The journey through the castle of fantasy

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A visit to Winter Efteling

A visit to the Dutch theme park Efteling is always a good idea, especially in winter. Although you have to live without the water rides Piraña and Vliegende Hollander, the Winter Efteling is one of the best winter events in an European theme park. No wonder that I have visited the park by now more often in winter than in summer. With Symbolica and the other dark rides, Efteling is a rather special place in winter.

As the airfares from England to Hamburg were a bit too expensive for me for the Christmas season, I found a trip to the amusement park a practical way to get home. At that time there were no offers, so I decided to buy a Ticket Luxe. This includes the entrance fee, a short ERT on selected rides (which is only worthwhile, when being at the park way before its opening), 25% discount on souvenirs, a snack, coffee & cake, as well as a dinner in one of the park’s service restaurants and the parking ticket. The latter alone costs 10€, which is why the surcharge on the normal ticket price only costs a total of 20€ for a person travelling alone. This is quite a fair deal; for each additional person in the same car, however, the surcharge is 30€, as they do not need the parking ticket – especially for families with children, this option might not be a good idea. It is an all-round carefree package, very similar to the all-inclusive package of the Danish amusement park Tivoli Gardens, except that the amusement park here is much bigger and you can easily lose yourself in the absence of planning.

This has happened to me at least; such a ticket is kind of stressful. After spending my time with the park’s attractions, I was the last visitor in the Panorama restaurant nearby Vogel Rok. After its closure, I even got served an espresso when all the other guests had already left the restaurant. That was very exemplary – and I was very happy to be able to redeem the last voucher of the Ticket Luxe. The food offered here was good, I had salmon with a glass of white wine and the already mentioned espresso – at the end, the ticket option was quite useful. For this reason, I recommend this ticket option to anyone who can manage comfortably with all-round carefree packages and knows in advance that they are going to eat in the park at regular intervals.

Symbolica

In addition to this all-inclusive premiere, another novelty had to be tested: Symbolica. The journey through the Palace of Fantasy is Efteling’s newest dark ride, where you can explore three different paths: the Heroes Tour, the Treasure Tour and the Music Tour. The special feature of Symbolica is the ride system used, as it does not need rails and the gondolas seem to move randomly along the route.

The general ride sequence of Symbolica is the same for all three tours up to a certain point. On our way to the audience with King Pardulfus we are guided through numerous beautifully designed halls and corridors by the court magician Pardoes. The scene in the Botanicum is especially memorable, where a whale suddenly appears on the spell of Pardoes, the surrounding glass roof gets a jump and water penetrates the castle. This moment is Efteling in perfection and thus you can’t get out of your amazement. In the following corridor you can shake your car back and forth – as the car is also fitted with touch panels and invites visitors to interact.

All three gondolas then disappear into a small room where, in addition to the obligatory ride photo, a kind of mini-game awaits the passengers in the front row. The back row has to be a little patient, as this section unfortunately takes some time. Thereafter, each gondola is released into the fantasy depot, whereupon all gondolas enter a special room according to their tour. Especially the hero tour is recommended as it allows to fight against each other with two knight animatronics or to leave it as it is; depending on which decision you choose in this scene or depending on which decision the first row takes in this scene, the grand finale of Symbolica changes accordingly. Arriving in the ballroom you can watch a very happy party or chaos at work. Thanks to the different ends (only two of them are mentioned here, which I attended myself) this ride has a lot of potential for repetitions, however, you need a few rides before you finally understand the influence of the Symbolica’s touch screens. The room with the mirror unfortunately looks uninspired, the rest is just great; although the ride would have been even better if the interaction had been solved differently. Unfortunately, this leaves a bland aftertaste that doesn’t really do justice to this dark ride.

