Everland Discussion Thread

[Garet]

Returned to the park during the vacation, when a rainstorm earlier had meant the park wasn't too busy. Sadly Everland's icon, the magic tree seems to have been completely removed after the fire.

A little bit of a shame when it features in the new fireworks show.

There'd been a typhoon the previous day so I wasn't too surprised to see this sign.

The whole area was roped off even at closing Friday, but T-Express was back up and running the next morning.

At least Roling X-Train was open..........yay....

The birth of the twin pandas and the uncertainty of when/if the current baby panda Pubao will have to go to China seems to have driven up interest. Reminded me of trying to see the Mona Lisa.

And I ended up seeing the panda mostly by lifting my phone up.... so just like the Mona Lisa. The baby panda not looking so babyish anymore.

Unlike the Mona Lisa however, you can live cam the exhibit while standing right next to the exhibit.

We waited 10 minutes to get in, but this was the line on the weekend... and this is even before the new pandas go on display. Interest seems to be extremely high. My wife and son both desperately want to go when the baby twins do go on display but I'm assuming, based on the way they displayed Pubao when she was a baby, those reservation tickets will sell out in seconds when they go live.

We recreated the viral thing.

And finished our time there with panda ice cream.

Oh no, my son loves the Summer Night dance parties, but the amount of water is insane. Those tipping buckets in the picture are over the seating areas.

A very drenched child...

... Being already wet we hit up the rapids. We hit up the ride 5 minutes before they shut it down, around 8:30 to make sure the ride is emptied out before fireworks, so we waited 5 minutes.

Everland has really been putting out a lot of new fireworks shows lately. Instead of the Summer Jukebox (usually themed around musicals or film scores), there was an original production Evertopia The Origin of Everland, this year.

In over 12 years of going to Everland, I think this is the first time I've ever seen them run it in the rain. It's always been outright canceled or just the media portion. Usually, since we've only ever seen it run on dry days, everyone has to sit down for the fireworks, so this was my son's first time ever standing up.

He is 120cm and has got very spoilt on being able to see from wherever from sitting shows. He moved 3 times in this performance due to new people coming in, standing, and blocking his view or one or two children on shoulders, and has decided he doesn't want to do standing shows again.

Unlike previous shows with fireworks throughout, it's mostly a 15-minute cartoon starting the Everland mascots, with only a few fireworks here and there and then a big 4 minute firework finale.

Until I can figure out how to upload movies to the forum and embed them without them just turning into download files, here's a copy I put on my Youtube.

 

 

 

[Garet]

Quote

T-Express, a roller coaster at Everland, a theme park located in Yongin, Gyeonggi-do, will cease operation for five months.

Everland, a resort division of Samsung C&T, announced on the 9th, “We plan to stop operating T Express from the 20th to April of next year.”

Every year in early January, T Express suspends operations for about a month to conduct winter safety inspections and improve facilities. Unusually, it stopped for close to half a year. Work to improve the rail will be carried out during the suspension period that will run from this winter to next spring.

An Everland official said on the company's YouTube channel 'Titanam' on the 8th, "T-Express has two sections, and we plan to improve the rail of the first section," adding, "We will prepare to make it smoother and more fun for passengers." .

T Express is the first amusement ride in Korea to use wood for all structures except the wheels and rails. It is popular with Everland visitors as its speed is up to 104 km/h and the falling angle is 77 degrees.

Intern Reporter Park Jong-hyuk onlinenews1@kmib.co.kr

Source

 

[Rollercoaster Rider]

Why would you close a major ride during the Christmas season?

[Tim2009]

https://www.everland.com/everland/announcement/CNT-7A927603-E186-44A2-BC7B-B2F82BABA57B/01

Just got informed of sad news. 
Fu Bao, a panda, will be going back to China in early April. 

It's stated that Fu Bao will be moving to Sichuan Province in China. 

[Garet]

Panda and T Express updates:



We begin in late December. Knowing Pu Bao would be leaving soon (the announcement confirming dates hadn't happened at this point) and the baby pandas would go on display sometime in the following months, we decided to try and beat the crowds and get one last look in. The panda celebration was already gearing up with a giant inflatable panda where the tree used to be.

Even on a quiet day the line was huge though, we ended up jumping in the line at the evening and were in within 15 minutes. The keepers were strictly enforcing everyone to only get 5 minute viewins though.

