South Korea - June 2025

Had a fairly disastrous trip to Lotte World in Seoul yesterday, we can see it from our hotel and it's included in the Discover Seoul Pass, so we figured we'd pop in & check it out, ride the Aquatrax and then head off to do something more cultural.

No dice ... turns out everything outdoors stops in the rain and yesterday the rain was absolutely biblical - with government weather warnings to boot ... but the impressive (yet slighted dated) indoor section remains open - it was an absolute zoo. With the Aquatrax (Atlantis) closed, we opted to do a few rides before heading off :

• Pharoh's Fury - A budget Indy Adventure, solid - good fun and cavernous.
• Sindbad (sic) - Similar to the DisneySea ride, indoor boat ride - the drops were impressive but the big boats felt awkward
• Dragon Shooting - usual shoot screens thing.
• French Revolution - Indoor Mk1200 Vekoma thing, not bad - they have put a lot of padding on the restraints, I guess it needed it - some forces

Would like to have got on the indoor (underground?) Intamin spinner which is supposed to be a bit of a gem, but it was broken(!) for a while and when it did open the queue was all outdoors and the weather was still miserable.

The park is a large cavernous hall, with four levels and an outdoor bit containing the Aquatrax, Gyro Drop, Gyro Swing, Disko etc) (see this aerial shot from Wikipedia) - there are weird corridors to navigate around the edges and rides can be pretty hidden. It reminds me a bit of MGM Grand fused with the Adventuredome. It's a big old place, until recently it used to have a River Rapids indoors.

Food was OK, although it's not easy being Veggie here. Interestingly, it's common for adults to dress up in their school uniforms to go to amusement parks. We passed ...

I was fascinated by the balloon ride (I thought that they were just for decoration, but you can ride in them) - they seem impossibly high, it's an Intamin suspended monorail with cars that lower to the ground for loading and then head back up and round the park. It has a Pokemon overlay at the the moment. Wouldn't like to have to evacuate that thing.

We're off to the DMZ tomorrow and scheduled to be back by 15:00 or so, depending on the weather I might chance it again. We have the option and the time (here for three weeks to do a couple of other parks, but if the weather doesn't cooperate it perhaps won't be worth it).

Some photos :

I think this roughly translates to 'there's going to be so much rain, even water rides can't operate'.

French Revolution, the Vekoma

The areas off the main hall, with shops and a smattering of rides

There is an ice rink below, see the balloons above

It plays a very painful tune as it drives around nearly running people over

More Vekoma

Vast place. Cute Monorail (left hand side).

More balloons.

Outdoor section.

The Aquatrax is over there.

Lotte World Tower, the tallest building in South Korea (and the OECD) since 2017.