seoul sights: lotte world
On my first trip to Seoul a few months back, we went to a theme park called Lotte World. For someone with severe motion sickness, I seem to make a lot of pilgrimages to various theme parks in my travels. Masochist? Or just a big stubborn, delusional kid?
Anyway, Lotte World is a theme park in Seoul. Basically, Korea’s answer to Disney World.
What makes this theme park special, though, is that it has both an outdoor and an indoor area. Let me tell you: the indoor area is mindblowing.
It’s literally a full-scale theme park, with roller coasters, a water ride, and a mechanized hot air balloon — but all inside a massive department store. It has to be the biggest room I’ve ever seen. There are multiple floors with a big open space in the middle overlooking a skating rink.
I was amazed at how many different buildings and rides they managed to tuck onto each floor. Zombie virtual reality games, Arabian squares, European villages, a dark and campy Sinbad ride, a swinging Viking ship attraction, and lots and lots of restaurants. There’s also a large stage for shows (there was a children’s tae kwon do performance while I was there). Even though there are also roller coasters outside, it’s worth the trip just for the indoor experience alone.
Some of the indoor roller coasters are actually pretty intense. The biggest indoor roller coaster is called French Revolution, and it was enough to churn my stomach up for a few hours. They have a newly added virtual reality component to the ride, but it’s optional and I would recommend against it. Part of the coolness of the ride is seeing that you’re inside even as you’re being thrown upside down at breakneck speeds.
One thing I liked about Lotte World was the admission price structure. You can either pay one hefty price and gain admission plus unlimited rides on all attractions, or you can just pay an admission price and then purchase tickets ride by ride once you’re inside the park. I think this is a great system for people like me who may not be able to ride too often in one day for fear of losing our lunches.
On the negative side: I got a little fatigued after walking around for a while because the park is so spread out and there are a lot of escalators that you have to take to get from attraction to attraction. Nothing seems conveniently placed. It felt a little like being stuck in a mall, or even a mall parking garage, which, as Jerry and Elaine know, is no fun at all.
After losing my patience wandering the maze of the amusement park for a few hours, I was so pleased to find out that there is also a fantastic folk museum connected to Lotte World that you can enter with the price of your Lotte World admission. Don’t miss this hidden gem! In addition to the regular folk museum fare, there is a huge miniature village, complete with miniature palaces and entire armies of miniature Korean soldiers.
Compared with the thrill of rollercoasters, I think a lot of people would overlook this quaint museum, but the miniatures are impressive, adorable, and a nice flat-footed break from the craziness of the theme park.