Bye Pu Bao. The pandas were crashed out when we went in but we just couldn't justify waiting 4 hours earlier in the day.

 

The daddy panda was also asleep.

Unfortunately, the weather gamble didn't pay off...

so we grabbed some food...

.

... checked out parts of the zoo we never normally have time for....

... and had our first-ever snowbuster ride. All credit to Everland for keep opening this despite each year getting warmer, although the small slope here was open, the big ones were not due to warm weather and all the slopes closed at the very start of February this year.

T Express had no visible retracking at that time mid December also

Due to our weather gamble not paying off I promised my son we'd visit when both water rides had reopened so fast forward to this weekend...

Panda Mania was in full swing. This exhibition was the new for 2024 attraction. However it was virtual line only and since people had camped out at the park hours in advance, most rides on reservation were snapped up minutes after park opening.

Panda merchandise was sold everywhere and people were eating it up. We saw people wrapped in panda towels, backpacks, and bags full of 'Remember Pu Bao' merchandise.

Remember that 30 minute queue from our previous trip? The line never dropped below 230 minutes even late into the evening for a 5 minute viewing.

The line was hard to miss stretching horizontally across the whole park before u-turning near the flume ride and going back across the park horizontally one more time.

And then almost making a spiral as the line continued into the American area of the park.

With long lines meet the new trend of Korean theme parks 2024. These fold-up stools were sold and bought everywhere. By the end of the day it seemed like almost every family group had at least one of these.

Which meant of course my son had to have one. Honestly.... worth the $15. Light enough he could carry, but could even hold my overweight butt, it was used in a lot of the slower moving lines of the flat rides.

Like the Safari bus. We waited 100 minutes for it since it's reservation only until 2pm (and since it'd be a longer wait to be first at the gates with the very early morning panda crowd to even try and snag reservations). Note the car in the background. This line usually doesn't die down since each jeep only pulls 1 trailer. When the ride first updated the cars last year it was advertised with 2 trailers per car and the gates and lines match that size but all references/pictures/artwork have disappeared so it probably won't ever run that way.

We lined up for this ride because my son wanted to role-play being a 'Youtube narrator'. I asked him if he meant recreating a nature documentary, but apparently, I'm old and it's about doing it on YouTube now.

Despite the weather being 4-7C weather the water rides both had hour-long lines all day.

It was Thunder Falls's first day of the season so they weren't running too many boats but the chair got put to good use.

Everland has put up a lot of queue-jumping etiquette signs and to the park's credit, we got queue-jumped far less. However, there are still some who will take it too far and we had a man with enough family in tow to fill a whole boat push past us in this line. It was interesting seeing 100s of people accept it and not question him, accepting it as culture, and I do mean the whole line...somehow those kid's bathroom must have taken an hour because he was still pushing past to almost at the station before he disappeared from our line of sight.

Finally onto the T-Express update. I usually don't do these updates if there is a lack of progress but since I heard T-Express was getting RMC'd/Ibox treatment...

I've been sent the pictures and seen the news on other sites but as of this weekend (24/25th February 2024) whatever track was on that hill (this is the same one from the picture online) has been removed. I have no idea why and I'm not an engineer so not going to speculate, but as of now, there was no track on the areas due for retracking RMC/Intamin or otherwise.

On this night the fireworks were canceled (probably why we got the table) but there's a restaurant that overlooks the fireworks and last orders are usually 30 minutes before the park closes. So if you don't want to brave the crowds or weather it's always worth looking in here to see if you can get a table with a view.

 

Edit: Panda World hit a fresh record of 350 minutes on monday despite it being a weekday: https://www.ytn.co.kr/_ln/0103_202402261441016084

 

[Garet]

Fu Bao went off display this weekend after the final viewing day was delayed to March 3rd. Among enthusiasts, the pandas tend to be a contentious subject (that the theme park side has more and more boarded up and removed rides and a lack of new additions at the expense of the animal side). Still, it's hard to see this as anything less than an overwhelming success for Everland, because for what is usually a quiet month for the park, this has been a national event. Attendance, news coverage, social media followings, and especially merchandise sales for the last 2 weeks of Fu Bao public life that a new ride could only dream of.

