Photo ride/trip report: De Vliegende Hollander / Efteling

Last Wednesday I went to Efteling. I have some mixed feelings about “De Vliegende Hollander” (The Flying Dutchaman), Efteling’s – new foor 2007 – water coaster.

The theming is wonderful. Excellent soundtrack, nice q-line, good atmosphere and a spectacular dark ride section. This part of the ride is just perfect.

But the hardware part of the ride (the track design, the splash and the propulsion system in the water) is not a masterpiece of modern roller coaster engineering. Far from it. Check out the comments under the photo’s.

At 8.15 pm. I got home. Tunafish Pizza! Jummie! Thanks for reading.

I did some other rides today, but I don’t feel like making a complete TR of the day. At 3.15 pm. I left the park.

The boats are resting on tires which propel them. 20 Million Euro’s for this ride, and they couldn’t come up with anything better then this obsolete tire propelled propulsion system. Shame on you Kumbak! The boats need to float and move to the waves!

But you don’t get wet at all. It was 28 degrees Celcius today, and I didn’t get wet – too bad. I could have used a massive shower like in Thorpe Park’s Tidal wave.

Splash. It looks spectacular from this angle.

Just before this turn, the track is already heavily banked. Makes you lean to the left there. Not brilliant roller coaster engineering there.

The midcourse brake section. The next boat should leave the lift hill now, in order to reach the 1900 riders per hour capacity they claim on their website. Instead, the next boat leave the lift hill way later – after the splash. Capacity Problem!

The horseshoe. It’s a little too over banked imo. Your upper body really leans the left there.

There is some floater airtime there. Not much though.

Tunnel exit.

Nice drop, diving into the tunnel.

De Vliegende Hollander. Before this drop was a spectacular dark ride.

It al started wiht this playing field back in the 50's. Will they ever stop feeling sentimental and put the first dutch B&M over here?

Just wandering around. Did I mention it wasn’t busy? Efteling is a park that can’t be visited in one day. Not even without crowds. If you want to see everything, you should go here at least for two days.

And you should take the time to wander around Fairytale Forest (I guess that’s rule #2).

He’s the foot f@!c1n9 master! Rule #1: Never leave Efteling without having stood on the stone of the Troll King (trollenkoning)!

This guy – the “Troll King” – gives you a foot massage.

The award for best park entrance goes to Efteling.

This bus took me from “’s Hertogenbosch’” train station to Efteling.

Switching trains at “Amersfoort”. Nice connection!

Luckily I managed to score a large cup of coffee just before boarding on the 6.02 am. Intercity train from “Groningen” to “Amersfoort”. Ah, still early man!

My local bus stop. No one else had the same idea. Weird. The weather was going to be excellent. It was already 12 degrees Celsius.

Had to get up at 5.00 a.m. in order to get there at park opening.

Nice report exept one thing....

De vliegende hollander isn't on tires but is using a chain that pulls it trough the water.

^Ok, I did not know that. But the pulling through the water is at least a bit bumpy. The boats are not actually floating.

But still, we do have a unique ride over here! This attraction is a fine addition to the park.

WOW! Great TR! I love the Photos of De Vliegende Hollander. It looks like a great ride! Even though I do not like Water rides! Thanks for posting! I hope you had fun!

~Matthew