Asia Park, Danang Vietnam TR

[Garet]

While on vacation in Vietnam, we decided to try to hit up Asia Park. We'd already been to the other Sun World theme park (Ba Na Hills mini-TR coming later), so it wasn't a big priority for us but with the park only open a few hours every day, we decided if we were ever in the city of an evening to see how the weather was and try and squeeze in a trip.

The main reason being, as you've probably seen from my decade of reports, I live in South Korea. For a place where theme parks tend to aim at families, there's a surprising lack of smaller-medium family roller-coasters like Ice Breaker or a mine train. Lotte World has none for young children, and Everland and Seoul Land just have 30-year-old powered coasters and old junior coasters then for all 3 parks the next step-up is straight into just as old Arrow Loopers. My son, a year ago, rode Everland's Vekoma coaster but, being almost 20 years old and running backward had a pretty bumpy ride that put him off, so he'd wanted to go out to this park to try to experience something better for his height (he just hit 120cm) to decide if he did actually like roller-coasters.

 

Unfortunately, the park is well known for closing during the rain, which they only announce 4-5 hours before opening. We were greeted to this notice on Facebook on the Monday of our vacation. Although the park was open by  Wednesday, a rain shower passed through, and my wife found on a Korean blog that the park was only operating the Ferris Wheel and indoor kids-play area.

Before we continue my wife would like me to point out to anyone with young children that the indoor playground that's shown on the website has been ripped out so the indoor play area for children included in the price is actually just a bunch of arcade games and a ball-battle zone so be aware. The outdoor playground and rope-course in some older photos was also gone.

On the last day of the trip we just decided to gamble and go for it, despite the threat of rain, even if it was a bust the night market was next door with a lot of food and entertainment to see, and did have some indoor rides and play-area as out back up plan.  This park is pretty unique in that with Vietnams heat and humidity the whole park doesn't begin operations until 3PM.

Wife edit: She'd also like me to point out for families, that we didn't see any restaurants at all and maybe one place for snacks in the park, so stock up at the Lotte Mart supermarket next door or just wait for the night market to eat.

Note all the different times that everything runs, the rides only ran for 3 hours on the day of our visit.

On top of all the different times for the parts of the park, each ride also has a different running time. Disaster for my son though, the junior roller-coaster he planned on trying wouldn't open until 5:15 (actually 5:30) and the one he'd really hoped to be his first 'big' coaster the mine train would not be operating... we figured we'd leave and my trip report will end here.....

.... until we saw the prices. 200,000 VND works out to just over $8. Even if we only got 2-3 rides and a go on the famous Sun Wheel, we figured we'd get value for our money.

10 seconds before opening and the crowds were getting restless for rope-drop.

Rope drop and all of the restless crowd was off.

The first ride spotted and we've already found our first Hard Rock Park survivor. It was unfortunately down for the day.

And the second Hard Rock ride found, sadly also closed. This was the closure that bummed my son out the most.

A third Hard Rock ride already, and this one was open.

And a fourth.

Next door was another of the rides down for the day was the Singapore Sling. This one seems to have had a lengthy closure.

Nearby was a small train ride, I believe another Hard Rock ride (fifth).

Over in the China area, we found a 6th Hard Rock ride....

... a chair ride....

... and a pirate ship.

In the Korea are this ride was blasting out some K-Pop, strangely it had one of the strictest height restrictions of 130cm for riders.

Over in the Korean section should have been the 7th Hard Rock ride, Paradise Fall was originally where the Maximum RPM roller-coaster was constructed. However, for whatever reason it was replaced by this Intamin launched roller-coaster.

Being that there was almost no one in the park a lot of the pictures will look like this. Even when people did ride, there were 5-10 minute dispatches so it was almost impossible to get pictures of the ride in motion since we'd also be riding.

And I do mean we.... With the mine train closed and the junior roller-coaster not opening until 5:30, my son decided he'd try and give this a go. I tried to talk him out of it as I thought this would be too much for his second-ever roller-coaster. He tried it.... hated the launch and big turn then loved every moment after. But again that's a huge jump from a junior coaster as a baby to this. Having only tried 30-year-old powered coasters and his first real coaster being a backward 20 year old Vekoma, he didn't realise roller-coasters could be and I quote 'not bumpy'. He ended up riding 4 times. He never did like the launch or first turn but it was a big achievement for him.

The Sun Wheel was now open so we headed there next. Once the tallest Ferris Wheel in the world, like a lot of the rides here, it was brought from a closed park. This time from Japan.

Some views, you can even see the famous Lady Buddha statue.

One ride my son was really bummed that was removed, was the new Intamin monorail. You can see the pillars where it used to run. Interestingly although all of the park is situated to the left of the river, the monorail was the only ride to cross and go on the right side of it. You can also see the overgrown bridge where the monorail would pull into the station.

We headed over to the junior coaster, also from Hard Rock Park (7th) however it wasn't opening until 5:30...

