Korea + Japan 04/17 – Everland by Mega-Lite
It was time for the first major trip of my life, flying to the other side of the World to take in the culture and coasters of Korea and Japan. I’d been interested in visiting Japan for a while, their way of life had always intrigued me and some of their coasters were living legends. Korea was a different story, I’d just only been introduced to K culture and was dying to see it for myself.
Day 1
Despite this being my first ever long distance flight everything went by quite fast and soon I was in Korea with the first of now many stamps in my passport.
We picked up our T Cards (prepaid transport card) and took the high speed train from the airport to Seoul Station, then checked in to our hotel which was just across the road.
After finding out on the day that a coaster at Lotte World was down for maintenance, we quickly changed our plans to visit Everland today and Lotte World at the end of the trip. We hadn’t planned for this, so we weren’t quite sure how to get to the park from Seoul Station. Thankfully I was able to ask a friendly lady at an information desk, who couldn’t have been any more helpful in setting us in the right direction.
We topped up our T Cards in the station, which takes all of 2 seconds and is all done on a machine that you can set to English, so there’s no excuse. From there we took the subway to Gangnam and then caught a bus to Everland. Quick word of warning, bus drivers in Korea are on tight schedules and any hold up sets them right off, so be prepared to get shouted at if you aren’t quick enough when paying.
Everland
Everland is probably Korea’s most loved amusement park, it’s featured in many forms of entertainment and has an almost cult like following, this has lead it to be one of the most visited amusement parks in the World. The park is located in the mountains and is surrounded by trees, which is probably the best setting I can think of for a park. Perfectly complementing the beautiful setting is the theming and upkeep of the park, both of which are fantastic. It’s easy to say Everland is Korea’s most beautiful park and it’s clearly something the park themselves are very proud of.
After using our T Cards to get 30% off the entrance price, we made our way into the pretty and very hilly park!
Dragon Coaster – While this is just your standard Zamperla Twin Helix coaster, the members of staff working on it were putting on such a show you couldn’t be help but be impressed.
Rolling X-Train – Me and Heartline started laughing at how just wrong this Arrow Looper was as soon as it left the lift, by the time we reached the final brakes we were laughing so hard it prompted an emergency trip to the bathroom.
T Express – Much like the park name itself, the name of T Express is on the lips of everyone in Korea. This coaster is an icon of the country and it damn well should be. Easily one of the greatest coasters on this planet, this Intamin prefab is a spectacular piece of technology and it’s sole purpose to eject you into orbit. Featuring one of, if not the most intense drop in the World and several moments of insane sustained ejector airtime. If like me you demand your woodies to feature insane amounts of ejector air, then you cannot do better than T Express, unless you go to Six Flags Great Adventure.
Live Hologram Theatre – If you’re into Kpop, then trust me when I say it’s well worth the upcharge fee to experience your favourite idols in hologram form!
Rotation House – A madhouse type attraction, where the only thing I can remember is how loud the preshow was.
Rapids – This rapids ride features full body covering plastic sheets but you somehow manage to get soaked regardless, extremely good fun.
Everland also features a large zoo that includes 2 different vehicle based ways of seeing the animals and the traditional walk around enclosures. We went on one of the vehicle based ones (I forget the name) and it was great fun, helped massively by the ethusiasm of the staff members.
Everland more than deserves to be regarded as Korea’s top amusement park, with it’s beautiful aesthetic, wonderful atmosphere, friendly and hard working staff, solid and wacky ride line up and the existance of T Express, it really is a hard park to fault.
I’m not going to pretend the journey from the park to our hotel wasn’t a struggle. After not sleeping on the plane and having now been awake for nearing 35 hours I couldn’t wait to get back and finally get some sleep.
Day 2
Today was sight seeing in the morning and a Kpop show in the evening.
Heartline decided he’d take charge of the sight seeing after the planned tour bus didn’t exist and he did a great job. We saw many pretty looking and probably quite important buildings and never stayed long enough to get bored.
Long story short the Kpop show (Music Bank) is a must if you’re into Kpop and more than worth the amount of hassle you’ll have to go through to get the tickets.
Thank you for reading, click here for day 3 of my report where we fly to Japan and spend the day at the lovely Greenland.