Dance Macabre

On 31 October 2024 Dance Macabre opened.
The new attraction has a capacity of 1250 per hours.
It has a spooky atmosphere and features the Dance Macabre music.
Height restriction is 120cm / 3ft 11
It is suited to ages 8 and up.
The new building is an eye catching 20 meters high

Accessibility

The ride itself is not wheelchair accessible however the queue is (apart from Scootmobile's) so that it can be experienced with everyone else.
Everyone has to go through the same queue journey. There is no alternative.
After the last bridge in the queue there is a section where the queue splits.
You turn right for the alternative experience and left for the main ride.
A member of staff will meet you and lead you down a dark hallway to a lift which takes you down.
In the crypt you can experience a mini version of the show with a floor to ceiling screen and impressive effects.

Queue

The gate on the right hand side of the Abdijplein (Abbey square) will have a single rider entrance and the normal entrance or Family Lane which should be accessible to all over the age of 8 including people with a disability.
When you pass through the gate you will enter the Kruysgang (Cloister)
which leads to De Kruydentuyn (The Herb Garden) where Virginie Charlatan grows her healing and fear reducing herbs. She uses them to make various potions and products.
Soon you will reach a large black gate which leads to the graveyard which a member of the Charlatan family gives us access to. Here we will be getting a small taste of what awaits us in the chapel yonder. Mysterious music plays and the black kitten yowls. A close inspection of the graves reveals that all the graves here belong to various musicians.

Translation

The story of Dance Macabre is played on audio in the queue. This is in the Dutch language. Please find below a translation for your benefit.

Greetings, brave mortals.
Here in the centuries old Huyverwoud you find yourself amid sleeping ruins of the Capelle Abbey of Kaatsheuvel.
Long, long ago on Friday the 13th, in the year 1876, the entire orchestra of the headstrong Joseph Charlatan disappeared at an international music competition.
After a magisterial performance of the music piece 'Dance Macabre' the musicians were mercilessly swallowed by the Unspeakable - an evil that still wanders these areas and manifests itself as a monstrous cat like creature.
Cursed and damned for all eternity, the conductor and his orchestra must play Dance Macabre in the abbey's chapel until the end of days.
Beware mortals. And above all avoid any contact with the seemingly amiable black cat. The Unspeakable is everywhere. And nothing here is what it seems.

The translation in a handy PDF

dance_macabre.pdf
File Size:	594 kb
File Type:	pdf

Download File

A handy audio file of the translation

dansemacabre_english_no_music.mp3
File Size:	2280 kb
File Type:	mp3

Download File

dansemacabre_english_music.mp3
File Size:	2389 kb
File Type:	mp3

Download File

A compilation of all the translations of all the audio stories you may come across in the Efteling.

audio_reference_booklet_version_6.pdf
File Size:	5562 kb
File Type:	pdf

Download File

A smaller gate at the end of the graveyard leads to Huyverwoud. A forest filled with tall trees. Glowing eyes peer at us from the bushes and shreds of old worn banners show that some kind of musical contest took place here one day long ago.
A wooden bridge takes us to our final destination. The Chapel where we will experience Dance Macabre.
Guests who are unable to walk a short distance or complete a transfer will at this point be escorted into a different area where they will be able to experience the ride in a different way.

During the ride you 'dance' to the music. The monks song is your salvation.

Story

A long time ago on Friday 13th October 1876 a musical competition was held at the Abbey in Kaatsheuvel.
One headstrong conductor named Joseph Charlatan was determined to win by having his orchestra play a new piece by Camille Saint-Saëns.
However when they performed the piece in the abbey the macabre piece summoned something Unspeakable which destroyed part of the abbey.
Joseph Charlatan and his orchestra disappeared without a trace, swallowed by the Unspeakable.
However the piece was not performed correctly and the Unspeakable was not fully freed.

Empty graves were dedicated to the lost musicians as no bodies were ever found.
Among the missing were pianist José Garcia Fernandez, sitar player Shyam Dirinder Singh, soprano Cathérine Arbuste, violinist Ignatus Violinist, organist Reinhard Benedikt Pfeiffer, harpist Miranda 'Melody' O'Connor, conductor Joseph Charlatan and violinist Damian Sauvage
The monks and gravediggers (relatives of the Charlatan's) maintain the grounds as best they can but the evil that wanders the area has affected them.

Read the full backstory in "Dance Macabre" by Paul Van Loon (Only available in Dutch)

The mysterious dissapearance of their relative has made generations of the Charlatan family suspicious and anxious.
Doing everything they can to ward off misfortune.

Virginie and Otto two grifters of the Charlatan family go where their mystical barrel organ Esmeralda leads them.
It lead them through many countries which turned out to be the same countries the orchestra toured.
The organ made by their ancestors Joseph Charlatan was completed right before his wife Esmeralda died.
The organ bears her name and perhaps even her soul.
Esmeralda eventually lead them to the very area where Joseph Charlatan dissappeared.

Virginie, an educated expert on luck and misfortune recognised it as an evil place and crafted good luck charms to ward off evil.
Playing the barrel organ also seemed to soothe the spirits.
However Esmeralda has become corrupted and won't let them leave.

Lured by a black cat with heterochromia they find their ancestors mausuleum and investigate the chapel however they barely escaped with their lives.
Otto had been corrupted by the Unspeakable but Virginie saved him with her amulet and her skill.

As they are unable to leave the area they set up shop in the old structures, selling potions and amulets to those drawn to the Chapel.
Warning off those who seek the chapel and providing them with advice and protective spells if they persist.

All the while within the chapel their ancestor Joseph Charlatan and his orchestra is damned to play Dance Macabre over and over again forever or until a replacement can be found.

Map of the themed zone

The Making Of:

Image Source: Efteling Blog

Autumn 2022: Spookslot will be closing for good to be replaced by a new attraction

Spookslot (The Haunted Castle)

When the bell in the Haunted Castle tolls, the graves start to creak and the ghosts start to feel restless as their pasts torment them. This marks the start of a bone-jangling show.

360 Panorama View

Indoor attraction

Relive the experience in this 360 VR POV!

Accessibility

Wheelchair users can enter through the usual entrance.

Translation

The below dialogue is played right before admittance to the main show. This dialogue is spoken in Dutch. Please find below a translation for your benefit.

"Long, long ago, when in times of storm and high water the Maas could still reach the foot of this fortress, the fourth Viscount of Kaatsheuvel Capelle lived in this castle.

He collected fairy tales and legends from around the world and ... practiced magic. He could make the flowers sing and the walls dance. There was only one obstacle in his life, the wicked witch Visculamia. She lived under lock and key in nearby Druinen.

She wanted to take his tales away from him. One day, when the witch was on the prowl disguised as an untempered young maiden, she was caught by the gardener of castle 'De Efteling. By the three judges of the Duchy she was condemned to the stake in the eastern wing of the palace.

With her last breath she spoke a curse in which the Viscount was doomed forever to find his last story ...: his daughter, Esmeralda.

And every time the water of the Maas rises, the enchanted crow of Visculamia strikes the clock at twelve. Then the corpse of the gardener who betrayed her dangles from the bell cord again. The judges who condemned her, wail from the attic window and in the catacombs the count chases his daughter, without ever finding her...

While the flowers sing and the walls dance. The witch's throws her curses into the sarcophagus where the remains of the Count lie trapped. On the south hill of the yard his daughter will find no peace. And this will continue for many a year, until the song of flowers the owls’ eyes doth close, lulls the evil crow, and the curse is broken ...."