Garet

I don't know why everyone keeps talking about how foreign phone users will struggle with this, I recently did a japan tour and Singapore and I never had a problem. universal had an app and when my stubborn Korean phone wouldn't connect to check line times there were lots of staff to help me get what i wanted done and there was plenty of wifi everywhere, even when my phone refused it someone helped show me on my park map where I could find line times ( i realize looking up ride lines is different from booking fast-pass but my point is that a park will always have alternatives and friendly staff to assist you). I like to be spontaneous but i would welcome a chance to plan some of my fastpasses, due to extenuating circumstances the day before that i'll try and cover during my trip report, Tokyo Disneysea was packed with people the day I visited and even though I managed to get fastpasses and was happy I got everything done, i found that at 2-3 points during the day i literally had an hour- an hour and a half each time where I couldn't do anything because i was waiting for a fast pass time and was worried about joining any line for fear of missing my fast pass window. I'd have been more than happy to have been able to plan even a little and then been spontaneous for the rest of the day. Although to be fair DIsneysea was one of those parks where you can just walk around and admire everything.

I found Kevin Rowher's complete honesty quite refreshing when he was talking about the capacity on the free-flyer, i feel like you don't see that so often when you're at these kind of trade shows where they are trying to sell their products.

The white is the more recent and its current color scheme but it's still quite rough.

We can always hope. But they would have to do some serious work for that to happen. Another news item that is related to Everland for 2013 is the opening of the EverLine in April (if it don't get delayed again). It's a rail line that will connect to the Seoul city Subway network and it will make it possible to get to Everland from Seoul by train, which will make it much easier to get there for people. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EverLine_Rapid_Transit_System I wouldn't trust wikipedia on that, its been on the maps for a while and was supposed to open when i arrived in Korea almost 3 years ago. Honestly from Seoul i think you'd be just as well off taking the bus since there is the bus lane on quick a few highways, i've taken the bus and i think it could beat out the subway and is also much more convenient. To get to the everline you have to take the bundang (yellow) line all the way to the end transfer to the everline then also take that to the end. The yellow line isn't that well connected to the rest of the cities subways since it's not a main numbered line, even without taking one of the many express shuttle buses to everland, i think the public buses would still outbeat it, despite the name i think the everline is more for people that live in yongin to get around the city than as a new faster way to everland... it has an awful lot of stops to make and this subway is very different from the 10 train cars of seoul, these are little 2 car tic-tac shaped monorail cars i think you'd face quite a queue trying to get on one after everland closes as well.

Funnily enough, i had the same experience when i went on comet express with one of my young students and he weighs barely anything compared to me, riding with him I had very little spin but alone it spun more than most spinning coasters i have been on.

I was going to post this with my 2011 photo update, that i will put up within the next few weeks but i've been invited (weather permitting) to go with my director to everlands last firework display of the year next week, where they set off even more than usual and I love Everlands crazy low firework displays so i'm going to try and get some pictures of the 2012 ride while i'm there and add them to the photos from 2011 1st before i post it (again weather permitting) so it will probably be a while before i have that update ready. So following Everlands 2nd 3d movie they added as their new for 2011, it has just opened its 3rd chairlift in the park, this time spanning the park lengthways as opposed to the other 2 going down the mountainside and gondola style as opposed to the other twos open style: http://www.everland.com/web/everland/how/festival/news/1205112_10436.html For 2013 they are expanding their zoo again using the safari ride, easily one of the parks most popular rides: http://www.everland.com/web/everland/how/festival/news/1203825_10436.html to include cheetahs, white lions, rhinos into their existing giraffe, elephant and zebra part which is currently closed, although the lion, tiger and bear part of the safari ride is still open. I find these interesting developments since the safari ride already has one of the longest lines and is a huge hit already with no signs of losing popularity, i'm surprised they feel the need to upgrade it since it was only recently upgraded in 2010 to include some elephants, giraffes etc (which talks apparently: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/4622479/Chatty-elephant-Koshik-stuns-scientist-by-being-able-to-speak-Korean.html) I also find it interesting since they have quite a few SBNO rides that stand out noticeably the big wheel and the eagles fortress coaster, as well as some of the rides seem to be getting quite grafitti covered (especially around the helicopter cycle fun house area) or the always temporary looking middle section of the park where a lot of kids rides are just placed on the concrete, I thought one of those areas may have been the target soon. I will cover it in my trip report in more detail but i recently had 2 pretty bad days at Everland operations, and it does seem that the park needs another big people eater like T express to soak up the crowds soon, especially considering Everland is one of the most visited parks but the trend both here and Lotte World seems to be on getting in young children/family rides right now (i blame battlestar galacticas lack of popularity for this )

