Wednesday, February 01, 2006

Day 11 & 13 - Surfers Paradise / Dreamworld

Note: I once again have internet access and have posted pictures to my picture less posts. Enjoy!

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One of the main reason we decided to come back to Queensland was so that we would have many choices of activities that we could do with the kids. On our first visit to Australia we thought Queensland was so kid friendly and it made traveling quite easy. Jonny’s cousin Greg’s wife Fiona told us that there was an amusement park in Surfers Paradise called Dreamworld that had a place called Wigglesworld with in it. That pretty much was the deal maker for us when we planned our trip down under. We would have to take the kids to Dreamworld. As you notice the title we ended up going for two days. I have to say I haven’t seen a better place amusement park to take a 1 and 4 year old. The rides and amusements were very toddler friendly and I don’t think I heard either kid fuss about anything apart from having to leave. It was also great to spend 2 days there and take our time seeing and doing most everything. The park made it very affordable for the second visit as it only cost us $20 Australian dollars admission the second day.

There was an area called Nick Central, which was an area designed with rides and amusements of the Nickelodeon cartoon characters. We let Gemma pretty much be our guide on both days and she steered us here both times. There was the traditional carousel, Blue’s Clues, Dora’s Sea Planes and these swings that I thought were kind of a big girl ride, but Gemma absolutely loved them! They also had a Sponge-Bob Square Pants show, which was very entertaining, especially for Jonny who is a huge fan so the yellow sponge.

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After Nick Central we headed to the most colorful area of the park, Wigglesworld. We actually had the pleasure of meeting a few of the Wiggles on our last trip to Australia and we are big fans of this Aussie Phenomenon. They had a kid’s play area where the kids played for over an hour both visits. Angus had a ball crawling and trying to walk everywhere. We also had the pleasure of riding on the Big Red Car through the Wiggles House.


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Jonny and I also went on a couple rides. Jonny went on this horrible Tower of Terror ride, which made me ill every time I saw take off. I went on the kiddie roller coaster, which Gemma was just a few inches shy of being able to ride. We had the pleasure of riding on antique cars where Gemma was able to drive (she now thinks she should be able to drive an actual car). We went on a couple different water rides including a log ride that Angus was able to ride and hung out at the mini-water park equipped with a baby pool, water slides and inner tubes. We visited an area of the park that housed most of the native animals of Australia. The kangaroos were incredibly friendly and we were able to pet them like dogs. The last thing we did was watch an I-Max movie on Australia’s terrain and wildlife.

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This is actually Gemma's fine photography!

My assessment of Dreamworld was that it was fabulous for kids. There were activities for kids of all ages and parents who enjoy seeing the ear to ear grins and giggles of their children. I also think that if you are on a limited time schedule during your visit to Australia, Dreamworld has a little bit of everything.

3 comments:

VeryApeAZ said...

So do they dub Spongebob Squarepants so that he has an Australian accent? I love these pix. Everything looks so beautiful!

Anonymous said...

looks like you all are having a wonderful vacation! i have to say, though, that Dora character freaks me out a little!

Anonymous said...

Looks like so much fun. Landon got a kick out of looking at the pictures too.