8/18/24 Efteling - One of the best Theme Park experiences I think I've ever had

[@Nachanael]

Thanks all for your kind words and for watching! Please keep in mind that I'm an American (who doesn't know Dutch) and is in a brand new environment. Just trying to document experiences and have a good time 😊.

[@rmyikzelf5604]

Efteling is owned by a nonprofit foundation that promotes enjoying nature, sport and leasure. Its built up area on their grounds are limited to a certain percentage. That's why the park is so green, and so many animals. There's even a peacock.

[@Nachanael]

I didn't know that! Thanks 😁

[@Zeeland_Mapping]

The peacock has a NAME! It’s called Jeroen 😂. Also the percentage they may build is 11%

[@erikvermolen8371]

The watercoaster means The Flying Dutchman, but it got nothing to do with vikings.. great to see somebody enjoying Efteling.

[@Nachanael]

@@erikvermolen8371 thanks for the translation!!

[@-_YouMayFind_-]

@@Nachanael Yes it is an actual ship that disappeared in history on the ocean and became a ghost ship in the story. The captain of that ship decided to go on sea even though there was a storm coming. Well a suspected ghost ship obviously it is just a story haha, but creepy nonetheless

[@FanFictionneer]

Carnaval Festival stops for a bit fairly often to allow people who need assistance (because they aren't as mobile/in a wheelchair etc) to get on the ride. :)

[@janklaassen6404]

So cool to watch a foreigner check out 'our' park. Thank you for making this video. And an American too :) Normally there are British people visiting as it's relatively close. Glad you liked it! Fun to hear you compare it to Disneyland too.

[@Nachanael]

Thanks for watching! I'd say that most Americans don't know about Efteling unless they are very into theme parks, so I'll definitely be an evangelist for the park back home 😁!

[@rmyikzelf5604]

De Vliegende Hollander is themed to 17th century Dutch Republic/seafaring

[@minoreducation2927]

I like how you say 'druumvluuuught :D! Thank you, you brought me back to my youth when I went there several times between 2 and 12 years old. It's a lot greener then I expected and I'm happy the buildings and general ambiance are still so well maintained. Unfortunately you missed the 'old' ghosthouse (closed (and demolished) a few years ago) and also the new one that will be opened within a month.

[@Nachanael]

I'll just have to go back someday! My travel there was somewhat decided last-minute but I'm very happy that I went!

[@FanFictionneer]

The big talking tree has his own TV show, he tells stories to the children (in both the show and at Efteling). The giant animatronic also asks children questions (their name, which story they want to hear). It's really neat!

[@Nachanael]

That IS really neat! I love things that are interactive ☺️ that's pretty special for the children as well.

[@TheFamousYakTamer]

This was a super enjoyable watch, thanks for sharing Nathanael! I'm glad you had a fun day. As someone with a ton of anxiety I'm super impressed by people like you that travel alone, and then even have the confidence to be filming in public - I could never hahaha

[@Nachanael]

@@TheFamousYakTamer I'm glad you enjoyed it! I hope your anxiety can be tamed someday :). When I film I usually try to get away from people so I don't bother them 🤣 a lot of times I'm speaking at a low volume but holding the phone close to my face.

[@nickhirst7192]

8:36 it says; 'Max and Moritz, fun for two! Shaking beetles downwards. In a pointy paper bag, they catch all animals that are itchy. The beetles are set loose, under uncle's feather bed. Uncle Gijs, the poor man, stays awake from all the itching.' (in Dutch it actually rhymes)

[@Nitzpitz]

Great vlog! You missed some parts, bit did see most of the Park. Sad you missed Fata Morgana, maybe next time.

[@Nachanael]

Next time I go, I will put Fata Morgana at the top of the list! My feet were starting to give up and I was starting to lose track of what I saw and what I hadn't quite made it to haha

[@jarmoliebrand2005]

@@NachanaelThe park is pretty big and you walk quite a bit on a day. It’s something I like about the park, walking with the nice atmosphere and greenery. But you are definitely a bit tired after a full day at the park. Tired and content.

