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