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Tuesday, March 24, 2015

A Trip to Lotte World


South Korea has a little of everything, and that includes amusement parks. They do not have “little” amusement parks, however - they go for broke! Lotte World is a multi-level, indoor/outdoor extravaganza of entertainment. Instead of Mickey and Minnie, they have Lotte and Lorry (above). We found a nice, quiet Tuesday in the off season to visit (because who likes fighting through crowds of people and waiting in line? Not this family!).

I toyed with the idea of driving there and then we just opted for the ease of the subway. It took about 45 minutes, but we hopped off at Jamsil Station and exited directly into the adjoining shopping mall (and a European sculpture garden, it seemed). 


This entire complex has two ginormous malls, the park, an outdoor lake, an aquarium, and more. We were on a mission, so straight to Lotte World we went.



As you enter, you get a sense of the “multiple levels” part and can gaze down at the full sized ice rink (it’s open year round). We headed up to the top floor, and after consulting with the map for a few seconds, decided to just wing-it.



We had fun on some of the kiddie rides, and Michael especially liked the train.



Then we headed into the Insect Zone...mwah ha ha haaaaa...


It was actually pretty large and had more than just insects.


It did have this pretty cool station that turned real cricket sounds into classical music:


Ants!

Look, Mommy! I'm a chipmunk!

As with all things Korea, there were plenty of cute photo op stops:




The space ended with this awesome climbing structure:


Then it was time for more rides - action shot!




We headed into the Mirror maze, after being given plastic gloves to wear - 
can't leave pesky finger prints on all of those mirrors!



We tested our ninja/spy skills...we may or may not have failed miserably amongst a lot of giggling.


We paused to watch some ice skaters spinning and speed skating:


And found a place on a lower level for lunch - here's my tasty pork cutlet with udon:


Then...more rides!




And a live, musical show...in Korean...but it was fun to watch.




You guessed it - more rides!






Then we headed up to another level, for the Lotte Folk Museum (yes, there is a museum!)




The museum went through the different periods of Korean history, from prehistoric to the Three Kingdoms (Goguryeo, Baekje and Silla) to the Joseon Dynasty.



There were some great displays, relics, and models throughout:






They also had some traditional activities to try:






The next room housed a giant miniature village:







And we exited through a performance hall, where I snapped some pics of the musical instruments:






When we re-entered the amusement park, it was just in time to see the afternoon parade - the theme was a masquerade fantasy:





And then, as we had promised, we headed into the Pororo Penguin play area for the little guy to bounce and run:






He declared this full day trip a success!



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