[@inshort6831]

​@@Nachanaelnext time you'll also be able to do the new attraction Danse Macabere

[@Eis_Bear]

50:14 This part is probably amongst the oldest areas of the park, dating back to 1952 (predating Disney). There is not much old footage, but in this video you can see the contruction of this area and it's first visitors in 1952. kzbin.info/www/bejne/pnS8hZKbfKyAaM0

[@Nachanael]

I LOVE this!! Thank you!! 🙏🏻

[@chiitra271]

This park is older than the Disney parks and founded in 1952. It's fairytale themed. But you need to know about European saga to get some of the themes.

[@Overwijn01]

Aquanura is even better when it’s dark. If you have the chance, come back during Winter Efteling ☺️

[@Nachanael]

Will do! Adding it to the list 🙂

[@aquariamoon2451]

This was a great vlog! Glad you had a nice time at the Efteling :) Generally speaking dutch people have a really warm place in their heart for the park and its theming, it's always wonderful seeing it be so appreciated. Also you're entirely correct with regards to Carnaval Festival, I think at this point it's just the most outdated ride left and continues to be controversial also inside the Netherlands. They did adjust the designs for the African and Asian puppets back in 2019, it was even worse before then :') Hopefully they'll make further adjustments in the future.

[@Zeeland_Mapping]

Carnaval Festival is definitely the newest ride at the park, wdym outdated :)

[@aquariamoon2451]

@@Zeeland_Mapping 😂 good one

[@urbandiscount]

took them years to change the even more openly racist Monsieur Canibale

[@aquariamoon2451]

@@urbandiscount Yep, thankgod they did change that one though

[@Dr_Panne_Koek.]

It's weird that everything is in dutch while you're in the netherlands. 😂

[@Wrecker3D]

Efteling is still solving issues that arose or accelerated due to lack of maintenance during the *cough C-19 *cough thing few years ago (lockdown meant almost no work and no guests) They are getting there fixing it, but with 365/7 openings they have no really 'fixing out of view' period 'Storing' means defective -since they have so many unique parts they need to machine/make them their selves or are dependent on that 1 supplier that can make the part/deliver the correct materials love the vlog, you need a better mic or better placed mic so the environment doesn't drown out your voice About Carnaval Festival, yes it's meant to counter it's small world, but a 1 on 1 copy would have caused troubles from overseas... Carnaval is a dress-up festivity in the part of The Netherlands the Efteling is build -combined with lots of food and alcohol (hence the red noses) and the style used in the depiction of nationalities was acceptable in the 80's -Jokie (a jester/joker) became the mascot of the ride, got a girlfriend (Jet, the purple bird) however he has had an other friend in the ride, Loekie de Leeuw (Lion with human posture and expressions) This character was used between commercials in the 80's so tapes could be switched and always added 5 - 10 seconds comic relief, usually ending in an 'Asjemenou!' ('What Happened!') exclamation, The ride also gets a few 'visitors' as Sinterklaas* (3 weeks before X-mass) approaches *= our Santa version where the American Santa is based on (he also visits The Netherlands, but Sint gives to the kids, Santa to (young) adults There's much more to tell but this info-bomb needs to defuse 🤯... too late🤣

[@Nachanael]

Thanks for the info!! I was trying to figure out if Jokie was a part of the Dutch zeitgeist but I didn't have the right keywords to search for that information while I was waiting in the queue. Your info bomb was very helpful! I'm from a party of the United States that doesn't celebrate a lot of Carnaval so it's definitely something I like to learn more about.

[@Nachanael]

Oh also, yeah I've thought about getting an external mic, specifically to cut out wind noise, but I mostly do this for fun. Some of my more-famous TikTok friends have good great and maybe someday I'll find an economical one that works well for me!

[@nagranoth_]

no, that would've been an excelent time to do maintenance. The reason there was a backlog is because for years the park was run by some people who wanted to save money by cutting corners. Those have been replaced thankfully, and they're investing in new stuff again.

