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Garet

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Garet last won the day on January 4

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About Garet

  • Birthday 07/30/1988

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  1. Fu Bao went off display this weekend after the final viewing day was delayed to March 3rd. Among enthusiasts, the pandas tend to be a contentious subject (that the theme park side has more and more boarded up and removed rides and a lack of new additions at the expense of the animal side). Still, it's hard to see this as anything less than an overwhelming success for Everland, because for what is usually a quiet month for the park, this has been a national event. Attendance, news coverage, social media followings, and especially merchandise sales for the last 2 weeks of Fu Bao public life that a new ride could only dream of. Source We were at the park the last two weeks but we avoided the crowds to grab some rides before the school semester started. We had already gone in for last viewings around the time when the baby pandas twins were first born (awake) and then again in December (asleep), just before the twins went on public display, waiting 30 minutes for a 5-minute viewing anticipating when the twins came out and Fu Bao did leave it would be busy... ... but I never would have predicted this busy. Some of my students waited out this 7-hour line but since that put them in the exhibit in the evening they were greeted by sleeping pandas. A news article showing the line and opening. People were outside the entrance hours before opening (people arriving at 3 am so still a 7-hour wait) sprinting across the entrance plaza, we also saw people crying outside the exhibit when they emerged from their 5-minute viewings. Crowds waited outside the exhibit on the final night crying waiting to see the zookeepers. To a lot of people, Fu Bao is the first Korean panda (being born here while the parents had come from China), and people turned out in droves to be part of the event, waiting out that line, buying the foldable stools to sit on and then bags of 'Goodbye Fu Bao' merchandise. Although, I'd assumed having baby twin pandas on display might also be a source of the crowds, it does seem they were there exclusively for Fu Bao, now she is off display the line has dropped down to 30 minute waits.
  2. Source Picture from one of my previous TRs of the Legoland car park and land surrounding it.
  3. Panda and T Express updates: We begin in late December. Knowing Pu Bao would be leaving soon (the announcement confirming dates hadn't happened at this point) and the baby pandas would go on display sometime in the following months, we decided to try and beat the crowds and get one last look in. The panda celebration was already gearing up with a giant inflatable panda where the tree used to be. Even on a quiet day the line was huge though, we ended up jumping in the line at the evening and were in within 15 minutes. The keepers were strictly enforcing everyone to only get 5 minute viewins though. Bye Pu Bao. The pandas were crashed out when we went in but we just couldn't justify waiting 4 hours earlier in the day. The daddy panda was also asleep. Unfortunately, the weather gamble didn't pay off... so we grabbed some food... . ... checked out parts of the zoo we never normally have time for.... ... and had our first-ever snowbuster ride. All credit to Everland for keep opening this despite each year getting warmer, although the small slope here was open, the big ones were not due to warm weather and all the slopes closed at the very start of February this year. T Express had no visible retracking at that time mid December also Due to our weather gamble not paying off I promised my son we'd visit when both water rides had reopened so fast forward to this weekend... Panda Mania was in full swing. This exhibition was the new for 2024 attraction. However it was virtual line only and since people had camped out at the park hours in advance, most rides on reservation were snapped up minutes after park opening. Panda merchandise was sold everywhere and people were eating it up. We saw people wrapped in panda towels, backpacks, and bags full of 'Remember Pu Bao' merchandise. Remember that 30 minute queue from our previous trip? The line never dropped below 230 minutes even late into the evening for a 5 minute viewing. The line was hard to miss stretching horizontally across the whole park before u-turning near the flume ride and going back across the park horizontally one more time. And then almost making a spiral as the line continued into the American area of the park. With long lines meet the new trend of Korean theme parks 2024. These fold-up stools were sold and bought everywhere. By the end of the day it seemed like almost every family group had at least one of these. Which meant of course my son had to have one. Honestly.... worth the $15. Light enough he could carry, but could even hold my overweight butt, it was used in a lot of the slower moving lines of the flat rides. Like the Safari bus. We waited 100 minutes for it since it's reservation only until 2pm (and since it'd be a longer wait to be first at the gates with the very early morning panda crowd to even try and snag reservations). Note the car in the background. This line usually doesn't die down since each jeep only pulls 1 trailer. When the ride first updated the cars last year it was advertised with 2 trailers per car and the gates and lines match that size but all references/pictures/artwork have disappeared so it probably won't ever run that way. We lined up for this ride because my son wanted to role-play being a 'Youtube narrator'. I asked him if he meant recreating a nature documentary, but apparently, I'm old and it's about doing it on YouTube now. Despite the weather being 4-7C weather the water