Everland Discussion Thread

[Garet]

Found a POV of the it now, the area starts at 8:40 and ends around 12:00

 

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For comparison, you can see what the road looked like before here:

 

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[Itachi]

I have some questions about visiting the park. Maybe this is not completely the right topic for it, but it's better than opening a new topic I guess. I'll be there at the end of August. Not the most ideal time for visiting one of the most busy theme parks in the world, but anyway, since I read mixed stories about this, is it better to visit this park on a weekday or on a Sunday? And is there a certain plan I should follow, since, if Google Translate is correct, some rides like T Express seem to open later during the day and close earlier?

 

Also, I have a few questions regarding T Express. I wonder if the single riders lane is still active, and, if I understand correctly that the ride operates on a reservation system part of the day, switching to a standby queue later during the day, while it is possible to get tickets for the ride both next to the coaster and at some booth in the children's area.

 

Sorry for the amount of questions. This park just seems to be a pain to deal with if I go there unprepared but the English site is not that complete on information. Want to get the most out of my day of course.

[Garet]

You'll be fine, summer is quieter than fall or spring since it is very hot and humid and the water park is open so that takes in a lot of the crowds. I personally recommend a Sunday since I've seen dead weekdays and ridiculously packed weekdays with school groups and on quiet days they can sometimes cut down operations e.g. one ride is 10-12 and another is 1-closing in some areas whereas Sunday will have more crowds but the more open rides tend to spread them more and it's more families over thrill-riding teens.

 

I think you might have looked at my past posts here to know about the reservation and single-rider policies of T Express. The single-rider line for all rides in the park are gone in favor of a mobile phone app with a point based lottery for fast pass you can download and use (see top post of this page). As for the reservation only thing they had, I haven't seen it run in a long while now. If you go on a sunday, T Express should open with the park however on a few of my visits they only have 1 train running the first opening and test cycle a second so you could grab a ride somewhere and then head over. For example it had a 2 hour line on Children's Day (one of the busiest days) in the morning but I saw 30 mins later in the evening. It does close a bit earlier than other rides due to the fireworks nearby but the app will tell you what time.

 

If it's your only visit you could always book on the official site and get a q pass set: http://everland.eticket.placem.co.kr/main/main.html Even for next weekend only 6 of the 70 allocated q passes for the foreigner site are gone so booking too late isn't too much of an issue. There are cheaper q pass websites like klook but some, if you read the fine print, don't let you pick and the booths sometimes don't open with the park so you would waste valuable time trekking back to the entrance.

 

 

While I'm posting I'll put in a park update, Double Rock Spin (the Huss suspended top-spin) went down for a rehab in March.... and is still closed even now. It's very rare for the park to have a big capacity eater down for Children's Day and the ride is used in wet mode during Summer Splash event. Let's hope nothing too bad has happened or expect it to be replaced by a garden soon.

[Itachi]

Thank you for the elaborate answer, that really helps! I indeed looked at your past posts for most of my information, so it's good to know that some things have changed.

[Tim2009]

 

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More Info

 

More info and pictures

 

Everland just opened a new attraction called 'Raptor Ranger'.

Raptor Ranger is like an escape room, where you have to find five code numbers spread in the area, and put them in to open the exit gate while avoiding raptors.

 

'Raptor Ranger' theme story:

Guests visit the secret army research base, where Raptors are born back to life by modern technology and DNA. This work is called 'Everland Resort's Dinosaur Creation Project'. Everland is making 'Superpower Raptor', or 'Raptor Ranger', which is a special group of raptors that can be used in the military missions. However, we got an emergency. The power of the research base is suddenly cut off, freeing all the raptors from the cage. Raptors are currently roaming around in the area, devouring anyone in the sight. The only hope of your survival is searching the area for the 'Mission Levers'. When you active the 'mission lever', it will reveal one of the five numbers that are needed for escape. There are five mission levers, meaning you have to find five numbers that will open the escape door. Also, time is limited, so be quick or you will be Raptor's next meal.

