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So it soft opened this afternoon around 2:00pm Solid ride, cycle approximately 3mins. I was at the front of the que for my second ride and did get a light mist at points but I certainly don’t feel that was an issue.

Some photos of the site today:

A fair bit of pooling at ride exit (which is between the ops booth and the que). Slightly wet floor at the front of the general single que. Certainly less than the photo above, my understanding is the fountains have been "turned down" since initial staff testing. Ride Express que runs along the inside of the ride and was dry. 2 staff checking restraints, didn't take too long. As soon as everyone exited from the previous cycle the double seat que was admitted, then the ride express then single. Single seats simply have the restraint between legs, you can do your own seatbelt (*cough* Trident).

MW needs to do a stocktake and check Greg didn't take some microphones with him when he left.

Few images of the Big Red Boat/Wheel sites from today. They were testing BRB w/ water dummies a bit ago, no photos of it testing tho ‘cause I only saw it briefly when headed toward shelter from the storm.

I dont mind this pricing, think it’s low enough for casual/infrequent visitors while encouraging anyone that would be local and visit more often to simply fork out for an Annual Pass.

Did the old Shockwave sign’s letters glow?

They have a custom B&M invert too! Re Everland, T-Express is being retracked till April so just keep that mind.

@themagicianI believe Ardent is holding back with its approach to DW’s recovery. To me it looks like Ardent believe or did believe they could get back to 2.4m guest with half a park. Not only does DW require getting the attractions back to where they were before 2016 but it’s essential DW adds to the pre 2016 attractions just for DW to overcome the damage and negativity Ardent caused to DW’s reputation, to get anywhere close to 2.4m. I wonder if GW can hang on that long.

