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Garet's Everland/Lotte World TR's 2014/2015


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I'm a bit late getting my updates up this year, I foolishly thought once the wedding was over i'd have a lot of free-time straight after the honeymoon, I didn't quite realize how much i'd have to do post-wedding for the last 2 months. I'll try and post my TR of Lotte World before the end of the month but since Lotte World had a lot more new rides, a lot of general improvements and the weather was nice I ended up taking a lot more pictures there so I need more time to sort through them.

 

Everytime I visit Everland I end up writing a negative TR and I really don't want to keep repeating myself since I do like the park but on both our trips this year we generally came away thinking our trips there were just OK. I think the problem is we've being going so much over the last 4 years we keep comparing the Everland today to the Everland that was.

 

I am quickly going to get the things that really makes us quite hesitant to visit Everland so much out of the way first. The ride operating hours have got pretty bad compared to what they used to be. Although the more popular rides have always closed up to 3 hours before park close, almost a year ago it began that on weekdays a few of the rides in each area would share half day schedules. So for example the top spin and shooting ride would operate from 10:00 - 14:00 and then they would close and then the top scan and rotating house would open 15:00-closing. Now it has changed that this happens on even weekends/peak days. Weekdays almost 2/3s of the parks bigger rides will only run for half the day, with half of the childrens rides closed completely and the helicycles never running on weekdays. Maybe i'm being too harsh about this since the park is pretty empty on weekdays but it seems strange compared to Lotte World that runs all rides including fast pass even on dead days.

 

We had the same problem with the waterpark hitting 2 hour + lines with only half the slides runnings so 2 out of the 4 aqua loops were open and the master blaster and body slides that had an a and b side would only open the a side etc.

 

Again I generally do enjoy going to Everland and T-Express alone is worth the entrance as is going to see the Dream Of Lucian fireworks show (when it's not been replaced by one of the seasonal shows) purely for the super low fireworks and how much the story mirrors Fantasmic but I do wish it was more like the Everland I encountered when I first came to Korea 4 years ago.

 

One other slightly Everland related thing, the government has changed the laws so you can no longer stand on the red public buses, even though the bus from gangnam only takes 40 minutes if you are going on a weekend it may be worth leaving a little earlier just in case. (Edit 2015: This trial run very quickly ended since no amount of extra buses resulted in everyone sitting and you can stand on buses again, all mention of alternate transport methods seem to be gone from the Everland site)

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My wife correctly predicted that since the weekend after our visit was a weekend with a wednesday and friday bank holiday and the weather was overcast it would be quiet. Believe it or not this is a quite opening crowd (taken 1 hour before opening). I wanted to go on the day between bank holidays but turns out everyone had the same idea, that day had 40 minute lines even for the small world knock-off.

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Top tip: If the park is busy head for this office, it'll have a small line even when the other ticket offices have overflows

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It's easy to spot.

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The booth just next-door is Everlands version of fast pass, for 80 dollars you get entrance, a drink, a queue pass for t express or rapids and the safari rides as well as 2 tickets to the madagascar show and hologram concert ride which are reservation only.

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The real reason we were here early, the first 100 people who paid with BC card would get a q-pass, when we saw the crowds we'd assumed we'd missed out but it turns out a lot of people hadn't checked the home page and gone to the special booth to claim them afterwards (there was no notices about it at the park either, only the home page). Everland have quite big discounts that change each month so it always helps if you have a Korean friend to check the site and lend you their card :p . We got 50% discount and a q pass for this month.

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My first stop was to pick up a reservation ticket for one of the new attraactions.

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Times available, we went there as soon as the park opened so there was plenty but as with most of the reservation rides they can't check if you've already taken one so people will go to more than one showing and they can run out on busy days.

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Ride sign for Larry.

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Generally this ride is one of the first people see so it will pick up a line for the rest of the day almost immediately.

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I hopee they build something eventually up near where Eagles Fortress still sits, though Hurricane is popular most people will head downhill from here and barely anyone seems to head up the path towards the pirate ship and break dance, the area seems pretty dead.

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Next stop was T-Express to pick up reservation tickets.

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This line can stretch pretty far and out of the area on busy day to pick up tickets, i'm honestly not sure what the limit is on the number of tickets though since I tend to avoid the park on busier days.

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The rules for the reservation system. You show up at the ticket booth and they give you a ticket to come back in an hour, the idea being it's a virtual queue but it really didn't seem to work that way since the waiting times didn't seem that different from before the system came into effect. I don't think i'd have such a big problem with it if it wasn't so easily abused. They require all the group members to be there but then they don't scan tickets so we would see people get them from T Express and then try and get another from a booth in another area. It seemed pointless that people would abuse it anyway since once you waited in line and rode you would barely have time to get in another ride on that time slot anyway.

