Lotte World

That castle look familiar?

Here in Korea a brand that you will often see is Lotte. There is Lotte Mart (convenience store), Lotteria (burger joint), and Lotte World (amusement park)! It's a big deal here in Korea. I am not sure why, or if it even is one company that owns them all, but there sure is a lot of Lotte around here. Lotteria is Korea's McDonald's and Lotte Mart reminds me of 7-Eleven. There are also Lotte department stores. Like I said, it's huge. I don't know but maybe Lotte mean something like Western in Korean, or perhaps something along those lines. Who knows!

So Bee and I went to Lotte World, Korea's Disneyland. Same idea anyway, with a little Korean twist. It is both indoors and outdoors with a variety of rides and attractions. It is also the Guinness world record largest indoor theme park; Fact! We used to live closer to it and have had it on our list of places to go in Seoul for quite a while but we finally got around to going this month. It was a Saturday and we had nothing else going on. A group from church was going so we decided to see if we could meet up with them while they were there.

Most of the rides are typical ones you see at any theme park like roller coasters, drop towers, and concession stands; and others are...unique to Korea. It was worth the discounted price we paid for it but I am not convinced it would be worth the normal admission price. Two of the roller coasters we went on were fun and another one we did not make it on looked like it was worth it but I think I was most amused by the many unique or poorly translated signs they have posted there. On sign told us not to lower our head during the ride, another told us it was okay if the buckle came loose during the ride and if it did to "please be easy."

After spending the morning outside on "Magic Island" we hopped on the little monorail they have that goes around the island as well as through the inside park to give you a glimpse of all the attractions. Most of the indoor venues were small kid attractions and eateries but there were a few rides meant for bigger kids. Two rides we saw that you typically do not find inside are the pirate ship ride (the kind that flips you upside-down) and a big steel-track roller coaster with high loops and sharp corners. We did not go on either because I don't care about pirate ship rides and the line for the roller coaster was HUGE (2.5 hours), it also looked like it did not run very often.

One of the rides that we did go on that ended up being a waste of time was the Ghost House. It was advertised as being a 3D hunted house ride. It was nothing like what Bee and I expected when we got in line. We went in and were led through a few narrow hallways into a small theater that maybe held 40 people. We were handed a pair of 3D glasses each and found a seat on the wood benches facing an unadorned wall. After everyone was seated, on the wood benches, the lights were dimmed and we watched a very darkly lit animation in which we followed a cat through a mansion filled with creepy toys and undead dogs that tried to kill it at every turn. The cat found his way out the mansion, through a greenhouse filled with hungry carnivorous plants and a snake, finally making his way into a graveyard  behind the mansion where he discovers that somewhere in the journey he became undead himself. That was it! The movie ended, we gave back our glasses and walked out the exit. No moving chairs, no jolts, no spritz of air at your feet, just a short animation that made me think of what it would look like if Tim Burton produced Toy Story. It was totally and completely anticlimactic.

Unfortunately that is how most of the rides we went on ended. Regardless, it was fun to be together and see how Lotte does amusement. I am sure we got more amusement laughing at some of the rides there than the rides themselves. But, then again, maybe that was their intent.

-MORE PICTURES-