Day 55-58 Movie World and Sea World

We checked into Royal Pines RACV resort, careful parked our caravan in the secure parking lot and breathed a luxurious sigh of relief as we explored the room and facilities - very happy with this place. I'm writing this after 3 nights stay, everything so far has been fantastic... especially their breakfast buffet. When writing this we've now been to movie world and sea world - were taking a rest day today and will hit Wet n Wild tomorrow

Its off to Movie world on Day 56 and were up super early as usual. This was the view the greeted me... how do I get a round of gold in?!? (For the footy fans, it's Gold Coast Sun's Metricon stadium in the background).

Another hotel image - this place has lots to offer and I'd recommend it to anyone travelling to the Gold Coast, especially families.













We chose Movie World cos, well, it has the best rides, we love super heros and youtube told us to! I was thinking all about the big rides, but was pleasantly surprised how the smaller interactive sideshows drew the kids in - they spent just as much time playing around these as on the rides

Josh found his favorite ride - the green lantern. Although it was a couple stories high, it's smaller than most of the coasters. It does go upside down several times and takes you through an inverted dive which freaked me out a little. It was a Monday so the queues were pretty short, Josh rode the green lantern 4 times, and wanted more.

Tom loved the log ride the most - it was the only ride all of us could do together for a myriad of reasons relating to height restrictions and fear factor.
















Speaking of fear factor, Movie world houses Australia's tallest fastest roller coaster... or as they call it here a "hyper coaster". It is 62 metres high, travel 1.4 kms at up to 115 km/h. If your a real maniac you can actually pay to ride it backwards. I kissed my family good bye and stood in line for the next 40 minutes debating whether or not I should do it. Meanwhile friends were reminding me via text of the dreamworld disaster less than 12 months ago and that I have a crook back





This is me before (left) and after (right). I survived unscathed and feeling young again...! well sorta.



Later on I convinced Josh, without too much effort, to ride the "Superman Escape" with me. While not as high I ifound it much more enjoyable. Using a hydraulic launch, Superman accelerates to 100km/h in 2.2 seconds, rocketing instantly to 40 metres before diving and putting riders through 3g's of force (or 3 times your body weight). This pic shows the first ascent when you are literally fired into the sky.


During the ride I looked over and checked in with Josh whom I feared was crapping himself. He was in fact, doing it faarr better than I! Here's Josh debriefing:

What a day... 

How can Sea world top this??

Day 57: Its up early again, big breaky and lots of sunscreen.

While still a theme park and with much of it closed for construction, Sea World delivered a far more organic experience. I'm always captivated by dolphins and seals and just how high they manage to leap from the water. Something about the way they move... I cant look away. 

The team wasn't as captivated by the dolphin show as I was, they loved other stuff much more. They got a kick out of the dolphins and even more out of the jellyfish, stingrays, sharks and got to touch large gooey sting rays.

Em and Tom paid extra for a very special penguin experience.

The photos  here are great but didn't capture the playtime part. They were given a rubber chicken squeaky toy and soon the penguins waddled over to play - some wanted to eat the chicken's feet, some the head and others just wanted to squeak it. At times Tom had up to 3 penguins wrestling and interacting with him. They were also given bubble detergent and large wands. Apparently the eyes of the king penguins are tuned into the blue and purple of the bubbles - they become fascinated and follow the bubbles intently. The Gentoo penguins (smaller), were very playful and one tried to swallow the bubble wand to the extend Em has to rescue a ward before it completely disappeared down a penguins throat.

Em and Tom rate this experience the best in the Gold coast so far and will never forget it

While Em and Tom were exercising their happy feet, Josh and I were riding the two thrill rides on offer. One was low and very fast and has you sitting on a jetski carriage. Somehow, we dont have a pic of Josh on it, but it was easily his favorite, he rode it at least 7 times and simply couldn't get enough. Lucky it was mid week - no real queues to worry about.

We also rode the "Storm" which was a fun roller coaster, maybe 4 stories high and got us very wet.

A seriously action packed couple of days, we are totally exhausted and earned a rest day before Wet n Wild. As I write this on the rest day, I'm eyeing off that beautiful golf course. I just called the pro shop and it looks like we'll be on the course this arvo for a quick 9 holes... YES!  It'll be the first time the kids have been on a course.