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Roller coaster De Vliegende Hollander – The Flying Dutchman


(Above) George and the Dragon wooden coaster; (below) the show Raveleijn; (left) Mother Holle


Efteling’s anniversary. It’s rumoured that Carnival Festival was the inspiration for Walt Disney Parks and Resorts’ It’s a Small World musical boat ride. “There are photos of Disney executives looking at Carnival Festival and It’s a Small World is similar – visitors travel through countries while a song plays throughout,” says de Boer. The update may mean the park can


expect another visit from Disney execu- tives in the future. “We sent about 1,000 of our 2,200 employees to Disneyland Paris in batches of 200 in March to celebrate our Diamond Jubilee,” he says. “Hopefully they will send all theirs to Efteling!”


CELEBRATIONS All well as the employees, all visitors to Efteling are invited to be a part of the year- long anniversary celebrations. They started on the 31st December 2011 and 10,000


AM 2 2012 ©cybertrek 2012


visitors attended. Events will be held throughout the year but the big attraction is Aquanura, a spectaculars show using water, fi re and light. “The park’s birthday is the 31st May and we’ll have a big show on that day culminating with Aquanura, which is just amazing,” says de Boer. Also new is a themed pancake


restaurant, Polle’s Kitchen, which is the fi rst phase of a new Fantasy Realm. Costing 42.5m (£35.3m, $55.4m), and with an estimated opening date of 2015, the realm will be Efteling’s biggest and most expensive expansion to date and will include a dramatic dark ride. De Boer has spent the last fi ve years


focusing on content. These include a double wooden speeding coaster which spins visitors around a fi re-breathing dragon and Raveleijn, the medieval city that provides the setting for a spectacular


park show for up to 1,200 people. The 20-minute show details the adventures of fi ve children who become knights and is performed up to fi ve times a day. It features horses, ravens, an owl, a falcon, actors and a fi ve-headed dragon.


VISITORS Almost every Dutch child visits Efteling, as it’s the most popular destination for Dutch school trips. “They come here as a child, then a parent and a grandparent,” says de Boer. “Most Dutch people will come to Efteling several times during their lifetime.” Efteling received 4.1 million visitors


in 2011 and de Boer anticipates another 200,000 visitors this year. “The anniversary helps, but we’d expect an increase anyway, as the visitor numbers are growing every year,” he says. “We predict that by 2020 we’ll be up to fi ve million visitors each year.”


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