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There seemed a lot of confusion over the system that they had 2 members of staff (one with an I speak English badge) on the entrance to explain things, i'm not sure if it was because it was quiet but we were told it was ok to get one for each hour so we ended up laying T-Express leapfrog. Since the passes aren't staggered over the hour and have fixed times, the lines would be huge at the start of each hour (about 50 minutes). We found the best time was to get there at 35 minutes past the hour grab a ticket for the next hour and jump in line then for around 20 minutes getting off just in time to line up before the next hour people started arriving (the operators would yell out how long the line was and they would let people in 10 minutes before the time slot if it got quiet enough so it helped to get there early). Then after that ride we'd grab another ticket and repeat. Doesn't work as well on busier days though since the line will still be big.

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I'm pretty sure TPR members would be smart enough to read the map but you'd be surprised how many people would run to T express and jump in a big line for the tickets when these were both mentioned on the map and scattered around the park with no lines.

 

Also try to avoid getting the opening hour reservation, not only will it only be a 20 minute window but they only run one train and also add the second train and test it during that time so it can be a pretty big wait even with a few people.

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As I said we got to the park when it was really quiet.

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T-Express

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After a year of bad luck with the weather policy or special events it was nice to finally ride again

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Since it was quiet I finally got to ride the parks rotating house

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It was quite nicely themed but even with a empty queue we waited 15 minutes, sadly couldnt get a picture of the inside for the TR since the ops were trying to get people through as fast as possible.

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I rode this between T Express tickets, another ride that is normally packed so I avoid it.

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New for 2014 is Rio the 4D experience.

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It's a new movie inside the old space tours building, for park index purposes it's still listed as Space Tours on the maps and website.

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Queue area

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Pre-Show

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Main ride, I always think of 4D as a 3D movie with effects like vibrating seats, water, smells etc but both the main cinemas (I saw Frozen in 4D) and rides seem to always be just moving seats and wind blowers. The movie is just clips from the movie put together

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I'm honestly now sure if it was always there or it was put in for Rio 4D but there are parrots in the garden next door now (I think before it may have been butterflies).

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The new ride for last year was Lost Valley, we used our queue pass for it, it's still one of the busiest rides in the park and if it wasn't for queue pass i'd probably have never ridden it. Despite signs saying it's not allowed this ride has the worst line jumping i've ever seen in my life. It's the ride everyone runs to at park opening, it's at the bototm of the park and so many dads will run down and grab space in the lines before it opens and the mums will slowly make their way down the mountain. It's quietest at lunch but even then there was so much line pushing, i'm told its completely empty on weekdays though when children are at school.

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Some of the zoo animals have been moved into the line so at least there is something to look at, the zoo seems to get emptier wach year as more animals are moved into the safari areas.

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Chipmunks run along the queue line as well, this queue line is now Elissa approved.

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The ride vehicle

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backside of the ride vehicle

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Our tour guide

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This effect on the blank rocks was simple but looked really good.

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Finished effect

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Entering the lost valley

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Sploosh

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One of the first animals you will encounter is the elephants from the old herbivore safari attachment to the old safari ride.

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OMG i've found the legendary animatronic hippo sanctuary

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You can see the bus from the old safari ride in the background

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The cheetahs that share with the rhinos and the white lions are the main draw to the ride, sadly both animals were asleep when we rode.

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One last look at the vehicle

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The old safari ride still pulls in pretty big lines even with the opening of Lost Valley

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This cartoon was posted on Everlands facebook, my wife offered to translate but I honestly think it's funnier letting my mind making up its own version of the story. Part 2 to follow in a moment.

Edited by Garet
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Part 2

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Our time for the K-Pop Hologram came up, my wife who is always stuck standing around while I take these pictures for updates complained she's never in them so here she is posing in the photo booth

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End result for me

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Photo booth area, sadly although I have photos of the attraction I was asked by a member of staff to put my camera away, although I saw other people taking photos and have seen blogs with the pictures I am not posting them in case it violates TPRS ToS. I think since my wife as at the back and I was walking around taking pictures of the area and there were a lot of little children I think a parent may have got concerned and complained even though my pictures are just the screen, either way to be safe I haven't posted. TBH it was a bit underwhelming it was a tilted mirror and projector to create the hologram effect but it was very 2D it just felt like watching a 5 minute music video, the bands just perform two songs.

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All the gangnam style merchandise you can want.

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I love the ride cycle on this, it flips around 13 times and seems pretty intense for a park model.

