Photo TR: Lotte World & Now Everland

So I am currently on a years teaching contract in Hwaseong, the future home of a Universal Studios (in 2014). This saturday I found out I had teacher training on a saturday, throwing my plans for another cultural outing out the window. So with the training session in Jamsil in the evening I figured I would kill a couple of hours and finally visit Lotte World.Now I must point out I will go back later in the year to give Lotte World a fair review, since this was early march there was no water for Atlantis Adventure making the aqua-trax just a.... trax and half of the effects of Pharoahs Fury was also off.

Robb and others have pointed out in previous TR's that Korea's theme parks tend to be full of grafitti and in Lotte Worlds defense they have taken steps to prevent this by now making everyone queue at the entrances to the rides and letting them walk through the queue lines in batches. On paper this is a good idea but it just doesn't work. The Korean school children have to go to school every other saturday and when they don't falls on one of the first sunny days like the one I visited it just causes chaos, the monorail had a 70 minute queue alone (log flume 120 minutes) and I had to give up getting the comet express credit because for the life of me I couldn't work out where its queue started, it crossed through so many othere queues and round so many buildings.

It also causes chaos in terms of queue jumping since there are barely any rope barriers for most of them and I don't just mean the Koreans here. I witnessed one group of 15 Americans and english speakers leave one person in the queue while the others would go and eat then push back in, then see them swtiching the person for a different ride later in the day. Lotte World also sells cheaper tickets at 4PM and you'd be suprised how many Koreans will go for the cheaper option, when I left at 5pm you really couldn't find most queue beginnings. As I said i'm going to try and go back in the summer when Lotte World will be expecting peak crowds and see if its any different (and try and get in the rides I had to skip)

Gyro Swing has also now got guards fitted over the restraints which I find a little bit of a shame as I definately didn't enjoy this version as much as the one at Drayton Manor, I asked my co-teachers about this later and was told it was due to a incident with long hair but I have no official information on that so take it with a pinch of salt please.

I also plan on going to Everland and trying to get an update on Eagle Fortress in the next month or so when the weather gets better so stay tuned in.

Rant over.... on to photos:

Pretty Subway station

You see the Top hat and you know your in the right place

Behinf these doors, the magic begins...

At the end of this corridor, the magic begins.....

Yay found the magic

Lotte World easily has one of the prettiest indoor sections of any theme park

Picture of the monorail passing through the giant loop..... fail

Standard Carousel

Hmm I've always wondered where Vekoma track comes from

Everyone always takes pictures of the pretty helix so i've been different and gone for the loop

Wow it is really crammed into the building

Train to roof ratio

For some reason Lotte World use this train to advertise Lotte World on the buses.... Someone should tell them Atlantis Adventures better....

Building a bridge through the loop does not make a vekoma suck any less....

It makes for good pictures though

Sitting next to the waterfall for 20 minutes until my vekoma headache went away

Their ship swings really close to the hotel!

Food and drink in 1 cup credit... check!

Ahh crap, I queued 80 minutes for a museum

Umm there is a ride here somewhere right....

There's either an awesome Indiana rip-off at the end of this corridor or no-ones ever going to see me again

Dark corridor.... definately the second option

The legendary Donkey!!!

At the end of this bridge is a castle bigger than Disneylands....

See told you

New guards

Going....

....Going....

....Gone! Awesome ride

Wierd flat

Its like ripsaw and boneshaker at alton towers had a baby

Before we get around to where Vekoma track comes from, I'll end this update with some Atlantis Adventure pictures

So this is how vekoma track is made!

Awesome pictures, I would love to try out Atlantis Adventure. It's kind of weird there was no water underneath the structure in these pictures. has it been like that for a while?

Okay did I miss something. The Intamin gyro swing they have , has SCREAM SHIELDS, like on Maliboomer? What the bloody heck?

Okay did I miss something. The Intamin gyro swing they have , has SCREAM SHIELDS, like on Maliboomer? What the bloody heck?

No you didn't miss anything I mentioned it in the first post, according to my co-teachers there was an incident involving a girl with long hair that led to them apparently.... I have no official confirmation on that though so take it with a pinch of salt.

Awesome pictures, I would love to try out Atlantis Adventure. It's kind of weird there was no water underneath the structure in these pictures. has it been like that for a while?

I think it's a yearly thing to do with irrigation since most of the rivers I have seen so far are barely flowing or just empty beds, I'm told the water is shut off further off for the crops and then it returns to normal later in the year after we've had the rainy months. I will go back in the summer and will know then

All this is from broken translations and my co-teachers so please don't take any of that as concrete fact.

It's well worth a trip out to see this country though some of the temples I have seen are spectacular in terms of colour and decorating and the korean hospitality, well what i've got in Hwaseong is second to none. The food here is delicious as well every corner practically has a street vendor and I would happily take their food over some of the trendier resturants any-day.

