Garet

Dropped by the park to try out the new roller-coaster. Ride was up and down all day. People in station got fast passes but if you were anywhere in the queue and got kicked out, you were out of luck even with a 60-minute wait so we saw a lot of frustrated people. Legoland Factory and Ninjago were also up and down throughout the day. Dragon was running one train, factory was sending one car empty (maybe one car is marked for fast-pass riders?), and Royal Joust only had one side so a capacity of four people (I wish this ride was also children only) so it was a low capacity day. Another TPR member mentioned there has been a very negative reaction to fast-passes in Korea, especially with Legoland and we did see some guests confronting employees at rides which is a little sad when it's something beyond their control or pay grade. I think it's because most Korean parks offer only single-use, very limited and very expensive passes, so you almost never see them pass you in line whereas Legoland offers reserve and ride style so when we lined up for Dragon, the line crawled because you had one train and needing to accomodate the fast-pass people. Something I'm used to from other parks but it seems the Korean population not so much. Everyone seemed to head to the new ride at opening, we hadn't even cleared security, the line was already at one hour, and most people were still only just getting into the park. Later in the day the line had dropped to 40... But it closed just as we arrived. We opted to go eat since it usually takes an hour to get food, by the time we were done eatind it had reopened and after another attempt to wait in line we did get a ride. A little frustrating, there was a lot of queue jumping, and even though there was free lockers at the end to store belongings, a lot of people seems to take loose belongings to the platform. Later in the day, we almost made it to the station before we were kicked out of the line. We came out and they were evaccing people off the brake run in harnesses, and with only an hour left before closing, I didn't see them reopening. Son was frustrated he'd almost made it and lost time, but he was ok, we have annual passes and can come back, but saw some others carried out in tears, which is a shame for them to end their day. Instead, we headed over to the dragon since it'd dropped to a 20-minute line, but with one train waited 35. They did let him jump back in line 3 minutes before closing and rode the last train of the day, so at least he got some credits for the day. May 3rd-6th will be a four-day weekend and the busiest time of the whole year for theme parks, so hopefully Legoland will have the issues fixed before then.

The rumored 'Panda World 2/Panda expansion' has now been confirmed by the park for 2025. Since the park is home to twin cubs who are reaching the age of independence, they will be expanding the exhibit to have more enclosures. No word on if this investment means there is any deal in place to keep the pandas past the age of 4. Previously, Fu Bao, the first Korean born panda was returned to China once the age limit was hit. Source

Legoland has released a preview of the new roller-coaster, confirming the Lego dragon will have a real fire effect. There'll be a pass-member-only grand opening Thursday from 2 p.m.-7 p.m. We visited the park recently before the ride opens since we're happy to visit before and after and avoid the crowds of people wanting to be first: Park opens 11 a.m. but I'd really not recommend arriving around then. There was a single employee running security and bag check and it didn't open until just 10 minutes before opening so the bottle neck caused a huge line without shade. Same for restaurants, a lot of them had only one server taking orders, and menu didn't tell you if something was sold out. We lost 30 minutes in one line to find no plain ice-cream and another to reveal no slushies (25C heat that weekend). Restaurant waits were far greater than any of the ride lines, the LEGO burger area seemed pretty packed. Pasta Pizza buffet is also probably not going to return, the Bricktopia Lounge cafe/Lego conveyor belt building area conversion looks pretty permanent. Apple Fries are also no more, it's a waffle stand now but apple cinnamon flavor will live on in the sundaes and waffles there. Ride availability was much improved though. No half shift rides and most rides running both sides/towers. The Driving School was thankfully once again preparing guests in pre-show room during ride cycles and not waiting for previous cycle to end causing 5 minute gaps. Not sure if Ninjago Live is dead but the theater had no showings. Considering the Ninjago roller-coaster opening and the park is currently operating Ninja Spring festival, it seems now would be the time it was running. Duplo playground has had construction walls around it and the whole canopy roof has been removed. No word on the future of the site but it's still listed on the map. Miniland should maybe have been built indoors like some of the other newer parks. For a park only a few years old, Miniland seems to be suffering under the Korean weather. One of the areas was actually broken, the crane had collapsed onto some of the buildings and broken models, subway trains no longer moved, and a lot of vehicles or trains were missing and no longer moving about on the exhibit making it one of the most static Minilands I've seen. Interactive segments were also not working (shipyard dock crane) or just completely missing pieces and broken. LEGO Castle area was playing Prince of Thieves OST (There's only one Disney if you're younger than me). Not really note-worthy but I have a lot of nostalgia for it, and it was a nice change from the usual same 'Castle theme' they play over and over.

Confirmed opening April 11th:

^It's the existing Sky Roller. Legoland Germany also has one, and it was also on a future plan for Legoland Korea's Ninjago area, but so far, only the roller-coaster has been built.

As of today, Fantasy Springs will allow people to line up for the rides without the need for standby passes. I kind of hope this means the recent culture of everyone standing around frantically tapping screens will disappear again, always seemed a shame to be in one of the most beautiful parks and people too busy refreshing their screens throughout the day to fully enjoy it.

Is Legoland Japan the only open park currently without the Nijago shooting ride? Just off the concept art it looks extremely likely that the roller-coaster will be a copy of the Ninjago Mack Spinner (Masters Of Spinjitzu) that's opening at Legoland Korea next month.

