Seoul Land
22nd September 2007
On paper at least Seoul Land appears to fit very much into the category of only for the credit whores. This just goes to show that you should never judge a book by its cover. While it is true that the four coasters and a powered were nothing to write home about, we nevertheless had a lot of fun exploring the rest of the park. Best of all, the Americans were pandered to by the presence of not one but two branches of Dunkin Donuts, which sold all the usuals as well as the local speciality; positively revolting green tea donuts.
Black Hole 2000 (#1086) covers a large area around the front of the park, with the brake run neatly positioned over the main entrance gate. If the ride was less painful this might have worked to the parks advantage, but it probably is more fun if you've got shorter legs than I do. My abiding memory of it is the amount of effort needed to raise the restraints in the station; the overhead bars were very heavy, and it seems improbable that children would have been able to open them unaided.
The best coaster in the park was also an oddity. Crazy Mouse (#1087) looks like it might be a local design built with parts scavenged from decommissioned Arrow and Vekoma coasters. Amazingly it works rather well, making up for its somewhat lacklustre design but a complete absence of jarring. Westerners should beware that you will probably not fit in the back row of the car, but the majority of the locals (an indeed the children this ride is aimed at) will not have a problem.
Columbia Double Loop Coaster (#1088) had the same rolling stock as the Black Hole 2000, and this cannot be considered as an advantage. Having said that, it did ride somewhat better than its brother as the trains were able to negotiate loops more effectively than corkscrews. Once was still more than enough mind. That left just the Rudolph 2 Loop Coaster (powered) and the Kiddy Coaster (#1089). The latter was a tight squeeze but everyone seemed to manage it. The layout was a figure eight, not unlike a big apple, but with a small drop before the big one and no trim brake. A train full of adults meant some serious forces in the final turn.
We tried a pretty limited target shooting ride that was memorable mainly because the guns were fully operational in the ride station. The reader should be able to interpolate what happened when a group of coaster enthusiasts entered the building! There was also a rather unique Haunted House being guided by an actor who kept leaping out at the school children in front of us and making them jump. We decided to join in in the interests of good international relations. The Shot'n'Drop ride was also a lot of fun, especially for the photos off the side. One of the car seats was occupied by a full size mannequin presumably for the hallowe'en season.
Quite a few of the group finished up the morning with rides on the Sky-X sky coaster, not least because the pricing was very competitive compared with what one might expect in Europe or the USA. It was intriguing to see absolutely no locals riding it at all; in the first two hours in the park we were not even sure it was open, but sure enough, it was. As my fourth sky coaster I knew exactly what to expect, but quite a few of the group were doing their first one, not least Emily, our long suffering tour guide. She liked it, but noted that her legs were shaking afterwards which was not normal; yes it is! I've yet to meet the person who can ride a sky coaster for the first time without shaking afterwards.
