Garet's Everland/Lotte World TR's 2014/2015

Although work is keeping me busy this year Everland at Halloween looks even more incredible this year than the last one as seen on this blog: http://szsup.tistory.com/642

On the negative side, Everlands operations still drive me crazy. I don't know why Everland bugs me so much with it's operations when I've been to Lotte World on days where even the smaller flat rides have almost a 2hour wait and roller-coasters have 3. I think its because when a park has everything running and there are still lines, you know nothing can be done but when I'm at Caribbean bay in a 2 hour line for a water slide and all the slides are only running 1 side or I'm at Everland and 4 of the bigger crowd eaters are sitting with signs saying open from 3-10 and your running out of time trying to cram in the other 4 crowd eaters saying 10-2, it makes you wonder why they all aren't open. Our kindergarten kids went for a field trip and so many rides for the little ones were closed. The website didn't make it looks so bad with only half shown as closed but when you got there a lot of them either opened late or were just play areas. I understand that weekdays are quieter but when a family is paying full price it seems a bit unfair to explain to the kids they can't go on so many. All parks have closures but these sit closed 4 days out of 7 lately.

Apparently there was an accident at Everland recently on the Oz fun house ride, a 5 year old boy slipped on the rotating circle and got two fingers caught and they were sliced off. Apparently doctors couldn't re-attach the fingers. Criminal charges could be pressed against the staff due to negligence, and jail time was mentioned, it's apparently an option since Korea has a huge thing about safety since the ferry and concert disasters but way too early to tell. Sorry it's a bit rushed my wife was trying to translate when it came up on the news for me, i'll try and update when the English korea news sites have it some time tomorrow.

On all my previous trips there was someone specifically just for the rotating part next to the emergency stop to make sure people went through straight away and didn't rotate too far, however my TR's this year have I mentioned the huge issues with operations, with most of the children's area sitting closed, 2 hour only operations or late openings with the ones advertized as open being play areas (see post above) and most of the bigger rides outside of the roller-coasters switching to half day operations on week-days no matter how busy the park is. Perhaps they have been cutting down on the number of staff and having rides share crews to cut costs and there was only one person on the entrance at the time?

Everland page: http://witheverland.com/769

An example of the new policies, taken from the friday just before Halloween one of the busiest of the season.

That's crazy to hear. Hopefully Everland won't just rest on its attendance and numbers and this will be a big wakeup call for them.

Also, reading back to your Wild Jungle, Wing, and whatever else. Pretty sure that's a series of small Sega simulators. They have them at Joypolis in Tokyo.

That's crazy to hear. Hopefully Everland won't just rest on its attendance and numbers and this will be a big wakeup call for them.

 

Also, reading back to your Wild Jungle, Wing, and whatever else. Pretty sure that's a series of small Sega simulators. They have them at Joypolis in Tokyo.

Oh really? Thanks for the info, due to the above wait-times I didn't go to Everland for Halloween (which i'm told beats Lotte World hands down with halloween decorations and mazes/halloween themes on their rides) on my annual half day off and switched out to Lotte World again.I tracked down the posters advertizing them and am working on a TR with general park updates which i'll hopefully post Monday, if you (or anyone who went on the sega rides) could look at the posters and let me know would be great.

There are some photos on the Tokyo Joypolis Park Index page here: http://www.themeparkreview.com/parks/park.php?pageid=218

And this is the one from Dubai:

There are some photos on the Tokyo Joypolis Park Index page here: http://www.themeparkreview.com/parks/park.php?pageid=218

 

And this is the one from Dubai:

 

Perfect, Lotte World only has one poster and it's a little hidden outside the park unless you know it's there but those logos seem to match up. I can put this information in the round-up on Monday, thanks

I made a mistake when reporting the accident, the Korean news reporting a rotating circle made me think it was the rotating barrel finale but turns out it was one of those floor rotating pads as seen in this news article: http://news.khan.co.kr/kh_news/khan_art_view.html?artid=201411061640261&code=940202

Today with the release of the winter maps featuring them, Everland have announced the retirement of their old mascots and are to be replaced with these new ones: http://www.everland.com/web/multi/english/everland/everland_guide/news/1211124_10988.html The old mascots will have a send off party in two weeks.