 

Be in mind, this attraction requires to obtain an entry ticket (no extra charge) from the ticketing area near the attraction. It's the area where 'raptor ranger ticket' sign is posted. In addition, if you wish to use this attraction, be careful about these two important facts:

 

1. I strongly recommend to visit Everland in the opening time and quickly go to the ticketing area and obtain an entry ticket. The number of entry tickets that are issued each day is limited, so if you come after afternoon, entry ticket could be sold out. Once again, the entry ticket for this attraction is limited, so be quick if you want to experience this attraction.

 

2. Raptor Ranger is not suitable for little kids and children. This attraction is full of scary raptors, special effects and loud noises that can easily frighten children, and many visitors reported that children and babies burst into tears by the fear. If you are trying to experience this attraction with children or babies, take extra care since they can get scared, and it's not a good idea to experience this attraction with babies and toddlers.

[Garet]

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Well that’s an interesting ad campaign that keeps popping up before YouTube videos. The korean makes it clear it’s saying Water Park but the tag line on the description is What the P**k

[Garet]

Everland live streamed their new night show yesterday on Naver Tv/Youtube. It seems they've found another use for the SBNO ferris wheel (around 5:20 into the video)

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I showed in my last TR, the updated tiger area, with the seals moved over where the polar bear used to be, they've improved the Penguin area, now housing 60 penguins, and it looks great. The old exhibit was basically a small house, platform, and pool with the penguins looking nervously at their neighbors the seals.

 

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[Garet]

Thank you for the elaborate answer, that really helps! I indeed looked at your past posts for most of my information, so it's good to know that some things have changed.

 

If you've seen my TR's you'll know I preach weekends and Sundays over weekdays and I'll try and explain again here before I do the TR's. Hopefully, you'll be fine for August, I was just there on a busy Saturday and it was quiet. I queued in traffic for ages on Saturday and we parked and took the shuttle bus and 90% got off and headed to the water park.

 

There is the gamble that you can luck out on a dead weekday or a super busy weekend but for some reason lines tend to be longer and a lot more rides are closed on the weekdays. I've noticed a lot of the staff are really young, so i'm not sure if it's because the park has part-timers on weekends and less staff on weekdays or they are full-time and it's just to keep the cost down but... well you'll see in these pictures.

So Everland has this thing where they set minimum queue times even when it's a walk-on (perhaps it's assuming you wait one cycle) so for most thrill rides a walk-on is posted as 10 minutes.

And T Express was 20 minutes so around 10 minutes of waiting, or a couple of trains. I thought it might be because the forecast said slight chance of rain...

... but the water park was crazy, with even 80 minutes for a speed drop body slide

And then here is the following Monday, T Express running a 90 minute line.

You can also run into the dreaded split shifts on rides too, so you end up having to wait around for rides to open.

And even let's twist had 4 out of 6 arms with no riders on a Saturday.

Now onto the actual TR, it'll be a short update TR since it was just me and my son again and once again, like my last TR, I ended up spending almost an hour at the new tiger area.

I took my son to the zoo, no interest in the far off tigers. The old Everland tiger exhibit, no interest. But this one has a keeper feeding station and the tigers will go right up to the window next to it and my son has learnt to park himself right next to their feeding zone.

Although I worry they're arguing who gets to eat the tasty toddler.

I know I normally make snarky comments about Everland ripping out attractions for non-attractions but i'm ok with this replacing the hologram theater.

Here's the new Penguin Island area.

It's mostly just the old exhibit and the seals old area combined into a bigger pool now the seals are in the old polar bear area, but the penguins seem much more active now they aren't staring at a predator next door through glass.

Lost Valley with it's updated sign.

Here's the new raptor escape room thing, it was sold out v early even on a quiet day and I don't think I could have convinced my son to go in anyway.

