I went to the best "Disney" theme park in Europe, and it isn't even owned by Disney...

In 1951, Walt Disney needed some final inspiration to assist with the completion of his one-day famous theme-park, 'Disneyland'. To gain inspiration, he traveled throughout Europe to explore some of the many wonders and insights that the continent had to offer.

Now, this wouldn't be the first time Walt Disney sought inspiration from a land 'far far away'. During the 1930's and 1940's, Walt, and his brother Roy, would visit many famous landmarks spread across multiple countries in Europe.

Today, any Disney park visitor, could identify some of these original elements crafted by Disney, modeled after these inspirations, such as the Matterhorn bobsleds, based on...well, the actual Matterhorn located on the border of Switzerland and Italy.

Another beautiful destination he visited was the Neuschwanstein Castle in the German Alps, which was a main inspiration for Sleeping Beauty's Castle located at Disneyland, in Anaheim, California. Some would argue, elements were also taken for his original designs of Cinderella's Castle located in the Magic Kingdom in Walt Disney World as well.

However, in 1951, Walt decided to visit something a little different compared to the naturally created and historical/architecturally focused destination that he visited in his earlier years. Instead, he focused on visiting some European theme-parks. This is likely due to the originality European theme-parks offer, due to United States-based theme-parks being primarily focused on rides and attractions. During this era, American theme-parks were not known for any kind of theming or story-based elements, however, this was not true for their European counterparts.

One of the most influential visits was to Tivoli Gardens in Copenhagen, Denmark. Opened in 1843, Tivoli Gardens impressed Disney with its enchanting atmosphere, well-maintained gardens, and family-friendly attractions. The park's balance of whimsical charm, cleanliness, and attention to detail deeply influenced Disney's vision. He admired how Tivoli created a sense of magic and joy without relying on extravagant rides, instead focusing on the overall experience. This visit was pivotal in shaping Disney's ideas for creating a place where both children and adults could enjoy a magical experience together.

Another park in Europe that encompasses this same feeling that resonated so well with Walt Disney, is Efteling in the Netherlands. On May 31, 1952, Efteling opened its fairytale forest and playground for adults to bring their children to have fun and to experience the whimsical fairytale stories told through whimsical and iconic scenes. Efteling did not open with what today's roller-coaster enthusiasts would consider as major rides or attractions.

After its creation, Efteling flourished over the years and continuously made new additions and expansions. Some may argue, the success is due to Efteling's core experience being tied to allowing one's imagination to soar through the telling of multiple fairytales leveraging high-quality theming and immersive experiences. As time went on, Efteling started adding attractions, such as trains, carousels, and eventually, in the more modern area, roller coasters and high thrill rides.

This year, I had the opportunity to visit the Netherlands, and I knew I had to experience Efteling for myself...and for my girlfriend's sake, I knew she had to experience it as well. To get the full experience, we decided to stay a couple of days on-site and have more time to experience the entire park. Efteling offers multiple on-site accommodations and hotels, each with a different theme and fairytale atmosphere. We decided to stay in the oldest and most well known 'Efteling Hotel', due to its proximity to the park.

Upon arriving at Efteling, we realized we were in for a wonderfully themed experience from Check-in, to Check-out. In the hotel lobby, everything was themed to a very high degree with the staff even taking a part of the act, wearing distinct outfits and uniforms. Everywhere our eyes wondered, new details caught us by surprise. Once in our room, the details continued, such as little figurines and ornaments hidden around the room, as well as everything being themed, all the way from the wallpaper to even the bed frame featuring the distinct Efteling 'E' molded into it.

Efteling offers many themed hotels and rooms, however with our last minute reservation, we decided to go with the cheapest option, originally not realizing how substantial the selection was. Each room included your theme park tickets, early entry into the park, and arguably the best breakfast we experienced during our almost two week stay in the Netherlands.

However, we weren't here for the room accommodations and promptly made our way to the dedicated Efteling Hotel park entrance to experience what Efteling truly had to offer. And boy, were we surprised. As soon as we entered Efteling, the first thing that we noticed is that we are not on a concrete pad, asphalt paved, hellscape similar to any Cedar-Fair/Six Flags park. We were in a forest. Trees that have been growing for decades and decades block the view of any rides or attractions, so while walking around the park, it is very quiet and similar to a maze of sorts to navigate. Over the tops of the trees, we could catch glimpses of key identifiable attractions, without the spoil or knowledge of what we were truly in-for once we arrived at them.

Walking around the park, we noticed different themed areas, such as the dedicated area to the fairytale forest, an area dedicated to thrill rides, the land of the Laaf people, the fantasy realm, and more. These areas mostly don't have identified names, however you can feel the atmosphere and theming change between the areas. One perk of the areas being separated is that noise from the outdoor high thrill rides, such as cars whirling around the track and screams, don't spread throughout the park. As well as areas dedicated to children, give kids the space to run around without them being in the quiet areas. One of these quiet areas contained one of our favorite rides we experienced. A 20 minute boat ride featuring a small boat that is pulled along using underwater pulleys navigating multiple floating islands surrounded by vibrant plant and wildlife called 'Gondoletta'.

The boat ride took us by such a surprise as we did not realize how long and peaceful it was going to be. It was a great way to relax as they played peaceful harp music as we took in the scenery.

