Efteling merchandise has varied in quality over the years, from very good to very tacky! As an Efteling fan, there are quite a few things that I *wish* they would make available, so I’m going to make a few mini posts, kind of like an Efteling ‘wishlist’ of what I’d like to see to buy in the park.
Some of these things have been available before, so it’ll also be a bit of a nostalgia trip.
First up…Room spray! But I don’t necessarily want it back…
I would love for Efteling to make this into a candle, because to be honest, the room spray was a little bit too strong. And by a ‘little’, I mean a lot! One spray of one of those things and you were smelling it for the next week! It’s so strong that I’ve still got a couple of each left, they just seem to last forever!
A candle would be a nice subtle way of having the Fata Morgana and Droomvlucht scents in your home (and maybe some other scents too; gingerbread anyone?). There were once some oils for sale too, which were really nice, and a bit more subtle than the sprays, but I’ve not seen those on recent trips.
There are plenty of on-ride videos of different Efteling attractions available on the internet, but now, there are official Efteling ones available! Obviously these are massive spoilers for anyone who hasn’t visited the park yet, but for the rest of us, they simply help us to get our Efteling fix in HD (actually, the videos are also available in 4K resolution 😮 )
Or rather the *new* making of. It includes clips from the original making of documentary that is available on DVD from Efteling. It shows the concentration on the Zomp Forest mainly, which is of course where most of the updates have taken place.
Our friend eftelingfan! posted a video on our last post, along with some great comments, so here they all are!
‘You can see the queue now has a beautiful ceiling, with the same theming as the entrance, as well as new doors.
The station has remained the same- but the castle realm is really changed.
Sadly, they added way to much light to the area behind the castles; something you should never do with a forced perspective building, because it shows the wall and ceiling behind the castles and ruins the illusion. (You can tell by the brightly coloured mountains)
The fairy forest is sooo much better. They really cleaned that place up, making it look brightly coloured and amazing.
Now, the flower realm still has the glitch where the cars take way too long to turn to the scene, sadly. However, they changed the lighting in here, making it looks amazing!
Then of course the part everyone was so exited about; the tunnel.
And yes, it looks much better. The walls aren’t visible any more and the stars have a feel of depth.
The star castles look good, but a little over-lighted again.
They did by far the best job on the Zomp Forest.
Now not only is there a troll being Tarzan, they also changed the lighting at the top of the forest, so it looks more magical.
So in general this was a huge improvement for the ride, but some things still need to be fixed.
What’s also noticeable (and annoying, to be honest) is they removed the water from the ride! There are no longer waterfalls everywhere. I find water a major part in the Efteling, and removing it from the ride makes the ride look more plastic and less natural. The LED lights that replaced the waterfall look cheap. It’s no longer raining in the Zomp forest.’
We pretty much agree with all of these comments! The queue definitely needed a little something, and the doors and greenery look great. The start tunnel looks so much better, since you can no longer see where the wall joins the floor, and best of all, no more UV paint splashes! Everything seems cleaner and brighter with better lighting. I suppose a lot of this is to do with removing a lot of dust from the whole place! We actually think that the floating castles look better than they did, as they have more coloured lights on them, it seems that you can see more of them. Things in general seem to be moving better and looking fresher. We love the Zomp Forest! Check out that little guy swinging back and forth, he’s so happy (you can tell by his screams of joy). Also, take a look at the water…it now has mist sitting on it, not like before when it was clear. This makes it stand out more than before.
If you want to compare the two, here’s a ‘before’ video:
Over the past couple of months,the ride has been given a ‘refresh’. The Zomp Forest and the Star Tunnel have been given the most attention, and the doors to the attraction have been changed to be more in-keeping with the theme of the ride. There is a photo of the doors on Efteling’s Facebook page, though it seemed a little creepy so we thought we’d leave it where it was!
We’re sure more photos and videos will be popping up online soon, and we’ll try to find some of the best ones to share!
As many of you know, the Dream Flight is closed for a few months while it gets what is appearing to be a massive overhaul. Some photos have emerged which show the Zomp Forest reduced to a pile of rubble (apart from the trees) and our illusion of floating castles is ruined forever! On the bright side of course, the whole place is getting a new lease of life which it has needed for a little while. Apparently, there are going to be subtle projections added into the attraction; and Efteling fans across the land are still waiting patiently to see if anything is done to make that queue a little nicer!
Take a look at a couple of the photos on vijfzintuigen.nl by clicking here.
Droomvlucht is due to reopen on December 13th, for those of you planning a trip.
If you are part of our Facebook army, you will have seen us share a photo from Eftelist’s Twitter of the new Droomvlucht Photos. We mentioned that the ride would be getting these a while back. Fata Morgana is also due to get on-ride photos installed. The photos look ok, but it is basically you in your black ride vehicle, with a Droomvlucht border around the photo (if you choose to buy it). It is cute though, a nice souvenir if you are a Droomvlucht fan!
Keesje Zwaan
Sadly, on 10/07/13, the Black Swan that lived on the island in the middle of the Gondoletta lake passed away. She had been living there for the last 25-30 years according to Efteling. She never saw any shame in swimming over to visitors in their boats and looking for some food! There is a Facebook page for her if you would like to leave your condolences, as many others have.
Finally, Mushroom Productions have sent us a link to their trip report of Efteling. We thought that we would share it with you; we do love a good trip report!
Our friend Leonard has some pretty cool Efteling videos from earlier in the year, and we wanted to share them with you. The first is a brief tour of the park, the others are a Fata Morgana ride-though and a Droomvlucht ride-through. They have been making us homesick!
Remember, if you haven’t been to Efteling before and are planning a visit, there are massive spoilers in these videos that you may not want to see!
Enjoy!
Thanks to Leonard for allowing us to share these videos!
According to looopings.nl, The Dream Flight and Fata Morgana will soon be receiving photo spots somewhere inside each ride. This will be more of a ‘journey’ photo, rather than a ‘hair-raising’ photo, which of course you can buy from George and the Dragon, the Flying Dutchman etc. We can imagine that this will be along the same lines as the photo you have taken in Carnaval Festival.
You have to wonder, where would they put the camera? On Dream Flight, as you travel along one of the dark corridors, there is a flashing light at the end, in front of you…although that would only take a photo of the first gondola out of the two, and with no atmosphere! Maybe on the way into, or on the way out of a scene would be a good place?
On Fata Morgana, how about at the start when everyone looks up at the wizard as he waves his wand? It is slightly strange of course, that you would want to buy a photo of the whole boat, especially if you are in a boat with other people, which is very likely. However, Disneyland Paris do this in Pirates of the Caribbean, but you can choose to crop most of the boat out when you come to buying the photo.
Would you rather buy a photo of you and your friends/family travelling through the Fairy Realm to a photo on the Python or Rok? Hopefully, we’ll find out more soon.
