Everland 2016

So here is my usual Everland update. They tend to normally run quite long, I tend to have a pattern where I posted around 50-60 photos of the park and updates and then dedicate a third post to the newest attraction but I had family come out and visit on two separate occasions so I have more than usual this time. Thank you in advance if you make it to the end.

Anyone who has seen my previous TR's knows I have a love/hate relationship with the operations over the years from rides running half day shifts each to a lot of closures, and this was no exception. Lately Everland has posted a monthly rehab schedule but on the run-up to our visit during Summer Splash (a quieter season) I noticed a few more rides closed regularly on the app and when we got to the park there was a lot closed that was listed as annual inspection but really did seem to be just closed due to low crowds. Same with restaurants, a lot had closed signs draped across them. I actually ended up enjoying our trip much more on the much crowd heavier Halloween season due to more being open.

I mentioned in my last TR I was probably going to take a break since I felt burnt out with just continuously doing Lotte World and Everland since the Korean market can be quite stagnant on additions for thrill seekers. However, I actually had a really great day. There's so much to like in the park and there's so much effort put into things there from all the animals, parades, shows (I finally watched the birds of prey show and watching tons of these weird chicken looking things come flying down to the Star Wars theme was great) and the fact that so many rides and areas have their own theme musicthere is a lot to love.

But at the same time with the removal of a lot of things (see below for Small World knock-off replacement) unless you are desperate for just a T Express credit I think enthusiasts could come away a little disappointed. I had a lot more fun just strolling around and taking in the scenery, music and background of the park but I do find there are so few rides that I will actually wait in a long line for. I think the park as a whole is fantastic but I do find a lot of the rides aren't too memorable. HKDL is actually one of my wife and I favorite Disney park due to the low crowds making it quite relaxing for us, and even with only a handful of family rides,n we can easily enjoy the whole day and re-ride happily due to them being memorable. I have no problem if it's new family rides that bring in the crowds, and alyhough i'd love to see a new B&M show up (I refuse to believe in Gyeongju World's rumored Dive Coaster until track shows up and vertical construction starts or the website at least acknowledges the project... I've seen so many projects vanish here.) I just feel like Everland could use a dark ride that's memorable (I'm not the biggest fan of the shooting ride here) and not a clone like Rio 4D or a new nice themed coaster, even a family friendly one like Powder Keg, Firechaser or Grizzly Minecars would be that tipping point to put it back on the map.

Anyways on with the photos:

This was my first time taking the Everline since we had too many people for the car. It was quite nice and took around 40 minute for the whole line and wasn't crowded at all.

It's a driver-less system.

Although if you are near Suwon this little ticket booth for the express bus to the right upon exiting the station is still the fastest way to go.

Here I present to you some comparisons from the Summer Splash and Halloween festival.

Obligatory Everland tree shot

Again Everland just always puts so much effort into making each season stand out.

That's one classy Jack-O-Lantern

The K Pop theater has been replaced. When I say replaced I mean they changed the name and the holograms. However unlike the old one, this is a paid add-on so it sadly meant one less attraction to soak up the crowds.

The new holograms.

Since Lost Valley is where everyone dashes at opening we dashed to Safari World since it can be a little lower capacity and the crowds don't tend to die down on that one later like Lost Valley does.

The Liger seemed to be quite popular

Look for the bare necessities.....

We did actually head over to Lost Valley later. This is the only photo I seem to have.

Last split photo I promise

New for this year is VR adventure, a 4D cinema with VR headsets. It was located next to T Express and was running POV's of T Express and the Safari ride. It's height restriction was quite high at 120cm, only 10cm lower than the real T Express next door.

Speaking of T Express, here's the usual photos. One bit of advice although the single rider line is fantastic with 2 trains, it comes to a screeching halt with 3 trains. To avoid stacking they let so many people onto the platform and the air gates open and shut so quickly and restraints are checked so fast that even though there were empty seats there just wasn't time and the groupers (I was there a while and shifts changed) main focus is obviously to keep the queue flowing so count trains if you use it. I ended up getting let on after waiting longer than the main queue and I was the only one in the single rider line.

The ticket did say line may be longer than main line and its nice they even offer it so it's not a complaint, I just feel like it's worth pointing out for anyone reading this planning their own trip. We found lines overstated throughout the daym when my family rode the were displayed times from 30-60 minutes and they ended up waiting 15-35, the crew were hauling so much with 3 trains.

I don't often get this view since the bathrooms tucked behind Let's Twist are normally blocked off but they were open on one of my trips.

Did I mention Everland have their own designed manhole covers.