[@FanFictionneer]

Disney actually asked Efteling for advise when building Disneyland Paris, to make it more appealing to European audiences. They didn't fully listen though, clearly.

[@nickhirst7192]

Micro-ageressions in Carnival Festival? 😂 That's just like your opinion, man. They're celebrating all the different cultures, that is a good thing. But that is just my opinion, man

[@Nachanael]

There are ways to celebrate a culture without tokenizing or offending them. Trying to pass off microaggressions as "celebrating culture" is another form of microagression.

[@woutervanwijk4369]

​​@@Nachanaelsays the guy from the country of macro-aggression

[@Nachanael]

​@@woutervanwijk4369 Both can be true and we can work on all problems at the same time.

[@nagranoth_]

8:41 that has little to do with the ride really. It's a garbage can, that sucks up the trash you put in his mouth. He's a fairy tale character who's always hungry. There's loads of them in the park, and they tend to be themed according to area or nearby ride. 18:29 they give each group a boat, you're a group of one. Nothing strange about it. People take the boats to unwind, often to have lunch with the family. You're on that boat a looooong time. It wouldn't be nice to be saddled up with strangers. 24:07 yeah, but the saving grace is that it's as racist against Dutch people and other Europeans as against the rest of the world. It's just stereotypes, including about ourselves. too bad you didn't see aquanura in the dark, it's so much more impressive with lighting

[@pmvdmeulen]

Why not charge your phone in the train?

[@Nachanael]

If there was an outlet I didn't see one! Maybe I didn't recognize it or know how to find it :/

[@Daandar]

The tree in sprookjesbos is well known by a lot of Dutch people because there used to be a tv show produced by the Efteling where that tree told fairy tales. A lot of younger people grew up with it and a lot of older people had children who did so it holds sentimental value. I'm not sure if its still being aired.

[@remconet]

It's cute how every guess you made about what you thought the ride was about was completely wrong.

[@Nachanael]

Which ride do you mean? 😊

[@remconet]

@@Nachanael Almost every ride haha. No shade though, it was cute.

[@Nachanael]

@@remconet I really wish I knew Dutch 😂! My French is decent but that didn't really help me this time. Thanks!

[@remconet]

@@Nachanael My advise would be: if you visit a 'local' park, first read up on it. It will help you make sense of everything. Or better: find a Dutch person to join you. There are a LOT of Efteling fans around, and we Dutch are very proud of the park. They will gladly take you around the park and explain everything to you. I enjoyed your vid and I'm glad you had a great time!

[@Nachanael]

Great advice! Would've loved to! I meant to read up but the trip was decided upon last minute since I wasn't sure if I would be able to navigate the train and bus 😂. And my work got very busy so I didn't have time to read. Need to get to know more locals! 😊 I am loving that many ppl are sharing information for me in the comments! Really makes me want to go back 😁

[@pmvdmeulen]

Who keeps talking during a ride? That is so weird.

[@arturobianco848]

You haven't been to disney in a while last time i went to disney in the states it was over a 100 for a singlepark entree. Nice looking park though.

[@Nachanael]

Oh I've been going a lot recently (both Orlando and Anaheim), but I haven't been vlogging much as I was mostly trying to just be present, and I've posted quite a few of them (and the trips tend to be really chaotic with race weekends and plans). If that's something you might want to see more of, lmk!

[@Nachanael]

And yes, park entry has gotten WAY expensive. It has definitely outpaced inflation 😔

[@arturobianco848]

@@Nachanael i ll check it out been looking up a lot of european parks and you just popped up.

[@ronschellekens5111]

Droomvlucht doesn't have a story, your imagination is the story.

[@Consequator]

The boat ride is great if you brought your own sandwiches.

[@Nachanael]

Life hack!!

[@jgoossen1186]

You don't understand the app?

[@Nachanael]

I figured it out eventually. I think it's mostly me trying to get used to the swipe actions and the general build of the app. I used it mostly for the map, the virtual queue and the photos, and I thought it worked pretty well!

[@pahtriac]

be glad u saw the fire effects at the fountains due to co2 stuff it has been removed last week

[@Nachanael]

Lucky me!! I understand environmental concerns but fire in shows can be so fun 😊 Efteling uses it effectively, imo.

