Still no improvement at the Jeju starlight world and planetarium (제주 별빛누리공원), Jeju, South Korea

Posted on | April 2, 2009 |

I went back to the Jeju planetarium (Jeju Life story here) last night and it is still in the running for being one of the poorest tourist attractions of 2009, despite opening only a couple of weeks ago.

- Since my first visit some attempts have been made to improve the attraction’s organization. For example, to negate the initial response of “Where do I go from here?” upon entering, there are red boundary ropes that lead to the front desk. Thing is, if you want to get to the elevator or toilets on the ground floor you then have to squeeze back between these ropes and some ill-placed shrubs.

After you enter past the front desk, there's nothing more beyond except the 4D theatre. Everything else is on the second floor. And check out the gap you have to squeeze through to get to the elevator (it's worse if you're coming from the front desk).

After you enter past the front desk, there's nothing except an illuminated walkway and 4D theatre. Everything else is on the second floor. And check out the gap you have to squeeze through to get to the elevator.

- They still do not have any English language support. Even the printed timetable of events is in the Korean language only.

- The large open space of the cafeteria doesn’t have any table and chairs yet. So to eat any food you have to sit in a darkened room with brightly illuminated seats. This is the only seating, which is pretty small considering there’s a lot of waiting around for the various things to begin.

No chairs or tables. No food and drink.

- Quite possibly the poorest section is the 4D theatre. It runs every thirty minutes but lasts less than seven minutes. Does the content have anything to do with space? No. It’s an Aladdin themed, adventure that has you racing through an Arabian palace with a genie in tow to rescue the princess. Actually, I don’t think you ever rescue the princess after all of it. I asked if the content would change in the future but the staff didn’t seem to know.

- I had to sit through another film in the dome shaped movie theatre. The most impressive aspect was the trailer before the movie began. The main feature was some poor introduction to space and moon landings using computer generated graphics. Beware.

- The telescopes, however, did revive some hope. But not before I’d stood in a narrow corridor for at least fifteen minutes, with no seating and with the door opening on to the roof (because it’s one of the only ways to get to the main observatory) on a cold night and windy night in early April.

Beyond the red rope lies the quickest and easiest route to the main observatory. However, because of that rope you have to go to the third floor via another route and cross the roof to enter it. Which isn't a great things to put your patrons through on a cold, windy night.

Beyond the red rope lies the quickest and easiest route to the main observatory. However, because of that rope you have to go to the third floor and cross the roof to enter it. Which isn't a great thing to put your patrons through on a cold, windy night.

Telescopes

London, Ontario, Canada

Attending the University of Western Ontario (UWO) master’s in journalism program.

Still no improvement at the Jeju starlight world and planetarium (제주 별빛누리공원), Jeju, South Korea

Comments

Recently Written

Categories

Archives

Blogroll

Delicious Links