Korea in 5 words: Meat on a stick heaven

Korea in 3 words: Standing room only

Rob

Were those the fried cheese balls over the soda cup? We LOVED those on our visit. They were awesome and so practical. Did you get to try any other food there? We've actually eaten at several of the places in the park and the mall and all were great!

I've seen the park empty and as bad as you saw it. You really need to try and go back when it's not hell on earth like it was in your report, still though I pretty much agree with everything you wrote.

Even though it looks rough, it's really cool to see compact coasters like that!

Thanks for the awesome pics. I really enjoyed this TR. looks like no queues for the vekoma

Were those the fried cheese balls over the soda cup? We LOVED those on our visit. They were awesome and so practical. Did you get to try any other food there? We've actually eaten at several of the places in the park and the mall and all were great!

 

I've seen the park empty and as bad as you saw it. You really need to try and go back when it's not hell on earth like it was in your report, still though I pretty much agree with everything you wrote.

Yea they were, I think they are from a big chain brand because i've seen some students with them once or twice. Yea I tried so much of their food, all korean vendor food is so yummy, i'm addicted to mandu (for those who haven't been to Korea it's a korean dumpling) as well as every kind of meat on a stick. Yes I need to back when theirs water flowing again, I only get weekends off so I shall just have to hope I get a quiet one, I'm planning on using my 5 days vacation to either go on a culture trip to Vietnam (something i've always wanted to do) or try and go to Shanghai for happy valley and on to Bejing to try one or two of their parks... or I could go to Japan and try and get all the credits of Fuji-Q, that would definately need all 3 full days vacation time after the 2 travelling

Thanks for the awesome pics. I really enjoyed this TR. looks like no queues for the vekoma

No there's a hour wait for it but they are also being made to queue at the entrance, I should have taken pictures of the queue lines by half 5 once loads of people had brought cheap tickets to get in the park it was chaos, you just could not find where one started and ended... luckily I got a magic pass (aka fast pass) for this ride at the start of the day about half 9(the magic passes were already timed back to half 5 so sadly it meant I couldn't get another until half 5 and by that time all other rides had long ago hit their quota)

Rob

I wish that "food and drink in the same cup" thing would catch on over here. I have to eat on the run a lot with my job, and that would make things so much easier. And once again, Lotte World, another park I would love to see some day. The TR's are killing me this past week!

I believe that's a Vekoma Waikiki Wave. Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom had one for several years called Quake. It was perpetually broken. In the 13 years it was there, I only managed to ride it 3 times. The best way to describe the ride is that it's a Top Spin whose arms rotate independently and whose gondola does not invert.

Truthfully, all the ride really did was put you in the air & shake the hell out of you and when you combine that with Vekoma restraints...

Edit: Here's a video of one in action It is pretty much as boring as it looks.

Oh, I so remember Quake! I got lucky and rode it on my first trip to SFKK, but after that I don't think it ever opened again. It was a really strange ride, but didn't really move fast enough for any real thrills.

Oh, I so remember Quake! I got lucky and rode it on my first trip to SFKK, but after that I don't think it ever opened again. It was a really strange ride, but didn't really move fast enough for any real thrills.

It really isn't at all exciting, I imagine its sort of up there with the topple towers in the "is that it?" stakes.

Everland upate will come tommorow, sorry about the wait but I went a couple of times to try and soak it all in (full trip report tommorow) so I'm just consolidating down the pictures and borrowing one or two from my friends facebook to make sure i've covered most areas and experiences of the park.

Rob

Garet, great work on the TR and the pics. I loved the one museum pic with the extremely dark corridor for some odd reason. Lotte World looks like an amazing place.

Hey guys so as promised here is my epic Everland post. I spent ages trying to consolidate the photos down into a best of album that captured the closing ceremony, the rides and the scenery but you know what? Everland impressed me that much i'm going to dedicate a part to each of them so I will post the scenery first and then follow it up with the rides and finally the closing ceremony.

So how can I sum up Everland. Put simply I found it amazing, I went straight to the membership office after my first visit and traded my ticket for a season pass ( a wise move since I keep having to take more friends back to see the show). The thing with Everland that I preferred over Lotte World is although both go all out in hospitality, Everland really trys to make your day special whereas no matter how hard Lotte World tried, the fact that you were made to just queue anywhere where they were could put food vendors constantly in your face made you remember that it is a business first and foremost, whereas with Everland your greeted onto every ride (as well as when you leave) with such enthusiasm that you'd think it's their first day on the job. Seriously you think ride operators who have to hear catchphrases every minute have it bad, here they dance while the ride is in motion or perform actions everytime a train leaves almost every minute for almost 12 hours everyday but they keep going just to please the few that do notice. Hats off to the Everland staff.