All credit to Everland after I ranted so muchin my last TR I didn't even submit it to the park index, I noticed there were a lot more queue jumping notices around the park and some new announcements played about needing re-entry passes if you left the line from the attendant. It's not a perfect system, we saw a few times people not having the passes being let in to avoid a scene and all the queue jumpers we saw are still familys with young kids who don't want to stand in long lines but honestly in 2 trips I got queue jumped maybe 8-10 times which sounds a lot but honestly in the previous years I'd get jumped that much just in one line so credit where it's due, the added awareness does make people more cautious and it's nice to see Everland improving on something that I've seen as a common complaint.

A little unrelated to this picture but I haven't had culture shock in a long time but I did here. There's no minimum height requirement when your with an adult but on our boat was some young parents who had newborns strapped to their chests. It's not the most rapidy rapids ride and there are sheets that protect you a little but this happened on our evening ride when the son went down and those babies looked smaller than my 6 month old. I just feel like common sense would suggest not taking newborns on a bumpy water ride at night.

Can you guess what this is? This garden is the "exciting new attraction" that is the replacement of Everland's old Global Village (Small World). Unfortunately it's just a garden which is a shame because even though Global Village was a knock-off, it was kind of unique to see another parks take on Small World and was a little less generic than some of the other rides here.

We didn't go in but here it is from the outside.

Speaking of closed attractions, the characterium closed down and the little bus snack bars removed which has made the middle pathway a ghost town again.

It's been so long since I waited in line for the chairlift I'd forgotten how nice the view is.

Part 2:

This was new for me, although I've seen the fountains on in the summer before, they've always been for show. This was the first time I've ever seen them used to soak people.

You got wet....

...really wet...

Although I think the back row got it worse being flipped into the fountains than the riders actually facing the fountains.

It always amazes me how dead this area can be on Sunday's when family's tend to visit. I've seen 90 minute waits for most of the thrill rides on weekdays but here it was going around half empty.

Oh yea this is still here....

The new kids fun house that replace the old one after the accident is here, I got rained out on this visit and even with the cover it was closed. It has a maximum height restriction of 1.5m

Here it is on the second visit.

Some remenants of the old mascot still remain.

Over at Thunder Falls....

.... Bumpers have been added to the back and sides and windshields on the front with some external themeing removed. There was one or two boats that hadn't had back bumpers yet that had big cracks in them so it seems that somewhere on the course boats were getting damaged.

What's left of Eagle's Fortress area. This area is supposed to be the hotel for Spring 2017 but there didn't seem to be too much going on. I didn't trek up to the construction walls to see if the pictures had been removed or the date changed since it wasn't fair on my guests.

Speaking of guests, it was nice to check out some of the tucked up corners I have never bothered with when I come on my own.

Although the penguins here didn't seem to like sharing with swans.

This guy wanted to make an escape attempt....

One thing i've never had a chance to see is the Orangutan sky walk. The Orangutan actually climbs out of his exhibit through a tower and then goes over some of the other enclosures on a steel cable to climb down another mast tower when it's feeding time where I took this picture. I was just luckily there when the zookeeper went to feed it.

Smile for the camera.

This tree was put in for christmas last year but was so popular it's become year round.

I try not to edit my photos too much for TR's but this one was way too dark and was going to be deleted so I had a bit of a play around and actually liked how it came out even if it is still too dark.

The new show that replaced Madagascar. Speaking of the great service of Everland when it poured all the staff ran around the family rides and covered all the strollers of people on the rides and shows.

A double rainbow fell over the park after the downpour

Speaking of great operations, in my old TR's I moaned about how much would go down for the day in bad weather but lately they've tried really hard to keep things open. T Express went to one train but it was hauling in the rain.

Though it still poured the sky was a lovely red and I tried out an orange filter that I really liked.

Although the first trip was rained out, the second wasn't so I'll save the night parade for my last post.

So here's my usual new attraction post I usually make. This year was Panda World and although I really enjoyed it, I get the feeling it hasn't pulled the crowds Everland hoped it would. There was so much media coverage before the pandas arrival and apparently the cost to build and have Pandas is almost as much as a big coaster. We saw big waiting areas drawn on the paths for the exhibit that stretched far but apart from rare days where I've seen 15-20 minutes on the app, 99% of the time it's listed as 5 mins which means walk-on. It had a steady flow of people but the pre-show was never full when we went in and the exhibit wasn't crowded at all.

However that said it's one of the nicest exhibits I've seen and is really open giving great views.

Banner leading down to the area

The entrance....

... and the building.

The pre-show from what I could see involves the pandas coming across on a dragon from China to Everland. It's only a minute or two long and is mainly there to spread the people out.

