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Re: Gold Coast Holiday....

PostPosted: Mon Feb 22, 2010 8:55 pm
by Dirko
Was up there with my trio and wife last October, did all the Worlds. All good !

With DreamWorld they have the WhiteWater World next door. Check the closing time of WhiteWater World, as they stay open late in peak seasons. So then you can do BOTH on the same day.

Harbour Town is good. **** got a hammering.....

Go to Hooters ! A fun meal !!

Drive down to Currumbin and have breakfast at the Surf Club over the water. Fantastic, then go check the birds (of the feathered variety) in the sanctuary.

Tamborine is good for a day trip too, as is going to Byron Bay.

And when going to the Parks drive down the M1 (pending on where you stay).

Re: Gold Coast Holiday....

PostPosted: Mon Feb 22, 2010 9:54 pm
by whufc
Just got back last weekend (second time up there in 3 months), three favourite worlds are Wet and Wild, Movieworld (which are next door to each other) and Seaworld, the wife did the dolphin experience cost $230 dollars for 45 minutes but she loved it and said it was worth every cent.

If you get a chance go for a drive all the way to tweed heads absolutley beautiful, you'll go past places such as Coolangatta and our fav place in Aus Kirri, beautiful cheap meal with great view at the Kirri surf Club.

If you have a couple of spare hours take the youngers ones to the "Timezone" off Cavall Ave, they do a very cheap lazer skirmish as well as dodgem cars and other arcade games, it's massive in there and has games to suit people of all ages including adults.

Don't worry about food at the worlds, the surfers paradise life saving club (beach end of cavall ave) do an all you can eat breakfast there for $12 an adult, do a 2 hour breakfast and all you will need is an ice cream at the theme parks to get you through.

Other attractions would be the
- friday night markets along surfers foreshaw
- ripleys believe it or not tour
- pacific fair, australia fair imho way better than even harbour town (even better again is the dfo in brisbane right next to the bris airport)

One word of advice, don't let the 17 year go for a walk along the beach after 12 am, she will see males and females doing things to each that will make any adult blush.

Re: Gold Coast Holiday....

PostPosted: Mon Feb 22, 2010 9:57 pm
by Bully
underwater world on the sunshine coast. you cant miss out on that!

Re: Gold Coast Holiday....

PostPosted: Mon Feb 22, 2010 10:02 pm
by A Mum
Thanks for everyones suggestions I really appreciate it and am getting lots of ideas O:)
It's great.

Don't worry 17 year old won't be on the beach after midnight...:D

Re: Gold Coast Holiday....

PostPosted: Tue Feb 23, 2010 9:56 am
by Dutchy
Some good suggestion here, we have been up there 3 times in the last 5 years and going up again in May, this time driving which Im looking forward to.

First piece of advice would be to go up there when there are no school holidays anywhere in Oz, we specificly check that out before booking, pull the kids out of school and head up there, the hotels are cheap as - we have got a 4 1/2 star 2 bdrm appartment booked for $102 per night in Broadbeach and of course the "worlds" are very quiet -you can pretty much walk onto any ride you want where as in peak times you can have waits of up to an hour.

We are heading up to the Sunshine Coast for 4 nights also, its great up there and more relaxing than the Goldie, super beaches and a real relaxed lifestyle if you dont mind the blue rinse and retiree's in speedos everywhere...

We havent done Seaworld for 4 years but looks like we may do it this time for the kids.

I personally love the water parks, White waterworld (Dreamworlds water park) is smaller than WnW but has some more advanced slides including a slide which goes uphill which is sensational. WnW is much bigger and has more diverse slides, we will probably do both.

Superman is the best ride up there, 0-100 in 2 seconds is amazing....

In Dreamworld itself they have the flowrider, $5 extra for 30 mins, usualy you share half of it with up to 7 people, I got the half hour all to myself, heres a pic below, great fun, the water streams over the mat about an inch thick and when you fall off it picks you up (even at my size) and dumps you over the back..

Image

Re: Gold Coast Holiday....

PostPosted: Tue Feb 23, 2010 10:01 am
by Bum Crack
when are the dates when there are no school holidays anywhere in Oz?

Re: Gold Coast Holiday....

PostPosted: Tue Feb 23, 2010 10:03 am
by Dutchy
Bum Crack wrote:when are the dates when there are no school holidays anywhere in Oz?


google is your friend, I know all of May is...

Re: Gold Coast Holiday....

PostPosted: Tue Feb 23, 2010 10:44 am
by A Mum
Dates kids ARE at school 2010….

Western Australia:
1 February - 1 April
20 April - 2 July
20 July - 24 September
12 October - 16 December

New South Wales:
27 January – 1 April
19 April – 2 July
19 July – 24 September
11 October – 17 December

South Australia:
27 January – 1 April
19 April – 2 July
19 July – 24 September
11 October – 10 December

Northern Territory:
25 January – 1 April
12 April – 18 June
19 July – 24 September
4 October – 10 December

Victoria:
1 February – 26 March
12 April – 25 June
12 July – 17 September
4 October – 17 December

ACT:
28 January – 9 April
27 April – 2 July
19 July – 24 September
11 October – 17 December

Queensland:
27 January – 9 April
20 April – 26 June
13 July – 18 September
5 October – 11 December

Tasmania:
9 February – 28 May
15 June – 3 September
20 September – 16 December

Re: Gold Coast Holiday....

PostPosted: Tue Feb 23, 2010 10:46 am
by A Mum
So basically best time to go in 2010:

Any time in....
Last 3 weeks in February
March
May
First 2 weeks in June
August
First 2 weeks in September
November (although that's schoolies time)

O:)

Unfortunately we have something on up there that is predicting our time to go - which is school holidays.

