Korea + Japan 04/17 – Lotte World

Day 9

Lotte World

Lotte World as I mentioned in my report on Everland is Korea’s other top amusement park but whereas Everland is located in the mountains, Lotte World is crammed right into the city and the way they fit everything in is insanely impressive.

Firstly from the outside you’d never assume this was an amusement park, the park’s entrance looks like just another mall but once inside things get really interesting.

The main bulk of the park is set indoors over 5 floors, with some rides located in an outdoor section. Those inside aren’t what you’d expect though because amongst them is a full size roller coaster, a full size rapids ride and several large scale dark rides.

As well as being an engineering masterpiece Lotte World is also a lovely place to visit. At first I assumed a big mostly indoor amusement park in the middle of a city was going to be chaos but there’s an incredibly relaxed atmosphere to the place. Perhaps it was present in Everland too and I missed it but at Lotte World we learnt the Korean way of how to enjoy your day out at a park. 1) Don’t worry about queue times or large ride counts, you’re there with your friends so just enjoy it. 2) Don’t rush around, breathe it all in man. 3) Get 1 member of your group to leave large queues to get snacks, so you don’t get hungry. It would never work elsewhere but here today, it was the only way.

Atlantis Adventure – The fabled and legendary Intamin Aqua Trax and it’s extremely good fun.

First things first Atlantis Adventure looks incredible, the palace the coaster dives in and out of is breathtaking and I could stare at it for hours and still find new details.

The coaster itself as mentioned is really good but could have been much better if the pacing wasn’t derailed by stopping dead followed by a slow lift hill mid course. Also not helping is the fact both sections after the first launch and after the lift hill are short. If there was a mid course 2nd launch to keep the ride flying along and things were a little longer then this could have been one of the best coasters in the World but it is what it is and it is a series of really good moments with a boring bit in the middle.

Atlantis Adventure’s launch is really intense and the air time hill directly after is insane, damn near ejecting you into the ceiling. Then you fly through and around the palace in intense fashion before the brakes and slow lift. After the drop you have 1 more ultra intense pop of ejector air then once again haul around for a while before it’s all over.

Atlantis Adventure is fantastic, just not as good as it could have been.

Comet Express – Crazy indoor Intamin spinning coaster, I started spinning (and laughing) as soon we left the station and didn’t stop until the ride was over, great fun.

French Revolution – The previously mentioned full blown coaster in the indoor section. This Vekoma looping coaster outdoors wouldn’t be worth your time but indoors and with the crazy amounts of theming you interact with it’s actually quite enjoyable.

Fantasy Dream – Dark ride located outdoors and what can only be described as a drug fuelled nightmare where you slowly pass by more and more creepy singing objects.

Sinbad’s Adventure – A massive extremely well themed boat ride located in the indoors section, it shouldn’t be able to fit in here but it does.

Jungle Adventure – A full blown heavily themed rapids ride located indoors, it was really cool to experience the carnage of a rapids ride in extremely low lighting.

Dragon’s Wild Shooting – A really fun shooting dark ride in the indoor section where you take aim at all sorts of dragons and I couldn’t help feeling sorry for them.

Another compliment that must be paid to Lotte World is the sheer amount of food and drinks you can buy. There’s loads and something for everyone, even really fussy people like me.

After a really pleasant day out at Lotte World we left to go shopping and to see an LED water show from the side of a bridge. Was it good, no, will it cause me to laugh out loud at how bad it was until I die, yes.

Thanks for reading, click here to join me for the final part of my trip report where we will hit up 2 Korean parks in a day!