rides both had hour-long lines all day. It was Thunder Falls's first day of the season so they weren't running too many boats but the chair got put to good use. Everland has put up a lot of queue-jumping etiquette signs and to the park's credit, we got queue-jumped far less. However, there are still some who will take it too far and we had a man with enough family in tow to fill a whole boat push past us in this line. It was interesting seeing 100s of people accept it and not question him, accepting it as culture, and I do mean the whole line...somehow those kid's bathroom must have taken an hour because he was still pushing past to almost at the station before he disappeared from our line of sight. Finally onto the T-Express update. I usually don't do these updates if there is a lack of progress but since I heard T-Express was getting RMC'd/Ibox treatment... I've been sent the pictures and seen the news on other sites but as of this weekend (24/25th February 2024) whatever track was on that hill (this is the same one from the picture online) has been removed. I have no idea why and I'm not an engineer so not going to speculate, but as of now, there was no track on the areas due for retracking RMC/Intamin or otherwise. On this night the fireworks were canceled (probably why we got the table) but there's a restaurant that overlooks the fireworks and last orders are usually 30 minutes before the park closes. So if you don't want to brave the crowds or weather it's always worth looking in here to see if you can get a table with a view. Edit: Panda World hit a fresh record of 350 minutes on monday despite it being a weekday: https://www.ytn.co.kr/_ln/0103_202402261441016084
  4. It seems like it's just there as a very short ride to avoid the steep hill and stair paths to get to the back of the park. So maybe something similar to Legoland Windsor's Hill Train? The map key says stripes on the path are stairs and yellow stripes are steep hills so it looks like there's no way to the back three areas of the park unless you go up a steep hill or stairs so could be there to correct an accessibility issue/complaint.
  5. Source Legoland was open for their first ever Lunar New Year, with about 5 rides (since kids can only do one driving school) open at any time since the park started split-shifting rides. The new addition compared to last year's Christmas event was the Ninjago Ride, however rides ran all day last year. Funny enough, my wife and son by coincidence were actually at a Legoland for Lunar New Year, they were visiting my family back in England while Korean schools are out and visited Windsor. My wife's only experience with Legoland so far has been the Korean one and she was shocked by the difference and how they're run. It also seems the amount of day closures changed at some point, the English site pass holder calendar doesn't match up with the calendar above/Korean sites passholder with the English site only referring to Tuesdays and Wednesdays. England site calendar. Korean calendar
  6. Full Article There's probably still construction equipment inside that is highly flammable or explosive due to fuel or gas tanks and firefighters can probably only do so much from the outside. I have no idea what materials are used in modern-day construction tools or were in the building but an example, electric car batteries can spontaneously reignite themselves for hours or even days after the fire is out.
  7. To be fair, although the website makes it clear that the season pass is unlimited TTD2 rides in bold, the list below only showing two tiers (including saying Fast Lane Plus is one-time access) while having the description in coasternut's picture almost contradict itself by stating that season pass is 'valid for one FAST LANE PLUS wristband per visit' and does make it a little confusing. I assume there'll have to be a 3rd type of wristband or some system in place to make it clear that TTD2 doesn't get checked off of your Fast Lane Plus wristbands when you pick it up compared to the daily ones.
  8. Legoland have released their 2024 calendar. Unlike 2023, they haven't announced the 'festivals' to go along with it. A lot more closed days and there's been no mention on if late night closing and fireworks will return this Summer yet. My hope is with the reduction of days they get rid of running rides at half capacity as well as split-shifting the rides. It was quite hard to get things done last year when some rides were only open for 90 minutes to 2 hours a day. Legoland was in the news just before over attendance, so I wonder how this calendar will play out in the local media. Source And other local attraction figures: Source
  9. I remember as a kid visiting there, and the park seemed to be just aiming to be just for only animals, doing its own separate thing from the competition, with the only ride being Wild Artic, which led to an animal exhibit so as a young boy it made sense of that being a paid add-on to me. But this was when construction had just started on Journey to Atlantis so a very very long time ago.
  10. I owe Blippi an apology. He drove me crazy when he was on our TV non-stop. Now my son is an elementary student, and I see the real crap him and the other kids watch I wish Blippi was back, at least he tried to teach my son something educational.
  11. Source Previous look of the pool. New look Not much but it's another step in Legoland trying to be year-round like the other Korean parks and cash in on the busy Lunar New Year season tourism. The opening of this lines up exactly with the start of this year's new year.
  12. 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.
  13. Even if it gets great reviews when it reopens the big test will be how well it holds up in the long run because those Zamperla Thunderbolts go from ‘that was pretty fun’ to dumpster fire rough fairly quick
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