Tag Archives: baron 1898

Efteling Have Done it Again!

02 Thursday Jul 2015

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Spoilers a-plenty here, you have been warned!

Baron 1898

 

Yesterday (01’07’15), Efteling’s newest attraction, Baron 1898 Dive Coaster had its grand opening to the public.  We’ve posted a few updates on the ride already, but finally, we get to see it in all its glory!  First of all, you may want to get yourselves acquainted with the story of the ride, by watching this video (with English subtitles! Hooray!) :

Something else we English-speaking folk have to be happy about here is that parts of the speech in the ride are in English, as well as having English written on screens alongside the story as it is being told.  Thank you Efteling!  After almost 20 years of experiencing Villa Volta and trying to fathom out what was going on in the pre-shows (whilst trying to look like you’re totally into the story), this is an absolute dream.

So aside from the ride, what Efteling is really good at getting right is theming.  Of course, this ride is no different; the theming is wonderful, and like the rest of the park, the ride looks like it could have been standing there for years already, as it fits in so well with its surroundings.

The crowning glory (in our opinion) is the audio animatronic of the Baron.  We did post a photo of him recently, but in the video below we finally get to see him in action.  His movements are so fluid, and he kind of makes Hugo van den Loonsche Duynen from Villa Volta look like a mannequin.  Can you imagine this space in the queue without him?  It would be very bland.

In that video you also get to see the pre-show.  Did we mention there’s a lot more English in this attraction? 😉 The queue is great, the projections are amazing, the animatronic is fantastic, but what about the ride?  That’s a hard one to draw a verdict on through a computer screen, but here’s Efteling’s official on-ride video of the coaster itself:

There’s a lot of long stretches of track, but once you’re over the main drop, it seems like an exhilarating ride which we can’t wait to visit!

 

Video 2 from eftel1ngfan  

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A Glimpse of Baron 1898 Animatronic

20 Saturday Jun 2015

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You are all aware by now that Efteling are to open their first dive coaster on July 1st.  We all knew that the ride, as per its name, is a dive coaster which sends riders vertically straight down into a hole before bringing you back up again into a normal coaster.  What we didn’t really know, was that the ride is to have its own audio animatronic, in the form of Gustave Hooghmoed, the Baron himself!  In the newest ‘Making of’ video from Efteling, we get a short glimpse of him, and he looks fantastic! Gustave Hooghmoed

You may remember a while back that we were wishing and hoping that Efteling would put an audio animatronic of the Captain into the Flying Dutchman.  Alas, it is not to be, but Baron 1898 certainly hasn’t gone wrong on that count.  It definitely gives more life to the ride and helps tell a story if you have a ‘person’ in there.

The animatronic of the Baron has been created by Garner Holt Productions, an American company who produce a lot of animated figures for Disney theme parks.

In Efteling’s newest video, we also get to see some of the theming that is taking place in and around the ride; the finishing touches that help to tell the story.

We can’t wait to see it!

Baron 1898 Music Makes Appearance

03 Wednesday Jun 2015

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Baron 1898

We’ve been waiting a while, calmly, patiently, to hear the music that accompanies the new Dive Coaster Baron 1898.  Well, in episode 8 of ‘The Making of Baron 1898’, we finally get to hear an excerpt from the ride’s music.  Written by René Merkelbach, who also wrote the music for George and the Dragon and the Flying Dutchman, the score is inspired by the brass bands of the mining era.

Bring out the orchestra!

The Brussels Philharmonic recorded the music, and as expected (because obviously we Efteling-lovers have high musical standards now 😉 ) it sounds great!  The video only shows a small portion of the final music, but it sounds dramatic and upbeat, a little like Joris en de Draak, and it fits perfectly with Efteling’s back catalogue of attraction music.

Test Runs of Baron 1898

08 Friday May 2015

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A few videos have appeared online of Efteling’s test runs of their new dive coaster, Baron 1898.

It is thought that the coaster will open in July, to coincide with the Summer.  Those of you familiar with a similar coaster at Alton Towers called Oblivion will notice that the cars on Baron 1898 do not take a brief pause at the highest point on the ride.  Possibly it will stay like this when it opens, or maybe it will also make a brief stop at the top.  Either way, what goes up must come down, so there’s not much need to delay the inevitable 😉

Video by looopings.nl

Baron 1898 Progress

24 Tuesday Feb 2015

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This Summer, Efteling will open their newest attraction, a Dive Coaster called Baron 1898.  Efteling have been releasing videos on their YouTube channel updating everyone of the progress being made on the coaster, and this is the latest one:

It’s coming along nicely.  This is what it looked like on our visit back in December:

December 2014

December 2014

It isn’t even finished yet, and you can see how well it is going to blend in with the other attractions, particularly the Flying Dutchman beside it.  This is something Efteling gets right every time, the theming!  When this is finished being constructed, it will look like it’s been there for years, just like every Fairy Tale and every ride they build.

Baron 1898

Pancakes and Dive Coasters

17 Friday Oct 2014

Posted by in All Updates and News, Polle's Keuken, Updates from 2014

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Well only one dive coaster actually, but a lot of pancakes!  This week, Polle’s Keuken attempted to beat the world record for pancake stacking.  With a lot of pancakes and some Efteling magic, the two bakers, Humphrey and John managed to beat the record with a stack of 242 pancakes(!) reaching 91.2cm high.  That is a lot of pancakes to try and keep upright, and they had to remain in the stack for 5 seconds to break the record.  There’s even some English in this video for those who don’t speak Dutch!

On the subject of the new dive coaster which we’ll see open next year in the park, it now has a name!  It’s a little bit of a mouthful maybe but…ahem…

Baron 1898.

Baron 1898

Tada!  It doesn’t completely roll off the tongue, however we imagine it will end up getting called ‘Baron‘ for short.  The theming looks great, but we don’t expect anything less from Efteling, a real theme park!