Day 67 Surfer's Paradise (Dreamworld)

The sun was shining this morning, and the kids were up early AGAIN!!!  We told them that we wouldn't be going early, but they all have the attention span of a goldfish at the moment.

There was a whole array of journal writing that had to be completed before we went, myself included, so it was a slow and (I would like to say relaxing) frustrating start to the day.  Getting the kids to write a decent journal is like herding cats in the rain whilst roller skating.

Somehow we managed to get all of the journals written to what would seem to be an acceptable standard and packed a lunch for Rowan and Emma who again can't eat a meal that is bought for them, and headed off towards Dreamworld.

Dreamworld is my favourite park, and I have been looking forward to this one.  Dreamworld is about two things...Rides and Tigers.  Both are awesome, so we were all very excited to get there.




Lisa and I wanted to get as much out of today as possible, so we lashed out and bought the USB stick with unlimited photos from the rides.  It was after that that we set out on a riding Baganza!. 

First stop was the Thunder River Rapids.  I have a personal distaste for flume rides, but the kids love them so we all jumped on for our first taste of Dreamworld fun.  This ride is a bit benign and meanders through some tame rapids.  They ensure though that there is one or two spots where the water slops all over you.

The best thing about the Thunder River Rapids is that they are right next to the Giant Drop.  This was our favourite ride when Lisa and I came to Dreamworld in 2002.  Back then, we rode this 10 times in one day.  The premise is simple.  Ride the little chair to the top of the 119m tall tower and gravity does the rest. 

During the ride, you experience 4 seconds of free fall and weightlessness.  The view from the top is exhilarating and probably the bit that I find hardest to deal with.  This ride never gets boring, and it was as brilliant this time as last.  What made it even better was that Rowan with his new enthusiasm for thrill rides is sitting in the left hand most chair next to mum. 

Ashley and Emma were to frightened to get on this even after Ashley's insistence all week that he would.  So much for talk.  Rowan loved it, and had that awesome grin from ear to ear again.  I think after missing out on so much, he doesn't want to miss out on anything else no matter what it is.

We found the rest of our kids after Giant Drop and went onwards to Mick Doohan's Motocoaster.  This was the one that broke down whilst we were in line the other day.  Even Emma agreed to get onto this one, so we all went down the side car lane which bypasses the big queue.  And here the drama started.  Emma refused to get onto the ride and had a huge crying tantrum.  Eventually they just ushered her off the ride and she had to wait while the rest of us had a go.

After the Jet Ski Rescue at Seaworld, I am sad to say that this ride was just a bit lame.  I put on a pose for the photo, but I wouldn't have dared let go of the Jet Ski Rescue hand holds.  This ride was a bit slow and didn't really excite that much.  The most frightening thing about this ride was Emma's tantrum.  I am terrified at what the teenage years may hold for us after that one.

I guess each to their own, and it's ok to be scared, but seriously...this ride was a bit lame.

Lisa and I felt obliged to do something that all the kids could ride on, so we went back to the Escape From Madagascar roller coaster.  The kids rode on this the other day, so we were hopeful that they would get back on it and into the swing of Dreamworld.

Rowan is completely into the thrill ride swing of things, and has his hands in the air for most of the rides now.  Emma at least enjoyed this ride, so there was something that she can say she went on.  Mum and dad would ride this again later for the ride photo, but we were looking for bigger and better thrills than this.

Dotted all around the park are photo opportunities.  Part of the bonus of having the USB photo stick is that we were able to get our character photos for free as well, so we took every opportunity that we could.  And who can resist that Puss...In Boots.  There was to be several more character encounters during the day.


After the photos with Puss and Fiona, we had to jog to get over to Tiger Island for the tiger show.  They have some cubs at the park at the moment and they were playing together when we were on our way in to see the show.

They had some newborn cubs the last time we were here as well.  They are soooo cute.  The main show was underway though, so I had to drag myself away from these guys to catch up with Lisa and the kids who were fighting to find room on the fence line to see the other tigers.