 

Quote

Everland’s Panda World has experienced a significant increase in visitors recently, following the announcement that Fu Bao, a beloved panda in South Korea, will be accessible to the public only until Mar. 3, in anticipation of her return to China in early April. The unveiling of Fu Bao’s twin siblings, Rui Bao and Hui Bao, earlier this year has fueled the influx of visitors and the surge in merchandise sales related to the pandas.

Samsung C&T Resort Group reported on Feb. 27 that the daily visitor count at Panda World ranges between 7,000 and 8,000, consistent with the previous year’s figures. This marks a significant increase from the average of 4,000 visitors per day during peak seasons in the past, effectively doubling the number recently. Everland has restricted visit durations to five minutes to manage the crowd and limited the number of simultaneous visitors to 80 since last September.

Fu Bao, born on Jul. 20, 2020, is known as Korea’s first naturally-born giant panda and was introduced to the public in early 2021. Her popularity has been a boon for Everland, significantly boosting the park’s profile.

The sale of panda-themed merchandise has seen a remarkable increase as well. By Feb. 23, sales had reached 2.7 million items, a jump of over 60% from the previous year, translating to roughly one in every ten visitors purchasing panda-related items. Notably, dolls of Fu Bao at 50 and 100 days old have entirely sold out. Last November, a 13-day pop-up store at The Hyundai Seoul generated $750,000 (1 billion won) in sales.

The Bao House, a panda-centric interactive gallery that opened on Jan. 20, has drawn an average of 1,000 visitors daily, crossing the 30,000-visitor mark within its first month. The exhibit, dedicated to engagingly showcasing the panda family, has proven so popular that reservations were snapped up immediately upon release.

The announcement of Fu Bao’s impending departure to China in April led to a tripling of Panda World’s attendance over a weekend in late January, with Everland’s overall visitation numbers soaring by over 80%.

Source

We were at the park the last two weeks but we avoided the crowds to grab some rides before the school semester started. We had already gone in for last viewings around the time when the baby pandas twins were first born (awake) and then again in December (asleep), just before the twins went on public display, waiting 30 minutes for a 5-minute viewing anticipating when the twins came out and Fu Bao did leave it would be busy...


... but I never would have predicted this busy. Some of my students waited out this 7-hour line but since that put them in the exhibit in the evening they were greeted by sleeping pandas.

A news article showing the line and opening. People were outside the entrance hours before opening (people arriving at 3 am so still a 7-hour wait) sprinting across the entrance plaza, we also saw people crying outside the exhibit when they emerged from their 5-minute viewings.

Crowds waited outside the exhibit on the final night crying waiting to see the zookeepers.

To a lot of people, Fu Bao is the first Korean panda (being born here while the parents had come from China), and people turned out in droves to be part of the event, waiting out that line, buying the foldable stools to sit on and then bags of 'Goodbye Fu Bao' merchandise. Although, I'd assumed having baby twin pandas on display might also be a source of the crowds, it does seem they were there exclusively for Fu Bao, now she is off display the line has dropped down to 30 minute waits.

[Garet]

Quote

Lee Seo-hyun, 51, head of the Samsung Welfare Foundation, is returning to frontline management as president of Samsung C&T, in charge of strategic planning. This move comes after a hiatus of five years and three months since she stepped down as president of Samsung C&T’s fashion division in December 2018. Lee, the second daughter of the late Chairman Lee Kun-hee and sister to Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong, has long been responsible for fashion and advertising planning at Samsung. As the foundational and holding company at the pinnacle of Samsung Group’s governance structure, Samsung C&T will have Lee take on roles in brand integration and new business exploration.

Samsung C&T on March 29 announced the recruitment of Lee, saying, “Lee’s work experience as president of the Samsung C&T Fashion Group and president of Cheil Worldwide, in charge of management strategy, along with her expertise in successfully leading Samsung’s cultural projects and social contribution areas, is expected to contribute to enhancing Samsung C&T’s brand competitiveness.” Lee, a 1997 graduate of Parsons School of Design in the United States, has primarily worked at Cheil Industries (now Samsung C&T Fashion Group) and Cheil Worldwide. Her roles have included head of the fashion institute at Cheil Industries in 2002, executive vice president of Cheil Worldwide in 2009, and vice president in charge of the fashion business at Cheil Industries in 2010, before serving as president of the Samsung C&T Fashion Group from December 2015.

