nerdville

Ooh, you're right. Credit to MW and SW then - at least they are clear about their food rules, they were printed on our vouchers. For Dreamworld and WhiteWater World, there was nothing about food restrictions on the vouchers or tickets. As it turned out, we brought sandwiches or rolls into DW and WWW (and WnWW), ate them on outdoor tables, and no one stopped us. And I would've been pretty annoyed if they had, since the food rule is only in the fine print on the web site. When we visited, MW was the only place that checked. They had two people checking just after the ticket booth. But they were so busy, they didn't check us anyway, even though I had a backback (with camera and bottled water inside, which is allowed). (Wet'n Wild World is the same). That is a sensible rule which all parks should adopt. KFC etc. is in direct competition to the park food stalls, and people who bring in fast food (and all its packaging) are probably the people more likely to litter. But it's a bit mean stopping people from bringing in their own sandwiches, IMHO. Especially when the food (at all parks) is so overpriced.

Just my $0.02. As a first time Gold Coast visitor this winter, with a family of 3 kids aged 10-15, the consensus was Dreamworld was the best, for the following reasons: * More real "thrill" rides. Dreamworld had 5 (Motor Coaster doesn't count because it was a bit lame, but that still leaves Giant Drop, Tower of Terror, Claw, Wipeout, Cyclone), versus 3 at Movie World (Batwing, Superman, Lethal Weapon) or 2 at Sea World. * Two of the aforementioned MW rides had a 140 cm limit, which excluded our youngest. * On the days we went, MW lines were much longer. The Superman Escape broke down for half the day (which I can forgive), but the Lethal Weapon didn't open until noon, which looked like a cost-cutting exercise, but that blew up in their faces when the Superman went down, leaving the lines for these two rides extremely busy, even at the end of the day. Contrast Dreamworld, where we could get in at 9.00 and do ALL thrill rides in an hour or so, and the lines were short enough at the end of the day that we could get a few more rides in the last hour of the day. At Movie World there was only time for one ride on each. Perhaps we caught Movie World on a bad day, but I can only report what happened to us. (There was lots of time for extra rides at Sea World too, but there are only two worth riding. The two water parks also had short wait times, but it's hard to compare them to the others). * Even to older kids, Wiggles world and Nickolodeon world look cool and bring back memories. They had much less interest in the Movie World themes. (Kids don't watch Looney Tunes anymore, at least mine didn't; they watched Wiggles, and Nickolodeon shows like Timmy Turner and Spongebob). * Dreamworld lets you take food in, Movie World and Sea World don't. * Dreamworld/Whitewater world had a special going for winter, in which we could get a 14 day pass for the price of a 2 day pass. So we were able to return for an extra day for free. Again, I realise that's not always the case but I can only report on my own experience. * Dreamworld negatives would include Q4U people getting on rides ahead of us (but it wasn't busy enough to matter much) and more expensive ride photos (but we didn't buy any anyway). EDIT: I should add some MW positives. It had far and away the best boat ride (Wild West), and the kids thought Superman Escape was perhaps the best ride of the entire trip. But one ride on the Superman doesn't compare to half a dozen on The Claw or the Giant Drop.

Sorry, I think I am getting mixed up with MDMC. We did 5 parks in a week, having never visited before, and it's all a blur sometimes. Now I think of it, my wife and I took turns holding valuables while the other rode the Jet Ski with the kids. Still, the Jet Ski was one of my wife's favourite rides of the whole trip.

Sorry if this is old news, but there is now a fence between the load and unload stations, and a rotating thingy which moves your valuables from the "load" side to the "unload" side during the ride. So you can leave your valuables in a basket reasonably securely. EDIT: I think this is wrong - see my next post.

My family (except me) went on the BT in July. General agreement was that it was the second worst ride they went on in the five theme parks: long wait, no thrills, lame theme, get wet for no reason. At least the water wasn't dirty and smelly, which is why it came in ahead of the DW log ride.

We went to both WnWW and WWW in July this year. Lines were short and we had a great time. The heated water doesn't help much (except maybe in the pools, which I didn't go in), but then again you're not standing around in line shivering so it doesn't matter. The days were between 19 and 24 degrees from memory. Note that some rides might not be open in winter, while others might be on a "closed one hour, open one hour" rotation, due to the low numbers. WWW didn't actually have any on rotation the days we went, but I saw the signs so it must happen sometimes. WnWW had a number of rides on rotation, and one pair of "River Rapids" slides were shut. The WWW Cave of Waves was shut but we didn't care because the kids had been in the similar thing (Wave Pool) at WnWW. If you're got a 2 park pass (DW/WWW), and want to go into DW after, get a locker inside DW, because WWW shuts at 4.00 in winter but DW stays open until 5. I found myself carrying a bag of wet swimming gear while the kids took a few final rides at DW after 4.00.