Efteling also offers some amazingly themed thrill rides that we got to experience. These included 'Baron 1898', a large B&M dive coaster, 'George and the Dragon' a racing GCI wooden rollercoaster, and 'Python' a Vekoma double-loop corkscrew coaster that was a very common model from the 70s to 90s, however, Efteling has completely replaced the trains and track making it a very pleasant experience and honestly surprising ride for us as we have never had an opportunity to ride this style of rollercoaster in their prime.

While my girlfriend's favorite ride was 'Gondoletta', mine was 'The Flying Dutchman', which was a rollercoaster disguised as a high thematic boat ride, in which your boat comes into the presence of the infamous ghost ship, known as 'The Flying Dutchman". The theming this ride had was nothing short of anything I have experienced at Disney or Universal and was a highlight of our trip. Everything from the dark lighting, the fog, the blacklight effects, and the music makes this ride a must do.

One thing that made us excited for our visit to Efteling was the amount of dark rides, or highly immersive, low-thrill attractions it offered, as these are frankly difficult to find outside of the Disney parks in the United States. I believe this is because Walt Disney wanted a park focused on the idea of visitors of any age getting lost in their imagination and a theme park allowing them to do so. Efteling's most expensive ride they've created is 'Symbolica', a trackless dark-ride that we found to be one of the best dark rides we have ever experienced.

Symbolica took us on a journey throughout a magical palace in which every turn reveals major story elements brought to life through the use of lights, sounds, and strong colors. The story of Symbolica features some main characters that can be found throughout the park, as well as their cartoons and distributed media. One of these main characters is 'Pardoes', a jester that has magical powers. One important note for any readers is that I do not know the Dutch language, and neither does my girlfriend. So, for all of these experiences where Dutch is the primary spoken lagunage we had to infer the story. We found it very easy and enjoyable as we used context clues to understand, and maybe even the slight Google search, however small details I may have misunderstood.

Another neat ride was 'Dreamflight', a suspended dark-ride/slow roller coaster in which you enter into a fairy forest flying by castles, gardens, forests, and even journey into space. The only word I could use to describe the journey is 'psychedelic'. While on the ride, I felt the only thing I could compare the experience to was if Meow Wolf created a fairy world from the inspiration of 1990's fuzzy velvet coloring pages.

The similarities for what Walt Disney originally loved about Tivoli Gardens and what he wanted Disneyland to represent, continuously weighed heavy on my mind during my visit. Everything was incredibly unique, but the high quality theming allowed one's mind to envelop them into this space and entrance them in it. These thoughts hit their peek while walking through the fairytale forest.

The fairytale forest has 25+ scenes of different fairytales originating from multiple different cultures and countries. While walking around this area, I thought a lot about Walt Disney and his inspiration for Disneyland and the original animated films he helped create, many of which are based on the same fairytales we were seeing transformed into an interactive experience presented in front of us. The capability for us to run through each fairytale, as if we were not only from a third-person view of each scene, but with a little imagination, an active participant in each scene is the closest to what Walt Disney dreamed of I think I have ever seen outside of Disneyland and Walt Disney World.

In addition to these dark rides, thrill rides, and the fairytale forest. Efteling has many other rides and attractions that help round out its offering. One of our highlights was a vintage indoor steam carousel featuring an original automated 'Gavioli' organ playing wonderful music during the ride. The same building also houses an meticulously intricate model train diorama, that was one of the most beautiful dioramas I have ever seen.

We also really enjoyed the 'Raveleijn' show, which features multiple knights in armor battling against "bad-guys", defeat a massive robot chicken, and save the princess. Okay, I am sure I did a gross oversimplification of the storyline, however the show is in dutch and I had no problem being engrossed in the 'Power Rangers'-style battle scenes featuring water and fire effects, trained crows flying around, and fireworks even if I didn't understand the dialogue.

So, I'm sure some readers may be wondering why in the title of this post, I would call Efteling, a "Disney" park. Especially, if you noticed that I mentioned that Efteling was not even open until 1952, while Walt Disney visited Tivoli Gardens for inspiration in 1951, and there is no proof or evidence that Walt Disney even stepped foot inside of Efteling before he passed away. Well, after reading this post and seeing these photos....how could one not draw the comparisons? I am not the only one seeing this as well, hence there being a very large spread rumor that Walt Disney used Efteling for inspiration, even if it isn't true, others have no problem believing it.

However, behind these photos, when someone actually visits Efteling, they realize, it's not only that Disneyland and Efteling might share some of their visuals and pride in theming. I was overwhelmed with the realization that this is the side of Disney that we no longer see in the Disney-named theme parks. This is a side of Disney that was abandoned over the last few decades as the soul of Disney has been transformed into supporting movie sales and with the use of theming that only revolves around newly created IPs, rather than timeless stories.

Now this is not to take away the story of how Efteling was created and the power of the original creator's vision, who created it without the inspiration of Walt Disney. I just feel that if Walt Disney was alive today, I personally feel that he would feel more at home in Efteling, compared to current day Walt Disney Studios near Paris, and even possibly current-day Walt Disney World.

Walt Disney may of never stepped foot in Efteling, however rumor has it that the Disney Organization did reach out to Efteling prior to building Euro Disney (currently Disneyland Paris) for consultation on how to open up a successful theme-park in Europe. One might wonder, does this mean that the Disney organization feels that the main theme of Efteling is synchronized to the theme's that the Disney organization feels is similar than their own? If so, then the feeling of what one might call "Disney" is what Efteling does best.