Got up for breakfast at 9ish for
breakfast. We weren't sure what it was going to be like; thankfully, it
was amazing and definitely got my seal of approval!! It was buffet-style
with a big range of food- my favourite was the pancakes with chocolate
spread! Woo!
Near the end of breakfast, two dressed up characters- Jokie, the
Efteling mascot, and Jet, his pet bird- came into the dining room, and
did a tour of all the tables. MM and I got a picture with them :)
Also yay for NMP3 top!!
After
breakfast we finished getting ready then headed into the park.
How Efteling does bins...
As we
were in quite early, it made most sense to do the 'big rides' first, to
save queuing for them later on. We started with 'De Vliegende Hollander', a ghost pirate ship ride, which combines water and track. It
begins with a lot of atmosphere- lots to see, some themed smells and a
bit of smoke. Then there's a hologram of a ship before a drop, followed
by a lot of tension-building and another drop, this time ending outside.
After that there's some usual roller coaster stuff, then it ends with a
short boat trip! There's a lot to it and it's really creative- the
roller coaster isn't the 'best', but the combination of it all makes it
worth it.
The next ride we went on was 'Joris en de Draak', a racing dragon
ride. Two coasters go at the same time on separate but entwining tracks,
and it's a 'race' to the finish line. This one's unusual in that it's
wooden, which gives a different feel to it all. It's also good in that
it combines drops with fast, bumpy 'non-drop' sections. I absolutely
loved this ride last year and this year was no different- close
contender for favourite ride!!
Finally in terms of big rides, we went on the Python, which has two
loops and a corkscrew. Less themed, more roller coaster. Definitely a
good one, but not one of my absolute favourites.
We decided to
have a bit of a break and walked around. On the way we saw the swinging
pirate ship ride, so we went on that. Unfortunately we ended up near
the middle, so it wasn't so good. C'est la vie!
After that we walked across to the rapid ride. On the way we went
past an animatronic fire-breathing dragon- I got some pics for my
dragon-obsessed little monkey!
Before we got to the rapid ride
itself, we came across a thing that let passers by spray people on the
rapids, so we mucked about with that- managed to spray one family twice.
Hehe. Then carried on to the rapids themselves, which had quite a bit
of a queue- yet more chance to play our fab word guessing game! ;)
The rapids were fun- the best bit being that we actually stayed
pretty dry, not that anyone is sure how! We passed the bit that we'd
been to before, where other people could try to spray the riders, and we
thought we would get splashed. Thankfully, they missed!!
After that we headed for Fata Morgana- essentially an Eastern
version of Disney's 'It's A Small World'. On the way, we saw the
bobsleigh ride, so went on that. It was good because you didn't know
which way the bobsleigh would go.
After the bobsleigh ride everyone was tired and a bit fractious, so
we had a break and had lunch- I had a burger. Following lunch, we
carried on to Fata Morgana, which I enjoyed. It's a really long ride-
much longer than you expect!
I found Jokie!
Spookslot, the haunted house animatronic show, was our next stop.
It really wasn't that great at all; it had skeletons dancing to Danse
Macabre, but that was pretty much it. One to miss next time! We kept to
the theme of shows after that and went to PandaDroom, a 4D theatre
experience about wildlife conservation. The best bit about that was the
end- in the nicest way possible!- as it has a wildlife themed play area
with various 'habitats' to explore and animatronic animals. Very cool!
Polaaaar Bear
Pandaaaaa Bear
It had been raining on and off for quite a large part of the
afternoon, but the weather got a bit worse after we got out of
PandaDroom. Whilst looking for shelter, we ended up by the pancake
house, and we decided we might as well stop there for food! I had a
pancake with hazelnut spread, which was absolutely delicious, though
very rich- I had to leave the last little bit!
NOM
It was still raining, so when we left we looked for more things
undercover. Thankfully, the gondolas were nearby, with a roof on each
boat and no queue- perfect! Boat was a bit unbalanced though, as we all
chose to sit in the driest parts (the roof didn't totally protect the
seats). The gondola ride was a lot lot longer than we expected! We
played the word game the whole time, which was nice.
Waterfall
Still searching for things to do without getting too wet, we went on Vogel Rok again- always good! After that we walked to the nearby monorail around the kids 'laughing village'. It wasn't great, but at least it was out of the rain. Once off of the monorail, we explored the laughing village a little (with a detour through the museum)- MM fell in love with one of the animatronic things (pictured below), which had a really weird song playing.
Bread making
As it was getting to around 7:30ish, we decided to go back to the 'big rides', to make best use of the short queues near park closing time. We went on the pirate ride again, and we tried to go on the dragon racing ride, but unfortunately it was closed- so we headed to the Python, and that was also closed :( We took this as our cue to go to the show area. The show was essentially just water fountains and lights accompanied by music- good, but better when the sky and water aren't the same colour- most of it just blended together!
Lots of water
On our way back to the hotel, we managed to get completely lost in the fairytale garden for about half an hour. The others were worried as it was technically past closing time and they thought we were going to get locked in; however, I thought it was great fun! I was then entrusted with navigating- long story short, I'm no longer allowed to map-read.
We did find a mermaid though
Thankfully, we did get out in the end! Back to the hotel, where we dried off, then went to the bar for a bit- I Skyped my family, and had a beautiful fresh leaf mint tea. Finally, up and to bed, where I think I fell asleep mid-conversation!!