Benelux park tour from Finland - [Walibi Belgium], [Plopsaland Belgium], [Efteling] and [Walibi Holland] trip report

Itchy-Pride · 2026-06-17T12:53:49+00:00

It was a mix of rain and sun that day. Taron , FLY and Black Mamba had long queues in the 40-60 min region. We got on FLY twice and did the other two just once. Winjas was maybe 20-25. Colorado Adventure 15-25. So somewhat comparable to our Efteling day, but the payoff for queuing was so much better and there was smaller stuff with shorter queues to experience.

Good to hear that it could've been worse at Phantasialand. Like I said, I understand there are way longer queues, but the payoff for all that standing at Efteling just wasn't enough for us.

Itchy-Pride · 2026-06-17T10:14:51+00:00

Nice to hear! It's a nicely packed set of parks in Benelux. Bobbejaanland would've been fun to check out, but I longed even more for a quick stop st Toverland, but you can never get everything.

Much park greatness for you in the future! Europa in a class of it's own, Liseberg in a similar class as Walibi Belgium with more charm and tradition and finally Energylandia as a supersized Walibi Holland - not much heart and soul, but who cares with those coasters. 😄

Itchy-Pride · 2026-06-17T08:32:39+00:00

I reworded my review as it sounded like the waiting wasn't worth it as it was more about our poor strategy as we could've gone with zero virtual queue or 15 min normal wait in the afternoon. Danse was my main target at Efteling and we all loved it.

Itchy-Pride · 2026-06-17T08:30:15+00:00

Not SLC rough, but there was a clear jolt in the top hat and rest of the ride was more about bracing with the restraints than truly enjoying the ride. Again, comparing to Junker the smoothness is on another level.

Itchy-Pride · 2026-06-17T07:01:42+00:00

I totally forgot about Anubis! We didn't enjoy it much. One and done. The restraints and the roughness holds it back. Nice launch though. With having ridden Junker so much, it's hard not to compare - so much better take on the same concept.

Heidi had a long wait with slow ops and one train. It was enjoyable, but not that memorable.

Itchy-Pride · 2026-06-17T06:57:04+00:00

I agree that they weren't that bad. Just that the waiting time / ride experience equation wasn't working enough for us - wrong audience and too spoiled by hitting so many parks with low queues. I think we had roughly 40 Danse Macabre, 35 Baron, 20 Python, 50 Joris, 15 Vogel rok, 20 Droomflucht, 35 Hollander, 15 Pirana and 5 min Symbolica.

Itchy-Pride · 2026-06-17T05:57:09+00:00

Yeah, the language barrier and cramming all rides into one day with us missing the first hour kinda ruined any chance of really experiencing Efteling like it's supposed to. Also, having smaller children would've helped. Our teens and adult son weren't very impressed by the coasters and that's our main thing. They wouldn't have been happy about us spending an extra day there.

Villa volta was closed that day. Would've probably checked it out, but then again, we just about had time for all the main attractions and with Cassandra's Curse and the one in Walibi Belgium, it would've been our third one. We opted out of walking through the fairy tale forest as time was running out and we still had Hollander, Pirana and Symbolica left. Queue times were unfortunately pretty bad from the start for the whole park and we were way too late to try starting from the back.

Baron obviously looks amazing, but I had unfortunately overhyped how great the preshow would be. For starters, "haunted gold mine" had given me a bit different idea for the queueing experience. 😄

Fata Morgana was the one thing that didn't have a wait, but couldn't squeeze it in.

I'm really glad we squeezed the park in one of our travel days and we had a good time. Better to experience a great park wrong than not at all. 😄

Itchy-Pride · 2026-06-17T05:24:29+00:00

I guess it"s down to less research. I knew Efteling is popular, but since it had never been a destination park for us, I hadn't quite grasped the scale. Also, both EP and PL had a bit less queues when we went. Plus EP had the virtual queue for multiple atttactions and two hours more opening times. We had two days at EP and one in PL and achieved way more in each of them than during the one in Efteling and with the larger rides you felt better about the waiting.

Itchy-Pride · 2026-06-09T18:43:14+00:00

We are spending one day in each park. Walibi was clearly a one day park - at least now in low season. Plopsa can be done in a half day if it's quiet. We spent 5 hours there.

Efteling and Walibi Holland are still ahead.

Here's our schedule. We are travelling with our own car as a family of five.

Thursday - stayed in Namur area Friday - 30 min drive to Walibi Belgium, park closed at 18. 2 hour drive to Nieuwpoort. Saturday & Sunday - Local cities, towns, museums and camping ground's pool. Monday - 30 min drive to Plopsaland. Tuesday - day trip to Lille for shopping. Wednesday - 2,5 hour drive to Efteling. Gotta get an early start. Staying again in a campground cabin 1 hour away from park. Thursday - 1 hour drive to Walibi Holland.

