I haven't had this problem yet, but sorry to all you visual people...There are no photos today. It is quite difficult to do what we did with a camera in hand, so you may have to wait until we revisit Dreamworld later in the week, and I will embellish this blog with some photos then.
Ashley and Rowan were both up before the crack of dawn, and were too excited to be rational, so they made as much noise as possible and ensured everyone else was up. Lisa got to making some hearty breakfast for us all, and I began pulling the campsite apart outside. We made really good time, and I was able to go to Officeworks and print our park passes at 0900.
That meant we were driving just before 1000 and we were able to arrive in Surfers Paradise in good time. The kids went absolutely ballistic when they saw the theme parks out the windows, and screamed there little heads off until dad wigged out at the stress of traffic and navigation with a caravan in tow.
The park here is lovely, and very well set up. We got the van in place in no time at all, and have set up our porch and privacy screen for afternoon relaxing outside (yeah right). A quick lunch later, and we were on our way back to Whitewater World at the Dreamworld complex. Our thinking behind this is that the weather is cold, and the water parks would only need half a day to complete.
We parked the car, and the kids hit the ground running. So glad that we dressed them in their swimwear prior to leaving the caravan. I had visions of them running up the stairs, flinging articles of clothing behind them and riding butt naked otherwise.
Like all adventures, we found a starting point, and went to the first slide on the right. A brilliant waterslide roller coaster. I have never been on anything like it before. Brilliant. For our next ride we went up to Greenroom...A steep dropping water slide into a half pipe. When we got to the top though, we were told that Rowan was too short to ride and that he would have to go back to the bottom via the stairs. This was the first of many disappointments for Rowan today.
I walked him down while Lisa, Ashley and Emma rode the Greenroom. Lisa, and Rowan went back to ride the Water Roller coaster again, whilst Emma and Ashley came back up with me so I could do the Greenroom. Very cool ride although I was backwards the whole way. Lisa and I returned again to the top to ride the famous Wedgie. This is a tube that has a trapdoor that opens underneath your feet, dropping you 17 meters before levelling out. This ride lived up to its name.
We took the kids to the other side of the park, and again found that Rowan was to short (By 1cm) to ride the speed racing slides, and the Rip which is a multi-person tube ride into a 360 degree bowl. Lots of fun. There were a couple of other waterslides that Rowan was actually ok to ride on so we spent a little bit of time there with him.
We had only been on the water slides for just over an hour when I grabbed Rowan's hand and his whole body was trembling with the cold. He was completely purple from head to foot so we called it a day and had some warm showers and decided to spend the rest of the afternoon at Dreamworld.
We ran into a few hiccups to start with. The new ride Buzzsaw that we wanted to go on is shut for maintenance and won't reopen whilst we are here...poo. We went to The Giant Drop, but that was shut due to high winds, so we caught the train around to the centre of the park, and lined up for Mick Doohans Motor GP, and waited in line for over 20 minutes. We were approximately 15 minutes from the front of the line when it broke down, and we decided to give up instead of waiting longer.
Finally we found a ride that we could all go on and enjoy, and the wait wasn't too long. The Madagascar Rollercoaster is a suspension seat rollercoaster without being too big. Everyone had a great time including Rowan whose face was priceless with the joy of riding his first big rollercoaster.
The kids rode on a couple of the kiddy rides, and we then walked on looking for something bigger and better. We thought we might be able to get everyone on the Claw, but again, in his thongs Rowan was a centimetre short of being able to ride. This was the last straw for him and he burst into tears complaining that it wasn't fair...and I agree with him. We had only brought our thongs today, so hopefully thick socks and shoes should get him over the line. Poor little guy.
Lisa took Rowan to ride on the bumper cars whilst I waited for the Claw with Emma and Ashley. By the time Emma realised how scary it was, she was already harnessed into her seat. The Claw is a gentle pendulum ride that casually swings the riders (40 of them) nine stories into the air whilst spinning around an axis 360 degrees. At times during the ride, you are looking straight down at the ground, and on the next swing you are upside down some 40 meters in the air. My knees were a bit wobbly when I got off. Ashley seemed apprehensive about going again, and Emma insists her eyes were shut the whole time.
We all met up again, before the kids went to ride some of the less adrenaline induced attractions, whilst Lisa came back with me for a dose of the Claw. I think she liked it too. We had time left for one last ride, so we returned to Madagascar Rollercoaster and then headed back to the car.
We are all extremely tired and stuffed full of lamb ribs which were masterfully bbq'd to perfection. (If I say so myself.) Lisa followed this with strawberries in chocolate custard with cream. I accidentally spilt Bundaberg Royal Chocolate Liqueur over the strawberries, but I don't think she minded too much.
Ashley insisted on staying awake to read the kindle, but we had to pry it out of his comatose hands not 5 minutes later. How are they going to handle a full day at a theme park? We didn't even arrive until 1300hrs. Tomorrow is Warner Bros Movie World, and the Green Lantern is calling my name. We are planning to arrive early for gates open to get some rides in before the crowds get there. With any luck, the crowds we saw today were because it is a weekend. Fingers Crossed.
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