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:
Speculation on the wonderful world wide web is pointing to Efteling opening a second (nature) park south of the existing park, called The Loonsche Land. It actually sounds a lot like Bosrijk, as it will be built with a ‘natural look’ in mind, and includes holiday villas and houses on stilts, alongside an actual hotel with 70 rooms.
There will also be a reception building and restaurant. Other than news of accommodation and a restaurant, there isn’t too much information on this venture at the moment, but hopefully there will be a little more to it than just those things. Efteling doesn’t usually disappoint, and there’s sure to be some more solid new son!
In our last post we talked about the updates that are happening in Fata Morgana right now. It’s due to open again at the start of October, but that’s only the beginning of the construction going on in the park. The bulk of the work is of course the installation of the new dive coaster near to the Flying Dutchman. Recently, they have chopped a corner off the Gondoletta lake so that they can move the path over that currently exists there, allowing more space for the coaster. There isn’t a whole lot to look at yet ride-wise, but construction is definitely underway! Here’s a video taken by Eftelwesley yesterday:
In addition to a new coaster, Bosrijk is currently in the process of receiving 18€ million worth of new accommodation. The sign outside reads:
‘We’re continuing to build on dreams…Expansion of Efteling Village Bosrijk’.
Concept art for the new accommodation.
Construction is set to finish in mid-2015. Click here to see how it’s coming along.
Also getting some TLC is the house of the five senses. Mainly the roof. That thatched roof must look it’s best since it’s the bold and beautiful entrance to the park! Efteling are currently fixing some bald patches (that happens when you get older, even to thatched roofs) and most likely removing a lot of moss that has being growing there for a while. It is mainly the Efteldingen store that is covered over at the moment.
Next up: Villa Volta. As pointed out last year by looopings.nl, Villa Volta’s exterior had seen better days. Basically, crumbling and cracking in the walls etc was making it look like less of a magnificent mansion and more like a haunted house. Well at the moment, the maintenance walls are up! We can only hope that they will take down these horrible signs while they’re there…
Last but not least…well, we actually don’t feel too excited about this last one in honesty. It seems as though there’s an Aquanura 3 on the way to Efteling. Yes, 3…already. Some WET employees (the guys who created the show) have landed in Efteling and have been testing some new sequences out at the Vonderplas. It seems very early for phase 3 of the show considering that part 2 only started earlier this year (with preview shows at the end of last year). Also, most of the music from the park has already been used in the first two shows, so that does leave the question: which music will they use next?
It has been pointed out that this could be a show specifically for Winter Efteling, but that’s pure speculation. It’s a mystery for now, so we’ll wait and see!
The Pagoda is also listed as reopening at the end of October.
It was said when the new CEO of Efteling, Fons Jurgens came along, that he would be concentrating more on maintenance of what was in the park rather than adding new things. Well there’s a bit of both going on at the moment and that’s great!
We’re still hoping for a Spookslot overhaul too, and it is closed for 5 days in November, but that’s only time for a mere dust! 😉
Never fear though, apparently the Python coaster is staying! The new Director of the park, Fons Jurgens, has announced the new coaster, which will be a dive coaster similar to Oblivion at Alton Towers, with a 37 foot fall to the ground. We’re quite interested as to what the story will be surrounding the ride, and where exactly it will be built. The coaster will open in 2015, and it’s costing €36 million…not too much then…
In other news, Bosrijk is having new rooms added! Right now there are 1150 beds, but soon there will be 1550! Great news for Bosrijk lovers.
This news will surely help Efteling to its target of having 5 million visitors through their gates by 2020.
Efteling are giving you the chance to win a pyjama party in Bosrijk, simply by designing your own pyjamas. Second prize are VIP tickets to see the Sandman Musical, and third prize is one of ten CDs of the musical.
Choose male or female pyjamas, then drag and drop styles and colours onto the pyjamas, as well as images and buttons, to make your garment look ravishing! After that, use the bottom button of the three buttons on the right hand side to enter your pyjamas. You get to write a few words on why your pyjamas are the most beautiful too! Make sure not to sell them short!
Here’s our pyjamas:
Then just cross your fingers and hope for the best!
If you have ever stayed at Bosrijk, you will be familiar with the option to have breakfast. You can choose to have it on any morning of your stay, and it costs 15,50€ per adult and 7,75€ for kids between 4 and 12. If you don’t want to pay that much for breakfast every day, the store at Bosrijk’s reception sells bread, cereals, milk etc so that you can make your own.
The breakfast is a buffet, with the usual offerings. You’ll find breads, cereals, various meats and cheeses, eggs and bacon, juice and yoghurt as well as coffee and various teas. You’ll also find the best egg warmer you’ve ever seen:
Sandman Egg Warmer and Egg Cups
There are seats inside the building as well as outside and in the conservatory. If you get a chance to have breakfast here, it’s definitely worth it!
Whilst staying at Bosrijk, the time may come when you feel the need to call for a pizza. Of course, you can go and pick one up from the main building, however if your cottage/apartment is a little further out, you may want to have one delivered.
On our last visit, in the name of research, (of course) we ordered a pizza for delivery. The number is located in your accommodation, along with a menu. Once you have ordered your pizza, wait a little while, and a man on a bike will turn up at your door. Your pizza has arrived!
Now for the verdict. We had been meaning to order on of these for a while, because we’d seen people wandering around with pizzas and got a little bit jealous! We ordered some sort of chicken pizza, and it arrived fairly quickly. Unfortunately, it wasn’t as good as we’d hoped. It was sort of hard on the base and didn’t have a lot of flavour. Of course, all pizzas are different, so I would still encourage people to try one, even just for the novelty of it turning up on a bike 🙂
There are a LOT of rooms at Bosrijk, so naturally, there is a lot of luggage passing through. Sometimes, if you get there early and your room isn’t ready, you will need to leave your suitcases in the space provided while you go out and enjoy the park. Now, with all those rooms, you would imagine that Bosrijk would have left a lot of space for baggage…but they haven’t. About a metre and a half wide by about 2 and a half metres is the space in which you are expected to cram your suitcases, strollers, golf clubs etc. Get some Vaseline on your suitcase and get ready to push! We managed to take a low quality photo of the ordeal; note the cases that have been left all over the floor outside of the baggage area.
Oh, and good luck to the person who has their suitcase on the bottom of the pile!