... so we grabbed another Hard Rock Park ride (8th)...

... and another (9th).

The bumper-cars were also located here. I have no idea where these people came from... we rode and then never saw any of them again, the only place we saw a group the whole day apart from at the Sun Wheel.

The junior coaster finally opened. I should mention the sun sets in Vietnam REALLY fast. There's not much time between this photo and the one above. We did 2 rides and I planned to ride until closing and sacrifice my last credit. However he decided he wanted to try out a roller-coaster solo for the first time and loved it, so my wife kept an eye on him so I could grab the last roller-coaster.

Heading out as all the park lit up.

Grabbing a quick solo ride on the way to experience it properly without having to watch my son.

Sadly, despite buying all of Hard Rocks roller-coasters, I was not greeted by a B&M looper, but this instead.

At least it had the newer style trains. IT wasn't that smooth, but it was fun enough that I rode again which I think I've only ever done for one other SLC (Fantasy Island's Odyssey opening year) Despite the train only using 2 rows, I ended up waiting a long time for someone else to come along and ride so I bailed after that.

I should also point out, since it was in the queue while I waited that even when the rides are open all night and not 3:00-6:30, they operate split-shifts. This style has become really popular in Asia post Corona, if you look at my Korean TR's of Legoland/Everland you'll see that a lot of parks have adopted some form of this style of operations, usually with rides sharing the same crew. Fuji-Q being another example of doing this during Corona (not sure if has been discontinued now though. for them), although this style is still alive in Vietnam & Korea.

Heading out, I ended up riding this rattly drop tower, so the two girls lined up didn't have to split up for weight.

This was originally the location of Hard Rock's roller-soaker however it was replaced by this suspended coaster. I'm not sure if this roller-coaster ever opened either, every report I'd seen had it as SBNO and I couldn't find out if it'd ever had riders outside of publicity shots.

After over 20 rides we weren't sure if we'd got enough value out of our $8 tickets so we grabbed 2 more night rides on the Sun Wheel.

Note the Dragon Bridge in the background...

... on the weekends it breathes fire and shoots water to soak people on the bridge at 9pm (picture taken the previous weekend)

Being rainy season, despite the forecast saying 0% chance of rain, a shower passed through so we decided to leave early (the ferris wheel and amusement arcade inside runs until 10 but rides were already closed) and head out to the market.

Wife final edit: All-weather apps were useless for Vietnam, but really don't use Weather Underground for your vacation planning, we found out too late the app and site aren't even authorized in Vietnam.

So that was Asia Park. Were operations slow... yes, 10 minute dispatches if other riders didn't show up. Was the ride opening times very short... also yes. Nowhere to really eat.... yes.

But we had an amazing time and would recommend it... if you can get a good weather day, $8 is just too cheap for it not to be amazing value for money. We've been to quiet or dead parks before but this took it to a whole other level. Employees waiting outside asking us what we want to ride, walking us over and starting it up. If you're ever in Danang or Hoi-An you could knock out all the credits in about an hour or two, and that's more because of opening times/split shift rides than crowds.

[bert425]

wow. .thanks for this report.

really nice pics, and the night time ones are fantastic!

 

for $8?   well worth spending some time there, even if a bit frustrating having to wait for others to ride some things.

[Nrthwnd]

That Dragon Bridge looks awesome! And it shoots fire and water?

What could be better than that?! Great TR on the park, and what you did ride, etc.

[Garet]

We also spent some time at Ba Na Hills theme park. You could probably do a full day there if you wanted to really explore, but a lot of the rides there were copies of films we'd seen in Korea, so we didn't buy any buffet tickets and opted to leave after half a day since Korea has some of the busiest water parks in the world, we wanted to maximize our hotel water park time.

The park is supposedly one of Vietnam's busiest tourist places, a theme park on top of the mountain and home to the Golden Hand Bridge aka 'The World's Most Instagrammmable Bridge', this park features in 100s of reels and YouTube videos on the topic of Instagram/Reality. So how bad was it really?

Off to Ba Na Hills we go. Like most Vietnamese theme parks and the one In my previous TR, this one is owned by Sun World.

We'd been warned that Ba Na Hills has it's own climate and heard many horror stories of terrible views and shut down cable cars. This was the only time we ever saw the resort all the way from our hotel, and with only that one cloud in the whole sky we chose to go that day. Being a Saturday and the best weather day in rainy season we knew we'd probably be in for the worst.

Despite it being only a 30 minute taxi drive from the hotel clouds quickly formed.

Instagram Vs Reality 1: We'd seen people recording hour-long queues for the cable car and tons of tour buses. We had an early breakfast and were at this entrance by 8:30....

... and were not only on instantly but it was quiet enough even small groups weren't made to share gondolas yet. If you look to the right of the picture you can also see they're installing a 4th cable car line to reduce the lines.

