People often have a bit of a misconception with Ocean Park in that it's two sections separated by the cable car. That's not strictly true. There are actually multiple areas, with the cable car getting you over the main hump of the mountain and away from the flat main entrance area.
These days, there's also Thrill Mountain, which itself is a flat area perched quite high up and best accessed by the funicular that goes
through the mountain from the main entrance. From there, you can then walk down to the other areas, which are basically scattered over the western and southern sides of the hill.
There's no way for guests to access the southern side of the park without taking either the cable car or the funicular, though there are maintenance/emergency access paths connecting the upper and lower areas. There's an old entrance below the mine train area which is still used for coach trips, but is otherwise defunct at the moment, though it could obviously be used to evacuate guests from the park in case of some emergency.
The cable car only actually goes as far as the level this picture was taken from:
The station is much further to the left of where this picture was taken from, but at roughly the same level. To get down to Dragon and the other rides down there, there's no option but to take a series of hills and steps.
It's a similar story with the mine train and log flume, which are in a completely different area again:
Luckily, these are accessible via a series of huge escalators - the second longest outdoor escalator system in the world.
Basically, it's a bit of a workout if you're planning to get everything done.
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