And finally it seems the flume ride is closing down: http://www.everland.com/web/everland/how/festival/news/1211097_10436.html

I hadn't being reading the news lately but it seems something will be coming around summer 2015. It mentions at the bottom of the post that announcements about opening will be made in the future but no other information is made. The flume ride takes up a huge area but I wonder how much they would get done in the winter and early spring when the weather is pretty bad to make something new by summer. There's no other information at this point so anything is wild speculation but when I first put up my complaint about so many of the kids rides being shut I said I was hoping maybe it was in preparation for an overhaul, nothings been announced but with the new characters announced and a giant food court going up on the other side of the parade square i'm wondering if that whole area will get a re-theme to match the characters and the "new attraction/attractions" will be the flume getting a lot of themeing. The English map also just refers to it as temporarily closed adding a bit more to this theory.

The other thing is though it's such a popular ride they have to close the standby line and hand out tickets to return most weekends, perhaps it will be replaced with something that will be similar but has a higher capacity, again just speculating. I'd love to see a new roller-coaster to finally soak up some of the crowds Eagles Fortress left behind (T Express also now runs reservation only to help do crowd control) but with the flume being one of the most popular family rides (the safari rides I think are more popular but the buses can soak up the crowds better, the newer safari ride without gates the buses have to wait in even more so) and being in the middle of the kids area my money is still on a rethemeing/higher capacity similar ride.

I sure hope that was a virtual queue display and was actually the time from getting a reservation ticket and when you can ride.

Decided to look into the Goddard Groups facebook since they usually work with Lotte World. Elissa had it exactly right:

This is my last Lotte World update for 2014, though it's mostly just a general round-up of news from around the park, I've tried to structure it as a usual trip report so there's a few random photos as well. Before we begin I'd arrived at Lotte World a little early to cross something off my bucket list........

Here's the outside section of this TR:

Since I normally get off the subway and go straight to the main indoor entrance I haven't had a chance to take a picture of the updated statue. The Lotte on top of the sphere has been made more cartoony to better match the mascot.

Lotte Tower is huge and it's not even finished yet.

The new mall area, across the road from Lotte World it's in this complex where Lotte World's new aquarium (separate admission is). It's still much closer than the water park. That's the other end of the country

The belugas seem to be the main attraction, sadly I didn't have time to go in today.

The reason I'm here so early.

I decided to cross giant rubber duck off my bucket list (and yes I know it's not technically a "rubber" duck)

I heard it was pretty crowded on evenings and weekends but on an early weekday morning it was empty.

Walking back to Lotte World.

If you really want to run for Atlantis as fast as you can on a busy weekend and you aren't there for opening, this can give you a head start.

The new skyline since Wakiki Wave left.

Lotte World have been aggressively expanding their food options around the park, this looks like a nice place to sit and eat.

The castle through the trees.

Being inside the park when it opens, i've never really taken the time to appreciate that Atlantis is themed all the way round even from outside the park.

A car testing.

Onwards to the park.

Opening ceremony

The park is all decked out for Halloween.

Obligatory castle shot.

The alligator looks upset. Perhaps he's seen the new theming?

Lotte World are pretty good with queue times but I felt Atlantis was a bit understated, even with my fast pass (which gets you through this entrance here) I waited 15 minutes and there was a pretty big line outside the entrance when I took this. Also note the fast passes are already late evening and this was on a day the park was dead.

Is it time to call the aquatrax extinct and ride the worlds only trax? I've pretty much covered every month before and after the rehab restoring it to it's "original glory" and I haven't had another ride with water on since my very 1st trip many years ago.

This was one of the few things that disappointed me after the huge rehab. The new sideshows.

They blend in so well with the theming don't they?

Decided to grab a ride on Comet Express since it usually is too busy for me. I sat on the front seat on the left years ago alone, and came the closest I ever have to vomiting. Normally I try to balance with a friend but since I was alone I opted for further back sitting on the right. It seemed to be more bearable this time but that was probably just luck.

That's a bold claim Lotte World. Also that waffle house looks like it was lifted straight from RCT.

Gyro Spin had mechanical issues according to the Korean. However the English sign lied and told me annual inspection.