[@rmyikzelf5604]

Vogel Rok (the indoor coaster) is based on Alladin's Travels

[@sldorhout1]

It's actually the 2nd story of Sindbad....

[@Zeeland_Mapping]

It’s not, it’s based off the second journey of Sindbad

[@rmyikzelf5604]

@Zeeland_Mapping sorry you are right I was thinking of Sindbad. Had this niggling feeling when I wrote that comment.

[@rmyikzelf5604]

@sldorhout1 yes true. That's what I meant to say 🫣

[@Zeeland_Mapping]

@@rmyikzelf5604 It’s (ofc) no problem. I have no idea what niggling means though lol

[@danivaneekelen5403]

Your intake of 'carnival festival' I don't get. I watch TV from all Asian countries and all I see are European people, especially in commercials. Wouldn't be the country (if not, all Asian countries) be racist to their own? This is just a simple attraction....

[@Nachanael]

You are not incorrect that Asians can exhibit racist behaviors as well - there is a well-documented "colorism" phenomenon where those with lighter skin/more European features tend to get cast in commercials and television. I still choose to call offensive imagery out where I can (especially at home in the USA). I think the big difference between the Western countries' portrayal of the "colored" races vs the Asian countries' portrayal of the "white" races is that the Western countries' portrayal of colored people tends to emphasize the "otherness" (aka slit eyes for East Asians, nakedness for Africans, sexualization of Polynesians), where the Asian countries' portrayal of the white culture is one of elevated status or desire (such as colorism in advertising, taking pictures with white people in the streets, or extreme plastic surgery to have European features). Neither are great, but one is arguably "less offensive" as it "punches down" vs "climbs up to". The Carnival Ride, as a whole, I thought it was cute; I just didn't appreciate that the non-white groups were hypersexualized with the African and Polynesian dolls having breasts where the European dolls did not have the same characteristics. Hopefully you can see where I'm coming from.

[@rmyikzelf5604]

You said Droomvlucht oke. But in Dutch the double oo sound like the oa in English. Boat. Not boot. An the u is like "duh". So Droamvluh-cht.

[@thisguy2755]

Like, you can say the word "like" like, in almost every sentence in the beginning of the video. I found it, like, quite annoying. So I like, chose not to press the like button, 'cause I didn't really like that part.

[@Nachanael]

Totally understand; I don't particularly enjoy hearing it myself. I don't do many takes or many edits when I make these vlogs. My main goal is to document thoughts and experiences that happen in the moment so I can remember these things years from now. Talking to a camera is hard, especially when I'm alone and holding my phone up at a somewhat awkward angle 🤣 but I'd be lying if I didn't say my brain has lots of thoughts and I struggle to use words sometimes. Thanks for your feedback.

[@weerd112]

You’re not very smart

[@aquariamoon2451]

??? Why would you say that to someone? Genuinely?

[@Nachanael]

I am never one to claim that I'm a smart person but I also try to be kind wherever I am. You are welcome to move along and keep your comments in your pocket.

[@61tomtomtom]

You are not very clever isn’t it .

[@Nachanael]

Don't have to be clever. Just have to have fun 😎. If you want to be rude, you can keep your comments in your pocket and move along. No need for significant negativity here.

[@Overwijn01]

@61tomtomtom You talk about clever, but you cannot even use proper English 😒

[@remconet]

13:57 LOL We grew up with them!

[@ashortone]

8:33 46:20 those are trash cans

[@Nachanael]

I did some research post- visit and I think they're so clever! Very cool system to keep the park clean and turn mundane like disposing of rubbish into something fun and whimsical.

[@somethinborrowed]

Ahh the 7 princess blow their horns every 15 Minutes, you could just have waited for another 10... 🥲

[@Nachanael]

I had that suspicion! I caught the end of one of them, I just didn't feel like I needed to stick around just for footage. And my phone battery was dying (and I couldn't find a charging station anywhere) so I needed to get a move-on.