An Enchanting Efteling Tour, part 2 Quiz

Answer: He designed almost all of the park's early attractions

Anton Pieck was a Dutch artist who lived from 1895 to 1987. For the first 22 years of the Efteling's existence, 1952 to 1974, he was responsible for all the art and designs in the park, including the famous Holle Bolle Gies (face-shaped trash receptacles you can feed and which use voice and sound effects to entice and thank visitors using them - one of the main reasons the park is always extremely clean!). Pieck's work was later taken over by Ton van der Ven and other artists, but all have kept his style.

Anton Pieckplein is home to a number of antique carousels, including two unusual chain swings, one of which has back to back seats so that half the riders face backwards and one (pictured) whose seats turn outward from centrifugal force so riders face outward and up during the ride.

On the park map, the Pieckplein is marked as part of the Marerijk (fairy tale realm), but due to its design, it effectively forms its own self-contained area.

Answer: It is still being powered by its steam engine

The grand steam carousel still includes the original steam engine's mechanics, but since 1970, the engine is merely passively spun; power is provided by an electric motor. The carousel includes a complex mechanical system based on undulating tracks beneath the rotating platform to provide for the movement of the four swaying gondolas and the 24 animals (22 horses and two pigs). The bar area surrounding the carousel has been themed and decorated as an extension of the original style of the ride.

If you do have the opportunity, do ride in one of the gondolas, the movement is quite unique.

Answer: An expansive children's playground

No, there's nothing fancy built into the Laafs' village - but there is quite a lot of playground equipment on its grounds, along with the many cute figures and some hidden interactive features such as a staircase in the Lachhuis (laughing house) producing funny sound effects such as a creak, an angry meow and, well, a fart, when you step on certain steps.

Taking some time to explore this village and discover some of the many Easter Eggs is a great way to spend an overly busy hour (even on the most busy days, lines will usually only become really long between about 1 and 5 pm). Such times are also ideal for a detailed exploration of the almost thirty fairy tale installations in the fairy tale forest.

Answer: Elves

Droomvlucht's ride system is based on rotating self-powered gondolas that travel on an overhead track at variable speeds, allowing them to slow down at the scenes while quickly passing transitional areas. The ride first ascends past some floating castles, then visits two extensive forest scenes with many elves. It travels through a starry tunnel and revisits the castles, this time in a nighttime setting, before spiralling down rather quickly, taking several descending laps around another forest scene, this one featuring troll-like beings at night.

Like all major Efteling rides, Droomvlucht features a custom soundtrack with an overarching theme and variations for each scene, adding to the ride experience.

Answer: Treasure tour

Symbolica is a trackless dark ride in which the vehicles move autonomously and can thus cross each others' path. With each dispatch, one ride vehicle for each tour is launched and after several common elements, they each visit two chambers available only on that particular tour, on the way to a common finale, thus creating three different ride experiences.

Visitors can select their favorite tour at the end of the queue area from the options of treasure (red), music (green) and heroes (blue). Single riders are assigned to whatever tour has a free seat with no choice. If you want to see all three tours and the single rider wait is, as usual, much shorter than the regular one, just ride via single until you've seen two versions and then do the last one via the regular queue just before the park closes. Regardless of whether you use the single rider or regular queue, avoid Symbolica in the morning - ride the coasters instead and come back after 1pm - on all but the busiest days, you'll then be able to ride with a wait of 10 minutes or less.

Answer: Camille Saint-Saens

I hope this one didn't spook you - the only Romantic composer among the listed ones was Saint-Saens, whose "Danse Macabre" makes for the perfect background music to a spooky crescendo of animated figures and items with some light effects strewn in for good measure. This show was the first work of Ton van der Ven, who replaced Anton Pieck as the creative genius behind the Efteling. It originally lasted twelve minutes, but was trimmed down to eight relatively quickly. There are quite a few surprises and you can still discover something new after several views.

Answer: It has its own, implied, story

While there are elements of the 1001 Nights in Fata Morgana, it is not based on any specific story but rather has its own plot with a wizard character appearing several times to alter the route of the ride's boats in order to avoid danger or access beautiful scenery. The picture shows the Pasha's throne room, probably the most elaborate scene of the entire eight minute ride.

Just as it is for the other Efteling dark rides, a picture or even a video can't do the detail level justice. There are still details to discover even after you've been on them a dozen times.

Answer: A fatal accident in August 2019

While there had been a few minor accidents on the Efteling's bobsled coaster - all low speed collisions after a vehicle did not properly stop in the brakes during wet weather - none of them caused serious injury or death. In fact, the Efteling has an outstanding safety record with no serious accidents on any attraction in over 60 years.

However, it had effectively become impossible to maintain the ride, the only European installation of this ride type by manufacturer Intamin (leaving the last two instances still operating in the United States) and the low capacity along with the popularity and the fact that it was the Efteling's only coaster without any height restriction made it a prime candidate for extreme waits, sometimes exceeding an hour even on moderately busy days.

The replacement for this ride is a dual powered family coaster themed after the German tale "Max and Moritz" and, while an entirely new design, makes use of some of the bob ride's infrastructure, in particular the station building.

Answer: Pre-Columbian America

Theme elements on Pirana have been taken from all major Mesoamerican civilizations - there are Inca, Mayan, Aztec and Toltec elements just to name a few - but they still combine into a coherent impression (unless you're an expert on the subject).

The best time to ride Pirana is after dark when the entire river is illuminated in bright colors. However, catching a night ride here is very difficult as Pirana closes during the winter season and there are no Halloween events at the park which would provide some late opening times in October. Your best bet would be a summer day in August when the park opens until 10pm or later.

Answer: DJ Tiesto

Tiesto Aquanura is a specialty show only performed during summer nights or other special events and even then usually only as the last show of the day. It features significantly enhanced effects compared to the two standard Efteling Symphonies run on normal days and the upbeat, high tempo electronic renditions of the main themes, provide a very powerful soundtrack. Just like with the rides, Efteling has paid attention to detail even in places where mostly, only true fans would notice it - for example, during the "Joris en the Draak" section, the light effects use only red and blue, the colors of the trains on that coaster and the fountains are choreographed to "chase" each other across the lake.

The wrong answers are all Swiss and German DJs. Tiesto is the only Dutch performer in the list.