Re: Gold Coast Holiday....

PostPosted: Tue Feb 23, 2010 10:50 am
by Bully
A Mum wrote:So basically best time to go in 2010:

Any time in....
Last 3 weeks in February
March
May
First 2 weeks in June
August
First 2 weeks in September
November (although that's schoolies time)

O:)

Unfortunately we have something on up there that is predicting our time to go - which is school holidays.



yes avoid the goldie during schoolies, its not much better at night down there either, try not to walk alone in the streets on goldie as things can happen dont go in june starting to get colder here during that time. This time of year is great up here. Hence the reason im on holidays. looking out my window its clear blue sky, a little humid but nice around 32

Re: Gold Coast Holiday....

PostPosted: Tue Feb 23, 2010 10:53 am
by Psyber
Next Qld school holiday are April 2nd to 11th it seems - I'll be in Bundy and Brissie during late March.
Further dates here: http://education.qld.gov.au/public_medi ... idays.html

Re: Gold Coast Holiday....

PostPosted: Tue Feb 23, 2010 10:55 am
by A Mum
Psyber wrote:Next Qld school holiday are April 2nd to 11th it seems - I'll be in Bundy and Brissie during late March.
Further dates here: http://education.qld.gov.au/public_medi ... idays.html


Oooops yes - I looked at 2009 for those ones :oops:

Re: Gold Coast Holiday....

PostPosted: Tue Feb 23, 2010 10:56 am
by A Mum
Bulldog wrote:

yes avoid the goldie during schoolies, its not much better at night down there either, try not to walk alone in the streets on goldie as things can happen dont go in june starting to get colder here during that time. This time of year is great up here. Hence the reason im on holidays. looking out my window its clear blue sky, a little humid but nice around 32


Hey Bulldog - what's Gold Coast weather like in September/October??

O:)

Re: Gold Coast Holiday....

PostPosted: Tue Feb 23, 2010 10:57 am
by Bully
The Q1 building on goldie is good to visit. Its the tallest on the goldie for the moment. A nother tower called SOUL development is going to be taller. But the Q1 is good to visit for the viewing platform at the top.

Re: Gold Coast Holiday....

PostPosted: Tue Feb 23, 2010 10:57 am
by Bully
A Mum wrote:
Bulldog wrote:

yes avoid the goldie during schoolies, its not much better at night down there either, try not to walk alone in the streets on goldie as things can happen dont go in june starting to get colder here during that time. This time of year is great up here. Hence the reason im on holidays. looking out my window its clear blue sky, a little humid but nice around 32


Hey Bulldog - what's Gold Coast weather like in September/October??

O:)



bit like now, starting to get humid, storms start rolling in. not to bad but later then that is more humid

Re: Gold Coast Holiday....

PostPosted: Tue Feb 23, 2010 11:43 am
by mighty_tiger_79
we went in mayof '08.

got some nice wild storms towards the end of our holiday. we flew back on a friday and the next day the floods came.

i wanna go to melbourne to watch a geelong game and a coupla days and then go upto to the gold coast again for a week.

Re: Gold Coast Holiday....

PostPosted: Tue Feb 23, 2010 11:45 am
by whufc
Bulldog wrote:The Q1 building on goldie is good to visit. Its the tallest on the goldie for the moment. A nother tower called SOUL development is going to be taller. But the Q1 is good to visit for the viewing platform at the top.


was up there last weekend we stayed at the grosvenor, right next door to where the soul development is going on, looks very impressive.

Funnilly enough the theme park we didn't really enjoy at all was Dreamworld, rides were great but massive line ups, the shows that were on were very much aimed for the 3-6 years olds ( i have no problem with that but we personally are not between that age group and don't have children who are).

The other attractions such as the wildlife while being interesting was nothing that we couldn't see at the Gorge wildlife park (especially the koala holding which they were charging roughly $50 a head). The tigers were magnificent but only took up half an hour of our day, and all the themes such as the wiggle park are all aimed at the toddler age group.

Would be interested in others observation of dreamworld,

Like Dutchy absolutley love the water parks with wet and wild being my favourite.

Got there at 9am left at 530pm had an absolute ball, favourite rides
-kamikaze- doesn't look like much until your raft tips over the edge, scariest ride there imho
-jet slides- big, high, steep, very very fast, enough said
-funnel looking ride- has abit of everything, fast, steep and swirls you around.

Best part about wet n wild for me is there alot of rides which you get a raft and can down 3-4 people at a time which is really enjoyable if you have a family group together, makes the experience even better imho.

Re: Gold Coast Holiday....

PostPosted: Tue Feb 23, 2010 12:54 pm
by Dutchy
i love going there in our winter, its only early 20's up there but its nice compared to our winter and you can still swim no probs at the pools and beach...the one time we went in summer (Feb) it rained for 5 days straight)

Re: Gold Coast Holiday....

PostPosted: Tue Feb 23, 2010 1:09 pm
by Mr Beefy
If you go to Dreamworld then I would definitely recommend getting a Q4U thingy. You register to go on a ride, wait the same amount of time as someone queuing up but you dont have to queue. In the meantime you can physically queue for another ride. They cost $20 plus $5 per person. You get them from the Kodak shop just inside the gates. It just means you can for for two rides in the time it takes to queue for 1 ride.
When it beeps, you go the front of a special queue.

Re: Gold Coast Holiday....

PostPosted: Tue Feb 23, 2010 1:15 pm
by A Mum
That sounds very clever Mr Beefy.