t wait to visit Symbolica, then see the video below of the Treasures Tour!
A new Efteling advert has also been created to include the new €35million attraction:
There has been a lot going on in the world of Efteling lately…
On May 31st, Efteling celebrated its 65th birthday; and with that came the opening of a new exhibition in the Efteling Museum: 65 years of Efteling. Included in the exhibition is a very cool interactive map of the park, as can be seen in the videos below:
As part of the park’s 65th birthday celebrations, new accommodation, Loonsche Land opened on May 31st and will soon be joined by the park’s newest attraction, Symbolica, which opens in July.
Take a look below to see how Symbolica is coming along. You get a great view of the roof garden from Pagode, as you can see all of those 800 solar panels! Eftelwesley’s video also shows us the area around the attraction, including the queue.
Here’s a brief look at Loonsche Land from my friend Eftelwesley…There are loads more of his videos of the new resort at his site here
First impressions of the new vacation park are that it looks a lot like Bosrijk, but it just isn’t! It does look beautiful though, and I’m sure that many of us Efteling nerds will be planning ‘research trips’ in the near future.
In other news, Pandadroom is finally getting a new film, hurray! So far we know that the new film will be based around Klaas Vaak (The Sandman, or as Google translate likes to call him, the Sand Cauliflower), but little information is known at this time. Let us just hope that the restaurant Octopus remains mostly unchanged, as it is such a relaxing place to chill out.
There is also a rumour that Efteling, in conjunction with Europa Park, are looking into creating a flight simulator ride similar to that of Soarin’ in Disneyland and Walt Disney World. We look forward to that, if it ever comes into being!
And last but not least, gefeliciteerd to Eftelwesley on his 10,000 subscribers! Thank you for sharing your Efteling videos with us!
As the opening of Efteling’s newest attraction grows closer, the park ramp up their marketing, and it’s totally cool…
E-mails were delivered today to Efteling fans for a chance to win one of several prizes:
200x 6 Efteling tickets for June 30 include sneak preview Symbolica. • 12x accommodation for 5 people in the Efteling Loonsche Country Hotel, including unlimited access to the Efteling. OJ Punctuel, Lackey of His Majesty King Pardulfus, is sending out invites to the palace, and once you enter the competition you will receive a lovely little personalised video from him (some are subtitled in English).
The newest episode of The Making of Symbolica has also just been uploaded to Efteling’s YouTube channel. We’re getting more and more excited to ride!
From April 1st this year, Efteling has set down some new rules on smoking. The action is long overdue, but smoking in attraction queues has finally been banned; our prayers have been answered! Smoking in the Fairy Tale Forest is also discouraged, but the rule will not be enforced here as it is in the other queues. Three smoking areas have been installed in the forest, and the decision to use them or not is entirely up to the individual, so it is between you and your own conscience!
Of course, this new rule will only work if it is enforced by staff. As seen in other parks, such as Disneyland Paris, many a time an employee will pass a visitor with a lit cigarette and do absolutely nothing. Therefore, only time will tell if the new rules will work.
Either way, it is a much-needed step forward for Efteling!
Today in the U.K it is pancake day! The Dutch will be celebrating at another time, but for now, let us take a moment to talk about pancakes…
Of course, we wish we were at Polle’s Keuken to celebrate this happy day, but alas, no can do! If you’ve never been to Polle’s before and would like to try it out, check out our review here.
While you’re in there, you can pick up some of Polle’s pannenkoek mix, to give your pancakes that ‘Efteling’ touch. Scroll down for your Polle’s Keuken fix, and see the menu to get some ideas for your own pancakes!
It’s been a while since the last post here, but there is some very important news from Efteling that needs to be shared!
Efteling’s new accommodation, Het Loonsche Land, which opens in a few months, has taken a delivery of antlers. The new holiday park is set to open on Efteling’s 65th birthday on May 31st 2017, and is costing €30 million to build. You could buy a lot of antlers with that!
