Garet

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.

So very early in the planning we had originally planned to visit Ocean Park to get one last trip into the theme park and finally try out the water park. Personally, with so many rides closed and SBNO I was already hesitant to visit, Hair Raiser I have ridden twice before and it is probably one of the roughest and one of my least favorite B&M rides out there, the only saving grace is the view from it since the mine train is now gone. However, shortly before the visit, the pandas gave birth and it was announced the exhibit would be closed so we decided we'd focus on the water park instead. The park only had a handful of slides and speaking to friends who lived there, we were warned that even though some slides were listed as closed on the site or entrance, more tended to be closed once you'd paid to be inside and that lines could very long especially since a lot of rich Chinese would buy fastpasses. The only day we could visit the water park was the very last day of operations, and we already knew the headliner slide would be closed at least so we gave up on a Hong Kong water-park. However, some things all began to line up for us.... Originally, we'd planned to do a day-trip on the ferry to Macau after Disneyland. However, the Macau Tourism Board was doing a promotion that they would give you a one-way ticket for free. If you land in Hong Kong airport you can go direct to Macau from a transfer area, skipping Hong Kong immigration and customs while the company will transfer your luggage from the plane to the bus and then be driven across the new road bridge connecting Hong Kong and Macau to mainland China. I'd been very hesitant to go from the airport since it would fall onto a 3-day weekend and crowds were expected to be huge but the convenience and free ticket sealed the deal and so our day trip to Macau turned into a 3-night stay opening up opportunities to visit some places we couldn't schedule before. Walking around the strip on a Friday night I noticed the famous Studio City Ferris wheel and remembered they'd very recently opened a water park. However, there was no way I was going to visit a water park on a Saturday in the middle of a public holiday especially when it was quite an expensive water park.... .... and off to the water park, we went the next day. You wouldn't believe there's a bunch of giant slides on that roof they were very well hidden. To be fair, I was sold on visiting even if crowds were huge because the park runs flash sales of buy one get one free tickets. The entrance (and the wholeindoor part of the park is space-themed.) It's also located next to a Five Guys which has become popular in Asia lately. The entrance to the park from the lockers and changing rooms. Changing rooms although divided into male and female were all actually individual cubicles once inside. This park was pretty unique in unlimited towels are provided to all guests from here you can take as many as you want. One downside to unlimited towels however was we saw people grabbing stacks and just throwing them on sunbeds everywhere to 'reserve' them. Even shortly after opening a lot of beds were covered in towels even though we almost never saw people using them. You can get a good idea of the space theming here. A lot of rocky outcrops and alien statues scattered around. Disclaimer: I took the majority of these indoor pictures during the opening 30 minutes as we did a lap while others were changing or at the end of the night, I went back in after changing my clothes to get some pictures of the layout. I wanted to avoid getting too many people in their swimsuits so the park will look empty even when I refer to it as busy. The first thing you will see when you enter is the Command Center children's play complex and Launch Tower bigger slide complex next to it. However we headed straight to the Lightspeed Shuttle master blaster since we heard it's line could get quite long very early on. It's packed in and around a lot of the indoor part of the park. Lines tended to be a little overstated, it had a wait-time of 30 minutes but those stairs are actually the loading so we were on in under 10. By the time we finished, the line was already picking up though. We also noticed people with red wristbands. These turned out to be fast-pass holders. They were about $225 US Dollars a person, and even though we timed our rides smartly and didn't have many waits over 30 minutes people were still buying fast pass. The Teleport Tower was next. Unfortunately it's hard to see this complex from inside but it's home to two big raft slides and two mat racer slides that go from separate sides of the tower but connect at the end where you can see the other racer. A picture I stole from the official website to show off the slides. The park is quite new and they seemed to be testing out some new operations. We'd heard in reviews frustration that Black Hole Slingshot (the raft ride with two Aquaspheres/Rattler ending) shared a line with the much less popular Wormhole Whip (raft slide with 3 constrictor turns) but they had split the line and now sent Whip riders up the line with the mat racer people so even when the line got huge (60 minutes) and to the bottom of the stairs later on for Slingshot, the Whip remained walk-on almost all day. Over on the other side of the park was the Launch Tower complex. This is home to the one/two person smaller versions of the other tower. The blue slide is a Tailspin slide, and the pink is a constrictor/rattler slide. Rounding out the indoor section slides was this drop slide. There was also a lazy river. Two options, either unlimited laps but life jackets required, or a single lap on an inner tube. As well as a pool that led into/out of the lazy river. A surf ride was available and was free once you signed a waiver. Notice again the stacks of towels people had left all around the park abandoned as they grabbed more later. There were towel dispenseries all through the park but I guess when it's not yours there's not really any concern about where you put it. And finally a climbing wall with a 5 meter drop and (not pictured) a high up outdoor pool with a glass floor, there were too many people using it to grab pictures. We thought the food was really good in the indoor restaurant and the Waggyu burger was one of the nicest I've ever had at a water park. With crowds picking up indoors, we headed to the outdoor section to check out the few slides there, deciding we'd return to the indoor section once the sun had gone down. The famous Ferris wheel and main hotel dominate the outdoor area skyline. There was a main pool out here but sadly the towels holding sunbeds struck again so we didn't spend too much time in here. The famous Parisian also looks down onto the pool/lazy river part of the outdoor complex. There was quite a lot for young kids out here, a slide complex pictured here and some mini-versions of the bigger slides. A children's boomerang and children's raft slide that were all under shade. The sun was hot so unfortunately this is the only picture of the outdoor tower complex I grabbed. It consisted of a bowl slide and a regular 2 person slide on the lower level and on the top level the park's biggest slides. A circle raft boomerang slide and an ordinary circle raft slide. It was also home to a drop slide that was all the way on the top level. To my shock, my son decided he didn't want to regret skipping the biggest slide and was going to try it. It was a one-and-done for him, but considering he's never tried one before and the height of it, I was genuinely surprised he did it at all. There was a swim-up bar on the lazy river but it was always packed. If I had one negative about the outdoor area, it needs some tables for people to eat at. We saw the snack bars but since all sunbeds were covered in towels and we weren't sure if/when they would return we had to eat and drink standing in the middle of pathways as people went around us. After a quick go on the slides outside we headed back and spent the rest of the day inside. I put my camera into my locker until after I changed so this was my last picture of the day. We did head into the main Studio City complex however, there was a famous buffet inside called Hawker that had been recommended often, and the food did look delicious... ... but we felt pretty full and just couldn't justify spending so much on buffet when we weren't hungry just to say we'd been so settled for ramen instead. Heading out, you can see how close the Parisian is to Studio City. If you're going to visit the water park combine it with visiting the Strip. As you can see the Parisian/Londoner/Venician are all within walking distance and the water park doesn't open until midday. Goodbye Studio City, Next TR: Adventure and tourist things in Macau before back to Hong Kong for some tourist sites.