It looks similar to the upgrades in Hong Kong, when they changed it to Ant-Man. Part of that though was vehicles all followed a set rotation, are they also removing the ability to turn and rotate your own vehicle here?

Visiting the park for an early season visit New rollercoaster Masters of Shinjitzu opening mid April.

^ Even if it does, I really don't expect much since a lot of the bigger companies who build these or the vanity projects are usually just using the theme park to get the sign-off on the land or as companies to use to hold shares for other companies. This one is by Shinsegae (who want to build a Starfield shopping mall on the location) and the history of theme parks owned by big Korean conglomerates suggests that this theme park will be tiny. I really hope I'm wrong and it'll be a big development with Paramount loaning I.Ps but we've seen this already with Lionsgate: New parks: Shinhwa World (Jeju) with their casino built up a park with only 12 attractions (and they're counting playgrounds in that number) then quickly canceled the Lionsgate theme park expansion. Lotte World Busan lists 25 attractions on the map, but they're also counting arcades, on-ride photo shops, a talking tree, and a lot of children's rides that adults can't ride. I want to try out their Blue Fire clone and Mack Splash but can't justify the travel when the total number of rides I can do in the park is actually 8. There's a Luge nearby so I almost did but found out the park doesn't allow reentry. There's a Lotte Mart, Lotte Outlet, and Lotte Mall all across from the park that opened before the park, but who knows when the deal was made. Old Parks: Original Lotte World: A lot of rides removed due to age without big replacements or on their way out (Pharoah now needs to close an hour a day and supposedly only 3-4 vehicles left), mostly just Triotech simulators (5 of them) put around the park as main additions in last decade. Everland (Samsung): Focused on pandas for last 10 years, and building up fan base with Chinese and government, Samsung Everland the company is actually biggest shareholder in main Samsung business, and ride side hasn't seen investment in almost a decade. Seoul Land: a government project made for Olympics and hasn't really changed since the 1990s. Compare that to parks that are not tied to the big Korean companies e.g. Gyeongju World which has built a B&M dive machine, RMC Raptor, and is now installing an Intamin swinging ferris wheel.

15 years later, the former Universal site/ now Paramount is still having issues: Source

I've never seen so much discussion about an annual pass, Legoland went pretty heavy with the advertising on their new annual passes. Gone are the tiers of Silver/Gold/Platinum and now replaced by an all-year-round elite pass. The new family pass for 3 people works out at a cost of roughly $69 per person. A day icket on the gate usually costs around $41. Aggressively marketing the cheap cost of it being the same as a 2-day visit. They're also much cheaper than the annual passes of the big three parks: Everland, Seoul Land, and Lotte World tend to be double that price at $140-$200 for a new pass. As part of a new season flash sale with the introduction of the pass, if the pass was purchased before March 14th, you would also gain free parking for the year, usually around $10 a visit. So many of my students have told me they purchased one for their families since it was too cheap to ignore, and we are a 3-hour drive from the park as opposed to 30 minutes from Everland. Even my wife suggested we buy one so this will be her first ever theme park pass. It'll be interesting to see if this gamble pays off for the struggling park, sacrificing potential day tickets for higher visitor numbers and more in-park spending. With the older Korean parks struggling with aging equipment: Everland has been focused on the zoo side mostly, it currently has half the park closed down for essential renewal work while open rides running only a few hours a day in split-shifts, and over at Lotte World they are also having to retire aging old rides (half the outside area is walled off and 3rd floor is still empty since the rapids closed) with more heavily rumored to close this year (Pharoah's dark ride has to close 1 hour a day for maintenance from 2:30-3:30 and has only a few working ride vehicles left), the Korean theme park industry is a bit of a crossroads that Legoland with much newer rides seems eager to capitalize on.

I think this is why so many people are disappointed in it. It is a perfect 'first big' roller-coaster for younger kids wanting to try a bigger ride and should have been marketed as such. Instead for whatever reason the marketing went with 'World's scariest roller-coaster' and their viral stunts included a more adult trailer advertising it after 9 P.M. on TV, and news reports released by the park claiming it was so scary that only riders 16+ could ride and you'd have to sign a waiver before riding. So instead of getting excited families and their kids for what I agree is a great family ride, you got teenagers and thrill-seekers lining up for hours for something that wasn't what they expected.

Source Legoland Korea seems to still be struggling according to this article. Hopefully, the Master of Spinjitzu roller-coaster opening in the spring will bring in some new customers.

They're supposedly not allowed and security would check bags and if found were just telling people not to remove them from their bags, instead of sending people all the way back to luggage storage, but not much they can do when people break them out in the crowds. Selfie sticks and those cameras popped out on both nights. Not many but you can see two selfie sticks and one of those cameras in this person's Youtube. I cheated a little bit in that in the TR I made it look like one night but we gave up going into the crowd on both nights. Asian parks don't really use any mortar fireworks, even Tokyo's new show is very light on all pyro but they make up for it on effects and projections so we were more than happy to sacrifice visibility on fireworks to watch the castle projections sitting down with beer and waffles away from the crowd standing. It'd also have been hard on our son to see well at his height. Some local friends also recommend the benches behind the castle in Fantasyland if you're the opposite and want fireworks but don't care about projections but want to be away from crowds.