After resigning as president of the Samsung C&T Fashion Group in December 2018, Lee became head of the Leeum Museum of Art. She has been the head of the Samsung Welfare Foundation since 2019 and took charge of social contributions at Samsung Global Research (formerly Samsung Economic Research Institute) in 2022 but did not engage in major management activities. Upon her return as president of Samsung C&T next month, she will step down from her role at Samsung Global Research but will continue in her positions at the welfare foundation and museum.

Lee is set to oversee the brand strategy of Samsung C&T’s diverse business sectors. With the merger of Cheil Industries and Samsung C&T in 2015, fashion and resort (Everland) businesses were added to the existing construction and trading businesses. Consequently, there have been calls for integrated brand management across these four divisions.

The Lee Jae-yong family exercises control over the entire Samsung Group through Samsung C&T, a de facto holding company. Chairman Lee holds 18.1%, Hotel Shilla President Lee Boo-jin holds 5.59%, Lee Seo-hyun holds 6.23%, and their mother, Hong Ra-hee, holds 0.97%. Faced with a trillion-won inheritance tax burden in 2020, the three women sold some of their shares in Samsung Electronics and others.

Source

Seems one of the Samsung heiresses will be in charge of Samsung C&T who are the owners of Everland. I knew the park was under the ownership of Samsung but never realized it was part of the main holding company and how much of Samsung as a whole was under it. Some interesting reading to see how the company was divided and used before the father of the main family in charge now passed away.

Quote

Samsung to list holding firm in 2015

The transfer of ownership of Samsung among the Lee family is expected to speed up as the listing of Samsung Everland ― the group's de-facto holding company ― will help heir-apparent Lee Jae-yong secure funds to completely take control of the conglomerate.

Everland announced Tuesday that it will sell common stock in the first quarter of next year after a plan for an initial public offering (IPO) was approved.

The news comes a few weeks after information and technology affiliate Samsung SDS announced its IPO for the end of the year, at the earliest.

Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Kun-hee is in poor health.

"Samsung is speeding up the change of power. The decision to list Everland is aimed at securing funds to pay inheritance tax," said a company executive.

Lee Jae-yong has a 25.1 percent stake in Everland, and is expected to gain as much as 1.9 trillion won in the IPO by selling stock on the Korea Exchange.

Hotel Shilla CEO Lee Boo-jin, his sister, holds an 8.37 percent in Everland, as does the youngest Samsung sibling, Lee Seo-hyun.

Source from 2014 More Detailed article from 2014

[Garet]

Source

T Express with the new iron box track will Reopen as T Express The Iron Rebirth from this Saturday.

Fu Bao left the country today. A lot of people showed up despite the heavy rain and a lot of crying followed after speeches. People lined up at 4am to get into the park and others showed up at Incheon airport viewing area decked out in Fu Bao merchandise to see off the airplane. Emotions were also pretty high after it was announced the main zookeeper's mother had died the data before, but had still decided to accompany Fu Bao. Source

 

[Garet]

Headed out to the park to find the line stretching way back into the car park over an hour before opening. Every year there is a random point when the park gets crazy busy before the hot weather hits and then suddenly a week or two later Everland is empty while the water park is packed. I'd assumed with temperatures already at 25C and a max of 29, it'd be the water park but I was wrong.

Bear in mind that line above was before 9am, when the park opens at 10am. The park operates virtual queues on weekends for 10 rides until 2PM (and you can only book 1) and you need to be physically in the park with your ticket scanned to book. Safari rides are gone instantly at opening and T-Express and the Panda World can be gone 15-30 minutes after opening so you need to be there early for a chance to be scanned into the park before they're gone.

Thankfully, I always pack a swimsuit on our trips in April & May so we can choose where we go when we arrive. It was the 2nd week of opening and only the 2nd day for Mega Storm, although the indoor section had 3 body slides, a single rider tube slide and a 2 person tube slide.

The rest of the outdoors opens in stages. The tower slides (4 person raft slide and 4 person boomerang) early June, Aqualoop in late June, and then the Master Blaster, Speed body slides, and outdoor single/double person tube slide only during the high season of July/August.

Waiting times in Summer are usually 2-3 hours a slide, and even with the park open 10-12 hours then you don't get too much done so we were happy to sacrifice availability for quieter pools. Last year we went at the end of low season when Mega Storm was still the only ride open and lines were 50 minutes but this time lines were walk-on most of the day with a maximum of 30 minutes in the afternoon.