I don't get tired of looking at these beautiful and graceful big cats.  It is so disheartening to think that there are less than 5000 wild tigers left in the world and that they are on the brink of extinction with only man as a predator.

This big boy is around 200kg of fluffy pussy cat.  They have the same playful nature, and mannerisms of our domestic cats.  They had the big boy climb a tree and do some jumping to show their agility.  At the peak of this jump, both tigers were 2.5 meters in the air.  So if you are being chased by a tiger, climbing a tree or a trampoline are useless means of escape.

Tiger island is situated right next to the entry for the Tower Of Terror II.  This was the other ride that Ashley insisted he was going to go on.  Emma was adamant that she wasn't going near this ride, so we set her up with all of our bags to watch the tigers whilst we went for a ride. 

Couldn't help but snap this photo before I left the tigers though...HE'S SO FLUFFY! 

I love this picture.

Tower of Terror II is a revamp of the original ride.  Basically the same, but the engineers put the car back on the wrong way around when they serviced the ride a few years back.  Now you get shot down the track backwards and go up the tower in reverse before hanging weightless face down to the ground.  This is much more exciting than the view of the sky that you used to get. 

And here is where the ride got interesting.  In line they called through a party of four to ride.  In front of us were two groups.  One was a group of 14 and the other was a group of 10, so they let us through to ride.  However, we would not have been able to sit together as a group. So we let some other people go, and the group of 14 people (The car holds 14 riders).  That meant we got to ride with the group of 10 bikies.

This made the ride all the more fun.  As we were sitting down, Ashley freaked out and had a huge crying tantrum.  All the bikies were revving him up to get him to sit down.  He wasn't going to ride, but still had to cross the car to get off the ride.  Lisa and I grabbed him, sat him in the chair and pulled his harness down so he couldn't get up again...MWAHAHAHA!!!!  Rowan was bouncing with the excitement of being able to go.

This ride is so much better when someone is wailing with fear...

The photo's speak for themselves...stop, look closely and enjoy them.  We did. 


The bikes made this ride absolutely brilliant, and they had plenty of jokes and encouragement for Ashley when the ride was done.  Ashley insisted on going again, but we couldn't make Emma wait that long. However, when we went to ride again later he refused to even go near the entrance.  Tee Hee!

Before we had some lunch we trekked across the park to have a ride on the Cyclone which is the big double loop gravity roller coaster. 

After Escape From Madagascar, we were hopeful to get us all on this roller coaster together, but again at the gate, Emma shook her head and turned on the tears and refused to go any further.  By this time we were over the attention seeking, and dropped all of the bags with her at the bottom before making our way up to ride. 

The ride on this is a bit rattly, but because it was a slow day they let us go around a second time before we had to get off and head back downstairs. 

Again Rowan was just in raptures at being able to do the big rides.

The Madagascar show was about to start, and Lisa took Emma and Rowan to see the show whilst Ashley and I made our way across to the AVPX - Alien Vs Predator Laser Tag experience.  There were no photos allowed in the AVPX, but it was brilliant with a large series of mazes and doorways.  Not only did we fight the other team, but we also had to fight the arena which was full of traps and pitfalls for the unobservant. 

Ashley and I were on the Yellow team (Which won the battle by over 4000 points.)  I had an exceptionally good day out coming in 5th out of 15 on my team.  Ashley was stoked that he wasn't last.  It is hard to hide when you have a 9 year old standing with you everywhere you go.  I was hopeful to do this again, but it would have been too difficult to get Lisa to come with us with the young ones...maybe next time.

The kids had eaten their lunch whilst they were watching the Madagascar Live show, so it was time for Mum and Dad to get something to eat too.  We went to the extortion bar and got ourselves some food.  THEY HAD KRISPY KREME DONUTS!!!  I find this kind of forced selling is offensive, so only bought one box.  