^ So are Intamin trains apparently. It's not something I pay attention to when at Everland, but T Express also got some 208 track and people have mentioned the noise.

Source

River Trail now confirmed in the parks Spring update: Source

Although I haven't seen anything on the park sites, this news article seems to indicate intentions for 2025 updates to the park as well as line up with rumors for a while that Everland wanted to expand on the success they've had with their pandas: A second panda exhibit (third if you count the Bao gallery) and a walkway on the unused Lost Valley river. Lost Valley still runs the amphibious vehicles but the park altered the path to avoid the water many years ago. Source

Lotte World have announced a collaboration with Pokemon including the Intamin Balloon ride being rethemed to Pokeballs and Pikachu appearing in a parade. Source Photo Source

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We used Grab in Vietnam. One thing we noticed though was almost every driver constantly wanting to swap details and make cheap deals under the table outside the app, was it similar in Malaysia? However, after a few drivers, we settled on one since he had a big chunky car (in a country with v low road safety) and he was fantastic. He ended up almost doubling as our tour guide: great restaurant recommendations and really helped optimize our itinerary with his knowledge of when to visit places and beat the crowds.

It is sad to see all those thrill rides leave the park but Drayton Manor have handled the conversion to families while keeping the park interesting and themed much better than places like Lightwater Valley.

Legoland's new Ninjago spinning roller-coaster (still not officially named) has an opening window of April 2025.

Constructions wall at Phillharmagic seem to confirm that Hong Kong will be finally adding the Coco scene present in all the other parks.

Lotte World have announced the closure of three rides outside, the Bungee Drop and Jungle Swing as well as a mini carousel close by.

So I mentioned before Legoland has been attempting to try to adjust to the Korean market in 2024, compared to before whereas they built a Legoland and hoped Korea would adjust to a Merlin park. E.g. now running the park all year, longer hours and night openings, more seasonal events, covering the outdoor pool etc. The Marina Snacks with fish and chips closed a while ago but now it seems another Merlin staple has been ripped out: The pizza and pasta buffet. Opening last week inside the restaurant building is now the Bricktopia Lounge, an indoor building area but the bricks are taken around via conveyor belt. Source