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However this runs a slow cycle to the point where it's honestly a little uncomfortable and not really thrilling

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My issue with the whole half day operations is that it makes the lines huge, this was on a weekend when I had planned to go out just to enjoy the park instead of blogging, weekdays are even worse with most of the park having small hours, kids rides with only 2 hour operations or closed completely

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Still rusting away "as a memorial"

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So many people 3 years later still asking the staff where the entrance is for the big wheel or if it will open later on

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I still have never got around to riding this it normally has a wait time as big as or bigger than T Express, it also shuts its standby line and switches to reservation on a first come first served basis on busy days (and also is abused due to lack of scanning)

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Since i'm married i'm now forced to ride this

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At least this version has beer

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More beer

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Randomly between countrys we suddenly visit christmas and outer space

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MURRICA

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The everbody together ending is considerbly smaller on Everlands version

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The gardens in Everland are always extremely pretty

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I'm not sure if its permanent but this closed down and is re-opening tomorrow with a Thomas overlay. http://www.everland.com/web/multi/english/everland/attractions/1209973_11115.html

 

I thought i'd grab a picture of what it looked like.

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I've been promising my wife we'd see this show for a while, i'm not sure how tied into the movies it is but I think it was based around the 3rd movie. It was mostly circus acts with only the lion and the hippo of the main 4 showing up (although the penguins and the lemur were there). There was also a mash up of I like to move it with the words afro circus being sung over and over.

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The line for this dropped at the end of the day according to the app but so many people in the park were using the app that you have to be quick to get there. It seemed a bit more rapidy than last time I rode it which is definitely a good thing, it's never going to be intense since i've never been on a korean water ride where you actually get wet but it was a bit more fun than my last ride.

Edited by Garet
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So question...does the park now have TWO complete safari rides due to the fact that one was not enough? That's incredible if so.

 

Also, a request: Please do not post any pictures of Eagle's Fortress. They're too sad at this point.

 

They do have two but i'm not quite sure that it's because one was not enough, the other one goes through the bears,tigers and lions and so is closed up with windows. This one is a lot more open since apart from the cheetahs and white lions which are a bit further away mostly goes through the herbivores and so are much more open.

People seem to really like the "amphibious vehicles" even though it's not really that deep and both of them give different experiences.

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That's so strange to have built a second safari ride like that. I kind of love it.

 

When I first came to Korea they had a herbivore safari attachment to the existing safari ride as the new ride for the year but it was quickly removed and a lot of the animals showed up in this new safari ride. Just a theory but and its just a theory I think capacity was the issue that made them go with a second one, when I go on really quiet days the old safari ride quite often has a bigger line than the new one and even on busy days they can match throughout the day. The old safari ride has lines and tigers and bears right next to the bus so the bus has to drive into a cage right at the start and between each exhibit have the door close and then wait for the next one to open to drive out so there has to be a gap between dispatches no matter how much expansion there was. Though a few animals can come up the bus on the new one with most of the animals either side of the "river" in pens there is just the one gate which is more for decoration at the start so buses can leave the second the guests are seated.

 

Also, a request: Please do not post any pictures of Eagle's Fortress. They're too sad at this point.

Actually, please DO post them. I'm very curious to know what it currently looks like.

 

I honestly forgot to take some pictures of that area this time, the station area looks pretty much the same though and its very difficult to get pictures of the track are since the big wheel came down although you can still see it from the bigger rides obviously I can't take my camera on those. I will try and grab some pictures if I can get out soon, Everland is one of the very few parks which is actually quieter during summer weekends, a lot of the rides I hit with 30-hour lines in the spring will be walk-on to 10 minutes during parts of the summer days, a combination of the high heat, sticky humidity and low chances of thunderstorms in the july/august months makes less peopple go than spring and autumn. And I also want to look into the rumours of a q pass booklet form guest services near the foreigner ticket office if you go within 7 days of your birthday, although i'm not sure if thats something you have to apply for or can just show I.D. Work and weather may mean I can't make it sadly.

 

My Lotte World TR should be ready soon but since I didn't take pictures of that area and I saw it on screamscape, the new mini flume ride is actually opening in a few weeks its not actually a 2015 ride, the concept art makes it look like a highly themed family ride but by the looks of the pictures on the construction wall it looks to be something more exclusive for little children, you can see one of the pictures from the construction wall in the guide map: http://global.lotteworld.com/inc/module/etcDownload.asp?fno=2

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It didn't dawn on me at first but that amphibious ride was used on Running Man episode 201, how exciting. Quick question, did you only see the PSY show in the KPOP hologram theater or did you see the Big Bang and/or 2NE1 also? how were they? I have read about them on the YG web site but didn't know they were at an amusement park.

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It didn't dawn on me at first but that amphibious ride was used on Running Man episode 201, how exciting.