My second ride with the new scream shields, though no scream shields would be best, these are so much better than the foam filled ones that completely encased your head. Although they can still be hot so don't pull them down too early. I did and had to wait 5 minutes for more people to come.

As I said the tower really towers over Lotte World and it isn't even finished yet.

For instant Halloween theming, add pumpkins.

The indoor part:

I'll start with Pharaoh's Fury, I hadn't mentioned it in previous TR's since I didn't think it was a big deal but since i've seen it on other forums, they've shortened the queue line and made some ride changes. The real fire is gone and so has the rolling boulder effect before the drop down. The real fire is only noticeable if you have been before but I do miss the rolling boulder effect, it's now just some weird spiraling projection.

A lot of the queue line has been ripped out for the trick art museum. To be honest, though the queue line was amazingly themed it really was wasted space, since due to grafitti people were being made to wait outside and on busy days people would rush through once they were allowed to get in to get straight to the ride.

We had fun in the museum. It's a lot of floor space that could perhaps be converted later on. Considering Lotte Worlds love of motion and screen based rides and Intamin perhaps one day we'll see one of those new dome rides.

This is what you see when you first enter the queue. You turn straight away at the end into.....

....this corridor, which leads to....

....this chamber.

The pharaohs head is still here. Just past the screen is the last area

Either they had two of these or you used to walk around it in the old queue. Now it's stuck in a very dark corner of the area above.

And finally up the stairs to the ride. I hope you queue line purists have fun dissecting the differences.

I'll be honest, i'm just going for most complete park in the park index at this point. This is the balloon rides name that goes around the top of Lotte World.

25 minutes than i'm willing to wait.

It finally happened, my day off lined up with a ride I like being closed for inspection. My 5 year lucky streak of it being random kids rides has ended.

Randomly the pirate ship seems to be the only ride with single rider. They were running fast pass even with no queue. It's nice to see full availability at a park when it's quiet instead of a park closing half the rides because the park is empty resulting in hour long lines *cough*Everland*cough*

Hi Larry.

The single rider line seemed longer than the main line.

Off to Underland to check out the new attractions, I don't think I posted about the creepy put your head on the fish that is in Underland.

I did touch on this before. Underland is a lot of themed entrances to some of the malls restaurants. However Lotte World has a strict no re-entry policy and these restaurants don't have bathrooms. You go out to the mall and shop or find a bathroom and try and come back through the main Lotte World entrance and you're stuck. Lotteria had installed a fence (seen in this picture) to keep the new sides separate.

However a lot of the other restaurants look like this, you can clearly see the two sides aren't separated. It wouldn't be an issue but Lotte World doesn't seem to display any signs anymore about no re-entry so it would be very easy to assume you could go out to the bathroom and wonder back to the main entrance.

Off to the new area.

It seems to consist of the new ride and this themed entrance to another mall restaurant right now.

Some walls are painted for theming (although this could be temporary while the 2015 ride is under construction)

Others are physical.

The new ride sits in the middle of an area so you can literally walk around the whole ride and see everything without getting on it.

The station

First turn out of the station

After the turn you hit the lift hill.

Here's the full lift hill and drop.

The big drop

Then into this corner before making a u turn back to the station.

More characters.

The final corner. On the plus side since it's mainly for little children (I believe each boat takes one adult and one child) having it open and able to walk around the whole thing means lots of pictures can be taken for families. But a bit of me wishes it had been enclosed like it seemed to look on the original concepts to make it a bit more magical so apart from the station, you would have to ride and go round the corners to see what's next. But again I'm not the target audience and the little kids love it, even if they can see what's coming before they've ridden.

Coming 2015: Wild Tours. Concept art is here:

It will be a clone of the rides already in Tokyo Joyopolis and Dubai (Thanks Elissa)

I have no idea why this bakery is so popular but there's always a huge line.

Studio Ghibli fans rejoice. There's a shop just for selling Ghibli merchandise across the road from Lotte World now. Ani-land the company that opens it have a few stores across Korea that are mainly Ghibli stuff (like 80% in each store almost) but I believe this is their first store that is completely dedicated to just Ghibli, that and it's the closest to Lotte World.

Thanks for the photos of this unique park. Lotte World has always intrigued me, largely due to its great theming.