After the pre-show but before the pandas there's an indoor interactive area and aphoto zone with pladtic models of the characters. It's not too long but most people tend to run through.

The first thing we see is the indoor enclosure of the female. I read on a few Korean blogs she isn't as comfortable with the crowds as her male counterpart and it definitely seemed true on our visits. Nearly all my pictures are of the boy as he played and goofed whereas she slpet and paced.

The indoor part for La Bao (boy panda)

The outdoor part for Ai Bao (girl panda)

and finally the outdoor La Bao section where the majority of my pictures are from.

As I said he seemed a lot more relaxed and playful in front of the crowds.

He was extremely playful, drinking, splashing, rolling, and playing with toys and posing. He got big claps using just his front paws to pull himself up onto his platform by wrapping them aorund the ledge.

The girl panda was awake later but not as easy to photo.

The red panda is also located here.

And Golden Monkeys are tucked up in the end.

The gift shop has an insane amount of panda merchandise....

....jewelry....

....superhero gloves???....

....and vehicles.....

On the second trip there was even new Halloween mechandise

My personal favorite was pop up panda. Surely anything with a panda can be great....

.... Damn it Everland, you ruined it. Don't encourage the selfie stick!

Next to the gift shop is the panda cafe themed around mango.

We tried the Panda shaved ice.

Panda shaped chicken buns

I'll round out this update with the night parade since I haven't shown it in the TR's for a few years and the Rose/LED Rose Garden since I only tend to cover the 4 seasons garden in my TR's and not the other end. Sadly no fireworks pictures since my guests wanted to do gift shop shopping before the crowds made for the exit.

Sun is setting

I'm not sure when but I don't remember T Express having all these lights on the train.

The moonlight parade is fun. One thing I'd just got used to and didn't ever really thin about is when the front of the parade comes to the end of the trail they don't just drive off, the floats and performers spread out along the route, the lights flash, the music changes and they perform a nice energetic dance singing about Everland.

Techno Alice

Heading towards the Rose Garden

This place is Ok during the day but really worth seeing at night with all the LED's

This was a cute little attraction and very popular with couples.

Like the massive christmas tree, I think this castle was originally part of Christmas's romantic illuminations a few years back but became a mainstay for the whole year. I could be wrong on that though.

The fountains were playing to Marry You when I went to see it.

And now it really was time to leave.

If you've made it through this XL edition of my yearly Everland TR then thank you for your time and hope you enjoyed the pictures.

Thanks for sharing, some really nice photos. The park looks really well kept.

Lovely report, crazy to think they literally cannot keep up with the dispatch rate of T Express! Wish more parks were like this!

Great pictures, thank you! Do the T-Express trains change color, or?

How bad is that Arrow/Vekoma thing? That train is hideous...

Awesome update! I often forget that this crazy-looking Intamin woodie exists! That first drop looks so incredibly bad-a$$!

Great pictures, thank you! Do the T-Express trains change color, or?

 

How bad is that Arrow/Vekoma thing? That train is hideous...

Well when I said I tend to only wait for a handful of rides, let's just say it isn't on the list. The lights were two different trains. The 3rd is normally taken off as the evening falls since T Express closes before the night show and fireworks.

Wonderful photos and great trip report. This is a beautiful-looking park that focuses highly on attention to detail.

In the first photo, you said:

This was my first time taking the Everline since we had too many people for the car.

Does this mean that you were the last one to the car and they all forced you to go on your own since there was no room?

"Sorry Garet, no more seats, you'll have to take the Everline! See you there!"

Awesome update! I often forget that this crazy-looking Intamin woodie exists! That first drop looks so incredibly bad-a$$!

The first drop? The whole thing from start to finish looks so incredibly bad-a$$!

Thanks for the great report. T-Express looks absolutely phenomenal.

I've yet to visit the Korean parks, so I appreciate your trip reports. The new Panda World looks very nice, and the park is beautiful after dark.

Nice TR. T-Express looks great!

Great Trip report and a great looking park. The flat ride selection looks great + T-Express looks amazing. The theming at night looks especially good.

Wonderful photos and great trip report. This is a beautiful-looking park that focuses highly on attention to detail.

In the first photo, you said:

This was my first time taking the Everline since we had too many people for the car.

Does this mean that you were the last one to the car and they all forced you to go on your own since there was no room?

"Sorry Garet, no more seats, you'll have to take the Everline! See you there!"

I know you were joking but the public transportation is really good here that it's not that often I drive unless we are going with the baby. Back home I loved driving but here it's ummm... more difficult to put it politely, you really have to be on your toes when out and about. If i'm at the park for a long time and therefore tired, I don't mind grabbing the express bus and just snoozing for 40 minutes, that bus is really comfy!