The Flying Dutchman

It was in the 19th. Century when Captain Hendrik van der Decken set sail with his merchant vessel in order to cross the Cape of good Hope and reach the dutch colony of Capetown. But the weather became worse and a huge storm made it impossible to sail round the Cape for weeks. The captain cursed the world and his brother and so he was punished to sail on the seven seas forever, without a chance of reaching a harbor. This ghost ship was said to have incredible abilities: It's able to sail even in bad weather, it can fly and dive, but - whoever is seeing the ship will be beyond remedy.

Efteling, the major dutch theme park, lets the visitors experience this exciting story with the new ride in 2007. With one year delay this attraction combines many different kinds of attractions and is so one of a kind.

Our adventure begins, as we find ourselves on a beautiful areaway decorated with flowerbeds. As soon as we enter the house of 1667 we immediately notice this smell of burned wood between those old eerie bricks. In the first room we see the portrait of Captain van der Decken hanging on the wall full of grime and the old tradebook left behind on the desk. On our way we get to the library: A huge mirror is placed on the right side in which a holograph of the Captain appears an tells us the story of his destiny. A riven painting on the opposite side guides us to the secret tunnel directed right to the haven. After a few steps we suddenly hear sizzling noise, flames are lightning on the other end of the tunnel and are getting towards us right above the heads of the waiting, closer and closer on the supported ceiling. Once we escape the death by fire we get to the repository next to the haven, which we can see through those tiny windows. Now we have to make the decision, whether we want to ride the right or the left boat of the dual loading station.

While on the outside in front of the attraction flashy sunlight hit our eyes, but now we enter the calm night-time atmosphere of the haven. The musical surrounding, which first lets you hum along but later on it becomes an ear candy, supports the feeling of setting sail to a great adventure. Without visible tracks and hidden console panels, nothing deflects from being a marine. Working in detail, for what Efteling is famous for, becomes very clear at this point. We take a seat on one of the eleven boats and your journey to the Cape of good hope begins. The seating of the boats manufactured by Kumbak is needy to get used to it: In the first and third row, three persons can have a seat, while there are four seats on second and fourth lane. A gentle stadium-seating is not sufficient because of the quiet high and massive headrests. In front of the bow there is a lion figure, holding the boat and carrying a lantern in its mouth. This lantern is one of the key parts in the following scenes and running through the whole ride.

Just cast off we pass a gate and get to the first scene: Two huge hulks, just as far so that we can pass them by, can be seen in the moonlight shadow. After a right turn the next gate follows. The atmosphere becomes mystic but the lantern guides us our way. Fog is appearing and getting more and more dense, so that we are not able to see anymore, as the lantern flickers. Suddenly we see lightning an intense rain is hitting the water in front of the boat and sidewise. On a water wall the image of the merchant vessel sailing in the storm appears ahead of us. Just as we are about to hit this waterwall, it immediately stops and we get dragged up a little hill. Absolutely surprising a figurehead in front of a enormous hulk rushes up to us; but in last-second out boat dives underneath it and falls some meters in the black deep. After the dip we stop with a jar on the following lift, just to be pulled up the hill with high speed. The effect of the abrupt halt, which is a technical makeshift of Intamin, as Kumbak was unable to fix the synchronization with the steel chain of the lift, is staged with red light effects and theatric sounds. Reaching the top we realize that the original pitch of 45° is changing, but we are unable to see the direction of the track. In the very last second a gate opens and clears our way down the first drop.

First an Onride-Pictures is taken in the first part of the drop, while we continue in a right slope downwards. The banked turn at the foot of the Lifthill-Tower is directed through a broken wooden wall which is filled with fog. After reaching the top speed of 70 kph we get up to the first camelback, which is passed quiet slow, so that there is no feeling of airtime. After accelerating we get to a 95 degree horseshoe element, that is also passed laggard. Your trip continues as we get to the nice decorated block brake in a small hut, where we get even more decelerated. Last we get into a left curve right before we hit the surface of the water. The boat itself doesn't hit the water directly but the water-tubes underneath guide the water up. So the first row seats and those sideways are not getting any water at all - a disappointing dry experience. Just after we hit the break once again, the boat is dipping into the lake and latches low lying into the underwater-chain. Quiet speedy we are heading now back to the station.

The "vliegende Hollander" enlarges the ride portfolio of Efteling with a good water attraction. The idea and the theming of the ride are fantastic and lets us hope for the other parks to adapt this combination of walk-through, dark-ride and watercoaster. A loss of this combination is, that the size of each part of the attraction is not overdimensioned. Also the riding experience is not the best: knocking, banging and cracking are the most heared sounds on "De Vliegende Hollander". In face of those technical deficits and the short-time, for Efteling typical, riding experience, "De Vliegende Hollander" is a successful extension for the dutch theme park market leader.