 

I don't know numbers but i'm pretty sure I know which episode you are referring too, I know just before Lost Valley opened they did a whole episode about them.

 

Quick question, did you only see the PSY show in the KPOP hologram theater or did you see the Big Bang and/or 2NE1 also? how were they? I have read about them on the YG web site but didn't know they were at an amusement park.

 

No, I'm not overly interested in K-Pop, I only saw PSY to get something for the park index, but as I said because I got told not to take pictures by a member of staff I didn't post them I think it was more a parent complaining than a rule for the ride since i've seen plenty of pictures in other blogs but i'm just playing it safe by TPR's ToS. Honestly it wasn't as impressive as it sounds, it honestly felt more like watching a move than a hologram since it was a projector on a tilted screen there was no 3D movement just side to side movement. To give you an idea you may have seen a few of these in some museums before built into some dioramas, this was just a bigger screen.

 

In other news, Lotte World opened their new Fairy Trail Dream Boat ride today, its definitely made for small kids and parents, there's also a wall with a picture saying Wild Tours coming soon, could be a hint to the next attraction. The area is under the Underland banner on the guide maps. Underland is mostly themed entrances to the existing shopping mall restaurants but with the new ride it bring the areas ride count up to 2 (with the already existing 4D shooting ride) and hopefully wild tours will lead to another next year. It'll probably be a while before I update since the construction walls were up when I visited in the TR i'm currently working on but a Korean blogger I really like made this fantastic update: http://szsup.tistory.com/635

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Well consider me officially jealous, it must be fun living in Korea. I for one am a fan of everything Korea, I am a fan of KPOP and Korean Dramas and variety shows. I have watched every episode of Running Man and I am amazed by how many different parks they have filmed at throughout Korea. Have you been to the park in Gyeongju, I don't know the name of it they just called it "G" amusement park (it was featured in the first Running Man Hunter episode)? It looks small but it has a nice looking B&M suspended coaster.

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^Get your butt over there then!

 

Gyeongju World is right next to a historical city with a lot of cultural sites and beautiful mountains, I'm sure a visit in May would be absolutely fantastic.

 

Here: One week in Korea...

 

Day 1 Arrive Incheon Airport, Head to the city and Walk down the Cheonggyecheon river at night and then eat street food/shop, rest

Day 2 Go to Lotte World, full day. End by walking/eating around Gangnam then taxi back to hotel.

Day 3 Hike the entire length of the Seoul Fortress wall, completely worth every step. Shop in Namdaemun, eat more food. See Gyeongbokgung, then find someone to sing KPOP with in a karaoke-bhang, maybe with some foreigners in Itaewon you meet in a bar

Day 4 Everland, with T Express. Ride to Gyeongju

Day 5 Gyeongju in the morning, seeing Seokguram and Cheomseongdae, then Gyeongju World in the Afternoon.

Days 6 and 7...Your choice. Fish markets in Busan, Tea Plantations in the southwest, Chuncheon, DMZ Tour, Tongdo Fantasia for the Triple Corkscrew, Credits at Seoul Land, Children's Grand Park (And do the Gangnam dance on video), or E-World...get in touch with Korean Drama locations...everything is a quick bus, train or taxi in Korea.

Day 7 or 8 Fly home

 

If you already love Korea you'll love visiting. It's still relatively cheap to get around everywhere and Koreans are completely friendly.

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I may be visiting South Korea during the week of Labor Day for business and would LOVE to be able to make a side trip just to ride T-Express. Not sure if the schedule will allow it yet, so I may put a bug in the ear of my contacts over there to see if one of them might be interested in doing a jaunt over there if we end our meetings early!

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Here: One week in Korea...

 

Day 1 Arrive Incheon Airport, Head to the city and Walk down the Cheonggyecheon river at night and then eat street food/shop, rest

Day 2 Go to Lotte World, full day. End by walking/eating around Gangnam then taxi back to hotel.

Day 3 Hike the entire length of the Seoul Fortress wall, completely worth every step. Shop in Namdaemun, eat more food. See Gyeongbokgung, then find someone to sing KPOP with in a karaoke-bhang, maybe with some foreigners in Itaewon you meet in a bar

Day 4 Everland, with T Express. Ride to Gyeongju

Day 5 Gyeongju in the morning, seeing Seokguram and Cheomseongdae, then Gyeongju World in the Afternoon.

Days 6 and 7...Your choice. Fish markets in Busan, Tea Plantations in the southwest, Chuncheon, DMZ Tour, Tongdo Fantasia for the Triple Corkscrew, Credits at Seoul Land, Children's Grand Park (And do the Gangnam dance on video), or E-World...get in touch with Korean Drama locations...everything is a quick bus, train or taxi in Korea.

