Your Gold Coast Theme Park Plans

[Guest 239]

Genuinely curious to see what people think about this.

Let's say you have three days at the Gold Coast and you want to do theme/water parks. You don't have any season passes and need to buy everything from scratch. You're going to the parks within a month of whenever you read this which means that you should factor in how they're presently operated and presented, not the ideal scenario. Where do you go and what's your plan?

[franky]

Assuming these are three full days where you can enter at park open and leave at park close, Dreamworld, Movieworld, Seaworld in no particular order, I'd just consider ride closures and work around these if there's any ability to do so.

If the ticket I happened to purchase for VRTP allowed for park hopping, I'd probably enter Seaworld at park open, do the rides, look at the attractions/shows etc and head over to Movieworld in the afternoon.

[Cactus_Matt]

I mean I am actually planning a Gold Coast trip for the end of the year and it's especially difficult to decide where to go because a) I'm visiting family that I haven't seen in about 4 years and b) I don't want to go to 3 theme parks in the space of a single trip. Though my trip is more likely to be 5-7 days. I haven't been on a hypercoaster before so that kind of puts Rivals and Movieworld at the top of my list even though the park has very little else going for it at this time. Though I haven't been to Seaworld since 2005/2006 and if Leviathan opens before I get up there that'd mean 3 roller coasters I've never ridden to ride which would be pretty cool (Jet Rescue, Storm Coaster and Leviathan).

No interest in Dreamworld in its current state at that price tag. Sorry not sorry.

[New display name]

4 minutes ago, Cactus_Matt said:

No interest in Dreamworld in its current state at that price tag. Sorry not sorry.

What state are you talking about?  Some would argue "like me" that DW is currently the smoothest running park out of the big 3.

 

Do I take it if you haven't been on Rivals before, you haven't been on Sky Voyager too?

[Cactus_Matt]

7 minutes ago, New display name said:

What state are you talking about?  Some would argue "like me" that DW is currently the smoothest running park out of the big 3.

 

Do I take it if you haven't been on Rivals before, you haven't been on Sky Voyager too?

Listen, I'm still bitter about Wipeout and Tower of Terror being gone (half serious). Then add to the fact there's no water rides at the park (I don't do water parks so WWW doesn't enter into the equation) there's very little at the park that interests me. Yes I want to ride Steel Taipan but that's like 45 seconds of an entire day at a park, I'm sure Sky Voyager is nice too but I'd hardly call it a major drawcard. I'm just saying paying hundreds of dollars for a couple new rides and a bunch of other rides I'm sick of isn't worth it (okay Giant Drop and The Claw are fun).

[Rivals]

i have to agree, Dreamworld is currently the smoothest run and best displayed park out of the three and on the coast.

Edited March 31, 2022 by Rivals

[Park Addict 93]

8 minutes ago, Rivals said:

i have to agree, Dreamworld is currently the smoothest run and best displayed park out of the three and on the coast. 

As someone who regularly visits both 100%

[New display name]

6 minutes ago, Cactus_Matt said:

I'm just saying paying hundreds of dollars for a couple new rides and a bunch of other rides I'm sick of isn't worth it (okay Giant Drop and The Claw are fun).

It's not uncommon to go to MW at the moment and half the rides are down so you might end paying hundreds of dollars to go on a few rides @ MW.      

If it was me I would go to all 3 parks because they all have something good to offer.

 

 

 

 

[Cactus_Matt]

1 minute ago, New display name said:

It's not uncommon to go to MW at the moment and half the rides are down so you might end paying hundreds of dollars to go on a few rides @ MW.      

If it was me I would go to all 3 parks because they all have something good to offer.

I'm not debating that (based from accounts on here) that Dreamworld is in a better operational state than Movieworld, that's pretty much fact, I'm just going off my personal preference and what offers the most bang for my buck. If I got up to the Gold Coast and Movieworld had a ton of rides closed (which based off recent times is more than possible) than yeah my preference would probably flip to Dreamworld. But ride for ride and assuming they're all open, excluding the way the park is being presented and run, Movieworld is my preferred park.

Also, I'm not going to 3 theme parks in the space of a single week long trip, I don't have that kind of stamina anymore. Every trip to Japan I've been on I've had to make 3 weeks long just so I had time to recover (though comparing a day at Disneyland/Sea or Universal versus the Gold Coast parks is a bit of a stretch so who knows).

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

4 hours ago, Dom said:

...you want to do theme/water parks.

...You're going to the parks within a month of whenever you read this which means that you should factor in how they're presently operated and presented, not the ideal scenario. 

Straight up - end of april start of may, i'm not planning on waterparks (and I notice most of the other responses don't tend to include them either). 

Winter is a big time for big maintenance. If I look at the state of Movie World two days ago (see other thread) there would be no question but to rule it out. Sea World or Dreamworld are the two contenders here. I'm assuming that the answer 'buy all the passes, visit all the parks' isn't what you're looking for, so I figure we're trying to narrow it down...

On that basis, and remembering again that it's winter, it's cold, and i've no interest in getting wet, that rules out battle boats and storm, leaving Vortex and Jet Rescue to do the heavy lifting against Taipan, Sky Voyager, Giant Drop, Gold Coaster, and so on.

I'm no fan of Dreamworld's but in the current situation - there really is no other option.

[Guest 239]

I get the vibe that @Cactus_Matt is essentially voting with his wallet in this instance because of the changes made to Dreamworld and I think that's completely fine when you're a passionate consumer. 

1 hour ago, Cactus_Matt said:

Though I haven't been to Seaworld since 2005/2006 and if Leviathan opens before I get up there that'd mean 3 roller coasters I've never ridden to ride which would be pretty cool (Jet Rescue, Storm Coaster and Leviathan).

Based on all of this, grabbing a 3-day VRTP pass would make the most sense to me. I get what others have said regarding operations at MW and SW, but if you're just going to experience the new attractions that Village has to offer then I think you're probably not too concerned about min-maxing your rides on each day. Hopping over to Dreamworld does add some awkward financial weight to your trip if you're wanting to visit for their one new coaster.

I'm in the same boat regarding trip planning and I'm trying to take a backseat towards theme park plans because I don't want to infect my family with my disgusting thoosie bias virus so I'm genuinely curious to know what the current discourse is regarding the best parks. 

We have about three days in April and honestly I'm stuck. I'm leaning towards going down the SW, MW and WnW route because I think the family component of those parks is a bit better at the moment, but I also know that runs the risk of entering the VRTP operations twilight zone of mystery last minute ride closures. I'm hoping that with it being school holidays that they'll be on the ball regarding these things, but it's still a risk. 

I don't really want to property hop with two different passes cause it's a lot of money for the family, especially those with kids. 

@DaptoFunlandGuy I hadn't thought of this but it's a really good point. I'm still not sold on Dreamworld for the family, but this might make it a little easier to justify if we get some more updated schedules regarding attraction closures, etc. 

[New display name]

26 minutes ago, Dom said:

I don't really want to property hop with two different passes cause it's a lot of money for the family, especially those with kids. 

If there's kids involved, you need to work out what level the kids are with rides .  I find there's an age bracket that rules out a lot of rides @ MW for kids, if the kids aren't quite ready for Scooby but to old for Tweety. 

Edited March 31, 2022 by New display name