Shady Travels: Live, Explore, Learn: Lotte World: "The Happiest Place"...in Korea

Lotte World Theme Park (Outdoors Area)

As an avid traveler, I'm always intrigued by articles that describe the best beaches to visit, the ever categorized seven wonders of the world, or the most popular or religious or historical places, etc. As an American and ethnocentric or americentric (just kidding) I figured that the most visited country would be the United States. However, according to the World Tourism Organization, the most visited countries are in order France, Spain, United States, China, and Italy. Surprisingly, the most popular places are mostly child or entertainment centered such as theme parks namely the various Disney World's that dot the globe.

According to an Indian blog I ran into, I was surprised to find out South Korea boasts 2 places that are part of "The 50 Most Visited Places in the World"; Everland (16) --tied with Paris' Louvre Museum! and Lotte World (22) --South Korea's most visited attraction and the world's largest indoor theme park.

http://www.itvnews.tv/Blog/Blog/the-50-most-visited-places.html

Intrigued by this news and the constant reminder from my students of how wonderful these places are, I decided to join Dave and his Korean friends Jae Won & Yuri to venture into the wonder and chaos of Lotte World.

Lotte World Theme Park (Indoors Area)

On a Friday night, Dave received numerous phone calls and texts from Jae Won constantly reminding us that we were going to meet at 9am in Jamsil Station (45 minutes away from Nowon) where Lotte World is located. These constant reminders were met with disappointment since Hagwon teachers are night creatures often waking up after noon. He wanted us to get there early because 9am is when Lotte World opens and Saturday happens to be the busiest day leaving customers waiting in line for 30 min to an hour just to enter. We ended up meeting Jae Won and Yuri around noon. Luckily, we only had to wait about 30 minutes to get entry passes. We even got a foreigner discount. Maybe Korea is picking up on the idea that foreigners are increasingly everywhere and that we should all enjoy Korea's highlights together as opposed to tucking us away in Itaewon (foreigner district).

Dave had been to Lotte World before and wasn't as shocked as I was upon entering what looked like the Magic Castle of Disney World. To get from the ticketing gate, we had to walk through what looked like a mall and ice rink. This was just the beginning. Inside the actual theme park was first an indoor replica of Indiana Jones meets Egypt and Alice in Wonderland. There were caverns, gardens, and a haunted house. Above were hot air balloons circulating the indoor arena of roller coasters, stuffed animal tent challenges, and Dippin' Dots stands a plenty. From inside to outside, you could ride the tram or go through the walkway that leads to the "magic castle". As we walked outside, the park greeted us with an overwhelming scene of families and couples taking pictures of themselves and insane queues at each ride.

According to my students and friends, I had to ride the Gyro Swing. It is a ride that looks like a disc with seats all around it. It moved in a circle and side to side bringing you to the top of its swing and also to the bottom facing any direction at anytime. This was the 2nd most popular ride in Lotte World after The Atlantis, an indoor and outdoor roller coaster. We met up with Jae Won and Yuri who had been waiting at the Gyro Swing for over 45 minutes and were still 45 minutes from actually riding. At each ride were 2 lines; the regular hour and a half line or the speedy line where you pick up a ticket that instructed you to come back in between a specific 2 hour frame to get back into the speedy line. We joined Jae Won and Yuri cutting many other people who had been there for over 45 minutes. One great thing about being a foreigner is that you can pull the foreigner card and no one can get mad at you, but I'm sure cutting in line translates very well. Unfortunately, we didn't get to ride the Atlantis because they stopped the speedy line when we were 20 people away from it. We rode two other rides whose queues were 30-45 minutes. The wave ride was a kiddy ride (a bar of people going up and down pretty slowly to simulate a wave) that actually broke down while we were in mid air. The last ride I rode was the Gyro Drop, a needle that dropped you from the top, but shot you back up rubber band style and dropped you again over and over till you slowed down to a stop. These dropping rides are my favorite because I love the feeling of surprise I get from not knowing when the ride is going to drop me.

After these 3 rides, we didn't ride anything else. Exhausted from waiting in line and filling up on sausages, fries, and smoothies, I was ready to go inside and just look around the indoor park. Surprisingly, the longest wait we had was for the tram which looked empty every time I looked up from waiting in line and saw it go by. In total, we stayed at the park from 11am to 6pm and rode 4 rides. Although it was a good day to hang out with our Korean friends Jae Won and Yuri and finally experience what my students anticipate during their vacations, once was enough. Maybe the next time I go, I'll have to go on a school day in the Winter when I know the lines won't be over an hour wait.