Everland

For Labor Day, we found out that Everland was offering a foreigner discount.  We also found out that it was NOT a Korean Holiday, just an American Holiday.  Since we pretty much avoid all things Korean on Korean Holidays due to the massive insane crowds, we were excited to go the Everland in hopes of less lines and less crowds.  Kevin had the day off and the weather wasn't too blazing hot, so we left the house about 8:30 to make it to Everland before it opened at 10:00.  We were expecting traffic and getting lost, but we did neither and found ourselves there about an hour early.  We took the time to lather on sunscreen, get snacks organized and take pictures.

Now, you are probably wondering what it Everland?!?  Everland is like a Korean Disneyland.  (Think Walmart instead of Sam's Club).  The park has rides, shows, parades, fireworks, beautiful gardens, lights, animals, Pandas, decorations and more.  It's like a zoo in one section, a fair in another, a botanical garden, and throw in a few wood rickety roller coasters.  With the day already being bright and hot, we figured the animals would be more awake in the evenings, so we saved that for last.

With Halloween being next month, the park was decked out in Halloween decorations.  Beautiful and amazing decorations were everywhere.  It really confused me, because Koreans don't celebrate Halloween.  I asked my friend about this and she said they do it for the Americans.  

We went straight to the children's area of the park.  It is filled with rides that Little A can ride for sure.  When we got there, only a few rides were up an running.  

Most of the signs said 'Open at 12:00'.  That's something I have learned about Koreans, they will open or close a store whenever they want regardless of what the store hours are.  I guess with it being a Monday and not a holiday for them, the workers just opened a select few rides.  It was really frustrating because there wasn't much to see or do.  The kids were able to ride on a few rides, and I found a ball house that Monster had a blast in.

Another super crazy thing about Everland, was the height restrictions.  Most of the rides allowed infants and toddlers as long as an adult was with them.  Monster joined his daddy and sisters on the pang pang ride that jumped up and down.  I was so worried he would jump right out of the seat!  Kevin kept a firm grip on the Monster and he was laughing during the entire ride.

I got lost in the Rose Gardens!  I absolutely loved the gorgeous flowers and lights.  There were so many gardens. At the very end of the garden was a huge castle covered in lights.  In front of the castle was a flower heart.  I definitely wanted a picture with my love there!  The love of my life.

 I absolutely love parades!  Everland had two parades.  One parade was around 2:00 and the other was a light parade at night.  We got seats early and in the shade for the 2:00 parade.  It reminded me of the Disneyland Parade.  There were beautiful floats with Everland's mascots and generic Fairy Tale creatures.  There were amazing street performers with music and dancing.  At one point a street dancer grabbed M&M and had her dance with her in the parade.  That was defiantly a highlight for M&M.

 The older girls wanted to hit up some of the more adventurous rides that Little A was too small for, so Little A, Monster and I walked around and went exploring.  We found a petting zoo.  I'm pretty sure Koreans don't understand the concept of a petting zoo.  There were only three small areas with animals in the gigantic petting zoo area.  There were sheep, rabbits and hamsters.  All three animals had a fence surrounding them with big signs showing a picture of touching the animals with a big X.  Basically a non-touching petting zoo????  Little Sis was super disappointed about that.  We did find a gorgeous bog that had real water lilies!  It was so amazingly gorgeous and one of the neatest things I have seen.  I've never seen real water lily before!

 It was getting closer to 5:00, so we went to the animal section of the park.  The first stop was at the bird house.  Inside you can pay 3000 won for a tiny thing of bird food so the little parakeets will eat from your hand.  When the kids started begging to buy the bird seed, I said no way.  But then daddy rescued them and got two bags for them to share.  He said it was part of the experience.   In the end, it was pretty cool.  Little Monster got a huge kick out of the birds and kept trying to swat at them.

The next ride was an African Safari ride.  There was about a 40 min wait, but we were told it was worth the wait, and you better believe it was. We saw so many lions and tiger and bears, Oh my!  There were more lions then I have ever seen in my life.  The bears would come straight up to the bus and the driver would throw them food from his window.  The bears would clap, or blow kisses and do other well trained moves.  It was something to behold!

After the Safari ride we were super excited to see what other animals the park had, and to my utter horror, all animal exhibits were closing and locking the gates!  Even though Everland was open until 9:00, all animal exhibits closed at 5:00.  Say what?!?!?  I was so sad and felt so bad!  We were all so disappointed that we didn't get to see more of the animals of the park.  I apologized profusely to the kids and then we made our way to a restaurant in the park for dinner.

After dinner, the kids went back and rode their favorite rides.  We also saw the light parade.  It was significantly more crowded then the day parade, and we ended up not having good seats for that one.  We did pull a Korean though, and had our kids just shove their way to the front.   After the parade, we made our way back to the gardens to see the garden lights.  The castle had lights that were set to music.  We watched the light show, sang along to the songs and danced.  I'm sure the Korean thought we were more a spectacle then the lights themselves.  Next to the castle was a shadow box for taking pictures.  What a fun way to end such a fun day, kissing the man I love!