Rotating House is closed for refurbishment, it doesn't state what will happen but the guide map lists it as becoming 'Lenny's Magical School'. I hope they keep the rotating room and just re-theme it since these rides aren't that common.

The 10 year SBNO ferris wheel has now become a digital screen in the night-time show. I also noticed the Heli-cycles that have been closed for a few years have just been left to rust and get overgrown.

I wanted to get a better picture but my son was rushing me to the carousel. T Express was flying through trains, if i'd known the queue was going to be so short, i'd have tried to bring my wife or the in-laws this time to take care of my son and grab a few laps.

I'll end this mini-TR of park updates with this seasons theming on the tree.

As you can see here.

Those stairs lead directly to the air-gates so yea walk-on not 10 minutes.

[Garet]

Made a quick stop in at the park this weekend, Saturday had T Express at 100 minutes at opening and down to 20-30 by lunch when it was hottest before jumping to 60 mins once the after 4 pm when people started to leave the water park (the park tends to offer free afternoon entry to water-park guests to boost numbers and keep them around) and Sunday was 10 minutes after 11 am until the evening when the water-park people came. They've also been opening the water park at 8.30am if you come dressed and ready you can get almost a couple of practically walk-ons before the park gets slammed with 90-120 minute waits.

Starbucks is almost finished, according to Everland, this will be a Starbucks Reserve. I'm not familiar enough with that name but google tells me it's 'Fancy Starbucks'

My son finally got to see the tiger feeding. I missed my T Express queue pass time-slot for him to see it but he was very happy to finally see it, so it was worth it.

The park has added quite a few feedings to the zoo lately to see the animals up closer. We saw signs for the penguins, monkeys, tigers and the red panda.

[Garet]

Lenny's Magic School (the English name according to the English guide map because I think the Korean translates to School of Magic) will open September 4th. This ride will replace Rotating House. It's unknown if this is a new ride in the building or a re-theme of the old system.

 

[Garet]

Here's a video of the updated ride. Similar to the old shooting haunted house upgrade next door, It seems to be a combination of screen overlays around the physical set. Nw to this is they've mixed into the rotating house a shooting element (actual ride area around 4:55):

 

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It's hard to tell with these madhouses but I think they've removed a lot of the rotation out of the cylinder around the vehicle in favor of some swaying to focus on the shooting aspect.

 

For comparison, the old ride:

 

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[Garet]

 

Everland is operating as normal but with more hand sanitizers and disinfecting of the rides. They are asking for guests to wash hands often and wear masks and people with fevers over 37.5 will not be allowed in the park.

 

In other news on my pre-outbreak visits:

 

T-Express now has a no loose items policy and they are no longer allowing guests to lower their bars and attendants are checking pockets which has slowed operations a bit.

 

Lenny's Magic School seems a weird addition. It's a shooting ride and the rotating part of the mad house seems to be a lot more neutered than it was before. It's just strange because a unique ride (for Korea at least) has become a screen-based shooter, except the shooting haunted house next door just had an upgrade last year to also become a screen-based shooter.

 

They're building a new public bus drop-off right at the entrance gates... This one's a bit confusing since there used to be a drop off 5 minutes walk from the entrance (which is still standing) but they made a new one only a few years ago when the Everline subway station opened and made everyone take the shuttle bus but are now going back and making a new one 400m from the first.

 

I haven't really updated with pictures lately because there's nothing really to update. I joke that rides like Small World knock-off and Eagles Fortress were replaced by gardens but it does seem like the park struggles more with each visit. Restaurants closed or much smaller menus. Rides like rotating house become another screen shooting ride. Parades becoming stationary floats for photo ops. Lots of rides only open for half the days. Amphibious safari boats not allowed in the water anymore. Water park only opening some flumes for July and August etc.

