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Efteling: General Discussion

I mean it's great if you're going for the IKEA cafe look, not so much if you're a theme park famed for being an enchanted fairytale world. I'm only going off pictures of the previous theme, and I perhaps get wanting to modernise things a little. But this just looks like they've took gone crazy with a tub of brilliant white and light grey :confused:.
 
I'm really hoping this represents as much as they needed to do to be able to reopen - the 'MVP' so to speak - and that there is more theming due to go in later.

Still, the fact that they got rid of that lovely mural seems criminal.
 
It's not somewhere I have seen or visited before, but what they've done looks so very un-Efteling. It's almost as if they decided to contact it out to someone else! You can modernise but still retain charm and that magical feeling.
 
Ba-da-bing, ba-da-double post one month apart, as the Danse Macabre scaffolding is now gone! (two gibs) And we get to see what the Decoration and Design dept have been up in the meantime, plus more Charlatans.

 
Just got back from two days at Efteling this Friday and Saturday. Managed to get amazing weather. We took my three year old niece who absolutely loved it. Operations were excellent as expected. Managed to get on everything with multiple re-rides despite the high crowd levels. This place really is magical, and for me, better than Disney.

However.

The place isn’t at its best at the moment. The Grand Hotel is far from complete and it doesn’t look like its theming will match the rest of the park. It seems to be being built with prefabricated concrete panels with brick shapes on them. There are large gaps between these panels. I really hope this is all going to be rendered on top of to improve the appearance.

The whole entrance to the park is looking poor at the moment with a massive hole in the ground in front of the House of Five Senses, several cranes and a large temporary walk around.

The lake with the fountain show is mostly drained and looks very poor.

Piraña is fenced off whilst undergoing refurbishment.

Danse Macabre is still under construction (it looks excellent theming wise).

I’d say about 1/4 of the park is temporary fences and building work at the moment.

I feel like they’ve bitten off more than they can chew and are doing too much at once and it’s detracting from the overall feel and magic of the place.

My family who had never visited (and had a wonderful time) said it’s nice but it will be lovely ‘when it’s finished’.

My advice to anyone planning on visiting is to give it at least 6 months.
 
Ah that's ashame I'm going in a couple weeks as apart of my Germany, Netherlands, Belgium trip as someone who has never visited the park before hopefully I'll still be able to appreciate it as it is.

How's all of the dark rides running at the moment and from what I've heard symbolica is the one my expectations are highest for, haven't watched POV's though.
 
George W said:
Ah that's ashame I'm going in a couple weeks as apart of my Germany, Netherlands, Belgium trip as someone who has never visited the park before hopefully I'll still be able to appreciate it as it is.

How's all of the dark rides running at the moment and from what I've heard symbolica is the one my expectations are highest for, haven't watched POV's though.
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All of the dark rides were running perfectly! You’ll still have a great time :)
 
We’ve booked for our first trip in October this year - hoping they’ll have got a lot finished especially Danse Macabre what with it being a spooky ride and us visiting over Halloween. Will watch with interest how things progress.
 
Got to agree that the main entrance is a bit of a disaster at the moment and has been for a couple of years now, ever since the start of the new hotel’s construction. I’d also tend to agree that the precast facade panels look a little cheap, but I’ll reserve final judgement. Using that construction method does at least mean that the hotel’s construction should now move along much more quickly.
 
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