Efteling reveals ride vehicles for its Symbolica dark ride adventure

March 13, 2017, 9:22 AM · The Netherlands' Efteling is showing fans a first look at the ride vehicles for its upcoming dark ride, Symbolica.

The park's fourth dark ride, Symbolica will be a trackless adventure through a fantastic palace, with three different ride paths through "secret corridors along magical rooms," with the ride path to be chosen collectively by the six riders in each vehicle.

Best case scenario? It's like Disney's Mystic Manor, with an element of Horizons thrown in. Worst case? Hey, it's another dark ride from Efteling, the influential Dutch theme park that's known for creating some fascinating dark rides, including Droomvlucht and Fata Morgana.

In addition to today's vehicle reveal, Efteling is running a monthly video series on the making of Symbolica. This month's episode features the scoring of the ride's original soundtrack.

And here are the previous two episodes: Part 1 and Part 2. Symbolica opens this summer. Efteling has not yet revealed a more specific opening date.

Rate and Review:

Replies (11)

March 13, 2017 at 10:06 AM · I'm more excited about this than any other attraction opening this year!
March 13, 2017 at 12:53 PM · I'm definitely intrigued by the idea of a trackless ride with a variable course determined by the riders. Why haven't the U.S. theme parks built something like this?
March 13, 2017 at 1:18 PM · Robert,
Why in the world wouldn't Cedar Fair license this and import? Looks like the skin of the building and the vehicles could be altered to a different theme, but the technology could be repurposed. A Universal style ride with much lower development costs. Carowinds, are you listening?
March 13, 2017 at 1:41 PM · Just got back from visiting Efteling last week and this park is absolutely amazing! Symbolica's building is huge and beautiful, standing right in the middle of the park. It looks like it'll be a great addition to an already awesome park
March 13, 2017 at 2:07 PM · Disaster Transport emotionally traumatized Cedar Fair's management, leading Dick Kinzel to vow never to try another dark ride again. Former Disneyland chief Matt Ouimet is in charge now, and we've seen him greenlight nice improvements to the dark ride stock at Knott's. But a ride like this costs maybe 10 times what a Cedar Fair park drops on a typical new coaster.

Let's see if Justice League moves the needle for Six Flags in LA this year. If it does, then I think Knott's has an argument that it needs a dark ride on that level, too. And at that point, Cedar Fair might look for a deal like Six Flags got from Sally and buy installations for multiple parks. But Cedar Fair needs to see that there's an acceptable return on investment for installing these types of rides over the coasters it's been ordering.

March 13, 2017 at 6:08 PM · Looking forward to this. Efteling are known for their attention to detail, and this ride seems to fit perfectly in their mythical theme.

I was there in November and thought the building looked smaller than expected. The rooftop (which you can see from the neighboring panoramic ride Pagoda) was a bit plain as well, but they have confirmed a palace garden will be installed on the rooftop.

March 13, 2017 at 6:29 PM · This ride costs "only" 35 million euro. It's the most expensive one Efteling ever build. Not sure what Justice League costs but they could spread the development costs and the medea costs over the many parks they can role the ride out to. Efteling only has one park.

I'm looking forward to ride this attraction. It looks promising and re-rideability is always a plus.

March 13, 2017 at 6:44 PM · Knott's either needs a year round scare attraction or a haunted shack replacement. Both should be dark rides, but the Iron Reef disappoints with how it is unreliable and slow loading.
March 13, 2017 at 10:02 PM · Ouimet did state in an interview at needing to solve capacity issues before introducing a dark ride at Cedar Point when asked after the opening of Valravn last summer.

Guess they are still haunted by the disaster transport debacle.

Or they bet on the wrong horse assuming their relationship with Triotech is not simply not working out but might still be reluctant to work with Sally Corp given most of the parks in the Paramount acquisition have Sally Rides and are considered underwhelming.

Another reason maybe like RMC, Sally Corp currently has an exclusive arrangement with Six Flags so Cedar Fair has to bide its time and wait it out for that exclusivity to expire.

Who knows? but time will tell

March 14, 2017 at 8:47 AM · Love it! Echoing many sentiments above, this is what I'm most looking forward to in theme parks for the near future. This is without having seen Efteling in person, mind you, but it really does seem to be the world's best independent park, and one with a genuine theme and personality. They've nurtured their storybook appeal since before Disneyland opened, and by all evidence they've successfully modernized the park without undermining the charm. Really stoked on this!
March 14, 2017 at 9:28 AM · Stinks for the single riders who will have little say over the vehicle course, but I applaud the advancement in technology.

This article has been archived and is no longer accepting comments.

Park tickets

Weekly newsletter

New attraction reviews

News archive