Is it a bit daggy to go to the Gold Coast? Hell no!!
If you haven’t been for ages, then having little kids is a fantastic time to rediscover it. In particular, the theme parks. All the parks have little rides for little kids and it might surprise you how quickly they’ll be onto the bigger rides. I know it surprised me!
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Characters
We went to Movieworld recently and found it was the perfect age to go, because of all the Warner Bros characters. Miss 6 was super keen to see Tweety even though I don’t think she’s ever seen a Sylvester & Tweety cartoon! She has always been terrified of going up to the characters when we’ve seen Dora or Peppa elsewhere. However, this day she got up the courage to have a photo with Daffy Duck and after that she was on a mission to have a photo with every character she could find!! This is actually really easy since there’s always characters around for photos, so it turned into a great activity. The only one she wasn’t keen on was Cat Woman, but with all that black leather and whip, she was pretty intimidating.
Did you notice the different outfits? Yes, the kids loved it so much that we went 3 times during a 4 day holiday!
Rides
Have a look through the list of rides here and see which ones your kids would be able to go on. If you haven’t measured your kids for awhile, I’ve listed rough heights by age below.
My kids were around 105cm (4 yrs) and 120cm (6 yrs), and accordingly their favorite rides were the ones they were just big enough to go on – Road Runner Rollercoaster, Bumper Cars, Wild West Falls Adventure Ride and Justice League 3D. They did go on a couple of the smaller rides, but weren’t super excited about them. I loved that they were big enough for us all to go on rides together. No more having to have one parent waiting with the younger kid.
If you want to go on the grown-up rides, then use the Parent Swap. I didn’t see it advertised around the park, but we used it so that we could both go on the Green Lantern ride and it worked really well. Just line up altogether and talk to the person manning the ride when you get to the front of the queue.
Shows
Other must-dos are the Hollywood Stunt Driver Show – it used to be the Police Academy show I think, but these days the stunts are seriously thrilling with both motorbikes and cars doing their thing. I was woo-hooing through the whole thing. I must have an inner-revhead somewhere deep inside I think!
Also, the daily All-Star Parade. It starts at 3.30pm, so find a spot at around 3.15pm and you’ll be set. We found being near the Roxy 4D Theatre was a good location. The characters parade in cars, dance, walk up and down doing high-fives and the kids just go mad for it. Fantastic!
Food
It does say on the Movieworld website that you are not allowed to take food into the park, but I didn’t see any signs at the gate and there was no-one checking bags when we went. We just took some snacks and bought sandwiches at Arthurs Bakery. They had some great kids packs with sandwiches, fruit, muffin and juice.
Try to find time for a Ben & Jerry’s ice cream. I know you can buy it at your local Woolies, but I never have. This was a day for special treats and my cup of Phish Food and Chocolate Therapy was bliss-worthy!
Busy?
We were there on a weekend and felt that it was busy enough to have a good buzz to it, while never waiting more than around 15 min to go on a ride.
Are you Gold Coast regulars? Would you rather go to the dentist than on a rollercoaster? How good is Ben & Jerry’s?
