Joris en de Draak

Efteling's Joris en de Draak has riders pitting fire against water in an epic race to decide which will ultimately conquer in the battle based around the story of George and the Dragon.

The rollercoaster, manufactured by Great Coasters International, is a racing wooden coaster. Two trains race each other around two separate but identical length tracks, one representing water and one representing fire ("vuur" in Dutch).

Unlike at many parks, at Efteling the pace of the coaster is carefully checked and the speed of the lift hill chains are adjusted daily to ensure the race is fair. The winning train is heralded by a victory fanfare and banners are unfurled from the ceiling as it arrives back in the station.

The rollercoaster is fun and thrilling: it is beautifully paced and there are plenty of moments where both trains come close together before veering away again, allowing lots of interactions between riders on each train. It is easy to get caught up in the excitement of the race, and trains regularly pull into the brake run full of cheering (or jeering!) passengers who have fully embraced the exhilaration of the competition.

Joris en de Draak replaced Pegasus, Efteling's original wooden coaster which ran at the park between 1991 and 2009 but had sadly got too rough and old to be maintainable. It has turned out to be a worthy successor: it is the kind of rollercoaster that you cannot help but want to re-ride over and over again, with the racing element only adding to the addictiveness.

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