Having some offseason woes? Wanting something a little "different" from the TR section of the forum? Well, last summer (well, technically winter for me) Natalie and I went to the Gold Coast in Australia for some theme parking. They call it the "theme park capitol of Australia" which is nice, since they hold the three biggest theme parks in the country (although there is really only one or two other "big" ones on the whole continent, Australians aren't really blessed in the rides department).
Anyways - I've been busy lately, and the internet didn't really exist where I used to live, so I've finally got the photos up and I figured I'd share a few of them with you. We visited Sea World, Dreamworld and Warner Brothers Movie World, because apparently every theme park has to end with "world" in Australia. Let's start with Dreamworld and work our way forwards from there.
Day one - Dreamworld
Dreamworld's entrance reminds me of something...what could it be?
Scored some early ride time on this among other rides. It was an extra five bucks to get into the park an hour early - we knocked out most of the big rides before the park even opened, which was wonderful because it started down pouring around noon.
Tower of Terror entrance. Think of this ride as the exact same thing as Superman: Escape from Krypton, except with one track and only half the power. Only made it about 40% up the tower. The drop rides were plenty of fun though - tall drop towers rock.
Good morning!
They had a motorbike coaster - which was relatively fun!
Dreamworld reminds me a lot of BGT, not because its rides are awesome (they weren't), but because the park is half zoo and half theme park. They have a stunning tiger collection along with an Australia wild animal park. We actually had the chance to feed one of the tigers, which was a very cool and very humbling experience. Tigers are a lot bigger when they are inches away from destroying you.
"Look at all the tasty humans"
There was actually tiger attack at Dreamworld about a month ago. One of the senior trainers was attacked, which proves that while these animals can seem tame, they are still pretty vicious.
Seriously, if there wasn't a fence there all of us would have ended up in his belly.
Each time one of us would turn our backs to the tiger he would jump up onto the fence, a natural instinct to attack when our backs are turned. Tigers have no honor.
Welcome to Australia! Where the crocs put American Alligators to shame.
Its a cassowary - the worlds most dangerous bird!
Tasmanian Devil and its keeper.
Natalie trying to blend in.
They also had a Dreamworks themed kids area which seemed really well done - even a Madagascar themed Vekoma kiddie invert.
After we escaped from Africa we celebrated with King Julian and others.
You know, its a big croc, but I wouldn't be surprised if one this big existed somewhere in the world. Australia is a place where it seems like half the animals can kill you.
Drop tower theming ... what does this remind me of?
And thats Dreamworld! There were a couple of coaster we didn't get shots of, and a pretty bad all you can eat buffet we took part in during the rain storm for lunch. For the most part we enjoyed the animals, the rides left something to be desired, but in Australian standards they were pretty good. This part is fairly large, much bigger than Seaworld and Warner Bros Movie World, but we'll get there later.