Where's Efteling? It's not a new name for place by Merrit Lake in Oakland is it? I though that was Fairy Tale Land.
Ohhh, this is an old tread, but the question was answered by nobody.
Efteling is in south of The Netherlands , Europe.
Efteling is older than
Disneyland. (Emerged from an existing public recreation park, with the debut of the famous fairy tale forest, in 1952.
It went steady on growing (was not build full size at once, as was the Disneyland option), although it is still not outgrown itself, as the core park size is roughly 3 times Disneyland. Which means that it is a massive green, landscaped oasis ! (And full resort surrounding, has hotels, golfcourse... and lots of woodland on it's property.
But, OK, the park itself :
The unique fairy tale forest, which takes up less then 1/10th of the whole park, (range of fairy tales slightly different from Anglosaxon tradition) kept growing as well, allthough by adding inside the original area, there is still space left ! The graphic style of everthing was set by famous artist Anton Pieck (who was enormously respected by Walt Disney, but then did never meet up) , and after he retired (and died) this style was carefully respected by artists who worked there later on.
Fairy tales are told and animated in scenes, both outside and by looking in through windows. Some of these fairy tales are full indoor shows (average showtime per story of 3-6 minutes). There is plenty of animatronics, pepper's ghost effects and other illusions in the presentations. (as well as refined use of fragrances, adding to the show) The storytelling itself, is classic, yet unique. There is never dialogues as in film or theater, instead, the old classic art of NARRATOR driven experiences is alife, there. And all texts have been carefully (re)written for Efteling, in poetry style, sometimes even ritmic ryming. Alas, for litterary people : the spoken language of the park is DUTCH. Every tale, however has a fold open "stone book" outside, with the tale in 4 languages (Dutch, French, English, German)
If you love details, like with Disney, look carefully when walking around, because animatronic birds may swing their wings, the eyes of an Indian protector god-giant may follow you, and I would ask you the question : How many MICE (animatronic..) are there to be found in the whole fairy tale forest ?
(No, don't count the eventual real, live mice.. ;-) ... HINT : count in packets of dozens .. °_° )
There is just ONE dragon in the fairy tale forest (protecting furiously his treasure if you dare to touch it) , but there are more dragons spread over Efteling. FIND THEM !! (Not so much hidden, as they are giant)
Apart from the fairy tale forest, storytelling goes on in the park.
It has several top class dark rides (from which one is regulary to be found in the worlds top 3, or top 5 fan sites ratings, of the most appreciated dark rides worldwide. One of the combinations (loose from position) often popping up in the ratings is :
- Haunted mansion
- PoTC
- Droomvlucht .... >>> which is in Efteling ('Dreamflight')
Entrance, with summer actors .. ;-)
In the air-floating castles scene ;-)
Just as one cannot tell in one page about Disneyland, this cannot be done with Efteling either.
After all, you need 2 days to see everything.
Sometimes, the entrance to a park is relevant !!
This is JUST the entrance building ! ... °_°
Cheers
