Trip report: Winter Efteling dec
22, 2001
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| Only one giant snowmen this year |
Like last year (see trip report 2000),
we decided to go the Winter Efteling this year. We went saturday,
december 22, because the weekend before X-mas tends to be a relatively
quiet weekend, with everyone doing X-mas shopping instead of going
to the Winter Efteling (which lots of people do, the days after
X-mas). We (Jort, Renske, Ngaw, Marianne, Aviva, Bart, Ernst and
me) arrived at 11am. Only Henk was missing and he had called earlier
to tell us he had lost/misplaced his mobile phone. Not being able
to contact Henk (and knowing he could contact us), we decided to
enter the park and go on some rides while waiting for Henk. We went
in the direction of Vogel Rok, but when we walked past the Pagoda,
we decided to go for a ride on the Pagoda.
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| The Pagoda, halfway up in the air |
While we were in the Pagoda, up in the air, I was telling the others,
I had read how it got stuck last week and the people had to wait for
15 minutes before they got down and then got some free hot chocolate.
Maybe it was for the lack of wood to knock on, but lo and behold:
when we were going down, the Pagoda got stuck some 10ft above the
ground.
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Henk, waiting for the
Pagoda (and us) to come down
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We started making jokes about leaving us up there for 15 minutes so
we could get some hot chocolate too. After a few minutes the ride
operator announced a mechanic was coming and afterwards we would get
some free coffee/hot chocolate/thee. Meanwhile, Henk called us to
tell us he'd arrived and we told him to come to the Pagoda. I took
the mechanics some 10 more minutes and then we finally got down. We
went to a nearby stall to get our drinks.
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Enjoying our free drinks
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After finishing our drinks, we finally got on our way to Vogel Rok
again. There was hardly any queue (less than last year), so in some
15 minutes, we were on the ride. Some of us had brought our hats from
last year (see the picture in
last years report) and put them on for the photo shoot.
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Us, with the silly hats
again
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Vogel Rok is still a lot of fun (we managed quite a few more rides
later on in the evening). Out in front of Vogel Rok and Carnaval Festival
was one of the big fires the Efteling had for the occasion. A real
nice addition to the atmosphere.
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One of the fires
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Next up, was Carnaval Festival. For those of you who've never been
to the Efteling, it's got a very annoying, repeating, piece of music
(like Disney's "It's a small world").
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Henk and Ernst in Carnaval
Festival
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After having made sure the melody would replay over and over in our
heads, we went on to take a look at the skating rink that was set
up, in a big tent, for the Winter Efteling.
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Jort, Ngaw, Bart and
the others in the tent where the skating rink is
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Outside, we bought some 'Oliebollen', which were devoured very quickly.
Although some of us used the sugar (on top of the 'Oliebollen' for
other purposes, as you can see in the picture on the left.
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Bart, after Renske threw
sugar over him
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Renske managed to make Bart look like he just walked though a snow
storm. We found ourselves in front of the 'Carrousel Paleis' and Jort
wanted to show Ngaw what a typical old fashioned Dutch merry-go-round
looks like, so we went in. The first few in, were just looking at
the merry-go-round, but when some of the others got on the ride, we
soon found all ourselves on the ride. Jort made sure Ngaw was sitting
on a pig and asked us to take pictures.
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Ngaw on a piggy ride
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We went on to get some more food for lunch. Some sausages in a bun
resulted in us having even more of the silly hats (free with a sausage
in a bun) and other got themselves fries and cokes. The next thing
on our list of things to do, was 'Droomvlucht', a very well themed
ride through a fairytale like environment.
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'Droomvlucht'
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The queue was quite a bit shorter than last year (and the ride didn't
break down during the waiting, like it did last year), so we were
on the ride in no time (which is rather unusual, since the ride is
extremely popular). After 'Droomvlucht', some of wanted to skip Villa
Volta, since it is rather like Merlin's Magic Castle in Six
Flags Holland and we're not that fond of this particular ride.
Since others did want to go on the ride and we had plenty of time
on our hands, we went on it anyway.
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Fairy tale forest
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One thing you should not mis when going to the Efteling, is the fairy
tale forest. We wandered around in it for quite a while. It's a unique
attraction. When we got out of the fairy tale forest, we went in the
direction of Fata Morgana. On our way there we stopped first at the
haunted house to watch the show (quite nice) and then at the Bob.
I thought the Bob was only operated during the Winter Efteling, if
the weather was very good, but it was snowing while we were on the
ride. Out of the Bob, we got ourselves some Belgium Waffles and continued
walking towards Fata Morgana.
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Fata Morgana
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It's another very well themed (indoor) ride, in 1001 nights style.
We had done just about every ride that's open during the Winter Efteling,
so it was time to go on some of our favorite rides again. We decided
to head for Vogel Rok. On our way there, we first passed the Bob and
noticed that what short queue there had been, was now just about completely
gone and went for another ride on the Bob. Our (little bit sidetracked)
way to Vogel Rok, next got us to 'Kinder Winter Wonderland', another
tent especially set up for the Winter Efteling. This one with a snow
slope inside.
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Aviva going down the
slope, not knowing which way is the front
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We got ourselves some hot chocolate in there and went for a ride down
the slope (well, some of us did, the others sort of chickened out).
After these delays, we finally did arrive at Vogel Rok again. This
time, an even shorter queue (queue-wise, things kept on improving
when it became evening) and another fun ride. Things were even better
at our next ride at 'Droomvlucht'. Or should I say rides, because
there was no queue at all and after one ride, we got directly back
on for another one. For Jort, Ngaw and Renske the time had come to
go home. Ernst decided to call it a day to and went home with them.
Since it was now dinner time, the remainder of our party went to a
'poffertjes' restaurant (like last year, to make it a tradition) and
had a very nice dinner.
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'Poffertjes' restaurant
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When we got out of the restaurant, there was still some time for a
few more rides on Vogel Rok. The queue had all but disappeared and
half of the time we could just stay in the train (even though there
was at this time only one of the two trains left on the track) or
move into another seat. When we had to get out, we just walked through
the queue-space and got on the next run, driving the people operating
this coaster a bit nuts. At 19:45, we decided to try and see whether
we could manage another ride on the Bob before the park closed. Arriving
at the Bob, we saw the queue was already closed and headed for the
park exit. Before removing the snow/ice from our cars, we said goodbye
to each other. We will be back next year. |
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