Hey Hive!
If you missed the last few posts, I've been sharing about our first trip to Seoul back in Nov 2022! We were waiting post-covid for everyone to go on their holidays before taking a big one and we finally decided to go on our honeymoon! It's also our first time experiencing Fall so we were double excited!
Last week, we explored more of Everland; Seoul's biggest theme park and wound up in a zombie apocalypse?
But we also ended up in a beautiful rose garden (sans roses) and a Magic Kingdom!
This is where we coincidentally managed to catch the parade with floats and dancers next to the big Christmas treehouse!
We still have quite a bit left of the park to explore so let's get to it!
14 Nov 2022. Monday.
Magic Land is probably the biggest area in the whole park among its 5 regions. I'm guessing it's to compensate for the lack of Disney parks in Korea.
Here's the map of Everland just fyi:
We were pretty tired from walking all day and we took this time to take a break and get some photos while sitting on these chairs under the beautiful red leaves.
After we had rested, we continued along and found this figure that's definitely not a ripoff of Iron Man.
This place definitely seemed more kid-centric with all the playgrounds around.
There was this train coaster that I think we rode on since we there wasn't a line and it was pretty alright. A low level thrill but pretty decent still.
We started making our way towards the American Adventure area that looks reminiscent of Universal Studios with the retro, 1950s American style decor.
There seem to be a lot of people queuing for this ride which looks like a rotational Viking Ship that spins.
The park was so huge that even with the crowds we saw at the entrance it was so spacious that it didn't look like there was much of a crowd anymore.
We headed towards the Halloween-Christmas tree to take some photos since there weren't any people clamouring to grab pictures now.
Then we pretty much wound up back where we first started.
Now that the crowd had dispersed we could actually take a look at what was near the entrance of the park.
There were more kiosks and stands here with goofy theme park hats so we couldn't resist taking more photos!
The entrance to the park actually had quite a few brand name restaurants that they redesigned to match the aesthetic of this area called Global Fair. I'm not sure why we took this but it was cool to see a Korean restaurant designed to fit Arabic-Islamic architecture.
We also checked out the gift shop here which was mostly the same with lots of plush toys and keychains.
There was this very cute duckie plush with a long neck that looked goofy.
There was a smaller stubbier duck that was also pretty big still. I would've loved to have a mini version as a keychain but all the keychains they had were of chicks!
It was late afternoon by now and we were just shooting the breeze seeing what else there was to see.
It was funny to see how they tried to extend the world as much as they could by putting in these fake buildings in the background though.
I think by now we had pretty much circled the entire park but we might've missed some things here and there.
The high school students we were crowded with at the entrance were still around but I guess some of them got tired/bored too and were just on their phone.
Even the entrances to the gift shops were unique!
This shop seemed like it had lots more plush toys. I like that each gift shop has a different design that fits in with the specific area they're in though.
Each shop also has something unique like this one that had a special corner for its red panda mascot, Lessey!
There was even a giant Lessey plush on display but not for sale.
The shop also had this faux fall tree with Halloween-related merchandise like the happy pumpkin plushies and the penguins in pumpkin costumes that look so cute!
They even had some goofy capybara plushies that definitely did not look like a car body. I actually liked the sloth one and it reminded me of Pusheen the Cat's sloth friend.
This was on the wall outside the gift shop which I thought was so cute.
After seeing the shops here we were pretty much done with Global Fair and were right back where we started.
And now we could take a photo here with the sign board!
Since we were done with this area, we decided to try taking the Sky Cruise!
When we first entered the park we thought this was a ride on its own and I guess technically it is? But it's more for transporting people from one side of the park to the other through these cable cars!
It'd been a good long while since the last time I was in a cable car. I'm not sure if this was the first time Sean and I were in one together but it might be.
There were plenty of cars to take and not many people so thankfully we managed to get one car all to ourselves!
The sun came out for a bit and I managed to get this really nice shot of Sean.
From the cable car we had an overview of this side of the park and went over American Adventure. We got a better view of the rides from here too and saw that swinging arm going crazy with the people screaming their lungs out.
We ended up in Magic Land and wound up in another gift shop with lots of Christmas themed merchandise.
There was even a cute hyrax plush that we now recognise having seen them in the Zootopia section of the park.
Strangely enough there was a Chinese restaurant here that definitely does not look like they're pandering to Chinese tourists at all.
I did manage to get a nicer picture of the windmill here though.
We headed towards the Spooky Fun House which I guess isn't as scary as the Horror Maze in Blood City since this was Magic Land after all.
But just beside that was another roller coaster that we could take called Dragon Coaster! It looked like there wasn't much of a line and since it'd been a while since our last ride we decided to try it.
I'm not sure how long we waited but it was longer than expected. More people came in after us though so I guess we got lucky.
This was such a low-level ride they didn't even bother asking us to put our belongings down so I managed to snag this photo. There were little kids in front of us so we figured this ride would be pretty tame.
It was a little slow at first but gained speed after a bit and it was pretty decent. It didn't have crazy loops but there were some jerky turns and it ended quick. I feel like this was better than the other rides we've seen that don't even move that much.
After that we went to check out the Spooky Fun House to see how Spooky it was.
Turns out it's only called Spooky because it's the home to a curious ghost named "Spooky". The board says that he wonders about the maze-like house always bored and alone so he's happy and playful when it comes to visitors.
