Lotte World, South Korea’s largest theme-park, announced this week that it will close for the next four months to inspect and repair its facilities, reported Robert Niles of ThemeParkInsider.com.
Apparently, an official inspection of the place found “severe problems,” including “the roller coaster ride, the movie theater, the swimming pool and the bumper car arena,” reported the Korea Herald. A report prepared by Dongyang Structural Engineers Group and the Korea Disasters Research Institute, warned of “the possible collapse of ceilings and electric shocks or fires, and “advised Lotte World to immediately renew its aging facilities.”
Lotte World, which eclipsed the attendance of Universal Studios Florida, SeaWorld Orlando and Disney’s California Adventure in 2005, and now receives about 8 million visitors each year, includes some genre attractions:
- The Haunted House
- Fantasy Dream
- The Comet Express
- The Adventures of Sinbad
- and more.
More than just an amusement park, Lotte World is a recreation complex based in Seoul comprised of a large indoor theme park, an outdoor amusement park on an island linked by monorail, shopping malls, a hotel, a Korean folk museum, sports facilities and movie theaters.
According to Niles, the park “has suffered several highly publicized accidents in recent months. The incidents, coupled with poor maintenance, earned the park the nickname ‘Death World’ among local scolds.”
