Adventures at Seoul Land

On Wednesday we had the day off for Memorial Day and decided to take a trip down to Seoul Land. We'd already been to Lotte World (which you'll recall is closed for renovations now) and we've heard our students talk about both Seoul Land and Everland a lot. It was a cloudy day but luckily it barely rained at all (just some harmless drops for a few minutes) and we were pleased to find that Seoul Land wasn't too busy or crowded.
Seoul Land is located within the massive Seoul Grand Park, which also contains an art museum and a zoo. If you check out the website you'll notice that they often have festivals with different events. The current festival is geared towards attracting more women to the park and has a number of hilarious 'events' like Pose like Marilyn Monroe for a photo looking sexy or Experience your wedding in advance- you're not married? All your hopes and dreams about your wedding come true! and Water Cannon- shoot water cannons with your loved one, protect him from the water and feel the love growing bigger! Interesting ideas and unfortunately we weren't able to participate in any of them.

We decided to walk to Seoul Land from the Seoul Grand Park main entrance. This is a bit of a trek but it was really sunny out at that point and we found slurpees on the way so it was worth it. There is a shuttle bus (we later discovered) and the small fee to take it was definitely worth it at the end of the day when we were tired and it was dark out.

The first stop for us was the King Viking ride which is basically a big boat that goes back and forth (but not upside down). Pretty tame stuff, if you ask me. We even braved the longer, slower thrill seekers line and ended up in the very top row. It was fun but I'm not sure if it was so thrilling that I would choose the thrill seekers line (and wait twice as long) again. Matt felt nauseous afterwards which was a bit of a surprise (to him). This is the major reason why I rarely go to amusement parks (even though I love them so much!) because my significant other and the vast majority of friends are big babies and get motion sickness and then I end up covered in the barf. Usually you have to have a pair of people to go on a ride but at this amusement park that isn't a rule so I was really happy! I went on quite a few solo rides while Matt was breathing into a paper bag.
Apparently pirates took over the King Viking ship.

After the King Viking we stopped so Matt could do a little target practice with a 'ray gun'. He did really well on the fun one where you don't win a prize but if you hit the target something is activated and you get to see or hear something (like the bull moos). When he moved onto the cap gun (where you could win a prize) he totally sucked it up and didn't hit a single target. He claims the guns were rigged and the game was impossible, of course.
Next I got my face painted and decided to brave the Monster ride solo (basically it's like the Spider or Octopus ride at most county fairs). I was in line behind a guy that spoke really good English and he asked me why Matt wasn't riding with me. I had to tell him about Matt's unfortunate condition and the man seemed to find this funny.









We did go on most of the rides together- even a spinning one and Matt didn't get sick (that I saw- he was alone a number of times and at one point stole some of my gum). Seoul Land has two roller coasters: The Black Hole 2000 and The Double Loop. We went on both and both were pretty good but the Double Loop is superior.
The attendant at the Black Hole was funnier, however, and spent most of the time croaking into a mic "Bye bye! I love you! Nice to meet you! Sorry, no Englishie." He also had face paint and bunny ears on.

The creepiest thing we saw were these fuzzy coin operated animals. There was a whole area filled with different ones and when you put a coin in them you could slowly steer them around. The kids seemed to like them but trust me, they were freaky.

We had some dinner at a BBQ and Hof and then went through the Tilt House (which is kind of like a fun house). It was starting to get a bit late and we did have to work the next day but we hadn't even gone into all of the five areas!


We did get to see all of the areas but only briefly for a couple of them. I was glad that I insisted we visit Samchulli Land because it turned out to have the best ride in the entire park! It's called Top Spin and at this point the line was so fast that I only had to wait a few minutes (I wish I'd had more time so I could have rode it a few times). Matt did not go on this one but he did take a video (which is slightly over 100 MB so I can't upload it to Youtube- can anyone give me simple instructions so I can fix this. I have a couple videos that I'd like to make slightly smaller).









The finale of the night was the show "Under Land" with Mr. Jackson. This was completely bizarre and basically featured some guy who was a cross between "The Mask" and "The Joker" lip syncing to Michael Jackson songs. There were lasers, smoke, scantily clad subpar jazz dancers. What more could you ask for? They even finished it off with some fireworks.
In the subway on the way back to Gimpo we saw a woman selling chicks, another smaller bird and rabbits. So strange! I guess (and hope) they are supposed to be pets? Only in Korea! It was a good day though and we would definitely go back again. The prices were reasonable (you get a 25% discount on your admission fee if you pay with a credit card) and there is lots to see and do (besides the rides) and it's in a really beautiful location. The rest of the pictures can be found here.