Same with the shows, Everland knows it'll never be disneyland but it'll go out anyway, I've been to the park both when its busy and when it's dead but they'll still put the same amount of fireworks in, the parade actors will still put on a smile and a dance even when there's no-one to watch them, Everland is all about the atmosphere.

I think the only win I would give to Lotte World is the food variety was huge there compared to Everland most snack vendors here are pretty much identical as opposed to Lotte Worlds Variety. In the fact the only major downside to Everland is that there's no non-rider way of seeing the bigger animals of the zoo, the bears (except polar), giraffes lions elephants and most of the tigers can only be seen from a couple of minutes safari ride, even on quiet days there's normally an hour- three hour wait for it. These animals should be the highlight of the zoo and I want to spend my time grabbing those pictures, I haven't yet had a chance to see any of these animals because i just can't justify a three hour wait and then trying to grab photos around the Koreans with their papparazzi cameras in a 5 minute bus ride (seriously they go all out with their SLRs here, the lens they all seem to have are huge!)

Anyways i'll let the pictures tell the rest of the story however if a picture tells 1000 words, i've probably made some spelling mistakes.

Rob

Celebration Center.... Yep that sum's up Everland!

Korea in 3 words.... Standing room only

This month is the tulip festival

Ooooh pretty

The Brits invade Everland, as you do

A tease for part 2 of this update

Cool colour drain option on my friends camera on hurricanes queue themeing

Take the shot

Score

The crowd goes wild

Every sealion show needs a breakdancing drum beating sealion

Genetically enhanced meerkat?

Next made for TV syfy movie?

TPR standard photo!

So cool it has two signs (and i even got to have my picture with the penguin)

No wonder i couldn't find the lemurs in the rest of the exhibit

See tulip festival

I've cunningly hidden the full frontal nudity behind the waterfall

Is this a real life band?

This place is even more stunning at night

Part two coming up soon

Onto part two, the rides,

Summing up the rides here, T express is incredible and for me has the second most surprising first drop i've ever been on (1st being Jubilee Oddessy in Skegness - how can that drop look so vertical from the front seat yet from every other angle on the ground just look like a huge curved drop?) it just doesn't let up from start until finish. Rolling X-Train is just awful and Eagles Fortress is under refurbishment..........still.........apparently. I've lived in Korea in 2 months and i've seen huge shops and houses pop up in weeks, In a month of Everland, i've seen cranes dismantle rides and have them back up in weeks, if something is needing refurbishment then you'd know it, yet on every trip there has not been a sign of life on the ride, I really do think that it's being left to rot.... I hope i'm wrong but after seeing how quick they have repaired other rides and from the state of the ride (it looks a little bit overgrown) I think it may get left to rot but I do hope i'm wrong.

I'm pretty sure the top scan isn't a real one but a chinese knock-off I have no proof but after riding a lot of topscans, this one felt different and i'm pretty sure it wasn't down to the cycle. Topscans are one of my favourite flats and most i've riden even Samurai on its tamest setting has moments of out of control crazyness but this 1 just didn't feel the same way. It's like wearing someone elses pants, they look the same to everyone else but to you they just don't feel right.

Rob

Let's just get it out of the way now.... This is probably lies.

Why aren't you open?

New paint job.... still an awful ride

This had such an insane cycle running at least 5 flips going each direction

Chinese fake, i'm sure

Free heaters at the end and splash blankets to cover you all the way around, most dan friendly eater ride ever made?

And I end this update with T express pictures

Oh no stell transfer track, now do we have to classify T express as a steel coaster? It's the texas giant debate all over

Finally part three, Everland sure knows how to close a party. Seriously the closing show was amazing, only disneyland beats it out for me. i've done my best to capture the best bits on camera but it couldn't pick up any of the lasers or half the effects that were also going off at the same time. The shows called dream of Lucuin, he should probably see a psychiatrist, these dreams aren't normal. Then after that probably a lawyer since he's definately dreaming of some of Disneys shows.

I've seen this somewhere before....

So south korean facebook makes these cool motange pictures while you edit, why doesn't english facebook do this?

The Grand Finale fireworks

The Grand Finale fireworks

The Grand Finale fireworks

Beautiful park. Thanks for the photos.

Absolutely love this park! Can't wait until we can take another TPR tour there. I really wish there was some news either way about Eagle's Fortress. Even if they'd just rip it out at least we knew what the fate of it was. Having it sit there tempting us that there *might* be hope is so mean!

Oh well, at least they have T Express...and the rest of the park is uber awesome! You really can't complain!

--Robb

Robb how would you compare El Toro to T-Express? Is there a comparison?