Gold Coast Part 1: THEME PARKS

Gold Coast

After arriving at the Gold Coast Holiday Park we quickly set up the van and headed over to Movie World (literally 5 minutes drive away) and rode on some great rides for a couple of hours before it closed. This was the start of an exhausting and thrilling week of roller coasters, water slides, Super Hero’s and dress ups. Mel’s family (Mum, step-dad, Sister, Bro-in-law and nephew) also met us there and enjoyed their time with us at Movie World, Sea World and Wet & Wild and were as equally exhausted by the end of the week but when you holiday with the Stevo’s you gotta keep up! On our second day our family friends The Thompsons surprised us. They had secretly planned their holiday to QLD to coincide with our stay which was brilliant as our kids had a ball being doted on from their daughter Ruby and the adults had more laughs and people to drink with! During our downtime from the theme parks we sat poolside, ate, drank and relaxed. Thanks Dave, Liz and Ruby for a great week.

For anyone wanting accommodation close to Movie World, Wet & Wild and Dreamworld we would recommend the Gold Coast Holiday Park (Big 4 for those of you who are members). As we mentioned before it’s a very close drive to all three parks and is an easy 22 minute drive to Sea World. For the shoppers, there is a Harbour Town DFO only 17 minutes away and the surf brand factory outlets only 11 minutes away (according to google maps). The facilities are great with two pools and a waterslide, jumping pillow, farm animals to feed, a poolside café and Cabanas with sun lounges surrounding the pool (which we are hoping to replicate when we get back home). Oh and the amenities have a massive aquarium which is so mesmerising that you forget that you were on your way to the toilet! There is a variety of accommodation ranging from unpowered sites to villas. It’s expensive but worth it if you want to be close to the theme park action all week.

There are a few options to buying theme park tickets and we opted for 28 day passes (excluding Dream World) for $89 where we could visit as many times as we wanted in a month and boy did we get our monies worth. We visited all three parks Ten times, going early morning and late afternoon rather than all day. Movie World is full of Super Hero’s and Mel and Camo were in their element. The rides were fantastic especially the Stunt show, Superman and Scooby Doo ride (which we got Nan Nan and Grandpa on as well). Camo was a maniac with the rides and wanted to go on anything and everything and threw a ‘Harry Crumpet’ when he was told he was too short for some of the rides. He even asked Mel if he had grown taller overnight so that he could go on the rides the next day. The kids were spoilt by the family and were bought some capes and masks which made them stand out in the crowd especially when the Super Heros were out and about as they stopped to have photos and high five them. An absolute highlight for the kids and some extra eye candy for the adults. Some of the rides were Hell scary and had Mel screaming but brave Camo kept his cool and just smiled all the way down! Wet & Wild was fun but the water was cool and some of the rides were closed but Sea World was a winner with Taylah. For her upcoming birthday her grandparents paid for a dolphin experience. We couldn’t stop Taylah’s beaming smile and she learnt a lot from the experience. She was able to pat and feed “RB”, the dolphin and it was something she will never forget.

We are finally here!!!

With Green Lantern, Supergirl, Wonder Woman and Flash

Stunt Riders Show (Movie World)

Mammoth Falls (Wet n Wild)

You don't get the opportunity to take many pictures at Wet n Wild because you are not allowed to take cameras on the rides, and obviously your phone will not be in your pocket. Usually they will be kept in a bag or in a locker if you don't have anyone to watch them.

We spent our 10th anniversary at Wet n Wild, not the romantic balloon ride we had always talked about but nevertheless we spent the day having fun with loved ones and watching our kids have an awesome time (yes we had fun as well!) so it was definitely a memorable anniversary. Any babysitting offers when we get home would be appreciated.

Watching the Penguins (Sea World)

Cuddly Polar Bears (Sea World)

Riding the Skyrail (Sea World)

Taylah's Dolphin Experience (Sea World)

It was a little disappointing that Movie World and Wet n Wild were apparently doing maintenance on some of the rides in preparation for school holidays. A massive kids section was fenced off at Wet n Wild which would have tripled the things for Camo to do. Then all of a sudden Movie World has extra carriages running on roller coasters running in the school holidays cutting the waiting time in half. We are not sure if going in the school holidays would have been any busier.

Overall, the week was an adrenaline filled fantastic week and it was great catching up with family and friends but it is time to move further south and see more of OZ. We are on our way to Yamba to recover from our Theme Park overdose.

TIP: BYO your own lunch to the theme parks. Don’t make it and forget it like we did on one of the days. It cost us $48. Ouch! Get on the rides when the parades or shows are on as there are no line-ups for the rides. 

Buy some prawns from the "Co-op" which is 1 roundabout away from Sea World. At $25 per kilo for medium size prawns straight off the boat, you can't go wrong.

The crew