Day 7 or 8 Fly home

 

 

this sounds like a fun itinerary, just add in a live broadcast of Inkigayo and probably not do the DMZ tour (I have an apartment in China and the military usually give me strange looks when I walk around so definitely don't want to tempt the N Korean army in any way, LOL). I have really been wanting to do a week or two in Korea, maybe 2015...

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Lotte World Update:

 

I really don't have as much to say about Lotte World as I did about Everland, whereas i've made my feelings about Everland well known, every minor problem I had with Lotte World has gradually disappeared over the years (which i'll point out in the TR). Whereas a lot of Everland feels old with areas that haven't seen much love and attractions left SBNO in favor of a huge new attraction or 2 in the same park area for the last few years, Lotte World has had so many new attractions showing up in all areas of the park both outside and inside as well as improving their food options with more restaurants and including some of the shopping mall ones that it really does make the park feel fresh with something new to see with every visit even if those visits are only a few months apart.

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The 25th anniversary is in full swing at Lotte World

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The new open ticket booths

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And new entrance gates to go with it

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Underland and the walled off construction area for the 2014 ride.

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More of the construction area, little did I know they'd come down and the ride would open 2 days before I posted this update

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Lotte Worlds newest area and home to one of the many shooting rides of Lotte World. 3 shooting rides may sound excessive but this park also has 3 bumper cars (one just for kids though) and 4 rides that involve 3d glasses and even more than that involve watching screens. There's a themed wall up in the new area from where the construction walls came down that says coming soon Wild tours so prehaps these numbers could increase again ;)

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One of my problems with my last TR was that Underland apart from the 4D ride (and now the kids boat ride) was that it is mostly themed entrances to shopping mall restaurants, and Lotte World has a no re-entry policy which almost caused issues when my wife went out the normal exit of the restaurant find a bathroom in the shopping mall. Lotte World now have fences to seperate the theme park eaters from the mall eaters :)

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The castle was decked out for the 25th anniversary

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Our first stop is always Atlantis at opening, even on quiet days it is the first to build up a queue and will remain high for the rest of the day. The park was dead but even on that day by lunch the fast passes were already hitting late evening time and were covered up and closed by around 1:30pm

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Atlantis just came out of a 6 month rehab with the adverts stating it had been restored to its original glory, the castle had been repainted and looked great.

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I was disappointed however, i'm sure there was a lot of work outside of the public eye that needed to be done but when the adverts mentioned in Korean restoring it to its former glory I thought that meant like when it opened including returning the water, maybe i'm visiting at the wrong times but I got one ride when I first came to Korea of it being an aquatrax and ever since then all my rides have just been well......trax.

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The water had been cleaned up in the rehab but sadly is still lowered so you can no longer touch it.

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I was quite suprised the track didn't get re-painted in the rehab since it seemed the troughs had also got a new coat, then animatronics also seemed to have been left untouched during the rehab. I really hope one day the water is put back on as well.

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However the castle does now look great.

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Lotte Tower is nowhere near finished but already towering over the park.

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Gyro Drop had its queue re-arranged to go towards the back of the tower, its a very little thing but one of my earliest complaints was on busy days queues would run together so it's nice to see things like that addressed

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It's a shame scream shields were added but they don't make too much difference.... speaking of......

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Gyro Swing finally had its scream shields upgraded to match Gyro Drops, although I find the shields really do impact the sensation of feeling the wind on a swinging ride they are much better than the old ones. The old scream shields were made to completely enclose all your head and had foam that went from over your hair to just above your eyes, it made it really hot and worse they got vandalized so bits would hang down as you rode.

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I've seen these on markets and its shocking how many times i've seen people sneak them on the rides this year. They don't even have adjustable straps, they just have a loop to wrap around your wrist, and I really wish ride ops would keep a better eye out for them I saw one snuck on here and at Everland and the fact they are very loosely attached to the wrist and stick way out of the ride envelope when fully extended makes me nervous.

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A ride sign for the wave swinger for the park index

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After 4 years I finally rode this.

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Probably won't ride it again, I didn't like the original sixth sense, let alone sixth sense: cat edition.

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One of the new rides for 2014: Gyro Spin a very inventive name after Gyro Drop and Gyro Swing.

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I'll be honest i'm not the biggest fan of Disko's, i'll ride them when there is no line but I always feel quite uncomfy by rides end.

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It's disc is larger than some of the other models I saw while in Japan.

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Part 2: The indoors

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The Balloons are always one of my favorite rides on quiter days but it's another ride that picks up a line fast

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The signature shot was under rehab last time I rode so here it is

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A look over Lotte World

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Another look over Lotte World, note again the construction in the middle for the new ride

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Carosel under refurbishment

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Tilting tea-cups

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Pirate ship

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Pharoahs Fury....