Isn't there a huss tri-star at pleasurewood hills now? Pleasurewood hills tri-star

Prehaps this was why you got evacuated from the Tomb blaster queue: source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-18379364 source: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/4363787/Girl-in-critical-condition-after-30ft-theme-park-plunge.html

Maybe i've been working in Asia for too long but when and why did My Little Pony become popular especially with middle aged men, I remember there being some plastic toys that young girls used to have when I was about 6 but that was about it and I thought they had died out since I never really saw younger children with them as I grew up, when did it make such a huge comeback? Youtube & Google tells me that it's a TV show now but I still can't see why it is this show in particular out of all kids show that men would latch onto so passionately???

Han shot (his load) first.

I feel like it's more likely a dark ride than one on water especially looking at the second car, prehaps trackless on a floor thats made to look as if you are going around over the ice. Although anything is possible.

I don't suppose the ride at parque espana was anything like this was it Larry?: http://www.seoulland.co.kr/joy/playing_profile.asp?idx=68&flashcode=1_4_6_0 This is Seoul Lands 5D attraction and it was all around and sitting on stalls like you said, I saw the freakiest movie in this attraction... it was set in a hospital where bloodied children were crying and throwing their severed heads at you which would float between stools, and vines with thorns that came right between your eyes.... I thought it was playing one of the more friendlier films like shown in the picture.... The 3d was all around but it wasn't quite seamless it didn't go all the way to the top and if you looked at one area of the circular area (like in the picture) where the image started and stopped overlapped so it wasn't quite seamless

I did always think tower of terror needed more terror!!! And god help my insanity after editing all these pictures into one photo. It's a small tower's world of terror

There's been some new ones since then and some updates to all the old ones, I love the jurassic park rapids and star tours sim personally... they are looking for 700 likes before they release the next Sim so if you're a fan of the site please like its facebook page : http://www.facebook.com/RideSims

Calling it now Everland in eagles fortress's spot, a wingrider terrain coaster that hugs the hillside through the trees , well a guy can dream.

Robert Sherman the songwriter for it's a small world passed away: http://www.deadline.com/2012/03/r-i-p-robert-sherman/

saw this on screamscape, the video is worth a watch. This video shows the ride being tested by inspectors during the investigation. MOD EDIT: To be more descriptive, this video does not show the accident. MOD EDIT: Link removed, no longer points to the video

sorry if there is mistakes doing this on bad wifi on a phone... Just did the giant drop in japan today and that one definitely didn't have seat belts, it was just 1 set of buttons to lock them and unlock them, i know its a seperate model but i have seen them dropping the gyro drop at lotte world with restraints open before, once when it broke down in the middle of the day they sent it up a couple of times with the restraints open which kind of freaked me out since that's another tower without seat belts so it was quite unnerving to watch it drop without closed restraints, so the system will allow it under certain conditions, maybe somebody left it in maintenance mode?

I hope kidtums wasn't educated by this

Ahh sorry i just looked at that one but it's also not korean, can't tell you what it is for sure since i've only studied korean, but after reading through some japanese sites for my upcoming trip i'm pretty sure some of the symbols look familiar so i think the menu on page 10 is japanese.

Which picture are you referring to the lottle picture was definately not written in the korean alphabet since the korean alphabet is based of mainly circles and lines, for example i really like lotte world is roughly (sorry my korean isn't great): 저는 롯데 월드 정말 좋아요.

Lotte World is kind of the name given to the entertainment part of the huge Lotte corporation here in korea, they have supermarkets, department stores etc etc, a bit like the lotte world towers that are being constructed, one next to the existing lotte world and another in busan. they are both being advertised under the lotte world name but only one is a theme park and the other two are going to be huge skyscrapers with viewing decks. Busan is actually the other end of the country from Lotte World and the aquatrax It'd be a bit like going to Universal Hollywood looking to go on rip ride rockit.

^^ As i said i'm more of a person interested in trying new things so for me yes operations will suck and i'm much more interested in Disney, but i've always wanted to check out a 4d coaster and the eurofighter intrigues me as well, i'd love to try the launch coaster but after that i'm more likely to hit the star flyer than try out the haunt or fujiyama, same as if i get a chance to go to say disney, i'll probably skip over raging spirits (though it has a singe line queue) because i tried the one in paris to try out aquatopia over getting another credit. Although i'm hopinh with 3 weekdays i can get most of disney done, friday which may be busier shall be my park hopping day which may help. And for someone that used to (i'll cover it in my next Korea TR) have an everland season pass i never consider anything that takes under 2 hours to get to a long way. I mean universal is a 3 hour bullet train that i will have to take to get to tokyo (although for the life of me i can't work out how to book the train in advance will just hope they have plenty of seats when i get to the station after universal) but i get to see some scenery and parts of japan out the window so i'm not worried about the times.

