My friend Janelle invited me to join her Mentors Club Cell Group at Ocean World, a water theme park during my second week in Korea. It was so much fun and really cheap thanks to a group discount we received.
I previously was not aware that there were water parks in South Korea. Apparently there is another popular water theme park named Caribbean Bay elsewhere. Ocean World is based around an Egyptian theme. Most of the designs inside the park echo Egyptian things. The weather was warm during our visit and I was surprised to discover Ocean World is actually located in the mountains.
When you enter you are given a rubber watch. This watch serves as your access key to both a shoe locker and a bigger locker to store all your things in. I’m accustomed to paying extra for these services and the inside of the locker rooms feel more like a resort as well.
You are also provided with a ticket for a life-jacket. Most rides will require you to take it off. There is a policy in the theme park that you must wear a hat or swimming cap, while walking around…however nobody bothered us about not having one. I think one of the reasons the locals wore hats was to keep out the sun (Korean people like most Asians prefer whiter skin color tones). Some people even wore raincoats on in the shining sun, an odd sight indeed.
The park is surrounded with saunas and pools of water. One of the things I found to be quite enjoyable was the gadgets in the lines of the ride that allow you to shoot out water at those below or dump buckets of water on those in line.
There is a basket that dumps 1.5 tons of water on top of the people lying below. The basket slowly collects water until it finally tips over and soaks the crowd.
Most of the rides were fun to get on. The wait times averages 15-30 minutes with a few exceptions for especially popular rides. The slides were the most fun, in my opinion. The tube rides had some interesting moments where I was afraid we would tip over, but we always made it through in the end. The wave pool was fun, but not quite as crazy as Wet N’ Wild in Orlando, Florida (that wave pools get intense at the deep end) .
There are a good amount of rides to occupy you for most of the day and also restaurants for when you get tired. Starbucks even found their way into this water park. As is the case with most theme parks, you’ll pay more for food inside the theme park. I had a small ebi-don (shrimp with rice) with a drink at a stand in the middle of the park for about 6,000 won (not enough to count as a meal, but enough to keep me full throughout the rest of the day).
The memories made at Ocean World were awesome and I’m glad I had the opportunity to visit this park while studying abroad.