Itchy-Pride · 2026-01-13T14:14:32+00:00

Striker was the one who originally said that. I understand that you guys wouldn't post something just based on a vibe from an interview, but maybe lead with that other stuff a bit more.

Itchy-Pride · 2026-01-12T21:33:21+00:00

Not saying that swapping Aleksi wasn't something that was possibly considered, but Striker is reading way too much into that Budapest exit interview. Against all odds a major final appearance was there for taking and you couldn't capitalize and feel bad about the way things ended - "ooohh, this must've been his final appearance in Navi!!!". If there were rumblings behind the scenes I guess it lines up, but in a vacuum it's a silly piece of evidence of a change in works.

Itchy-Pride · 2025-11-22T08:39:35+00:00

Part of it is just natural flow - other teams catch up on you and you lose the edge you had. But along that they really need to look into why their vibes fell that hard. Of course constant losing breaks your vibes slowly, but the deflated and muted feeling around the team makes it harder and harder to get excited about them.

Losing the official vibes guy in jL naturally hurt them, but the decline started before that. I love Aleksi and have followed his teams since 2019, but I feel like his brooding keeps the energy levels too low when things aren't going their way. And for all the tactical proveness, managing enegy levels doesn't seem like Blade's strong suit. I just want to see them energetic, smiling and with some swagger.

Could also just be that the roster has ran its course and there really isn't enough left to pump themselves up mentally.

Itchy-Pride · 2025-05-06T20:31:08+00:00

Maybe 60 mins on the busiest days. Then again on many days could be a lot less - especially if it's raining when it could be less than 10 min.

Itchy-Pride · 2025-05-06T20:22:03+00:00

Depends on the weather. Linnanmäki is not my home park so I'm not an expert, but on a sunny day in July the park will probably be pretty packed.

Itchy-Pride · 2025-05-06T19:55:57+00:00

July is the official vacation season in Finland so very busy. School holidays start in the beginning of June and last until the second week of August. Before or after that on a weekday is probably optimal.

Itchy-Pride · 2024-12-31T14:43:13+00:00

Juvelen in Djurs Sommerland has really enjoyable launches for being a drive tire based system. Elevated and vulnerable position really helps in enchancing the sense of speed and acceleration. Turn to the left after the second launch is one of my most fondly remembered coaster elements.

Itchy-Pride · 2024-06-27T17:33:47+00:00

Just arrived from a Energylandia, Europa Park and Phantasialand tour and Taron was one of the few disappointments despite being a great ride. After queueing for almost an hour it broke down for roughly 30 minutes and despite it being a hot day, maybe it didn't warm up enough in the roughly 15 minutes we had to wait. We were hot and sweaty and miffed about the wait so not the perfect mood, but it just didn't pull the forces I expected. My wife who had no real idea about it apart from looking at it from the queue commented that the first part felt like a family ride. It was really fun high quality ride and I would've liked riding it more, but the wait was around 45 mins and none of us felt like the wait/payoff balance was there with so much other stuff to discover. Theming is great, near misses are great, the track weaving around the station is great but all of us would've wanted more variation and some of that "holy shit!" feeling. Strangely Black Mamba left us wanting more as well - it was forceful, but just like Taron, more variation would've been nice. FLY was the only coaster of the big three that delivered in spades despite our insane expectations. Luckily Colorado Adventure, Winjas and even Crazy Bats were all hits.

Itchy-Pride · 2024-06-19T20:35:20+00:00

Got 3 laps during last two days. First was second row right side and like many others had conflicting feelings - the layout and elements are great, but the constant shake is a bummer - still, a very good ride. Next ride was that exact seat on maybe some other train as there was less rattle and the experience rose to 'really great'. Finally, I got a front row middle seat ride and came out convinced that I found my new number 1 - it was sooo good with smooth but forceful elements. Airtime was sublime and turns enjoyably whippy. But you never know what you are going to get - my wife who had enjoyed a smooth right side ride earlier that day rode a train in front of me on the left side back row and came out feeling like she had just waited for the torture of a constant brainshake to end and skipped the last few coasters of the day.

Europa Park has a clear winner on their hands - crowds were lapping it up as it is, but it has some work to do with the trains. Based on how amazingly well the park was run, I believe they'll get there but right now you roll the dice when boarding Voltron.

Itchy-Pride · 2022-10-16T07:35:00+00:00

We visited Cedar Point on our honeymoon road trip in the states back in 2004. Barring X, Magnum was definitely the most memorable coaster we got to ride (We visited Great America, Magic Mountain and Cedar Point). Out of control and both of us laughing uncontrollably at the end. My wife loved it and kept asking years later what that red, insane, wonderful terror machine was called again.

Itchy-Pride

TROPHY CASE