Just curious when did atlantis adventure stop being an aquatrax and have they ever said why? Seems a shame the worlds only aquatrax has everything that makes it unique not functioning.

Just curious when did atlantis adventure stop being an aquatrax and have they ever said why? Seems a shame the worlds only aquatrax has everything that makes it unique not functioning.

I'm not sure, looking back on my updates the last one I have with water was summer 10 and even then it was on one drop but not the other: http://www.themeparkreview.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=933090#p933090

It was always off during the winter, I'm presuming because of the temperature but I have been quite a few times during weekdays over the years since then throughout all the months and I don't remember ever seeing it on. I'd have assumed if it was going to come back on it, it would have been after that huge 6 month rehab it had last winter but there was nothing when I went on the 4th July or this October trip. The only thing I can say is my trips have always been timed when the park is dead, perhaps I should try on a busy summer weekend but that's still probably a long shot.

That's a major bummer they took out FX from Pharoah's. It was really on-par with Indy before!

Seems the tower and aquarium aren't having the best of luck right now, I mentioned earlier about the rubber duck and a lot of the safety fears and delays over the tower with all the sink holes appearing around the area. I actually had tickets to the gigantic cinema they closed this weekend. Figured i'd use the worlds biggest cinema screen to watch the final hobbit and 1) see what the hfr fuss is about and 2) the dolby atmos fuss. There was also the death of a construction worker on the site.

Safety woes to shut down Lotte for now

 

By Jung Min-ho

 

The Seoul Metropolitan Government (SMG) ordered the second Lotte World Tuesday to suspend operations of its aquarium and theater amid heightened safety concerns.

 

It also ordered a halt to the construction of a concert hall following the death of a worker near the site the same day.

 

The move came after a series of safety issues, including cracks found in many of its venues, surfaced recently, which caused alarm among the public regarding the 123-story skyscraper in southeastern Seoul. Its construction is scheduled to be completed in 2016.

 

Operations and construction won't be allowed to resume until the company comes up with proper safety measures, SMG said.

 

Yet the city government said it has no plan to order the shutdown of the tower "unless a critical problem, such as one that can pose a grave threat to the safety of people, is reported."

 

"Otherwise, it will be difficult for us to order the shutdown," an SMG official said.

 

Lotte apologized over the death of a 58-year-old man, only identified with his surname Kim, promising to prevent any similar accident from happening and doing proper repair works for the cracks.

 

Kim was found at around 1 p.m. on the eighth floor of Lotte World Mall.

 

With serious injuries to his skull, neck and left leg, he died while being taken to a nearby hospital. The cause of his death is still unknown.

 

Lotte Corp. CEO Lee Won-woo and Lotte Engineering & Construction President Kim Chi-hyun meet with the family of the deceased and apologized to them.

 

Yet what apparently worries people more than the problems is the company's repeated attempts to cover them up.

 

Some people have alleged that Lotte did not make an emergency call immediately because officials had to discuss how to deal with the incident with regards to the media. In fact, it took more than 20 minutes for emergency service workers to arrive at the scene.

 

Police are investigating who found him first and made the first call.

 

Following disclosure last week that Lotte officials tried to cover up cracks found in its aquarium, public opinion turned sour quickly.

 

Before the issue came to light, they just blocked off the area around the leaking tank by putting up signs that read "cleaning" and "environmental improvement" to keep people away.

 

Experts warn that minor problems should be dealt with seriously because they could cause a massive disaster, given that there is a three-story underground 154,000 voltage transformer substation sitting right below the aquarium.

 

Only a day after the incident, another water leak in the ceiling of the basement floor was discovered. SMG later found a problem with water pipes' rubber covering.

 

In the same week, firefighters hurried to a theater, located on the eighth floor of the tower after its screen and seating "shook hard." The theater has been temporarily closed since.

 

SMG said it would conduct further intensive safety inspections of the theater.

