Hey all! Today I continue on with the story of my recent trip to Japan and Korea (and Taiwan). I’ve slowed down a bit as doing 3-4 days per blog creates long blog posts and life is pretty busy right now. So by doing shorter blog posts I am not overwhelmed and perhaps you, dear reader (Hi Bob!) are not either.

We are up to day 20, only a few days left now. And Day 20 saw me in Seoul, with bad weather on the horizon, heading to Lotte World!! What IS Lotte World? Well, it’s a theme park, partially inside and partially outside in Seoul, south of the river and run by the company that runs the big shopping centres in Korea, the Lotte Corporation. It was founded in 1948 by a Korean, is now a multi-national company and runs all sorts of enterprises from confectionary stores to hotels and shopping centre. And – a Theme Park!

From where I was it was a long subway ride to Lotte World but at least I didn’t have to swap trains at any point. I entered from the station – the theme park is part indoors and part outdoors, and you actually enter through a shopping centre which the station takes you too. You walk through a few shop-lined corridors (Korea has more underground shopping than any place I can think of) and eventually you come out at the entrance to Lotte World.

It was about $50AUD for entry, I had booked online which did save me a little cash, and they offer fast track passes as well which are called ‘Magic Passes’ and are available for 5 or 7 rides of your choice, although some rides do not accept them. Some rides the wait time was short, others though I KNEW I needed the Magic Pass. For 5 rides it’s 54,000Won, around $60AUD or 38$USD, for seven rides it’s 75,000Won.

You enter and it’s big! There’s an ice rink below you can see from one level, there’s the main level and you look up and see these ‘balloons’ that run suspended from the high high ceiling. I headed out to the outside area though to get those rides in first because the rain was coming. Atlantis was the main ride on ‘Magic Island’ – which is what they call the outdoor area at Lotte World. It was here I joined the two and a half-hour queue to the Atlantis ride. I had seen signs for the ‘Magic Pass’ so I thought I’d look it up online, and I decided to go back to the entrance and get one. It was a bit of a hike, but I was back within 15 minutes, and after joining the Magic Pass Line, I was on the ride within another 10 minutes. Long story short – it saved me a lot of time. And Atlantis is a super-fun roller coaster which I really enjoyed, and all in all was my favourite ride of the day.

There were shows and a parade at one point, they use a few characters such as Cinderella and Snow White, which I figured were Disney copyrighted even though they didn’t invent them – maybe they have a deal with Disney though.

I also did the Comet Express ride which was fun if a bit spinny for me, that balloon ride I mentioned which I was a bit nervous on but I felt fine despite being so high. The rain came and everyone was now inside and it was PACKED. The French Revolution was another cool roller coaster that does a loop and is completely inside. They had a decent water ride called the ‘Flume Ride’, there was like a 4D attraction where you go from room to room and shoot things which was a bit different, there’s a monorail also which I didn’t take, and I finished the day off doing the Pharoah’s Fury, which was more of a large scale Ghost Train.

THEN I left at about 4pm, and getting back from the subway station to my hotel I got SOAKED. I was the only one in Seoul without an umbrella. I finished the day with a quiet night in. All in all Lotte World was a worthwhile and well-priced day, I wasn’t sure at all what to expect but it was really cool.

One down side for me was the food. Everywhere I went I informed about my peanut allergy, and every place said I couldn’t eat there. Like, not even burgers! It’s a real concern in Korea is a peanut allergy. Finally I found a place doing hot dogs, figured plain hot dog with mustard HAD to be okay. And it was. But it was frustrating.

Thanks for popping by today. Next week I’m taking you through the neighbourhood of Gangnam, with style! Take care wherever you are in the world and… May the Journey Never End!