Korea Generally: If you get a hotel close to Line 2 (green line) you can get to pretty much anywhere in Seoul quickly. Download the Jihacheol (지하철) app for subway routes before you go so you can choose a hotel close to the things you want to do. Have cash. Korea doesn't really use tap-to-pay. They still use swipe or chip/pin with signatures, and merchants (especially at Lotte World Mall) will offer to do the currency conversion for you and will sting you 5% - sometimes the staff will just accept this on your behalf and it adds up. If you've got a 28 Degrees Mastercard or something with no foreign fees, it can help. American Express is usually the most limited. Mastercard is usually fine and Visa is ok too. Korea is a very safe country, so you can carry some extra cash without having to worry. Subways are the best way to get around. You will need a T-Money card and can load money onto it at every station if you need to. It also works for local busses if you're brave enough to catch one. You don't need to tap-off with the bus though. The bus is a fixed-fare system, so you tap on and it's the same amount regardless of travel distance. There is a T-Money card for tourists called M-Pass, but only get this if you're going to be travelling by train a LOT during a single day. It's 15,000 Won for one day with up to 20 trips. This can be a saving if you use it, but most people won't use that much. It's better to just get a regular t-Money card from a convenience store for 3.500 Won or at a station and then charge it as much as you think you'll need. From Incheon Airport - The airport is quite far (an hour) from Seoul. If you're staying at any of the major hotels in the city (or near them) don't bother with the train, just get a KAL Limousine bus. You can buy tickets at the airport, or if you fly with KAL you can buy them on the plane from the duty-free catalogue. They will drop you directly at the main hotels, and you can walk to another place nearby if you like. It costs about $12-15 but is worth it. The seats are very wide and comfortable, there is free wifi and aircon, and you don't need to fight for a seat. When returning to Incheon Airport, if you're flying with KAL, Asiana or a few other airlines, you can use the 'City Airport'. It's not really an airport, it's just a check-in desk and immigration at Seoul Station (and possibly Coex Mall, but I think that is closed at the moment). You do the same things as you would at the airport, check/drop bags, get your passport scanned, get boarding passes. Then you buy a Limousine bus ticket and travel to the airport. Your bags will follow you on the bus and will get loaded straight onto the plane. The best part is you get to skip the security line and go through the 'diplomat' line, which has almost no wait. You'll need to be there at least 3.5 hours prior to departure, but you'd need to leave that early to get to the airport anyway. It's very convenient and I don't know why more cities don't have it. Lotte World is at Jamsil (pronounced Jahm-Shill) station on the Green Line. Get there early at opening, plan to stay until closing. It's going to be a massive day, but it's a great park and it's worth it. We were there from 9:30am untill 11pm and there were still things we didn't get to do. There are a lot of hidden areas that are really nicely themed - like the kids area is Disney-level. The lunch-time parade is ok, but the evening light parade is incredible. Better than Disney parks IMO, so don't miss that. It takes place above and around the ice rink. The ice rink is technically not part of Lotte World, but you can go there for a second day if you're just visiting the area. It's not too expensive, you get proper leather lace up skates, and when I went, foreigners got 30% discount - which is roughly equivalent to free skate hire. You need to wear gloves on the ice, but they cost about $1. Get there as soon as the park opens and IMMEDIATELY go to Atlantis. Do not wait, do not look around, do not look at a map. Know where it is and how to get there and go straight from the entrance. This is the best and most popular ride in the park and within 15 minutes of opening it will have a wait of 90 minutes to 2 hours or more. You will have a lot more time to enjoy the park if you're not waiting for Atlantis. The line for Comet Express is deceptive. The outside line is just a queue for the inside line. It's a pretty basic indoor spinning coaster. The Gyro Drop and Gyro swing are fun, but have scream guards to keep the neighbours happy. so don't expect to get wind in your hair. Also, don't vomit. French Revolution now has VR. It sometimes fails so you could get a VR experience or you could get a blindfold. The mystery makes it even more fun. There are a lot of small 4D simulators and shooting theatres that are actually pretty cool and you should check them out. They can be a bit hidden out of the way on the lower levels of the indoor section. Everland is a great park but it's very spread out and there is a lot of walking so be prepared. T-Express is one of the world's greatest wooden coasters. It might even be worth getting a local hotel and getting a multi-day pass. There is a water park and speedway there also, and you can spend a lot of time looking at the animals. It's also quite far from Seoul and depending if you need to get to a station for a shuttle, it can take a couple hours or more. You can get shuttle busses directly from various subway stations including: SOUTH of the river: Sinnonhyeon (line 9 exit 6, Gangnam (line 2 exit 6), Suwon (Line 1 exit 6). The return bus leaves at around 7pm, there is only one. NORTH of the river: Hongik University, Sinchon (don't confuse with Sincheon), Seoul Stationn, Myeongdong, Dongdaemun. There are usually two return busses for some of these stations at around 6:30pm and 8:30pm. You can take the subway. It's a lot of transfers though and if you're not familiar with Korean Subways it can sometimes get confusing, but if you've traveled a lot and understand transfers and can navigate the Jihacheol app, you'll be fine. The shuttle is easiest, but the train allows you to stay later if you want. According to the Jihacheol app you need to go from: Gangnam Station (Line 2, Green) > Jeongja Station (Sinbundang Line, Dark Red) > Giheung Station (Bundang Line, Yellow) > Jeondae Everland Station then take a free shuttle bus. There is parking, so if you're renting a car you can drive there, but good luck driving in Korea. Seoul Land is just outside of Seoul. It was built for the 1988 Olympics and it looks like it. The coasters are old but fun and weave around the forest and the park, but they're hard to squeeze into if you're over 6ft. They're a but like an old arrow or Thunderbolt if it was taken care of. It's a large park with a decent amount to do - especially if you have young kids - built between a couple of mountains in the Seoul Grand Park. Of all the theme parks in Korea, this is in the most beautiful location. It's also fairly cheap and has a lot of great, cheap food options inside. It's about 50,000 Won ($60) for a full day ticket - you can sometimes find discount tickets online for entry after 12pm. I enjoyed the day there, especially some of the dark shooting rides and the double-down log flume. Lines can get long though, so be prepared and have an extra phone battery. This is definitely a park you'll want cash for. You can get there by Subway - take Line 4 to Grand Park and Seoulland station - exit 2. There is an 'elephant' bus that you can pay to drop you at the main gate, but otherwise it's just a pleasant 5 minute walk. Easy to get to, not as well themed as Lotte World and not as big as Everland, but it's a fun and beautiful park. Gyeongju World - this is down near Busan. It's a small local theme park with a standard clone B&M dive coaster. Probably not worth the trek unless you're down that way anyway. Korea is a great place to visit. Not too expensive compared to Japan and much more English Friendly. Lotte World is a great day out, Everland is a hike to get to, but fun and generally more chilled if you don't mind a lot of walking. Seoul Land is a mix of Royal Show and Dreamworld but is worth a visit just to have some fairly classic rides with beautiful scenery.