Taken from and all credit to Korea times: http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2014/12/116_170041.html

Wild Tours is now open, I'll try and bring a TPR some-time in the new year but it'll probably be a while since there is no way i'll be braving crowds for a brand new ride during the christmas vacation or for a few weekends after opening. A korean blogger has taken some pictures however and the themeing looks incredible: http://szsup.tistory.com/658

After the incidents of shutting down the cinema and aquarium due to problems, a few more incidents and problems in/around Lotte World 2 have come up, souring public opinion even more:

More on the death of a construction worker and delayed response from my last post: http://koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2014/12/113_170062.html

A door came off in the mall and fell on a visitor (this was the second incident of parts of the mall falling down onto people): http://koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2014/12/113_170670.html

The government is threatening to shut down the mall completely if there are more incidents: http://koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2015/01/113_171127.html

More cracks have appeared around the supertower. The article states it has nothing to do with Lotte Tower but with all the cracks and sinkholes appearing around the construction site since they started work, people are still blaming Lotte: http://koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2015/01/116_171337.html

Interesting. I'm sure that after the ferry disaster the public and government are taking safety concerns VERY seriously. Hopefully they're not taking it too far. Keep us updated!

Interesting. I'm sure that after the ferry disaster the public and government are taking safety concerns VERY seriously. Hopefully they're not taking it too far. Keep us updated!

A few months later and the incidents are starting to take their toll on the shop-owners businesses: http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/biz/2015/02/123_173491.html

Wow they really can't catch a break, the aquarium is still closed, the worlds biggest cinema is still closed and another accident this week:

A glass entrance door at the Lotte World Mall in southern Seoul fell and almost hit a passerby Sunday, the mall's safety management committee said Monday.

 

The incident was the latest in a series of safety lapses that have recently occurred at the mall located inside the 2nd Lotte World.

 

According to the committee, the upper hinge of the door broke away from a first floor entrance at 10:34 a.m. Sunday. A customer passing by prevented it falling further with his hands before laying it on the floor.

 

As a precaution, the man was immediately taken to a nearby hospital, where he had an X-ray examination, but no injuries were found, the committee noted.

 

The latest accident came after the Seoul Metropolitan Government (SMG) vowed last month to shut down the mall, if additional safety lapses occur there due to improper safety management and response systems.

 

"We found that there was a problem with the welding on the door. We plan to replace all the German-made hinges with different products," the committee said in a statement. "Within 18 minutes after the incident, an ambulance took him to hospital and he left there with no injuries."

 

A similar incident happened in December, when another glass entrance door also on the first floor fell for the same reason and hit a customer passing by. She suffered minor head and shoulder injuries.

 

At that time, Lotte didn't call 119 for an ambulance. She was treated at a medical room within the Mall and was later taken to a hospital.

 

During his surprise visit to the second Lotte World on Feb. 9, Lotte Group Chairman Shin Dong-bin said he would personally take care of safety management to dispel concerns over the building.

 

He said, "I will visit here to check safety once a week without notice. I will always keep in mind that safety is the most important thing."

 

His public commitment to carrying out spot safety checks indicates how significant public concerns are regarding the 123-story skyscraper.

 

According to Lotte, the mall currently has about 50,000 daily visitors, about half the number who attended during the first weeks after it opened in October.

 

The parking lot's occupancy rate is also declining ― the mall is capable of accommodating up to 2,700 vehicles, but less than 500 cars use it daily, down from 800 late last year.

 

After a series of safety problems, including cracks in the mall's aquarium, vibration problems in the movie theater and the death of a construction worker in the building, Lotte recently formed a safety management committee.

http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2015/02/116_173724.html

Sounds like they tried to build the mall on the cheap and are now paying the price for it.

So I was going to mention these when I started my TR's for 2015 but I figured since nearly all of these bits of news tie into the updates I made in this thread, I thought it'd serve as a nice epilogue to theose.

Lost Valley, one of Everland's newest rides, second safari ride and one of the biggest crowd eaters has been closed for the last 3-4 months and still has no re-opening date. I'd assumed it had gone down for annual work due to the cold temperatures for the animals (the lion, tiger and bear safari ride is open all year round) but it now turns out it's been closed due to the risk of foot and mouth, the indoor zoo exhibition area has also had to be closed and the bird show has vanished from the schedule due to the risk of bird flu. It came at a pretty bad time for Everland, T Express and the rapids were closed for its winter rehab and the log flume is being replaced/upgraded behind construction walls for the 2015 attraction, combined with the half day schedules meaning capacity was severely down over the winter months.

