My family and I are theme park enthusiasts. We hail from the Midwest, so we’ve spent our fair share of time riding massive coasters at amusement parks like Kings Island and Cedar Point. When we became Floridians 15 years ago, we took a deep dive into theme park culture. Since then, we’ve made countless trips to Disney and Universal (including the new Epic Universe); we traveled across the country to see the original Disney for comparison’s sake; and now, both of my boys work for the Universal parks. So, when our family planned a trip to Europe last summer with stops in London, Amsterdam and Paris, I built in a day to explore Disneyland Paris. Imagine my surprise when my boys waved off this offer and asked instead to spend a day at De Efteling in the Netherlands.
I’ll agree to pretty much anything if it means spending time with my adult sons and so I set out to make it happen. I purchased tickets for a very reasonable 53 Euros ($61) per person and mapped out our route. From our base in Amsterdam, we made the one-hour train ride to the small town of s’ Hertogenbosch followed by a 30-minute bus ride to the even smaller town of Kaatsheuvel. The bus dropped us right in front of Efteling, which is the magic of public transportation in Europe.
We were greeted by the elaborate entrance gate dubbed Het Huis Van De Vijf Zintuigen, which translates to The House of the Five Senses. I was immediately intrigued.
Everything in Efteling tells a story. In fact, stories were the premise for its founding.
Efteling opened as a Fairytale Forest (Sprookjesbos) in 1952, featuring attractions based on classics from Hans Christian Anderson (“The Chinese Nightingale”), the Brothers Grimm (“Snow White”) and Charles Perrault (“Sleeping Beauty”). Today, the Forest is a 15-acre maze of elaborate attractions that relay the stories of 31 fairytales. Many are familiar to Americans, like “Rumpelstiltskin” and “The Princess and the Pea.” Others, like “Mother Holle” and “The Wolf and the Seven Kids,” require a deeper dive into the world of the Brothers Grimm.
All are captivating, but there are a few, slightly bizarre, standouts. Long Neck, a character from “The Six Servants,” slowly extends his neck a full 15 feet to look out over the park.
And then there is the animatronic donkey from the obscure Brothers Grimm tale, “Donkey Lift Your Tail,” who brays profusely and shoots a gold coin from his derriere when you deposit a 50-cent Euro coin into his pedestal base. Catching the coin apparently brings you good luck (which we wouldn’t know since it flew over our heads).
Even throwing away your trash is an experience at Efteling.
Spread throughout the park are 11 trash receptacles depicting
Holle Bolle Gijs, a character from a Dutch nursery rhyme known for his gluttonous appetite, and members of his family who beckon visitors to feed them by chanting, “papier hier” (paper here) and then literally sucking refuse from your hand with vacuum force. One member of the Gijs family, Wagen Gijs, even thanks you for your trash deposit in German (Danke), Dutch (Dank u wel) and French (Merci).
In the early 1980s, Efteling expanded beyond the bounds of its Fairytale Forest. Today, it is a world-class theme park with a wide selection of rides, including several impressive coasters and a collection of dark rides that rival those of Disney.
The Disney Connection
Because Efteling debuted three years before Disneyland, there have been rumors that Walt took influence from the park. Those rumors have mostly been squashed, and it is more likely that Efteling took some cues from Disney as it began developing its dark rides in the 80s. Fata Morgana, a boat ride that takes you on a journey inspired by the Middle Eastern folk tales in “One Thousand and One Nights,” offers a similar vibe to “Pirates of the Caribbean.” But the dead giveaway is “Carnival Festival,” which takes riders on a trip around the world while playful animatronic figures from each nation dance and spin to a catchy, if not somewhat-annoying, tune. (It has “It’s a Small World” written all over it.)
And while Efteling’s expansion may have drawn inspiration from Walt’s vision, they have also developed their own distinct style with a nod to the somewhat dark nature of Dutch folklore that makes this park truly unique. Symbolica takes riders on a trackless journey through the secret corridors of King Pardulfus’s palace, led by Efteling’s mascot Pardoes the Wizard. It’s a tad chaotic and we had no idea what the animatronics were saying since we don’t speak a word of Dutch, but we exited feeling completely mesmerized.
And then there is the park’s most recent addition, Danse Macabre, set inside a haunted abbey where conductor Joseph Charlatan disappeared during an international music competition on a Friday the 13th many years ago. Riders are seated in one of six, eighteen-passenger cars that sit atop a turntable. As the music from the abbey’s organ builds in intensity, the turntable rotates, glides and seemingly waltzes around the room in time with the music. It was like nothing we had ever ridden before and, honestly, Disney should take note.
An Authentic Dutch Experience
We covered a ton of ground on our two-week trip to Europe, but when people ask about my favorite experience, I catch myself referencing our day at De Efteling. I think it is mostly because our family really bonded over our shared love of theme parks, but also because it was a day that took us into the heart of the Netherlands and immersed us in their language and culture in a truly unique way. It’s certainly a day we’ll never forget.
