22 Monday Mar 2021
Have you ever wanted a life-sized Jokie in your home? Excellent! Now is the time for your dreams to become reality, because the Efteling webshop is now selling an ‘XXL Jokie’ for the bargain price of 200€. By life-sized I mean, the size of the figures in the ride, or thereabouts. Click the link here to see how he measures up in Carnaval Festival.
Oh, Efteling still don’t ship to the UK, so you’d have to find a nice Dutch friend to send him onto you!
24 Friday May 2019
Posted in All Updates and News, Updates from 2019
Carnaval Festival has been closed for around 3 months for a little refurbishment. There have been several changes made to the ride, and in my opinion it is looking really rather good!
Things have been mentioned in the past by various sources that some of the scenes were a little on the racist side of things. Whether they were or not, some of these scenes have now been altered, although in some cases only slightly! The African, Chinese and Japanese scenes have been changed slightly, and the pirate at the end of the ride has been removed to make way for Jokie and Jet. The Japanese man at the end of the ride is also looking slightly different and there are some general tidy-ups throughout the ride like the frogs at the start, who look a lot fresher. The music has been tweaked too (don’t worry it’s mostly the same stuck-in-your-head-all-day track!).
Here’s the video:
Oh, and remember when the vehicles stopped now and then? Well they still do, but now you get to have a little wiggle in your seat to a fanfare until it starts back up again! It makes stopping so much more exciting! 😁
In addition to the ride changes, the store at the end where you buy your on-ride photos is now called Confetti, and has been given a face-lift which looks much brighter and more in-keeping with the shop next door.
All in all, everything is looking great!
13 Sunday Jan 2019
Posted in All Updates and News, Updates from 2019
Tags
Happy New Year!
A new year means a new renovation schedule, and here’s the most intriguing one so far:
From early March to late May, Carnaval Festival will be closed for renovations. While nobody outside of Efteling knows exactly what will be changed in the ride, some people in the theme park community believe that it might include altering some of the ‘racist’ figures in the attraction. Whether you agree that racism is rife in the ride or not, it has been pointed out on several occasions that some of the ride’s figures are derogatory towards certain nationalities.
By the end of May we will know exactly what is getting changed; perhaps it is simply a Spring clean!
Until then, you can enjoy the ride as it is currently with this video:
25 Friday Sep 2015
Posted in All Updates and News, Updates from 2015
From time to time, things need a little Spring (or Autumn) clean! Of course, many of Efteling’s attractions are located outdoors, and therefore are vulnerable to all kinds of crazy weather. In Carnaval Festival’s case, it’s just the sign that has been beaten down by the elements! Jokie needed a good scrub, and tomorrow (26/9) the attraction will reopen after having a little clean-up, inside and out. The sign is looking a little brighter, as you can see…
Photo from Liesbeth106 on Twitter
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10 Wednesday Jul 2013
Posted in All Updates and News, Updates from 2013
Tags
africa, carnaval festival, china, efteling, eftelinguk, japan, muslim, racism
We were sent an article that was written on a blog called ‘a musliminah in NL’ which was about someone’s first visit to Efteling. It isn’t a long article, and the only attractions mentioned are Sprookjesbos and Carnaval Festival. The latter, all for the wrong reasons. The writer seemed to enjoy the ride, until they got to the Japanese section:
‘We reach Japan and suddenly the dolls all have slitty eyes and are fat (sumo wrestlers) and there’s this ominous ‘Asian’ music filled with gong sounds. And of course there’s more slitty-eyed geishas shuffling around.’
Sumo
Then they go through Africa, and aren’t keen on how the dolls are black and are hunting animals.
They say:
‘It borders on being racist and isn’t it time to update the exhibits?’
You can imagine that this doesn’t sit well with us, but of course, we are biased! However, on the blog, it does state that the writer is ‘Muslim, Singaporean, politically Malay, historically a mix of Javanese.’ So maybe that is why they have a problem with only specific parts of the ride? I mean, maybe I would go in there and complain that not all British people are white, and not everyone is a soldier? How about the French? In their part of the ride, there is a prostitute on the corner, but the writer seems totally fine with this. Poor Germany is painted as a bunch of alcoholics, and apparently all Mexicans wear sombreros and ride donkey! That’s fine though. As long as the Asians and Africans are changed to be politically correct, then it’s all good!
They do also mention that they aren’t too happy about the figure in the middle of Monsieur Cannibale, but that is expected after their feelings towards Carnaval Festival.
Clearly this irritated us a bit. Carnaval Festival opened in 1984, and hasn’t been changed massively ever since. Political correctness was not in huge force then, and even still, do these dolls really offend anyone? How about Disney’s ‘it’s a small world’? Does that offend too?
If you’re going to Efteling, you are probably going there to have fun, so don’t take things too seriously; the things you see there are not intended to cause offence.
02 Tuesday Jul 2013
Posted in All Updates and News, Updates from 2013
Tags
carnaval festival, draak, dragon, efteling, eftelinguk, jokie
…in Carnaval Festival of course! Our friend Ron on Facebook told us that the characters on the wall behind the dragon in the China section of the ride say ‘無任歡迎’ [wú rèn huānyíng] and mean ‘Not Welcome’*.
Now we understand why he always looks angry!
Not Welcome
*Ok, so we posted this, and then got told that the translation was not correct! Apparently, it mean ‘no matter what, you’re welcome’. Whether you’re rich or poor, or whatever your race etc. Thank you Anna for the correction!
27 Wednesday Feb 2013
Posted in All Updates and News, Updates from 2013
We came across a peculiar video of the Carnaval Festival song playing in Studio 1 at Walt Disney Studios park, in Paris. We’re not sure of the reason why, but here it is!
19 Monday Nov 2012
Posted in All Updates and News, Updates from 2012
Today, Efteling posted this photo of Santa Claus in Carnaval Festival:
He’s quite cute! If you would like to share any photos of Winter Efteling, please send them to us! info@eftelinguk.com or on our Facebook page.
11 Sunday Nov 2012
We found a couple when we were having a clear-out.
We love the old-school Carnaval Festival mug, complete with Pardoes! The Droomvlucht one is also pretty cool; if only the Droomvlucht store still sold this kind of thing! However, that is a rant for another day!
05 Monday Mar 2012
Posted in All Updates and News, Updates from 2012
A short but sweet post today. We now have 50 fans of Efteling UK on Facebook *pulls party popper*. That is pretty good so far, however, I hope that we can make it to 60 fans before Efteling’s birthday on May 31st! Plenty of time, but get inviting your Facebook friends to ‘like’ the Efteling UK page, teamwork is the way forward!
Something else which I promised I would mention regarding a recent post about dragons, is this guy:
Yes, I forgot to mention him when I was gushing about Efteling’s dragons. He’s rather large so I’m surprised I forgot him, but, better late than never! He lives in Carnaval Festival if anyone wants to visit him.
Thanks to Johano and Tim van Dongen for pointing out my mistake 😉