Due to the above, the fast passes Everland promoted that I mentioned in my TR have also been suspended. I thought they might have come back when T Express opened and just allowed people to substitute for the closed Lost Valley but for now the passes are suspended.

It seems after the accident the fun house will be permanently closed. Nothing official has come from the park but after months of saying closed on the app and map, all mention has been removed from the app, website and park map and we all know how well that worked out for Eagles Fortress. I mentioned earlier that the helicycles that sit behind the funhouse literally open for only a few days a year on the busiest days, maybe now with the funhouse closed they could do something with the area. I hope it isn't just left to sit there and rot like Eagles Fortress and the big wheel already are (and the helicycles for 360 days)

Everland also seem to have currently changed the night time entertainment schedule to fridays-sundays only so if you want to see the lights parade and the fireworks/laser show time your day trip accordingly.

The Top Scan, Let's Twist, has had a lot of closed days this year compared to the other rides, so if you're interested on riding it check the Everland app before you go.

In news of things that have come to Everland:

Kfc has taken over the diner in the middle of the American area. Though there are franchises in the park for attractions (Thomas, Rio, Pororo etc) I think this may be the only franchise restaurant that has been at Everland since I started visiting.

There's a new show replacing the Madagascar show with Everlands own new mascots that were unveiled this year. Hopefully it will change soon but right now, the Madagascar characters and signs still sit both outside and inside the theater with new banners draped over some madagascar parts or to the side on other parts.

Everland has set up a glamorous campsite in the middle of the park, it's located just under the american section of the park near the dragon coaster, prices vary due to events and season but it seems to be the Everland equivalent to renting a Cabana at a waterpark, it gives you a lace to return to and rest in during your day at Everland: http://www.everland.com/web/everland/favorite/glamping/index.html

That's it for my 2014 updates, when I do return to Everland to do a full TR by myself and see what happened in the log flumes area, i'll try out some of Everland's single rider passes and trek up the hill to grab some updates on Eagles Fortress. I know Robb asked earlier in the thread and honestly I always forget to go look, since the big wheel became SBNO it's very hard to get pictures with it all hidden in the trees, the only way to look is from T Expresses lift hill and i'll obviously never take a camera on there and break the park rules, perhaps everyone will have to wait until Robb comes back one day to shoot a new POV video.

Honestly as you've probably seen from this thread 2014 I really haven't enjoyed my times to Everland with the closed kids rides and half day policies resulting in the quiter the park being, the less rides are open (heck one quiet Monday I went I missed out on the top scan because they only opened it for 2 hours) meaning even on quieter days lines can be impossible to pick (yesterday with Chinese tourists still over from New Year lines but a yellow dust health warning telling people not to go outside, lines were hitting 2 hours but rides still alternated times) but don't let that put you off going.

I've honestly found Sundays to be the magic day for me this year, yes the park is a lot busier but you'll probably find more rides open, if you read the map and know you don't need to run to T Express (where the ticket line can be huge) and can go to other ticket booths to reserve you'll probably find if you time it right at T Expresses entrance (around 35 minutes past the hour) that you'll wait less time than you would on a weekday (I've seen 40-80 minutes on weekdays when entering the line with my ticket late in the hour on sundays i wait 20-30). The only thing I will say about weekdays is if you want to do the safari rides, each one lasts around 15 minute and are walk-ons on weekday mornings and pick up in the afternoon but on weekends they'll be hit by familys for most of the day (Lost Valley seems to get quietest at lunch and Safari World around late afternoon).

The other option is to take a gamble and go on a Friday. Some weekdays the park is completely empty and some days its packed, it can just be blind luck but friday is a day where you're less likely to hit half day ride openings, can be empty until lunch-time and is the only day outside the weekends where you can still see all the night entertainment shows.

Does anyone remember when a worker died on Atlantis back in 2006 and the park offered free tickets to try and counter the negative press which resulted in a stampede and more negative press? A korean facebook page was talking about free events and openings in korea (you ought to have seen the crowds when Korea's first Ikea opened recently or when some Pikachus had a parade in Seoul) and had some pictures from that day, I found an old topic and one or two mentions of the accident/stampede but I think this is the first time there's been pictures on this board.