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.... speaking of which has one of the most impressively themed queue lines i've ever seen

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We popped down to the first floor to check out the new rides and saw the tram dropping off the dancers for the show/parade.

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Back to carrying passengers.

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The kids play area has a reservation system same as Everlands, both run out extremely fast since it's a favorite of parents to grab a coffee and watch from the side

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One of the new childrens rides that was heavily advertised by the Goddard Group, I hadn't planned to photograph it but it was empty and my wife wanted to try it. I couldn't take pictures of the relocated and themed frog-hoppers since it was full of kindergarten school trips all day.

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The suspended whip was fun and the swinging out on the corners made the whip effect quite mild, its probably a huge hit on weekends for the little kids. I forgot to see if the shark in the corner was an animatronic and moved.

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This was added last year but i've never seen it, it's mostly catered to kids and in Korean. Like Stitch encounter/turtle talk but in Korean.

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Dragons Wild Shooting so new it has 4 entrance signs #1 This one sits a little off near the kids area

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#2 Hanging over the queue line

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#3 Just next to the entrance

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#4 This is the main one and it hangs over the entrance

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I liked the humour in the line but was suprised it was all 100% English, is this ride a clone from somehwere?

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More Humour and no Korean

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Last bit of queue line

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The ride vehicle

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This guy explains whats happening but in Korean, basic story: Here be dragons, shoot em. There's a ride op just before here who says something in Korean about cellphones and cameras however I was snapping and he didn't tell me to put it away so i'm posting these since I assumed it was about no flash like I was told on the other dark rides when I took pictures. (see baloon ride)

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I really love the mix of the screens with the physical sets, it's a trackless ride that bit in the bottom right that looks like track is actually a line that all the cars follow

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Here be dragons

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"The Anti-Dragon Wand"

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As you can see in the bottom left unlike another dark ride you definitely aren't calling them.....

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Again great mixture of physical and screens.

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I love the different ways to take them out, for this dragon you had to shoot out the little ones holding the table first, they would come back so a full car is needed to really beat these things sometimes.

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It's not 3D my camera just couldn't keep up

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Again the little details of the physical set with the screen, we couldn't bring ourselves to kill Dragons with kebab skewer swords

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We had no problem however killing the baby dragons

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The big bad, I was taking pictures and only my wife was the only one in the car so i'm not sure if he/she can be defeated since we never had a full car.

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Again i'm not sure if you get a different animation if you do kill the final dragon. We really enjoyed this ride, it's fairly short but a great laugh from start to finish, it's a shame there was no gift shop at the end, we thought baby dragon merchandise would be a huge hit but we didn't see anything (please make a dueling kebab skewer dragon please)

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The other new ride was Lotty's Air Balloon

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Here's the problem with its name everyone assumes its referring the balloons visible going around the building. Its quite confusing for new visitors since the balloons are one of the first thing a first time visitor will probably see when entering and they automatically assume the big balloon with park mascots will be the entrance. It was a quiet day and the poor cast member outside had to keep changing languages for different groups, in the 10 minutes I waited I counted almost 40 groups who were turned away because they were actually looking for the balloons on the 4th floor. He seemed confused I wanted to ride and checked twice to make sure i definitely knew this was a film ride. He came over a 3rd time and told me "kids film, yes ok?".

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The entrance leading up to going in, sadly you don't line up in here (at least on my quiet day you didn't) although I think even on busy days you won't since nearly all lines in the park are kept empty and you are made to wait outside the actual queue area to avoid grafitti.

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More of the area between the entrance and rhe ride.

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The ride reminded me of a very tame Niagara's Fury, the only effects on the ride were some bubbles and flashing lights, it might have shook slightly but I honestly not remember it. It's a shame because it really is a great film for kids but it has a 120cm height which is quite high for Lotte World. The only people who did show up and weren't mistaking it for the balloon were parents with kids who ended up turned away because they were too short.

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A clever way to hide the projectors, it's a shame the height can't be 10cm shorter, the film was very mild and it makes for a great ride for little children who sadly can't ride it and it definitely isn't really for thrill seekets. Special thanks for the following pictures to the Lotte World ride ops since I was the only one riding and therefore couldn't possibly disturb anyone told me it was ok to take as many pictures as I wanted if I didn't use flash.

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The ride starts with a peaceful balloon journey.....

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..... until an air shop starts bombing you, if there's any shaking it will be here but I feel like the ride was static here and just flashed, I honestly can't remember

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Our balloon drops down and somehow works perfectly underwater, here is one of the only physical effects where bubbles come from the ceiling

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We come up again and get attacked by the airship but some whale creature thing grabs it and pulls it under.