The lazy river is the only outdoor attraction that is open all year. It's usually shortened off in the winter when it's heated and the extended course during the main season but due to popularity it ran the longer course this year.

I've never actually been in the wave pool despite over 10 years of trips. You've probably seen some viral videos of Asian wave pools filled like sardines on social media and this one is no exception.
In previous years, when the water park was quiet, the wave pool was blocked off during low season and turned into a 'beachside cafe' for people to come over from Everland and drink at and filled with photo spots. This year though it was thankfully open

It's also the only part of Caribbean Bay where life jackets are required so I never bothered since it was just another item to have to take off on the slides (along with aqua shoes and your cap) but my son insisted so I packed one in the locker (get there early for one of those, bags were stashed everywhere we looked around the park).

It's not continuous waves, but one massive wave blasted out every 90 seconds.

As the restaurant emptied out, we decided to eat at the end of the day and so could have a table with a nice view to eat from.

With the wave pool area open, there was also a burger area to eat at expanding the options.

The kid had backed out last year after we lined up for Mega Storm so it was on his mind, but after Vietnam, he's suddenly picked up an appetite for trying out bigger rides at least once and he didn't want to pass another opportunity.  He hated his first ride, partly because it was a huge step up from the smaller tube slides, but I also realized it was his first exposure to air-time, but he decided later in the day now he knew what to expect he wanted another go.

A 20-minute line later, we are weighed in, and he needs the bathroom. We decided it would be quicker to ride the slide down than go back through the queue and because it would be a huge inconvenience for the workers to reweigh and reassign.... and we must have tempted fate because, for the first time in my life, the raft got stuck... and in the most awkward place. Not at the bottom of any slopes with an easy evac staircase but in that picture above, 1m from a drop into one of the world's biggest funnels and just past the massive water pumps so no chance of going back either.

I will say, despite the awkward location, and only being the second day of operation of the season, the staff were incredibly well trained. I'd stashed my phone in my locker by this point to cool down and recharge after being in a waterproof bag all day so I don't know the exact time but they worked amazingly quickly. In only a little while someone had harnessed up and I saw a buoy come down the channel and a helmeted worker quickly began repelling down to us.

There was my son and I, a mom and her young daughter, an empty seat, and a single rider in the boat. The worker was incredible, quickly reassuring my son and the other girl that things would be ok and talking to them as he worked to let air out of the raft (their imaginations were getting the better of them) while the 3 adults got to work swinging and hopping up and down to dislodge us. I think the ride ended up stopped for 10-15 minutes and medics were even at the bottom just in case and the ride was running again without anyone having to leave the line.

We also hit up Everland on a weekday night to grab a couple of rides after work.

Like most of Korea, my son is obsessed with the Bao family. It's even taken over the make-up shops, bakeries and Mcdonalds.

https://fb.watch/rUj-sHHTeu/

The one attraction we never did is the Bao House gallery because it's virtual line only but after a few refreshes someone must have cancelled and we grabbed the last two spots.

Completely honestly...... I think this is something you should only visit as a local or at the park in the evening and the other virtual lines have finished. Like I said at the start of this TR, you only get one virtual line and without the emotional investment you might be underwhelmed.

Kids can also write post it letters to Fu Bao. My son wrote 'Thank you for the memories'

The center piece is one giant teddy for each of the panda family members.

And a hologram photo opportunity.

Our main reason for popping by despite the park being near closing, like Mega Storm, a ride he had backed out of before and had been on his mind. He's got his eye on Rolling X-Train next but I veto'd it. this time. He's never been upside down before (and his biggest coaster is an Intamin family launcher) and I don't think a very rough 30 year old Arrow Looper with 4 inversions would be a good starting point.

Grabbed a quick watch of the night parade...

32.MOV

...And a final watch of the Evertopia fireworks since it's now been replaced for the Summer with Jukebox fireworks Let's Dance. I was surprised to see although the animation was the same, the music and fireworks had changed compared to my previous video. Evertopia was my least favorite of the fireworks so far (I miss the Fantasmic copy complete with the mascot of the park fighting a dragon), it was like watching a Saturday morning cartoon for 15 minutes to get to the 5-minute display but I'm sure it'll be back next winter.