I'm hearing that by around 12pm, the Ride Express queue was DRENCHED. Magician is correct - wind is a constant thing on the coast. It might not be the same direction or strength, but it is always a factor - something parks should be accounting for. It's not sufficient to design an attraction around absolute calm weather as that almost never happens. Discussion on Parkz is going to ebb and flow (much like the wind) and where there is relevant comparison, other parks are going to get drawn into the discussion for doing similar, comparable things. Trident is very relevant to a discussion about wind not being taken into account. Feel free to scroll on by if you don't want to discuss it. There's one small flaw in your math there. 3 years botched recovery from a bizarre and clueless recovery plan + 3 years covid + 3 years of actually competent and planned recovery = 9 years. It's only the last 3 years of that that makes a difference - and we're only at the end of the first year of that. Let's see where the park is at in 2026. *To be clear, the botched recovery is also their fault, and they should wear it. I'm not saying we should excuse the first three years where they tried to build ampitheatres and shaded seating, lazy rivers and reopening the mine ride, but if we're going to ask where the guests are, where the recovery is - it's happening now... just three years later than it should have (or six, since, if they'd been competent they'd have approached recovery prior to the start of covid).

I think it still comes back to the fact that the GP still have the impression that they haven't replaced all the attractions they closed and the park is looking run down. For the first point, they would be right. They still need another four (at a minimum) attractions to get the ride count back up to what it was pre-2016 (and that's after the addition of Jungle Rush), but they need to have some major hero attractions. The park was known for rides like River Rapids, Rocky Hollow, Wipeout and TOT, and I think after they were all demolished (which I do unfortunately agree needed to happen) that's really when people started to say 'there's nothing to do'. Out of everything that was announced in November last year, I think the only hero attraction is Jungle Rush. Everything else is warranted and adds good value, but most guests aren't going to rush to the park for Dreamland or Flyer. Jungle Rush is probably the only exception to that providing the marketing is pushed really hard and the ride is actually very good. For the second point, I think they have been working very hard over the past couple of years to rectify that, but until they get people back into the park, that perception will remain. I think that's one of the reasons why they have the night markets, to get people into the park to see how good it's looking. The areas of the park they are showing off during the night markets are looking good, however there are areas that still need a lot of work (back of Ocean Parade and former Rocky Hollow area), but that will come in time (but they need to hurry, otherwise it's going to take a lot longer than they hope to get back to the 2.4million guests).

I assume that means it's $10 for unlimited rides each night. I think that's very reasonable and will do very well.

Worth noting that for the day parade Joker and Harley as well as The Justice League have been on foot for awhile now (they also were on those old style "wide berth" floats). I don't doubt there is/was a plan to retire this style of float but they still did have one in operation during the parade (Santa). Overall as others have said, very similar to last year. No Marilyn or Scrooge character this year although there did appear to be more roaming elves. Crowd cap appears similar to last year too, despite being sold out it felt very manageable.

People who visit Sea World, only travel by boat and have never encountered a seatbelt before, so it makes sense.

If we're talking about fair... You've lined up an entire state against just the two capital cities. It isn't really fair to use Brisbane since all the parks are in the GC, but just to put things in perspective "distance" wise - Melbourne: Luna Park (within the city - 20 minutes drive from flinders st station) Gumbuya (approx 1hr away) Funfields (approx 1 hr away) Adventure Park (approx 2 hours away) Sydney: Luna Park (within the city - 13 minutes drive from Sydney Central station) Raging Waters (approx 36 minutes away) Jamberoo (approx 1 hr 41 minutes away) Brisbane No park within the city - will use Roma Street as central point Dreamworld (approx 45 minutes away) Movie World (approx 52 minutes away) Sea World (approx 1 hr 13 minutes away) (all times based on current traffic on google this morning) Just for comparison's sake.

I’m pretty sure Gumbuya World, Funfields and Adventure Park are all non-Luna Parks.