A Small Korean Family Park

[Garet]

So if anyone has seen some of my posts, I've talked a couple of times about how it always amazes me that Korea as a country hasn't really had anything in the way of big rides or additions for the thrill-seeker crowd since T Express and also how much it amazes me that so many parks still run with what they were built with 15 years ago. On top of that a lot of thrill-rides have disappeared over the last few years and have been replaced with family friendly attractions or not at all, there's a park call Myland on Wolmi island that removed a Huss Frisbee and a drop ride. There's also a brand new gyro swing that left Chidlren's Grand Park before it ever opened as well.

 

Some of my co-workers were explaining to me that essentially a lot of the smaller parks know the crowd will come regardless and most of them tend to be families so the smaller parks or even the bigger ones that aren't owned by giant corporations like Lotte or Samsung essentially stay the same for almost 10-25 years since the crowd level can stay pretty constant with each year without any significant investments as well as removing the more costly to run bigger thrill rides.

 

To emphasis this point they got me one of the field trips to check out the local small family park. These places despite being tiny can pull in huge numbers of people with their pay to play attractions and year round operation. I've visited a few before and they normally consist of the same few things: ice slides for the winter and a plain swimming pool or bucket tipping water play area for the summer. Then there are usually a few rides scattered that require almost no-one to run them or are self-powered and rentals such as ATV's, battery cars or 4 people pedal cars etc. They very rarely use buildings and opt for tents to hold the attractions and restaurant. They are the kind of parks you never see advertised but all the locals know about it and are nearly always in the middle of nowhere down a bunch of tiny lanes where land is cheapest and the whole park's usually run with only a handful of employees. The parks then run essentially as they were built for the next 10-20 years.

 

I know this might not interest a lot of you guys but I thought it would be interesting to show what passes for a carnival style park in different countries.

The size of the car park should give you an idea of how many people tend to come here on times such as busy summer weekends.

The entrance to the park, as you can see tents are used instead of having any permanent buildings put down even though the parks are here for many years with 365 operation.

This almost looked like an area for a carousel that never came. Note all the lights. Despite the lack of buildings and rides that require a lot of electricity they always seems to have big light packages at these places.

Rail pedal cars are usually quite common at these places as well

It was $2 for a lap and yes it was open. Note they don't have people guarding the station when it was quiet and just trust that people will be honest and pay at the booth nearby (though the attendant at the booth will probably come out and help set you up.)

It is highly themed at least

Another common attraction at these places are the junior viking. We arrived early but when we left there were about 8 school groups using the park and this had quite a line!

Chairswing 1 has won an award for best theming!

More decoration and lights. The coned area is for battery powered cars when there isn't snow for the kids to drive.

I was quite surprised to see a pool filled with water but I'm told it gets filled with goldfish for families to catch and take home when it is busier.

The main draw in winter for the families is the ice-slides. Like the pools in the summer they are extremely popular with families looking for a cheap fun half day and these also can be found in most little parks for the winter (and some of the bigger parks like Everland)

A look at the pool area, in the summer these pools are packed like sardines with families wanting a cheaper alternative to the water parks which can cost $60-70 and also hit capacity on most weekends in summer (but on the plus side you can wait in Everland for free)

The pool is quite big but it needs to be with the summer crowds. The lights in the background are strange in a row like that. Again it made me wonder if they were put there for an attraction that never came such as a little train.

A layout of most of the park. The bathrooms are the only building on the far left and most of these tents are for the restaurant and eating (even on this quiet day a lot of people were eating) One of them also housed trampolines which are another attraction you see at all these parks usually giving kids 30 minutes of time for $2. I've seen some of these trampoline tents wedged between houses in some of the cities as well.

A view to show how much it's in the middle of nowhere.

Speaking of middle of nowhere we saw a few of the U2 spy planes fly over from the nearby airbase.

The "foreign" section of the menu. Even in this tiny park you can get the col-pop chicken TPR is so fond of.

Edited August 15, 2016 by Garet

[SharkTums]

Interesting look at something different, thanks!

 

And yes, I love the drinks with the little snacks on top. My favorite was the fried cheese!

[jynx242]

This was a pretty cool report! Thanks for posting it and telling us about something that I know I had no idea about!

 

David