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And finally the balloon touches down in Lotte World at night-time. With this picture I think i've covered all the new rides that were open during my visit so I will end my update here.

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Holy CRAP at all the new stuff. I particularly love the "Destroy very cute baby dragons dark ride".

 

Lotte World is an extreme example of great usage of space, and continues to get ever better with huge funding from the management. Got to be one of the most underrated parks in the world. I liked it more than Magic Kingdom for sure.

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WOW, thanx for this trip report. I have seen Lotte World several times on Running Man and on a couple of Dramas, although I enjoyed seeing your TR much more because now I have a good idea of the layout. You definitely have me itching to go to Korea. I think 2015 will be a good time to go.

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These were the old Gyro Swing foam lined and encased scream shields from my earlier TR compared to the new ones I posted above:

 

 

Also this is unrelated but I just got it back from the wedding company, in Korea the groom also has to choose music to walk down the aisle to since he enters after the crowd, I was told most men use Pirates of the Caribbean but I wasn't overly fond of that so I chose something else (after my wife veto'd the blackadder theme) that I thought some TPR members might appreciate

 

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A quick update, I popped into Lotte World and they've implemented a very similar reservation policy that T Express has for Fairy Trail Dream Boats. Whether it's permanent or just until the opening crowds die away have yet to be seen. It's very similar to T Expresses system but unlike T Express where new tickets become available every hour with first come first serve then you can line up an hour later, Dream Boats have 2 hour blocks with new reservation tickets becoming available every 2 hours to be able to get into line 2 hours later. The ride seems very low capacity and was extremely popular so I didn't check if like Everland the ride is 100% fast-pass only with no standby line allowed or if it was a mixture of both.

 

I'd assume not because there were signs stating something about only 20 reservation tickets being available each hour, seems kind of strange to implement a fastpass system that can only allow 20 people and there was a lot more people in the line than that but it may be a mistranslation, I was only visiting the park for a very short time and couldn't justify waiting in the huge line that was wrapping around the area just to index it (sorry Larry). There are only a few boats and they only take 2 people so we saw a lot of boats with mother and child with a dad in the next one so I couldn't even guess how long people had been waiting. It's a very short ride so you can walk around the whole thing and see everything without taking the boat but there was just too many people surrounding it to get any clear pictures this time, i'll post a mini TR next time I visit if the crowds are lower, but it definitely seems a hit for Lotte World.

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One more update from something I mentioned in my TR, Everlands fast-pass I spotted at a special ticket booth and posted in my TR is now being advertised on the website for foreigners as well and became available on the 4th of August, it's a little on the expensive side for only 3 fast-passes (it includes entry but you won't get the foreigner discount this way) but something to consider if you have limited time and are there on a peak day if T Express is running fast-pass only with a closed standby line. Unlike the Korean website however you can't book in advance and there are only 500 a day so arrive early. The fast passes for T Express take you up a path which I believe is mainly used for the operators to get to the station and will bring you right into the station so you'll be on the next train, the safari rides we used in the past have a seperate entrance where you will merge but is still a very small wait.

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http://www.everland.com/web/multi/english/everland/everland_guide/news/1210136_10988.html

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http://www.everland.com/web/multi/english/everland/everland_guide/news/1210138_10988.html

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  • 2 weeks later...
The Lost Valley promotion looks like the better deal, since you get food with it and it's per person cheaper. Both only look that valuable if it were a busy day, considering how much cheaper just admission is.

 

Honestly, having made a few trips this summer vacation with friends, I don't think it's worth the money even then. It's a shame you can't buy it in park minus the admission costs when you can judge the crowds. We went on a quiet day with friends who have children so I knew they would be operating on half day operations but generally because I go on my own I didn't realize how difficult that made it when you had a whole family and pram to push around. Championship Rodeo/The pirate ship on the top level, let's twist/rock spin in the middle and mystery mansion/rotating house on the bottom all alternating with 10-2 and 3-closing times combined with a lot of the younger childrens rides either being closed or only open for 2 hours and some of the more family friendly rides only opening after 1pm at meant we spent most of the day running up and down the hills to grab everything and missing a lot of the timed stuff we'd reserved tickets for because we were constantly against the clock to get a ride in for one of the children and just to exhausted to run back up the hill for our time in the playground/concert.