 

It's hard not to feel sorry for the park, there have been big investments (Panda exhibition, new flume ride, a big water slide in Caribbean Bay) but attendance has fallen for the last 3 years now and the park has had a lot of bad luck. This is the 2nd viral outbreak in 5 years to scare away visitors and with political problems affecting foreign attendance from China and Japan as well, it seems the park has started to struggle.

Edited February 28, 2020 by Garet

[coasterbill]

Good for them for staying open. Hopefully they turn it around once this hysteria blows over.

[SharkTums]

I'm also impressed they're staying open. Hopefully the government allows it!

[Garet]

Everland had pretty big lines this weekend, looking at the app which is good to see. We are almost 3 weeks since the break-out here. The fear of the virus hitting Korea is gone because well it's already here and now 3 weeks in people seem to be accepting it's going to be around and things seem to be getting back to normal-ish.

[Canobie Coaster]

^ Any chance the lines could have been due to less staffing? Just playing devil's advocate.

[Garet]

^Potentially. But there were a lot of pictures in the Korean newspapers of the recently deserted markets getting packed again and even in our town the restaurant/bar area was starting to get full again so it does seem people are resuming their routines.

 

Even if T Express has one train and low staff a 70-minute line is better than how it looked two weeks ago.

 

[Garet]

FYI. This is what the park will look like on a day when they expect fewer crowds/have less staff. To be fair to the park, with corona still playing a part at least they are still open and a grey gloomy day with rain predicted they may have just been cutting costs, and some of the rides like the train and safari bus are down for rehab and the playground and indoor ball house closed I'm assuming due to corona.

 

Today was pretty wet but the rain had stopped by midday. T Express was on rain standby and supposed to run but they decided to close it for the day around 11.30 A.M.

 

Like I said in all my TR's go on the weekends. Weekdays will have more closures or rides in each area running split shifts e.g. one ride is 10-2 and another in the area 3-7. And a lot of rides will be 'prep' meaning they don't open until 1 PM. I've hit huge 30-60 minute lines on weekdays due to less staff and more rides closed pushing the people to the open rides that I've ridden in 10-30 minutes on weekends. You can get lucky and get a really dead day but your going to have to plan your day a lot more around ride times.

[Garet]

Everland have canceled their parades and shows to stop gatherings due to corona they're also reducing their hours.... by one whole hour!

 

Sun-Thurs 10:00-8:00

Fri/Sat 10:00-9:00

 

Lol, I think nothing will make some of the bigger Korean parks ever close.

[SharkTums]

^Thanks for keeping us updated on Everland and the other Korean parks and situation over there.

[coasterbill]

I'm definitely jealous of the way South Korea seems to be handling this.

[SharkTums]

^I feel most countries are doing a better job than us at this point other than maybe Spain, Italy, and the UK!

[Garet]

I'm hearing they might also give season pass holders an extra 30 days due to corona despite the fact the park never closed as well.

 

Also enjoy this POV of T Express the park put out:

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[Tim2009]

https://blog.naver.com/everland5000/221891310314

 

According to the news from the Korean blogger and Everland Community Cafe in Naver, Everland got some strong measures to combat Coronavirus.

 

1. You MUST wear mask to get in. Anyone without masks won't be allowed to enter. No mask, no entry.

2. Your body temperature will be checked upon entry.

3. The following rides are closed until further notice:

Hello Turning Adventure, Kidscovery, Ball House, Spooky Fun House, Kids Village, VR Adventure, Shooting Ghost, Lenny's Magic School, Space Tour, Robot VR, Gyro VR

4. All parades and firework shows are canceled.

5. Park changed operation hours:

Sunday to Thursday: 10:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.

Friday, Saturday: 10:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m.

6. While waiting for rides, Everland will try to maintain social distancing, so you may have to wait for longer than usual waiting time that is posted outside.

7. Water Park: Caribbean Bay is closed until further notice.

[SharkTums]

^I'd do all of that in a second to have our parks open!