I’ve been wanting to go to Caribbean Bay since I first arrived in South Korea. I love water parks, and the promise of the largest indoor/outdoor water park in the world was very tempting.
…Okay, fine, the promotional song recorded by 2PM and SNSD was able to tempt me more, even before I knew who 2PM and SNSD were.
Since Caribbean Bay is so huge, it has a considerable sized indoor swimming centre too – large enough to keep the park open all year round. So, instead of going during the summer like most do, I went during my winter vacation, after reading about all the special saunas and hot springs they had on the Korean tourism website.
Instead of taking one of the tour buses to get to the park, my friend and I met at Gangnam station and took the #5002 down to Everland. It was a pretty decent ride down there, and everyone on the bus seemed to have the same idea, with everyone getting off at the park.
Long story short: I had an amazing time. Chances are, I probably had a better time in the middle of January in a park 1/8th the size of its full functioning size than I would in the middle of the summer when you would think to go to the park.
First off, and this one is obvious: It was quiet. I went on a Wednesday in the middle of off season. I don’t think many people are thinking “I want to go to a water park!” in the middle of January. But, as the website points out, when it’s off season, Caribbean Bay becomes a spa theme park for families. It’s filled with hot springs, saunas, and lots of great places for kids to play. There were no crowds, no waiting, and it was really relaxing.
The thing with the park in the off season is that… it’s not that thrilling. And most of the rides appeal to small children. So you will be surrounded by pre-schoolers and parents. Personally, I was okay with this, because they didn’t get in my way for the things I DID want to do.
Secondly: It was RELAXING. There was no feeling of needing to conquer every ride, go in every pool. The park was reasonably sized, so you could enjoy everything and do it more than once if you really wanted to. Okay, so there were only four slides an adult could go on. And of those four, only one of them I really liked. But there was no line up. There was no waiting. I could go on it as many times as I liked. As much as I like keeping a really active lifestyle, and keeping busy, I like going at my own speed, so this was perfect.
Third: Because of the lack of people and waiting, I was able to fully appreciate just how much care has gone into making Caribbean Bay a really efficient park. Everything about the change rooms was really cool. The lockers allowed people to come in and out of the change room (I’ve been to some parks where it’s a coin locker, so you drop everything off, and you get no other opportunity to go to your locker until you leave) and the change rooms were really well equipped. Countless showers, hair dryers and all the things you probably left at home and didn’t think of. You could rent EVERYTHING it seems; towels, life vests, even swim caps. I was really impressed at how well everything seemed to run.
The main appeal of Caribbean Bay in the off season was the fact it became a hot spring spa, and it was not a disappointment. There was a lazy river that went around the whole inside of the park, and also went outside. There were entrances to the river outside the building that led to different pools and hot springs, which was a really nice way of getting around (I love lazy rivers). They had special event pools, with different scents in some of the pools. The two I remember the best were the lavender pool (which I loved) and the apple pool (which I didn’t love as much.) There were also lots of really nice hot springs on the 6th floor, none of which I remember the types because I couldn’t see the names. The way that everything was laid out, it was really easy to go from the steaming hot pools to a nice cool pool to relax. Throughout the day, I was able to enjoy all of the hot springs without feeling too overheated, because the lazy river made it really easy to cool down between the pools.
I also really enjoyed the bade pool, which uses German spa techniques, using water jets to help relax and massage muscles. They had different seats around the pool for different spots. Apparently, my skin doesn’t like the pressure, because some jets made me really itchy. But as someone who writes a lot, the one that massaged neck and shoulder muscles was a personal favourite of mine.
There were very few low points to the day. One thing that was a constant annoyance (and humour point) was the rule that swim caps are mandatory. Coming from a culture that doesn’t require them almost ever, my friend and I had a good laugh at how ridiculous the other looked in their swim cap. None of the Koreans seemed to mind though, because they’re so used to having swim caps. We were able to pick up a nice swim cap (that doubles as a souvenir because it says Caribbean Bay on it!) from the 3rd floor gift shop. However, we did learn that “swim cap” is very loosely defined. A lot of the girls were wearing baseball caps and were getting away with that, so I’d suggest that if you’re wanting to feel fashionable.
Speaking of Caribbean Bay fashion, I learned a quick lesson in Korean swimwear fashion: Koreans seem to wear their clothes in the pool. Many of them had shirts or very light jacket/hoodies over their swim suits, and shorts. The girls were pretty well covered. Which made me feel very awkward, in just my swimsuit and my stupid looking swim cap. However, the guys seemed more than comfortable to wear just their trunks. So women, if you’re feeling self-conscious in your swim suit, it’s totally fine to cover up while in the pools.
While I was floating along the lazy river outside, watching the steam curl up into the air from the warm water into the cold January air, I couldn’t help but marvel at the skyline just beyond the fence, outlining pirate ships and water slides that shot into the air. I was at a water park. In January. In South Korea. There was something so strange seeming about it, but at the same time, it all seemed to make sense. It might not have been the regular Caribbean Bay experience, but it was a really unique one, and one I would recommend to everyone else.
As a side note, to all foreign readers seeing this before January 25th: Everland have a great promotion for foreign passport holders. If you go to the Everland Group Ticket booth (NOT THE REGULAR BOOTH) and show this coupon (it can be on your smartphone) then you get 50% off admission! I would go again, even over New Years when it will be really crowded, at this price.