So Much Fun!

• November 23, 2009
• Rated 4 of 5 by sarahcollins from Gold Coast, Australia

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Dreamworld, Part 3

• May 20, 2006
• Rated 2 of 5 by stomps from Houston, Texas

This review is a continuation of Dreamworld, part 2.

The Giant Drop was indeed Giant—nearly twice the size of the DungeonDrop, the 22-story drop ride at Astroworld. Its line was giant as well, since one of the two sides of the ride, each of which hold eight people, was closed down. We couldn’t decide whether it was broken or whether they just didn’t want people using the ride to get a peek into the Big Brother House. We ended up having to wait at least an hour to get anywhere close to the beginning of this ride, which was a bit ridiculous, but again, by the time we realized the line was going nowhere, there was no point leaving. Plus, it was the only main ride we had to check off our list.

While we were waiting in line, my friends who thought the ride was a bit much decided to wander off to the back of Dreamworld instead. There, they found a small wildlife park, including the obligatory kangaroos. The joeys were now old enough to actually be hopping around with their mothers, since it was the beginning of June, so they enjoyed seeing that. They also saw a lot of Big Brother stuff, like a life size picture of all the housemates, but not the house, since it’s secluded off somewhere in the woods or something. I personally think the house would be much better if people could stand outside and hurl abuse.

My friends made it back to watching the Giant Drop long before we actually made it on the ride, but that meant that we actually got pictures of ourselves on it that didn’t cost $100 or some other ridiculous sum. The ride itself was exceptionally long for a drop ride, since they take you to the top and leave you there for a good 45 seconds, so you can contemplate your stupidity in stepping on the ride in the first place. We busied ourselves looking for the Coast (tall buildings in the distance, but no water), and the Big Brother House, which was again nowhere to be found. Then there was a click and a couple seconds later the ride was over.

The park closed at the ridiculously early time of 5pm, being the winter season, but we managed to squeeze in a ride on the Claw and the Wipeout before we left. I actually rode on the Wipeout this time and realized there was nothing to be worried about because I felt totally fine afterwards. It was a good ride, but the Claw still took the trophy as being my favorite in the park.

I can’t compare this park to any other theme parks in Australia, but I thought it was decent, albeit very small for the theme parks I am used to visiting. The admission price is exceptionally steep ($65...luckily we had coupons!) when you compare it to the number of rides available, but it was still a fun day out.

From journal Goin' Down the Goldie

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Dreamworld Part 2

• May 20, 2006
• Rated 2 of 5 by stomps from Houston, Texas

This is a continuation of my Dreamworld review.

This ride had a considerably shorter and quicker-moving line, even though it was the one thing that everyone was trying to ride. The best way I can describe this ride is an innovative swinging-pirate-ship ride. The Claw swings you back and forth like the typical pirate ship, but rather than simply going back and forth and getting higher and higher, it spins as well. Everyone sits in a circle facing the outside. While the ride doesn’t completely do loops, you do go high enough that you are literally sitting still upside down for a few seconds. I thought I would get incredibly sick on this, due to the many directions of motion happening all at once, but I was perfectly fine. The ride was definitely my favorite at Dreamworld and was thoroughly enjoyable from the very beginning.

Everyone else in my group went on the Wipe Out, which I totally refused to ride because I didn’t want to ruin the rest of my day with motion sickness. This ride has two long rows of riders, either facing the crowd or facing the wall behind the ride. It then takes those riders and swings them in all sorts of directions, supposedly like wiping out on a wave. It was interesting to see the ratio of guys to girls on this ride—the restraints, which come over your shoulders and between your legs, automatically lock into place at the beginning, leaving you with no room to wiggle, which the guys didn’t appreciate too much when stopped upside down! James’ friend even tried breathing out to keep the restraints from being so tight, but once he breathed in they locked further into place, since any wiggle room could mean falling out on this ride.

The food at Dreamworld was not particularly great, and obviously overpriced (you’re not at a theme park unless you’re paying out the nose for everything!). I had some sort of chicken and chips meal with mealy fries that it pained me to finish, yet I felt I should because of the price. There wasn’t much option at all for my wheat-allergic friend.

Two of the other “Big 5” that we rode were the Tower of Terror and the Giant Drop. The Tower of Terror is nothing like its namesake at Disney World—it was much more like the “Greezed Lightning” at poor deceased Astroworld. It’s a ride where you get in and are launched off at more than 60 miles per hour along the ground and then up the side of a tower. This one was very tall, and used to hold the record for being the tallest ride of its kind but it lacked the loop of the Greezed Lightning. Nevertheless, still a fun and quite exhilarating ride, and one that you could ride again and again if the people in line didn’t object.

This review is continued in Dreamworld, part 3.

From journal Goin' Down the Goldie

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Dreamworld

• May 20, 2006
• Rated 2 of 5 by stomps from Houston, Texas

For the majority of our stay in Brisbane, Dreamworld was not even on our radar since it was really just another theme park, and one that cost a lot of money to visit at that. Plus, after watching entirely too much Big Brother (Dreamworld is the home of the BB House), we had learned to associate Dreamworld with the hideously annoying BB music, and we really didn’t want that playing through our heads any more than necessary. However, when my friend was walking down the street and happened upon six coupons for half off a trip to the park, we decided we might as well go. Plus, it was a great way to procrastinate studying for those not-far-off finals!

We had originally planned on driving to Dreamworld, but when more people decided to come along, we decided to hop on a train instead. This was relatively painless and got us to Dreamworld in about the same amount of time it would have taken to drive, and only cost us around $9 for a concession all-day ticket. When we got off at Coomera, we had to pay to ride the shuttle to Dreamworld, which was not that far from the station but just far enough to merit not walking.

The line to get into Dreamworld was not that bad compared to many theme parks I have visited, although we went before the end of the school year for both high school and uni students. I recommend getting there as soon as the park opens, especially in winter, since even arriving at 10am we only had 6 ½ hours in the park. Once we got into the park, we were surprised at how small it was compared to the big theme parks at home. We only counted around five major rides in the entire place.

The first ride we attempted to get on was the Cyclone. This is pretty much the only traditional, ride-in-a-car-up-and-down-hills roller coaster in the park. It is one of the tallest roller coasters in the Southern Hemisphere and was brought in from Luna Park in Sydney. Unfortunately, we didn’t get to experience this high-speed thrill ride for a while, due to an incredibly slow-moving line. We got to watch a man totally abuse the attendant at the head of the line, who obviously had nothing to do with the fact that the line was not moving, to the point that he actually got escorted out of the ride, so at least we had entertainment. We considered leaving the ride, which many others did, but by that point we had waited entirely too much time already so we stuck it out. The coaster was fun but was nothing exceptional really—just a typical coaster with a couple of loops and drops.

We then headed over to the most touted ride in the park, the brand new Claw.

This review is continued in Dreamworld, part 2.

From journal Goin' Down the Goldie

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Dreamworld

• August 11, 2005
• Rated 5 of 5 by KiwiBandit from Christchurch, undefined, Australia

From journal A Week of R&R

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