Travel Blog: South Korea Trip 2014 Day 5 - Lotte World, 韩国之旅第五天, 乐天世界, 13 Feb 14

South Korea Trip Day 5: 13 February 2014, Thursday - Lotte World
韩国之旅第五天：2月13日2014年, 星期四 - 乐天世界

Lotte World 乐天世界

Address: 240 Olympic-ro, Songpa-gu, Seoul, South Korea [Google Maps Link]

Operating Hours: 09:30 - 23:00
http://global.lotteworld.com/app/openingHour/view.asp?cmsCd=CM0202

Website: http://global.lotteworld.com/main.asp

Lotte World is an interesting recreation complex, brought to you by Lotte, which most people would recognize as the company that manufactures all the awesome goodies and snacks you can think of. Lotte World also holds the record for having the largest indoor amusement park in the world. How wonderful that our package includes visits to theme parks that hold world records? Yes Lotte World is a recreation complex. What does it mean? It consists of not just an indoor theme park, which operates 365 days a year, an outdoor amusement park "Magic Island"; a Korean folk museum, sports facilities, shopping malls, a luxury hotel and also movie theatres. A day or two is certainly not enough to fully enjoy everything that Lotte World has to offer.

Coincidentally, it was a pretty nice anniversary of Lotte World when we visited it - 25 years. A quarter of a century of fun and entertainment for the whole family.

When we alighted from our coach, which stopped on the road right outside Lotte World, we had no idea what was to be expected from this theme park. Only after googling for information on the place after our trip did we realize that there was a whole lot more to what we had managed to visit in that short span of time in Lotte World. We were given just 2 hours, yes TWO hours! Just to visit an attraction which has the world's largest indoor theme park! We had to strategize and decide quickly which rides we should go for within that short amount of time. But first, our tour guide led us to take the very first ride, "The Adventures of Sindbad" ride, claiming that it is one of the recommended rides suitable for everyone. We ended up queuing for about 10 mins, which wasn't too bad. The ride was also indeed, not scary, and suitable for all ages.

It's the 25th anniversary of Lotte World!

Momo, Pororo and friends having fun in Lotte World!

The Conquistador. What's a theme park without a Viking ride?

Our very first ride in Lotte World - The Adventures of Sindbad.

The large centrestage where live performances are held.

The whole indoor amusement park consists of a huge dome and even an ice-skating rink.

Momo dear celebrates with Lotte World on their 25th anniversary.

The indoor area was so huge that one could really get lost within the complex. There were four floors to explore, and that excludes the basement containing various food options. Two hours was really not enough to even touch the surface of this humongous amusement park. We explored most parts of the indoor area, walking past most attractions. It was almost impossible to queue for any of the rides because it would mean just taking that ride only before we had to go. The queues were insanely long. Momo Dear wanted to take the hot-air balloon which circles the top interior of the indoor complex at a very slow pace, but lets you have a bird's eye view of the whole indoor area. However, looking at the queue, we dropped the idea and opted for another option, the World Monorail, which accomplishes the same objective of circling the whole building, albeit at a lower height than the hot-air balloon. At the centre, there was a huge centrestage where live performances were on-going almost all the time. And at another section, one could look all the way to the bottom floor where an ice-skating rink could be found. Various food options like ice-cream, snacks, could be found scattered throughout the amusement park. It was really a feast for all your senses being immersed in such a magical world.

The outdoor amusement park "Magic Island".

Feels a bit like Cinderella's castle.

There's a knight in shining armour inside the castle.

A haunted house for the bold and fearless.

Just look at the queue for this ride!

Another must-have for amusement parks.

I was asked by Dear to take a picture with this chicken lol.

The huge logo of Lotte World above the main building.

And there was even a Trick Eye art section within the indoor complex.

Momorange celebrates with Lotte World!

And what's a visit to an amusement park without some ice-cream, even when it's freezing outside?

We spent the last 30 mins in Lotte World just exploring around the indoor amusement park. I got my usual fix of ice-cream hehe.

There was really not much we could do given only two hours to roam about. Therefore we thought that we would definitely visit Lotte World again in the future, since this visit was just like an appetizer. There's just too much for one to finish within a day or two.

