Day 22 (9.3)- Lotte World: Disneyland without the Sunburn

Every major city has something of a theme park. Seattle has Wildwaves, New York has Coney Island, L.A. lucks out with Disneyland. Seoul has Lotte World, an amusement park owned by the conglomerate that seems to own everything from grocery stores, to giant department stores, to baseball teams, you guessed it….Lotte.

Does it look familiar to you at all? The Lotte Castle seems an awful lotte like those at Disney.

The park was actually pretty similar too, with crew dressed in themed gear depending on their station, and always smiling and waving with both hands when you walk by.

There was a parade of lights at around 7pm that went around the park.

They had similar rides, including one almost exactly like the Pirates of the Caribbean.

They even had their own Mickey/Minnie characters as park mascots, Lotty and Lorry. They were another pest disguised as cuddly characters just like the mice….Raccoons.

There were a few differences too though. At Disney, it’s popular for people to buy mouse ears to wear around the park, but here, they had many more options to choose from, including bunny ears, Halloween-themed headbands (apparently Halloween season starts in September everywhere, not just the States), and the most popular… heart clips worn most often by couples.

It’s so cute it almost makes you want to puke, but save that for the crazy-fast rides instead.

There was also one major difference from US parks that I haven’t mentioned yet. Clearly, some of these buildings and rides like the castle and the Atlantis coaster seen above are outside, but the majority of the park was indoors….

Because of Korea’s sometimes harsh climate, it makes sense to have an indoor/outdoor park. Thinking of Disneyland or Disneyworld, those parks are located in Florida and California, two regions of the US that are pretty much sunny or at least balmy year round. It makes sense to have an outdoor park in those areas, but a place like Wild Waves in Seattle will close their waterpark and sometimes rides seasonally based on rain or inclement weather. Lotte World gets the best of both with the outdoor park for nice days, and the indoor park for both the rainy and snowy days, as well as a place to cool off on a hot day like today. And they had everything. Large coasters, a carousel, a hot air balloon ride that went overhead, and food as far as the eye could see. There was even an ice rink on the ground floor that you could look down on from the rotunda. It was like nothing I’ve ever seen before. Again, like I’ve mentioned before, Korea knows how to have a good time, rain or shine, but without putting themselves out too much of course. It’s the most practical use of fun I’ve seen anywhere in the world…Theme park design at its finest.