Whilst we were eating, the other kids were playing in the Madagascar Jungle Jam which is a playground where they have all sorts of air cannons that fire Nerf balls around.  Lots of fun for the big kids and the small ones.

This playground is another one of those psycho-crack for kids experiences.  It is difficult not to go crazy and just start shooting kids wantonly with giant cannons that pump out 20 balls at a time...This place brought out the darker side of daddy...

We were able to get our photo taken with the Madagascar Penguins, and even the photographer said that this was one of the best photos that she had been able to get during her time at the park. 

Love this shot.

Not quite sure what Lisa is doing in this photo though :)


Now that we had everyone riding, we were a bit hopeful that we could get on with having some fun.  We went to the Tower of Terror for a second ride, but both Ashley and Emma freaked out and would go on, so we gave it a miss and went back towards the Giant Drop which Emma said she would ride.  We got to Mick Doohan's Motocoaster, but Emma refused to get on, so we gave that a miss too, because even Rowan was saying it was lame. 

We got back to the Giant Drop and lined up with Emma and Rowan.  By this time Lisa and I had agreed that we weren't going to let the kids spoil our fun.  We got to the front of the queue and when Emma saw the chairs, she started crying and tantrumming again.  We just waved her off, and went with Rowan again.  AWESOME!!!

Flume rides were promised, so it was across to the Rocky Hollow Log Ride.  Mum and dad only went once, but the kids went around a couple of times to ensure that they were thoroughly soaked.  At least Emma got on to this.

The opportunity to get a photo of the kids in stocks was too good to pass up and the results speak for themselves.

Who would have picked Emma for being a horse thief.  In fact, I am not sure if this is too far from the truth.

She Loves her ponies.

The kids rode on the Rapids again, and it was starting to get late in the afternoon.  Planning was important from here. 

Emma actually agreed to go on the Claw again.  Now I don't understand this.  The Claw is one of the most frightening rides I've ever been on, but this was to be Emma's third ride.  For someone who won't do the Tower of Terror or the Giant Drop, or even lame Mick Doohan's Motocoaster, she certainly has picked a doozy of a ride as her favourite.

Lisa and I agreed to go on with Rowan as he wasn't able to do this on Monday when we came.  I love his excited squeals on this sort of ride. 

Rowan, Lisa and I went back to Tower of Terror (TOT) for a second ride whilst Ashley and Emma took of to Escape from Madagascar again. 

On the way out of TOT, we got some postcards for the kids, and the one that Rowan got was a list of the big 7 thrill rides.

The Claw, The Cyclone, Tower Of Terror II, The Giant Drop, The Wipeout, The Buzzsaw, Mick Doohan's Motocoaster.  Of these rides, Rowan had done all except The Wipeout and The Buzzsaw.  Lisa and I had done The Wipeout last time we were here, and hated it.  We braved it one more time though for our little guy.  Unfortunately, The Buzzsaw is closed for maintenance which sucks big time, as it was the only ride I really wanted to do.  This did not exist the last time we were here.

How cool does that look though!

It was time to leave though, so we collected ourselves and our kids, and headed for the exit.  We were so tired that I forgot to collect the last half dozen photos that we had taken...DOH!

Who was it that said a picture speaks a thousand words.

It was back to the caravan for nice hot showers, and off to dinner and trivia night at the park.  We had a great dinner of schnitzel and came third overall on the trivia which was within 1.5 points across the top 3 teams.

Mum and dad had to suffer our way through a horrible cocktail that was way too small in the end.  The Chocolate Camper...Butterscotch Schnapps, Baileys, Kahlua, Milk, Chocolate Syrup.  Mmmmmmmmmm!!!!

I'm sure the kids are gonna sleep well tonight, and I know now that I am too tired to write this, so we have another next day retrospective blog.

Wet and Wild tomorrow...(Today) if we manage to get out of the caravan.  The body is not cooperating much any more.