Lotte World 乐天世界

Address: 240 Olympic-ro, Songpa-gu, Seoul, South Korea [Google Maps Link]

Operating Hours: 09:30 - 23:00
http://global.lotteworld.com/app/openingHour/view.asp?cmsCd=CM0202

Website:
http://global.lotteworld.com/main.asp



Links to our South Korea Trip 2014

Day 1 - Jeju Island 济州岛
Day 2 - Jeju Island 济州岛
Day 2 - Jeju Island - Trick Art Museum 济州岛 - 幻觉艺术博物馆
Day 2 - Jeju Island - Jeju Glass Castle 济州岛 - 玻璃城堡
Day 2 - Jeju Island - Teddy Bear Museum 济州岛 - 泰迪熊博物馆
Day 3 - Nami Island 南怡岛, Seorak Waterpia 韩华温泉水上乐园
Day 4 - Yongpyong Resort 龙平豪华度假村
Day 5 - Everland 爱宝乐园, Lotte World 乐天世界
Day 5 - Everland 爱宝乐园
Day 6 - Ice Gallery 冰雕艺术体验馆, Myeondong 明洞, Namdaemun 南大门, Jump Show JUMP 演出
Day 7 - Mapo Agricultural and Marine Products Market 麻浦农水产物市场
Souvenirs

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Travel Blog: South Korea Trip 2014 Day 5 - Everland, 韩国之旅第五天, 爱宝乐园, 13 Feb 14

South Korea Trip Day 5: 13 February 2014, Thursday - Everland
韩国之旅第五天：2月13日2014年, 星期四 - 爱宝乐园

Everland 爱宝乐园

Address: 199 Everland-ro, Pogog-eup, Cheoin-gu, Yongin-si, Gyeonggi-do, South Korea [Google Maps Link]

Operating Hours: 10:00 - 22:00
http://www.everland.com/web/multi/english/everland/everland_guide/hours/open_hour.html

Website: http://www.everland.com/web/multi/english/everland/main.html

If you're ever in South Korea, one of the places you have to visit is Everland. It is South Korea's largest theme park. And it was part of our 8 days package tour with Hong Thai Travel. We were taken to Everland via coach and we alighted right outside the entrance. It was about 10:30am when we reached Everland, and we had until 2pm to finish the park. That's too short a time to visit a theme park, and especially when it's one of the largest in South Korea.

The entrance to Everland.

Presenting to you, Everland!

Another entrance to Everland.

We were given additional tickets by our tour guide to enter the Lost Valley, where we could take an amphibious vehicle and journey through the safari, visiting the animals in their wildest habitats. Hence it was our own free and easy visit to Everland. We walked around and took tonnes of pictures, and took a gondola downhill to reach a different part of the park. There were so many rides and attractions to visit that we certainly did not have enough time to try every single one of them, even though the park was not very crowded.

Tickets to enter the Lost Valley Safari Adventure area.

Really feels like winter with these snowmen in the background.

A tower with a unicorn on top.

Looks a bit like Madagascar.

The Double Rock Spin ride.

The world's steepest wooden roller-coaster, the T Express, in the background.

One fast and easy way to get from one point of the theme park to another.

Alighting from the gondola, we found ourselves at the Zootopia area. It is an area where you can pat animals, ride a pony and get up close and personal with many of these animals. The Lost Valley and Safari World is also situated within the Zootopia area.

These are not real giraffes.

This is a real pony. No, not the one standing on two legs.

Feels more and more like Madagascar.

One of the rides we took was one involving sitting on floats and sliding down a snow slope. Dear and I sat on a huge float together and we were pulled up the slope via a pulley. Once we reached the top, we then slid down the slope to feel the rush of cold air blowing on our already cold faces and reached the bottom in no time.

This ride is for kids to sit on floats and slide down this snow slope.

We adults take a bigger and longer slope. We were pulled up the slope with a pulley.

Next, we entered the Safari World to take a bus through the safari. There were plenty of interesting animals to see, such as a liger, which is a hybrid of a male lion and a tigress, as well as white tigers and leos. At one point during the ride, the driver would toss snacks at some brown bears, where they would do some praying positions. Obviously they were trained to do so to entertain visitors. The whole ride took slightly more than 10 mins.

The Safari World is an area where we can tour around a safari inside an amphibious vehicle.

They have a few interesting animals inside the safari, like a liger, a white tiger and a white leo.

A white tiger.

Hyenas.

White leos.

The original lions.

A tiger basking in the sun.

A brown bear lazing around.

After the ride, we had some churros. What's a theme park visit without munching on churros? It's a must-have while visiting theme parks. Well, at least for Momorange. After that, to our dismay, we found the Amazon Express closed for the day. Not sure what ride it is but it sure sounds interesting. And the T Express, which is the world's steepest wooden roller-coaster, was also closed for maintenance or something. Not as though we would try it. Seemed too scary for us to try it out.

