Fun on the Gold Coast: Movie World & Dreamworld

This is a sponsored post for Theme Park Capital.COLLAGE

 

Growing up we lived 16 or so hours from the Gold Coast, and back then being a family of four kids it was expensive to fly, so we dreamed about the Gold Coast. We talked about the theme parks, and I remember lots of my friends doing the same. It seemed like the ultimate holiday.

Then one summer my family packed up and traveled by Tarago those 16 hours up to the Gold Coast. I still remember the hotel we stayed at, the beach that we swam at and the day we went to a theme park for the first time. It’s like a rite of passage for every Australian childhood, isn’t it? Some of my best memories were made that day; hearing my Dad scream like a girl on the rollercoaster {for real!}, getting drenched on the rapids ride, and posing for a photo at the entrance of the park together reluctantly, just eager to get in and onto the rides.

We didn’t make Lacey wait for years, like we did, we did make her endure the car ride a few years ago though {which she enjoyed back then}. I wrote about it here.
Now that we live less than an hour away from all the theme parks, we’ve become well acquainted with theme. I like to say they’re our own ‘little’ playground if you like.

What’s to love about Movie World

♥ With all the parks you can buy a pass that entitles you to unlimited visits over a year. Last year we bought one that allowed us to visit Sea World, Movie World and Wet’n’Wild as much as we liked. We visited them so much {except Wet’n’Wild, we didn’t make it there unfortunately} but we never got bored. There’s always something new to see.
♥ Each Christmas, Movie World celebrates a White Christmas where they unlock the magic. There’s street parades, music and lotsa fun. My neighbours say it shouldn’t be missed.
♥ Movie World has tonnes of rides for young and old {you’ll see a huge green ‘coaster as you enter the park} but I loved the stunt show. It was thrilling and funny in parts too.
♥ There’s a little section for kids that was perfect for 4/5 year old Lacey. She got to ride little dodgems by herself, and she & Hubby went on the road-runner rollercoaster {and loved it!}.
♥ Make sure you grab a program, because we often found ourselves in the middle of a street performance. Oh the drama. How cool to see Batman turn up and save the day as if it’s some kinda normal occurrence.

And Dreamworld too…

♥ There’s something for everyone. I loved it as a 12 year old. I loved it again when Hubby and I were dating and we visited on a little holiday. And now I love it again as a mama to a excitable 5 year old. Also, it brings out the big kid in you {check out the evidence from 2 years ago}.
554069_4224542652339_1146095165_n♥ The big kids will love Dreamworld’s Zombie Evilution {a brand new adventure}. I’m too much of a scaredy cat to try it, but you can check it out here {it’s a whole lot of laser fun}.
♥ Dreamworld is bringing out a brand new The Tiger Island show. They’re always good to watch and worth planning the day around.
♥ We love the little kids section where you can find characters and rides from Madagascar and Kung Fu Panda, and the zoo section too.
♥ On particularly hot days, we love to retreat to lunch at the Billabong Restaurant which offers a buffet-style lunch in the comfort of air-conditioning. It recharges the batteries enough to get back out there and get into it again. And it’s not expensive either.

 

I’ll be sharing more about the other parks next week, but if you can’t wait… visit them here: Movie World | Dreamworld  | Sea World | Wet’n’Wild | WhiteWater World

10 thoughts on “Fun on the Gold Coast: Movie World & Dreamworld”

  1. We are too in the Tweed area and a brief drive to the theme parks. My kids have always preferred Dreamworld and Wet N Wild to Movie World.
    A funny thing happened to my husband and I a few years back. We were both standing in line for a ride at Disneyland in California and we got talking to a family from Melbourne with 3 kids about 8, 10 and 14. When the kids heard we were from the Goldy area they all wanted to know about was Dreamworld, Movie World etc etc. Saying how lucky our kids were to have yearly passes. We seriously couldn’t shut them up about it, asking questions about all the parks.
    My hubby and were like … Wow! Here are these 3 Aussie kids at “the happiest place on earth” telling their parents that how unfair was it that they hadn’t been to Gold Coast to the theme parks…..
    I’m like , ” dude your at Disneyland ” …..Sheesh. After Disneyland there is no comparison ..

      • Did you cry when you went on the teacups? My husband was a tad embarrassed. We had been away from the kids for 3 weeks and the guilt set in big time when we hit Disney. The teacups and jungle cruise were vivid memories of when I was a kid and they used to show them on the start of Disney movies. I used to tell my mum when I was little that I would go on the teacups one day. She would always snicker and say that they were far far away and crush my fantasy hahaha.
        So you can imagine the ridiculous mess I was when I finally got on them. I had the ugly cry going on.. The shame.

        • I’m not sure how different Disneyland and Disney World are, but there were tears as we hit main street. I just felt like I was in a magical place and it was overwhelming. I couldn’t believe that it was real. It was such a happy place to be.

  2. It is a wonderful place for families with children we took our children 3 times i think and they loved it!

  3. This is PERFECT. I’m moving to an hour west of Brisbane over Christmas/New Year and one of the first things I want to do is go to the theme parks! We took the 12 or so hour drive from Sydney and went to Dreamworld and Seaworld when I was (very) young but I don’t remember much. Excited to go there as a big kid! Thank you Chantelle!!! 🙂 🙂 xo

  4. We did the big family drive from Sydney to Gold Coast in 1999 and it was a huge thing then! My boyfriend and I traveled to Gold Coast last December for our first big holiday. We found Sea World as enjoyable as when we were kids but Movie World not as much, mostly because I’m not the rollercoaster type at all. Sea World has to be my favourite out of them all.

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