Miscellaneous

I spent the rest of the day hoping that the Bob roller coaster would eventually open – which unfortunately didn’t happen – and with numerous rides on the roller coasters and dark rides of the theme park. I was also able to do one last lap on the original Python roller coaster before it was rebuilt by replacing the rails and supports. In Efteling nothing disappears so quickly, especially not the family fun.

Pictures Efteling

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TKathke December 21, 2017 May 1, 2023 Efteling

Festyland

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Theme Park:	Festyland (since 1989)

Address:	Route de Caumont
	14760 Bretteville-sur-Odon
	http://festyland.com

Operated by:	Fam. Lebel & Fam. Lair

Festyland in Bretteville-Sur-Odon nearby Caen, is a small, family-run amusement park in Normandy, France. Opened in 1989, the theme park offers a very solid selection of family-friendly rides – most of them are made by the Italian ride company Zamperla –, interesting playgrounds, as well as some larger roller coasters and flat rides.

Highlights of the Theme Park

1066

A great coaster

Drakkar Express

The family coaster

Eretic

A giant Swing

Le Grand Tournoi

A Zamperla Disk’o

Kaskade

The insane river rapids

Miolnyr

Loop-the-Loop

TKathke November 4, 2017 February 19, 2023 Festyland

The Runaway Mine Train on Hayling Island

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Funland Amusement Park

The small amusement park Funland Amusement Park on Hayling Island is great – admittedly not a reason for a longer day trip, but as a complement to the beach visit it’s perfect; because if there is one thing Hayling Island has, it’s a beautiful and very wide crispbread beach. Contrary to the beach promenade on Portsea, there is normally always a little more action on Hayling island, which is why the amusement park is opened much more often than the bigger Clarence Pier. With a view to the Solent, the strait between the English mainland and the Isle of Wight, and the nearby station of the Hayling Seaside Railway, there is the parking lot of the Funland Amusement Park. Interestingly, this parking lot was free this time, otherwise, one gets some ride tokens as equivalent value. So it’s generally not a bad deal to park your car at this place, especially since it paid for the ride on the new roller coaster Runaway Mine Train last time.

Runaway Mine Train

This mouse from L&T Systems came from the Gulliver’s Warrington amusement park and can now be ridden without a child (to the park entrance). The decoration in turn came from the former Pinfari Looper Klondike Gold Mine, which now makes its rounds as a transportable installation in Ireland. For the audience it was an extremely fair exchange, although the ride through the gold mine was really good and thematically suited better to the log flume next door or seemed a little rounder in the overall package. Either way, the Runaway Mine Train is a really great addition.

Neptune’s Fury

The Woody’s Children’s Roller Coaster was replaced this year by the slick Tilt-a-Whirl Neptune’s Fury. It complements the typical English rides with flying colours, but with American accents. Interestingly, the valleys are more pronounced with a Tilt-a-Whirl in comparison to a Waltzer, which provides a good spin right from the start! But unfortunately, the ride lacks the possibility to lock the gondola towards the end of the ride, so getting off the ride requires some attention.

Funlandasaurus

The Extreme Miami, the Twister Cyclone and an enclosed bumper car complete the aforementioned portfolio. The small park also convinces with its selection of rides for children. Above all, the nicely designed children’s roller coaster Super Dragon Roller Coaster or Funlandasaurus, which now makes its rounds in an extremely well-designed children’s area – for this purpose the surrounding rides were given a dinosaur theme last year.

The SBNO Drop Tower

In general, one wonders why the park does so badly with the some enthusiasts – especially since the park still has an ace up its sleeve. The Funland Amusement Park has – at the moment without a gondola and therefore unfortunately SBNO – a great freefall tower made by Intamin. Without a great braking distance, it was a real pleasure to fall down; a drop pleasure par excellence, as one can normally only find it on the Meteor in the Hirakata Park or the Lanzandera in the Parque de Atracciones de Madrid. Either way, the tower structure is still standing, the carrier is still attached, so there is still hope for an early return (editor’s note: the tower was removed from the park for the 2018 season).