Cosmos Apps facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cosmosapps?fref=photo

Taken from Cosmos Apps: https://www.facebook.com/cosmosapps?fref=photo

Taken from Cosmos Apps: https://www.facebook.com/cosmosapps?fref=photo

Taken from Cosmos Apps: https://www.facebook.com/cosmosapps?fref=photo

So it's like Black Friday but people actually get what they want?

So I had one left-over TR that I didn't post since it wasn't theme park related, but I figured some people might want to see it.... but before that, a quick news round up for the Korean parks:

Lotte World

A few months later and the aquarium (and worlds biggest cinema screen) has still not been allowed to re-open.

Last year I mentioned Lotte Worlds water park opened with only two slides opened outdoors with the rest to be opened next season, there hasn't been much in the way of promotion but park maps that have been released indicate a June opening for the rest of the park, including a master blaster, boomerang style slide, rafting slide, 8 lane racer (one of the ones that does a turn at the start), a torrent river (lazy river), rapids attraction and a flow rider.

Everland

I honestly don't know where to start here, there's so much news to deal with. As you may have noticed from this topic and my previous one, I have really not enjoyed Everland experience's at all this last year or two, with the park only opening half the rides and most of the children rides shut on quiet days and even sometimes busy days as well as rides not re-opening after bad weather, it felt more like fuji-q than the Everland from when I first arrived in Korea.

It's really early in the season but the trips I've made, I'm happy to report that it feels like this bad Everland has died and a new Everland is on it's way.... literally. Everland was running a $10 entry promotion in March so I popped in for a few hours early in the month before some teacher training I had in the area and there were construction walls everywhere. It seems the new mascots I mentioned a few pages back was only the start of revitalizing Everland.

I mentioned last post that there was a new show but they just had banners draped over the Madagascar logos which made it look kind of cheap and tacky. Well thankfully it was a temporary show to introduce the new mascots and Madagascar is back now. The map form when I visited saying only friday-sunday for night entertainment has gone, with a new show in place for the new characters it's every night again filled with lots of fire and fireworks

Lost Valley has finally reopened after being closed for a few months due to the risk of foot and mouth, the birds of prey show has also been cleared to reopen after being closed for risk of AI.

Everlands weather and operating policies seems much improved as well, on a few of my trips it seemed if a ride like T Express went down to rain or wind, it would rarely re-open but on the last few trips rides that have gone down due to weather have re-opened even only for a few hours, this never happened in what my wife and I are calling the "bad years." Speaking of, the policy of only opening half the park for 4 hours in the morning then shutting those rides down to open the other half of the park for the afternoon seems to be gone. We haven't encountered it once this year, it's such a more enjoyable experience when you aren't having to race around the hillside twice to cram in 4 rides that are only open for 4 hours and then having to trek up the hill again to grab the other half. Some rides will open at 1pm on quieter days since the park is empty but nothing closes by 2pm anymore which is so much nicer. Thank you, thank you Everland

T Express seems to have now become permanently fast-pass only, the English map makes it a bit confusing saying its only weekdays and a reservation system weekends but it seems you always need a queue pass or reservation every-day now so just remember my advice from my last TR: there are other ticket booths around the park (even the parks blog shows people lining up outside T Expresses ticket office, why they don't mention the other ticket boxes in more places than the park map is beyond me) and that they aren't staggered fast passes so the start of the hour will be much busier than around half past.

Following the accident the fun house has been completely removed and there's just concrete where it once sat. It leaves the also closed helicycles behind it very exposed. Some people think the helicycles may reopen when the crowds come to that area for the 2015 attraction in the log flumes place, others think after they've sat closed for so long they'll be removed. I'd love to see them removed, with the fun house gone it'd open up a nice bit of space.... I'm dreaming of a S&S 4d free spin although maybe the space isn't big enough. If not a S&S screaming swing would probably fit nicely

Future News

I had heard from some of my younger students very recently telling me excitedly about what was coming to Everland for 2016 and about the log flume area (when you have 300 students and live 40-50 minutes away from the park your guaranteed to have at least 20 students visiting the park a week) but I didn't think quoting Korean kindergarten and elementary students was a good source for TPR Considering the kids knew I assumed it must be on the construction walls and I kept waiting for something in a newspaper or everlands official blog and website but nothing came up....

