Gold Coast TR: Day 1 - Our Own Private Personal Park

• Author: Mike
• Filed under: Geeky, Reports, Theme Parks
• Date: Thursday, February 15, 2007

So back a couple of months ago I mentioned that I was going to the Gold Coast with family for a few days of non-stop theme parks. Then a family emergency came up hours before I was set to leave and everything had to be cancelled. About a month later plans were made to actually go on this trip, and this finally started today. Currently I’m in an apartment glancing at Sea World into the distance, typing on the best wireless internet provider in Australia (good ol’ DLINK, you never let me down!). Here is day one in a nutshell.

Rather then flying out of Tullamarine straight to Coolengatta, it proved cheaper to fly out of the horrible little Avalon airport to Brisbane and drive the hour or so to the Gold Coast. We decided to get the most out of our days this trip by having an early start, going straight to a “world”, then checking in. Cheap flight was at 9am getting in a 10, meaning we’d get to the park around 10:45 or so. I was woken this morning at about 5:45 and flicked the television on to hopefully get me out of bed. Rather then the familiar Full Frontal that greats me every morning (and prompts me to turn the other shoulder and go back for more zees), a Conan repeat was on. After watching him make fun of Eva Langoria for a little while, I got up and threw on a shirt and shorts. Trip begins now.

The drive to Avalon was standard, fair bit of traffic for six in the morning but no major hassle. We got to the airport at about twenty past seven, with check-in closing in ten minutes we figured there’d be no major issues, most people would have already checked in and we would simply rock up, check the bags and be on our way. Wrong! Greeted with a major line, a lack of staff and numerious customers with issues (they have a weight restriction for a reason, no they are not going to wave the fine) we slowly progressed through the queue before finally checking in. A quick trip through security then straight onto the plane.

The flight was pretty uneventful (how you prefer it I guess). A little bit of turbulence mid way though but nothing crazy. Everyone in my party had forgot to bring gum, mentos or a pillow to chew on through take off which was a little annoying, but to my surprise my ears were fine. Arrived in Brisbane on time. I haven’t been to many airports, but I will say that Brisbane Domestic is the nicest one I’ve seen. The place is laid out really well and it looks quite nice to boot.

With the bags in the boot, our next stop was Sea World. We drove past White Water World, Dreamworld, MovieWorld and Wet’n'Wild, noticing new and classic attractions. Playing the fool, I pointed out most of the stores that were familiar, and many that were not. “Sizzler!”, I shrieked. We finally got to Sea World at about eleven and I noticed that the car park was about a third full. This was going to be a good day.

After having our passes processed, we walked around, looking at the shops only stopping for a few charros to tide out food cravings. We went for the Bavarian Cream and the classic Cinnamon, both of them quite good (I preferred the Bavarian myself). We looked at the rides and noticed the humoungus Sea World Eye observation wheel. It really towered over all in the park. Despite this, my sister and I went for a ride on an old favourite, flume ride Viking’s Revenge.

This is where the day really became good. Went to line up.. no line!? Well.. not quite, there was a one boat wait. You don’t hear me complaining. To make things better, we found that no-one else wanted to ride, so we were given our own boat. Ship it! Two minutes later we were soaked, and I realised that wearing a light blue tee wasn’t the greatest idea if I was going on water rides. The weather was great however, not too hot but just warm enough to dry me off.

With that bit of acceleration in our stomachs, the next ride had to be Corkscrew. So we go up to the queue, sure enough - two people are ahead of us. Awesome. What made it even better was the super cool ride-op who was allowing re-rides without re-queing, provided that those in the queue got their first pick on seats. After the people in front decided to take seats 1A and 1B, we went to the back and took the seats in 11A and 11B, back car front row. Now the Corkscrew isn’t the most amazing coaster in the world but it’s a damn lot of fun, and you are kidding yourself if you disagree. I had a lovely pop of airtime over the loop and another on the second corkscrew. With that done, we went straight for seats 3A and 3B on a re-ride to see if sitting down the front was better or worse. While the ride doesn’t give as much in the front as it does in the back, the speed rush makes up for it.

From there it was time for a quick ride on the Pirate Ship. For a ride that would have a total capacity of about sixty, the five of us that boarded had a ball, yelling and screaming like fools (even if that was mainly me). I was loving this - it was like we had our own private theme park ready for us to ride at any time. Lines? What on earth are those!?

Feeling a bit queasy, we decided that it would be time for some proper lunch and decided to go up the front to watch the water ski show and grab a bite. I stuck with a very nice Club Sandwich, while my sister had a over-cheesed and over-priced personal pizza with my mum having a salad roll. Similar to the pizza was the over-cheesed water ski show Waterski Wipeout (although this was intentional). A few laughs (and I mean a few), a few cute girls and a few cool stunts, although I’d be happy to sit their and watch the guys on the wakeboards go at it for twenty minutes.

After that it was time for a few more rides and a look at the attractions. We had a look at Dugong Discovery, where I saw a string ray trying to attack the glass (as opposed to a guess, I guess). After a quick ice cream, a quick ride around the Sea World Railway was done (which I swore previously had commentary). From their, we decided to hit the Sea World Eye where we ran into our first line of the day. Fortunately it was short, and we were locked in our cabin five minutes later.

The views that the ride gives are great, but to be totally honest it didn’t seem that high despite being so large. Also, while the views are great by the third time around I had enough of it (as did the Kiwi boy riding with his parents). Something that’s great to ride once, and never again. From their we went to the now-operating Bermuda Triangle. The ride was down for some reason in the morning, but with the fire shooting out the top it was time to give it a go. With that said, the ride still sucks donkey balls and is much better when you pretend the plot is about Scientology and give it a Mystery Science Theatre 30000 style commentary (somehow whenever I ride BT, the speaker in the boat never works. Today was no exception.)

At this stage, everyone was tired and had enough, despite the time only being around two. Most of the crowd seemed to agree meaning that rides were left on their own. I was able to jump straight onto Viking’s Revenge despite being a single rider (and getting my own boat to boot), and Corkscrew was a one train wait with any choice of seats I wanted (I ended up going for 11B and stapling myself in the process, giving me the uncomfortable ride). At about 3:30 we left (along with most of the crowd) and headed to our apartments to check in.

Everyone was stuffed. Early start combined with a long day of activity doesn’t work great together, so we were all ready to curl up for some sleep. Despite this, we went out to the local shopping centre to see what was nearby and stock up on a few groceries while we were at it. Going out for dinner wasn’t an option, it was going to be take-away and it had to be good. I grabbed myself a four-pack of Absoult Cut at the cheapest price I’ve ever seen it at ($10, not even on special - oh ship it!) and look at the potential choices for tea.

Despite Nandos being in the complex (and Nandos is only second to Oporto as far as fast food chicken goes), we decided to pick this hidden away Chinese place that the locals seemed to be flocking to - with good reason. I won’t go into all the details of the dinner, but the curry puffs and the long and short soup were very very good. Thumbs up from me.

Tomorrow we will be attacking Warner Brothers Movie World with full force. Superman is down for maintenance but with Batwing, Scooby Doo and Wild West Falls in action, I can’t see myself having a bad day, and if Sea World was any indication we made not have to wait a while to jump on each of them either. See you soon.