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| Entrance to Safari World: a main attraction in Everland |
Everland is a long long trip from the city center of Seoul. It took us about 4 hours to get there from our hotel which is near Incheon Airport. We did our research so we knew this in advance but we did not let this hinder us from getting there. We really love theme parks and this being one of the biggest in the world, we will not let travel time stop us from visiting Everland.
Considering the travel time, we expect that we won't be able to get there before opening. We ran into a number of horrible traffic jams which was expected as per friends who've been there before. It was such a relief once we got there even though it was noon time and the sun is at its hottest.
We know that the theme park is big from research and it looks big just looking at the map as well, but it didn't really sunk into us how big it is until we were actually there. It's such a walk from one ride to the other that it makes it almost impossible to be able to see every single attraction. You probably have to run and hope that each attraction doesn't have a long queue for you to get through all the rides in a single day. In some theme parks, like SeaWorld San Diego, the cable car is just a ride to see view and it takes you right back at the beginning of the queue. Here in Everland,it brings you from one place of the park to the other that if you walked instead especially downhill, it will take you about 20 minutes so it is almost a must to ride the cable cars and it give you time to rest that will surely be aching after a days visit.
Since we got there during lunch time and it was too hot under the sun, we decided to eat lunch first to hide from the sun. It was perfect timing too since the parade was about to start so we have time to digest our food while watching the parade. The parade was nothing special and it was really random from our point of view. The floats, costumes and mascots are all colorful and eye-catching but there's really nothing that stuck into our mind. Maybe the reason is that most costumes and mascots are probably supposed to represent some characters from local fables and fairy tales as well as local cartoons which we have no idea of since we obviously do not follow South Korean television.
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| One of the many colorful floats |
After the parade, we went straight to the main attraction of the park which is a safari they call Safari World. At the end of the queue right before loading the safari bus, they have a list of wildlife currently in display on the safari. The most number of animals they have most of the days are lions, bears and giraffes. The rest of the wildlife are zebras, camels, elephants, tigers and a liger which is a cross-breed of a lion and a tiger.
Other than the safari, the other attractions are mostly gardens, pretty architectures and common theme park rides that you can pretty much find anywhere. Since most of them are really as common as the rides you typically find in your local fair, we'll just list some of the attractions that is worth to experience in a theme park.
Amazon Express - a river raft ride where you can ride confidently that you won't get wet since your whole body is pretty much covered in the seat except for your head
Space Tour - a 4D ride featuring Everland characters
Mystery Mansion - an interactive ride where you shoot at targets placed on mysterious items
Four Seasons Garden - well... a huge garden full of flowers. Sorry, can't think of any other way to describe it
Aesop's House and Fable Garden - a walk through the pages of a book attraction
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| Pants are wet due to Flume Ride! =P |
Global Village - a boat ride that is pretty much trying to be like Disney's "it's a small world"
Spooky Fun House - a walk through comical haunted house
T-Express - a high-speed wooden roller coaster
Flume Ride - the name says it all. As plain as a flume ride can get, no Disney or Universal animatronics here
Rolling X-Train - a high-speed roller coaster with 2 loops
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| Aesop's Village. Almost like a clone of Disneyland's Toon Town |
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| Entrance to Flume Ride |
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| Mystery Mansion: a shoot-em-up ride |
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| Four Seasons Garden |
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| T-Express: A high-speed wooden coaster |