I don't have good photos in here because it's quite dark and the walkway is narrow but there were different illusions and pictures on the wall as you make your way through the house. Some of them were interactive, some of them were just goofy-looking.
It was a pretty quick "maze" but they tried to put as much interactive stuff as possible. It's very kid-friendly but it was short and not cringey so we didn't mind.
After that it was time for a snack break! We went into this cafeteria that looked mostly empty and very spacious.
They didn't have much in the way of proper meals tbh and only had snacks like pretzel sticks, hot dogs and soup alongside some drinks.
We decided to get a warm drink and some pretzel sticks to share.
We took a nice long break in the cafeteria and after our phones had charged we went to check out another attraction.
Unfortunately I can't find the name of this ride and didn't manage to get a picture of the entrance.
I remember we did end up waiting quite a bit but thankfully it was indoors so it wasn't too bad.
It seemed like a Haunted Mansion kind of ride though with lots of medieval looking stuff around and some spooky things like ghost butlers.
After searching I realised the ride is literally called Shooting Ghost and it's similar to the Toy Story ride in Disneyland where you're in a moving car and have to shoot things ghosts on the wall projections.
You get points for all the ghosts you defeat and at the end of the ride, your score is tallied up. All I remember is the gun was really weird and for some reason you pull on an attached ball with a string to reload or something.
Sean wound up with the better score though since I couldn't figure out how the gun worked but I think I still did pretty okay.
He was really proud of himself as he danced out towards the exit.
There were some spooky decorations here like fake doors with screens showing the monsters they caught and trapped.
It's funny that the game is just called Shooting! Ghost though but it was still pretty fun.
After that we decided to take the other transport ride since we just wanted to chill and didn't want to take any crazy rides.
We've never ridden a ski lift before so this was going to be a first. It was also getting to be quite cold now that the day was ending.
Thankfully they had these heat lamps that made us feel like rotisserie chickens. It was actually really warm and it helped us to beat the chill winds.
Soon enough it was our turn! I was nervous about getting on since like the cable cars, the lifts are constantly moving so you have to be quick about getting on.
But we managed to get on safely although it didn't really feel secure since the only safety bar is quite far out from your body and is more like a handle bar. Our feet were also suspended so we made sure to tie our laces tight.
There also weren't any seat belts and the lifts were moving fairly quickly and going higher. I guess this is what ski lifts are like. I made sure to hold my belongings safe lest I drop something below me.
Once we got used to it though it was pretty relaxing. This one didn't feel like it went as high as the cable cars, I guess because they have to build the extra netting below in case someone/something fell so they can't build the lift tracks too high.
It was a nice ride though but it was a little concerning to see some of the lifts slanting to one side due to the uneven weight distribution. But I guess it just gave us an excuse to cuddle closer together in the middle.
The sun was setting and the lights were coming on by the time we reached the other side.
Sean was getting hungry so we decided to go get some dinner before the peak dinner crowd.
I was hungry for something warm and there weren't that many warm options in the vicinity other than KFC so that's where we headed.
The prices were actually pretty reasonable for being in a theme park.
I think we ordered the Lenny Chicken Pack which came with 2 pieces of Original chicken, 1 biscuit, cajun fries and a drink.
I haven't had a biscuit like this in a long while and it's more like a scone but it was nice and savoury.
We sat there eating our meal and resting our feet for quite a while and I might've dozed off a little because of all the walking. By the time we were ready to go it was dark out and the crowd had come in.
The lights had come on by now and people were still screaming their lungs out on this spinning ride.
But we were pretty done and tired so we started making our way towards the exit.
On the way out we took a look in this huge sweet shop.
Everything was so colourful it really felt like we were in some fairy tale.
We also came across a very fancy-looking Starbucks that was surprisingly crowded. The barista bar looked like a hotel reception desk.
There was quite a line of people buying coffee even at night. I guess Koreans are really addicted to coffee, which also explains the numerous cafes around.
This particular Starbucks had some exclusive merchandise specific to Everland which was pretty cool.
Although they did look quite basic like this mug.
It was fully dark now and the lights only came from the shops. Now that it was night it was also quite cold and chilly out, and being in a spacious and slightly mountainous area, the winds were strong.
We took some last few shots to commemorate our long day in Everland.
It's definitely the biggest theme park we've ever been to and my whole body was exhausted from all the walking.
We didn't notice at the time but we discovered they had a supermarket right as we were about to leave!
What a shame too, since we could've bought snacks and ate while we walked.
It was almost time for our bus to leave so we made our way to the carpark where our shuttle was waiting.
I was so exhausted that I fell asleep immediately on the bus. I don't think I even felt the bus moving.
I think we arrived back in Seoul by 9pm and we were still pretty hungry so we bought some takeout from our now favourite gimbap place - Ssada Gimbap!
We tried different dishes this time, like ramyeon, beef rice and a side of crispy seaweed vermicelli rolls.
The inside of the seaweed rolls had glass vermicelli noodles in them so it was literally just a carb roll but it was pretty good.
But that's it for our adventure in Everland! It was a very long day of fun and adventure!
Thanks for reading and tune in next week for more fun times in our first trip to Seoul!
To find out more about me, check out my intro post here!
Check out my previous post in this series!
TacoCat’s Travels #251 (Seoul): Finding Magic in Blood City? 💀🌟