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| Manufacturer | Mack Rides | ||||||||||||||||||
| Product | Omnimover | ||||||||||||||||||
| Builder | Geesink Studio | ||||||||||||||||||
| Designer / calculations | Joop Geesink | ||||||||||||||||||
| Type |
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| Capacity | 1600 per hour | ||||||||||||||||||
| Speed | 1.4 km/h | ||||||||||||||||||
| Cabins | 118 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Track length | 240 metres | ||||||||||||||||||
| Animatronics | 275 | ||||||||||||||||||
Carnaval Festival is a Tracked Dark Ride built by German manufacturer Mack Rides currently located at Efteling in Kaatsheuvel, North Brabant, The Netherlands.
History
The ride was designed by famous Dutch cartoonist Joop Geesink, who sadly passed away 18 days before the official opening of the ride. Joop was originally hired by Efteling as an adviser, but he didn't really enjoy this job, he wanted to create a ride himself. Eventually, Efteling gave him a budget of 10 million guilder to completely design his own ride. This ride was planned to become the park's second dark ride, and would open somewhere in the late 80's.
When the park found out that their first dark ride, Fata Morgana wouldn't make its deadline of 1984, Joop's ride was pushed forward to fill its gap, becoming the parks first dark ride instead.[1]
Design
The ride features 21 scenes and 281 figures.
Ride System
The ride utilises the Omnimover system, with a turntable at the station. 118 gondola's, space for 2 adults or 4 kids. The track has a lenght of 240 meters and a max speed of 1,4 km/h
Location
The ride is located in the "Reizenrijk" area of the park, roughly translating to "Travel Realm".
Etymology
Carnaval[2] refers to the tradition of carnaval, mostly celebrated in the south of the Netherlands (North Brabant and Limburg). There usually are parades made out of paper mache props during this Festival, hence the paper mache look of the figures inside the ride.
Theme
It is themed to different country's of the world all celebrating.
Countries represented
| Scene | Country |
|---|---|
| 1,2,3 | The Netherlands |
| 4 | Belgium |
| 5,6 | France |
| 7 | England |
| 8 | Scotland |
| 9 | Germany |
| 10 | Switzerland |
| 11 | Italy |
| 12,13 | Japan |
| 14,15 | China |
| 16,17 | Alaska |
| 18 | Africa |
| 19 | Mexico |
| 20 | Hawaii |
| 21 | none |
Later changes
- 2005: The ride's original mascot, a jester/clown named Jokie was fazed out and replaced by Loeki de Leeuw (Loeki the lion). Loeki was a famous character in the Netherlands, with short cartoons airing between commercial breaks. Loeki was originally designed by Joop Geesink.
- 2012: Loeki got removed from the ride, and replaced by a redesigned Jokie, which was now accompanied by a new character, Jet the purple bird.
- 2019: The African and Asian scènes of the ride got a big overhaul, removing a lot of stereotypical elements that where deemed offensive by some.