Adding tobu zoos rehab opening times etc to the original list now, will look into yomuriland later.

Not really, it just so happens that i had a week off no-one else did, my girlfriend hates rollercoasters but doesn't mind dark rides so if we'd gone to japan together, it'd maybe have been a day at tokyo disney at best, this way i get to do the places I want to at the pace I want to, if i went with friends no way I could do so many parks. As for fuji-Q i suppose its personal preference, i've never been a credit person or haunt person, i'll ride something if i haven''t experienced it before or i think it's unique. so for me its about the 4 big coasters after that if it came to a choice between the smaller coasters and haunt i'd probably pick the star flyer because it's something new to me, as for speaking i've lived in korea 2 years now and though i now know some basic korean, i still survive without it everyone is so helpful. Sonce Robb & Elissa have been so helpful providing me with websites i thought i'd share the information i've gathered so far (and for selfish reasons it gives me one place to just click instead of having to organise my bookmarks folder), with many thanks to their links and some other information I gathered for anyone else since I see lots of people asking about parks and a lot of the information can sometimes only be found on japanese websites (many thanks to my korean friend who knows some japanese as well) Google translate is pretty good at translating attraction names if you need it. Universal Studios Opening Hours: http://www.usj.co.jp/e/parkguide/calendar.html Ride Rehab Schedule: http://www.usj.co.jp/parkguide/schedule/attclose.html Prices: http://www.usj.co.jp/e/ticket/index.html Fast Pass: http://www.usj.co.jp/e/ticket/blt7.html Location and Transportation: http://www.usj.co.jp/e/parkguide/fm_air.html Fuji Q Opening Hours: http://www.fujiq.jp/calendar/index.html Ride Rehab Schedule: http://www.fujiq.jp/calendar/suspend.html Prices: http://www.fujiq.jp/en/ticket/ Fast Pass: A little booth over by the Carousel and Mad Mouse Roller Coaster where you can buy tickets Location and Transportation: http://www.fujiq.jp/en/access/ english booking for bus here: https://www.highwaybus.com/rs-web01-prd-rel/gp/foreign/frgSelectBordingDate?lang=en&lineId=110&onStationCd=008&offStationCd=059 Tokyo Disneyland/Disneysea Opening Hours: http://www.tokyodisneyresort.co.jp/en/schedule/timeschedule/february_e.html Ride Rehab Schedule: http://www.tokyodisneyresort.co.jp/en/schedule/stop/index.html Prices: http://www.tokyodisneyresort.co.jp/en/ticket/index.html Fast Pass: Disneyland: Thunder mountain, splash mountain, haunted mansion, poohs honey hunt, monsters inc, space mountain, buzz lightyear and captain EO. TokyoSea: tower of terror, storm rider, indiana jones, raging spirits, magic lamp theater, mermaid theatre, journey to the centre of the earth and 20,000 leagues under the sea. Single Rider Available: Disneyland: Splash mountain. Disneysea: Indiana jones, raging spirits, tower of terror Location and Transportation: http://www.tokyodisneyresort.co.jp/en/access/index.html Sea Paradise (for the drop tower enthusiasts) Opening Hours: http://www.seaparadise.co.jp/english/guidebook/top.html the ones on the info part of the website are out of date, consult this book Ride Rehab Schedule: http://www.seaparadise.co.jp/pleasureland/ bottom line under each ride, no dates no scheduled rehab Prices: http://www.seaparadise.co.jp/english/guidebook/top.html also guidebook Location and Transportation: http://www.seaparadise.co.jp/english/access.html Cosmoworld closed on certain days so useful to check Opening Hours: http://senyo.co.jp/cosmo/contents/calendar.html Ride Rehab Schedule: Unknown sorry Prices: Per ride Location and Transportation: near the sky tower http://www.yokohama-landmark.jp/skygarden/web/english/ Tobu Zoo Opening Hours: http://www.tobuzoo.com/global/english/ Ride Rehab Schedule: http://www.tobuzoo.com/park/maintenance/ Prices: http://www.tobuzoo.com/global/english/ Location and Transportation: http://www.tobuzoo.com/global/english/