We were told by a few dutch natives that Efteling was like Disney World. Like Disney, the park is divided into themes. Called "realms" here. Efteling has: 1) Fairy Realm 2) Adventure Realm 3) Carnival Realm and 4) Alternative Realm. Disney (for those that have not been in a while) has: 1) Adventureland 2) Frontierland 3) Tomorrowland 4) Fantasyland. See the similarity? While we notice similarities, for the most part we found it very different.
An obvious difference, no Mickey Mouse. The park fairy realm centers around Grimm's Fairy Tales. The Grimm brothers were from Germany and wrote their stories in the early 1800s. Some stories you may know are Tom Thumb, Rapunzel, Hansel and Gretel. But, I did not know this but Cinderalla, Snow White and Sleeping Beauty are also part of Grimm's Fairy Tales. So, top of the list of " must see" park attractions, was Assepoester (Cinderella) and Sneeuwwitje (Snow White). Katie is still VERY much in a princess phase. We expected to see the princesses walking around waving and smiling at children. I had the camera ready. Well, it wasn't that exactly. Instead, it was a little more, shall we say, grim. The cave like houses of Snow White and Cinderella were dark and focused on the evil part of the fairy tale. ie the wicked queen. Katie was, well, scared. We left this "realm" ready for bigger and better things....Rides!
We covered the entire park and did almost a dozen rides. 99.9% of which the whole family was able to enjoy together. It had a lot of "for the smallest guest" and "whole family" attractions which was just perfect for us.
Favs...
My favorite ride was Carnaval Festival. It reminded me a lot of Its A Small world. But, instead of countries throughout the world, it was how countries celebrate Carnival. Carnival is a dutch holiday that is sort of like Mardi Gras, but it lasts three days in mid February. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carnival
Katie's favorite wasn't really a ride. It was Kinder Winter Wonderland. This was an indoor winter playground. It had a sledding slope with real snow and several bouncey houses with slides and so forth. She loves to bounce!
Andrew's favorite was the Volk van Laaf monorail. This was a short monorail about 30 feet off the ground that went through cottages, by windmills, and over water. Andrew will jump off any give couch, but is not a dare devil when it comes to rides. He wants to go on rides, but then once he is on them he is scared. This ride was just his speed and it gave all of us a nice view of the park.
Neds did one ride by himself. Which makes up for the .1%. He did the Bobbaan which was a bobsled roller coaster. Labeled "thrill seeker" on the park map. Katie, Andrew and I waited at the bottom and got chocolate covered waffled. Fair trade for me. (I dont like roller coasters)
We also went on two carousels, one of which was the fastest carousel Ned and I had ever been on! We did the steam train (which Andrew fell asleep on), old fashioned cars, fairy dream flight, small pirate ship boat ride, and a few more.
Ned took the day off and Katie played "hookey" from school. The best part of the day was just walking around and spending time together.
Watching the snake charmer make the tulips grow with his music
Tom Thumb
In the distance, where Snow White and Cinderella live.
Cottage we went through on the monorail
Ned and Andrew going through a very short doorway
Carnaval Festival (like It's A Small World at Disney)
Fata Morgana (like Pirates of the Carribean at Disney)
Tired Katie in Kinder Winter Wonderland
It rained and snowed a little while we were there, but it didn't stop the fun!