Thankfully a Korean blogger went out and you can see his wonderful pictures here as well as a video of all the awesome fire in the night time show: http://szsup.tistory.com/670 There's also things in the update here that I hadn't noticed so all thanks for news from this point onwards goes to him... I'm just writing a news round-up

2015 I mentioned this in previous posts that the log flume was shut down to be replaced in 2015. Nobody was sure if it was a retheme or extensive rehab and the walls were blank last time I was there but looking at this update it seems extremely likely the log flume coming for 2015 is a completely new one and not an update of the old one. The promotional pictures show a 8 car raft and looks to be themed around an outdoor camping/rafting experience in bear country. It mentions in korean a backwards drop. Looking at the pictures I picture a ride system very similar to storm force 10 at Drayton Manor. Considering the old log flume could get lines of 3-4 hours, the bigger boats are a welcome addition and will definitely be needed with this new ride.

2016 Pandas will be coming to Everland, work is already under way for a panda exhibition where the old indoor african animals were exhibited. Though not the most exciting news for theme park people, I think this will bring in a lot of visitors for Everland and will make for a very exciting addition to their little zoo. (well big zoo if you ride the safari rides to see the main animals)

Eagles Fortress A fence has gone up around the track! While not the most exciting news and I wish I could tell you what is happening behind the wall at least after 8 years of the ride just sitting there and nothing happening it's something. Rumors suggest track removal but its still early days, although the wall will probably stop pictures when I go out to do the big TR in the summer i'll try and look over from the top of T Express when I ride (so no camera obviously) and see what I can see in the area and get some pictures of the old station as well.

Speaking of things left for 8 years, looking back at Robb's talk of the concrete slab filled with random kids rides being a bit out of place in Everland, the area is also getting touched up a building is under construction, rumored to be used for character meet and greets, and one of the kids rides in the area has gotten a re-theme to the characters.

Ok finally on to my latest TR, though not theme park related I thought people might be interested. So my wife and I had planned on going to check out the new childrens park theme park (that TR will come eventually, promise) it started to snow pretty heavily while we were on the subway. We were worried the heavy snow would shut down the rides so we decided to postpone and go check out a Studio Ghibli exhibit. There's been quite a few exhibitions and concerts in Korea but normally due to them showing off actually layouts from the films have been secret, this one actually allowed pictures to be taken so here it is....

We were greeted by this poster as we got off the subway, there were a few themed to different movies scattered around the mall.

The layout of the exhibition

The dog from Howls Moving Castle waits in the queue line

This was the first thing you see in the exhibition, the exhibitions uses a lot of angles to make things look smaller or for trick art. Although it looks small, this thing was massive and almost touched the ceiling. Sadly only photos were allowed and not video because this massive thing actually moved

The detail that went into the model was amazing.

Entering the next room, your greeted by the famous fireplace

One of the first "box arts" to be encountered, there was a switch to pull forward the curtains

Turnip Head

I'll be honest the dressed up mannequins were the weakest part of the exhibit for me, thankfully there were very few of them.....

.... and most were sculpted like this one of Sophie

and Markl

Remember I mentioned trick angles and curves were used for a lot of the exhibits, this was another one that used mirrors to make the meadow go on forever, although my camera ruined the effect

Mononoke was the next room

This was a massive screen that hit another model, it was also one of the only rooms that played the movies theme in it

Behind the screen

one more projection on the massive screen

Onto the next room

How many people have seen this movie?

I'll be honest, this room was a little out of place. It felt like some-one realized that all the other exhibitions were Miyazaki movies and they felt they needed to throw something in from another director. Don't get me wrong a few of my very favorite Ghibli movies aren't by Miyazaki but only having one room dedicated to a different director seemed out of place. They either needed another room for something like Arietty or just went all out and made it all Miyazaki and put a Ponyo, Laputa or Kiki etc. room here.

I really did enjoy these box art pictures

A nice little effect having the forest change to the city

Another room using angles to give a very neat effect (and again my camera ruining it)

I wonder what could be in the tree

Lots of little movie screens showing you the clips of what you would see

I saw a lot of people in the line bringing umbrellas in the queue for this photo op, sadly I didn't plan ahead

This was a small picture but I really liked it.