Dear enjoys a stick of churro.

The Amazon Express was closed for the day...

Then we reached the entrance of the Lost Valley, which is the area for us to utilize our tickets to hop onto the amphibious vehicle and be driven through another safari, but this time with different animals and through water and land. Sadly somehow we were told that we couldn't enter the area, even with the tickets we had, for some reason. Therefore we gave this attraction a miss.

The entrance to the Lost Valley.

We ended up visiting the patting zone, where you can actually pat the little animals found there. One could pat furry animals like bunnies, sheep, guinea pigs and even go on a pony ride. We did none of these, so we just merely walked around taking some pictures.

These little cuties still sleeping like logs.

Pat a furry bunny.

Its cute little home nicely decorated.

Look at these cute guinea pigs.

Baa baa white sheep have you any wool?

You can ever have a pony ride here.

Those staff look kinda funny wearing those costumes.

Inside a shop selling merchandise from popular K-Pop acts like Psy, 2NE1 and Bigbang.

Cool instant photograph station where you can "take photos with the K-Pop stars".

It's Petty, Pororo and Momo!

It sure is nice to cuddle and nap like this.

There was this attraction whereby you enter a small indoor area where you could watch hologram concerts of K-Pop acts like 2NE1, Psy or Bigbang on a screen as shown below. There were disco lights and loud music to accompany the holographic performance from these K-Pop stars. There was also a station for visitors to take pictures of themselves, which would later have the faces superimposed onto some templates of these K-Pop stars and then projected onto the screens. Quite an interesting feature in a theme park.

Do you see Momo dear on the screen?

We then discovered some 3D shows of Pororo and also a Madagascar live performance attraction, all of which we did not visit due to the lack of time. We then found ourselves taking a slow Festival Train ride around the European Adventure area, which is an area with European-style buildings.

The characters of Pororo gathered on the roof of this 3D adventure ride building.

A life-sized Eddy and Momo dear.

Now here's the real Madagascar.

Say cheese!

Take the Festival Train around the European Adventure area.

A huge stage right in the middle where performances are held.

A view from the train.

We went past Amsterdam on the Festival Train.

Wouldn't you want to bring one of these cute little cuddlies home?

Finally, seeing that it was almost 2pm and time for us to gather at the entrance to go for our lunch, we decided to visit the last few shops selling souvenirs.

Some kiddy ride. I seriously wonder how kids would find these fun.

A restaurant for those hunger pangs.

There's a travelator for those lazy to walk.

Why is Momo dear sitting all alone here?

Yay the picture is now complete. :D

A final visit to the merchandise store. Psy says goodbye.

And that was pretty much what we did for the 3.5 hours in Everland. It was a really short duration spent at Everland and it felt like a sneak preview of what Everland really had to offer. Of course, this was expected when taking a tour package. We would definitely be able to fully enjoy the Everland experience the next time we visit it, on a free-and-easy tour of course!

I'm sure we would be able to better enjoy all the attractions in Everland if we could spend one whole day there!

Everland 爱宝乐园

Address: 199 Everland-ro, Pogog-eup, Cheoin-gu, Yongin-si, Gyeonggi-do, South Korea [Google Maps Link]

Operating Hours: 10:00 - 22:00
http://www.everland.com/web/multi/english/everland/everland_guide/hours/open_hour.html

Website: http://www.everland.com/web/multi/english/everland/main.html



Links to our South Korea Trip 2014

Day 1 - Jeju Island 济州岛
Day 2 - Jeju Island 济州岛
Day 2 - Jeju Island - Trick Art Museum 济州岛 - 幻觉艺术博物馆
Day 2 - Jeju Island - Jeju Glass Castle 济州岛 - 玻璃城堡
Day 2 - Jeju Island - Teddy Bear Museum 济州岛 - 泰迪熊博物馆
Day 3 - Nami Island 南怡岛, Seorak Waterpia 韩华温泉水上乐园
Day 4 - Yongpyong Resort 龙平豪华度假村
Day 5 - Everland 爱宝乐园, Lotte World 乐天世界
Day 5 - Lotte World 乐天世界
Day 6 - Ice Gallery 冰雕艺术体验馆, Myeondong 明洞, Namdaemun 南大门, Jump Show JUMP 演出
Day 7 - Mapo Agricultural and Marine Products Market 麻浦农水产物市场
Souvenirs

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