 

I went by myself on a rainy day on a weekday after some training assuming crowds would be dead and hit 70 minute lines for flat rides and T Express pushing a 2 hour line with operations the same above meaning it was constanly a rush when another attraction opened. I've found that going on weekends when they only have Mystery Mansion and Rotating House open on the half days, actually easier to get around and less waiting than weekdays. It's just pot luck, i've been weekdays that are dead but you face the clock still for getting around and weekdays where there have been huge lines whereas weekends and fridays you know there will be a queue for the safari rides and flume ride but the rest of the park (even T Express) you can walk on a lot of stuff if you know what time to hit which areas.

 

On another note, i've noticed that the heli-cycles haven't run in a few months now, I hope they do something with the area because Everland already has so many pieces of old rides sitting around rusting throughout the park.

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  • 1 month later...
...with 30-hour lines in the spring...

 

 

(Hoping you meant 3.)

 

Sorry I meant 30 minutes, generally Sundays have been a lot kinder than weekdays and Saturdays this year. I visited 3 of the parks recently so here's some mini updates.

 

Everland: I went to Everland during Korea's big 3 day holiday since my wife was away and they have a foreigner discount. Chuseok, the holiday is traditionally when Koreans will travel to visit family elders, so Chuseok didn't use to be as busy as other public holidays but these days it seems a lot of Koreans use it more to travel than visit elders these days or those who do come from the South of the country who have family in the northern parts will check out some of the tourist attractions in the area.

 

Everland was packed which is why it shocked me that they were running the half day operations still. The rides which were running half-day times had lines spilling out and 90 minute waits while the other rides in the area sat closed until the afternoon. When rides are only open 3-4 hours because of this system it makes it hard to not miss a lot. I heard a lot of complaints from people who had to wait over an hour for a q-pass ticket for T Express just to then wait 70 minutes for the actual ride when their time came up (that's their fault for not picking up a map and seeing there are other ticket booths though.) but it was the complaint about how many people missed out on rides due to the operating hours that was interesting. Maybe just because i'm used to the park, I know to check the app to see the ride-times but i'm curious how many people who see a ride in the distance with people would go around the park to check each rides time before riding anything (the only way outside the app is to check at the entrance.)

 

Now its Halloween, the park is pretty busy so everything is open thankfully all day but on my last visit the kids area was even worse than before with nearly all the rides shut and 3-4 rides open. I'd hoped that it was because maybe the area would get an overhaul but with the park busy and them all open again it seems its just a policy of the quieter the park is the less choice you have, which seems kind of unfair for the families who will still have to pay full price to get in.

 

In terms of construction, there was a huge construction fence in the main are in front of T-Express which looked quite exciting but once closer, it's another food-hall being built. Pororo 3D which opened 2 years ago has gone down for an overhaul, it wasn't open when I visited but it's opening "season 2" with a new space themed cartoon.

 

Lotte World: I popped into Lotte World since I had a few hours to wait while my iphone was fixed. As much as I joked in my TR when there was a teaser poster for an attraction that said "Wild Tours" that based on Lotte World's previous attractions it would be another simulator or movie based ride, there was a new poster suggesting it really is another simulator based ride. The poster now said Wild Tours with 3 pictures underneath "Wild Wing" with people sitting in a plane shaped carriage in front of a screen, "Wild Jungle" with people sitting in a Indiana style jeep in front of a screen and "Wild River" with people sitting in a boat in front of a screen. Judging by this i'd assume it's 3 different simulators and you choose which one to line-up for but since it's only a teaser image it could also be one simulator with a show that rotates out.

 

Childrens Grand Park: It has finally re-opened, i'm going back to take photos and do a full TR soon but the emphasis is definitely on the children park of the name now, anything that inverted is gone. What I wanted to know now is does anyone know if one of the Chinese Parks brought an Intamin Gyro-Swing? Does anyone know if the Childrens Park ever ran it before the park shut down for it's big overhaul? I was under the impression it was extremely new and had been included on a lot of the concept art for the re-opening so it was quite a surprise to see an empty roof where it used to sit.

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Sorry for the double-post, I figured since i'll be visiting the Korean parks or getting news often i'd just re-use my old topic for now, update it with the TR's (hoping to go photo the new Childrens Grand Park in a few weeks.) or any Korean park news that comes my way and maybe just start a new topic for 2015 next year.

 

Lotte World has one of the most fun promotions i've seen in a while, there's a (apparently famous) giant rubber duck currently set up in the lake and you can gain half price entry to Lotte World by taking a picture of it. I've heard various reasons for it being there from being to try and distract from the negativity surrounding the still under construction Lotte Tower or to celebrate Lotte Aquarium and the lower areas of the tower being finally allowed to open by the government. Either way it seems like a fun promotion.

 

However the duck wasn't overly co-operative on its 1st day of residence in the lake: http://iamkoream.com/giant-rubber-duck-goes-flat-in-seoul/

 

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