Despite the blue sky at the bottom, we entered the clouds after 15 minutes, at over 20 minutes long this is, I think, the world record holder for longest cable car journey.

The famous bridge appeared out of the clouds. It's mostly there to connect the two cable car stations.

Instagram Vs Reality 2: This bridge is known for being horribly crowded, but at 9am it wasn't bad at all. A lot of the crowds moved on because of the clouds wanting to come back when it was clearer but I kind of enjoyed the mist and clouds as a back-drop.

Personally, if you just want to enjoy the view and don't care too much about getting the perfect shot on the bridge, head to the back side of the park. 99% of the crowds will be on the bridge and you can enjoy looking down the mountain without being jostled.

Later in the day the bridge was starting to look more like the videos, and only got busier from there as guided tour groups packed in.

The gardens are also in this area.

At the other end of the bridge is the cable car to the theme park area. Note all the different lines that go to the other areas or back down the mountain.

The twin alpine coasters, the parks signature attraction.

Normally even on quiet days these rides can have an hour queue and shut down easily from weather. We'd been told the track in this picture, and the one you'll come across first from the cable car is the quieter one of the two, but this information is now outdated. Operations have now changed That one is now the free alpine coaster, and the other is fast-pass only. A fast-pass ticket was about $3 a person so skip the free one and just buy for the ticketed one.

Also, tell the staff if you want a fast ride. They were great and would always check the car ahead was almost done before dispatching us. We saw many cars stuck behind slow riders but every time we asked the staff for a fast ride they obliged and we had brakeless runs whenever we wanted.

Between the alpine coasters is the main indoor theme park, home to some kids rides like this ferris wheel, SBF Airborne Shot (closed for maintenance), single rail horse ride, and bumper cars.

Also home to a 4D cinema, Desperados shooter, and a 360 screen. We've rode this many times at Seoul Land but it's always funny watching people jump out of their chairs on this when the dinosaur head closes around them.

The main attraction indoor is the drop tower that goes and gives you a view outside.

Like a lot of Vietnam, the arcade games scattered around were set to free play. There was also a dark ride but the line was long and a Youtube search suggested not worth the time. Link

The outdoor area is mostly full of buffet restaurants and photo ops.

But there is a chair ride and Merry go round here. The rides outside go down at the tiniest bit of rain which is pretty common even on sunny days.

On the other end of the park, is the newest area,this empty castle, where there are 2 more movie rides. One a 4D cinema for 300 people showing Monster Family every 30 minutes. We'd seen it at Everland so we skipped it for the other ride. A 20-seater ride as you fly across the world feeling heat rain and wind. It felt like it was designed for a Flying Theater ride but they budget cut it back to a regular simulator.

Before heading out we decided to sample Vietnam's coffees: Coconut coffee and egg coffee.

We wanted to grab some swimming pool time so we left early but it started to pour, my son was saddened he might miss out on the outdoor pool but we would hit up the indoor one instead.

However as we descended it became clear, Ba Na Hills really does get different weather than the rest of the city.... the rain disappeared....

... and the journey back was sunny with a slight chance of cow.

So we abandoned the rest of the day at Ba Na Hills for a indoor water park

Plus a public clothed onsen (and gender-specific private areas for the more adventurous)

Outdoor water park

And Vietnam's 2nd? biggest lazy river.

And the infinity pool, however unlike the rest of the water park above, where day tickets can be bought, you needed a hotel room key for here.

This ends the Vietnam Parks TR. We had originally planned to hit the 3rd Sun World park, a zoo/water park/theme park combination,Link, but with 2 theme parks done and a water park-inclusive hotel booked due to the rainy season (as well as not being able to see which attractions were actually running at that park), we used the rest of the good weather days to experience the cultural sites and other tourist places like the famous lantern and basket boats instead. Bad coaster enthusiasts but good tourists.

 

[bert425]

wonderful pictures, Garet!

I've enjoyed following along, and these locations are truly stunning.   

really makes me want to attempt to get to these places at some point in the future!

 

thanks so much for sharing.

[Garet]

On 12/1/2023 at 12:10 PM, Nrthwnd said:

That Dragon Bridge looks awesome! And it shoots fire and water?

What could be better than that?! Great TR on the park, and what you did ride, etc.

Quite a lot of water, if I remember correctly it was 3 rounds of fire shooting 3 times, a break, then repeat (so 18 chances to grab a picture) before a lot of water came out. We'd planned on being at the bridge entrance in the big crowd to watch it but the kid was falling asleep so it didn't seem fair to subject him to that crowd so we opted to use the river cruises that run and time themselves to be near the bridge while it happens while he was crashed out on the seat. Nothing special to see on the cruise, a very quick up and down the river, but a nice alternative for those who don't want to be crowded in or soaked. Plus a plate of fruit.

[jedimaster1227]

Such a great report! Seeing all of those Hard Rock/Freestyle rides certainly brings back memories.