We're off to the Movie (World)!

Day 4 (Wed, 5 June 2013)

Our second theme park escapade, this time to Movie World!

The kids got their momentum going by riding on the kids' coaster, the Road Runner. In 2006, this was Lesley-Anne's first experience in a roller coaster and she found it scary.  Seven years later, the kids found this disappointingly boring. I guess you can say they've grown up.

A new ride from 2006 was the Justice League 3D ride. You wear 3D glasses on this ride and use the laser guns to shoot as many starro spores (targets) as possible. If you've been to Disneyland, it's somewhat similar to the Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters ride but less sophisticated.  Nobody can beat Disney when it comes to animatronics.

It's quite fun though and a good one for individuals who hate fast rides or have motion sickness issues. The ride confirmed my suspicion - I am a dud shot.  I probably couldn't get a hit even if the target was wearing a giant bulls-eye right across its chest.  Among the four of us, Andre topped the score chart with more than 82,000 points.

When we emerged from the ride, we saw a posse of the Justice League team posing for photos.  The kids ran in to get a shot for old time's sake:

Here's the 2006 version: (notice the superheroes have gotten themselves costume updates since then?)

A water ride - Wild West Falls.

Another ride re-visited - the Scooby Doo Spooky Coaster. This is an indoor roller coaster in the dark.  The track is not actually as scary as some others but it seems scarier because you can't see where the drops are.  In 2006, I persuaded Lesley-Anne to take this ride with me and she emerged almost in tears (even though you can't tell from the picture below).  She has blamed me for her fear of coasters since then.

Not afraid anymore!  Well, not too much. This time, she went on the ride voluntarily and had a new companion. Mummy has grown more chicken over the years. My roller coaster riding days are behind me.

We found ourselves a spot at the Hollywood Stunt Driver Show. It's highly entertaining, much better than the old Police Academy show they used to have.

We also caught the Ice Age 4D show but this one turned out to be a total rip-off.  Quite unlike other 4D shows like the old Shrek one which are from your point of view, to give you the effect that you're going on a ride in the show, this is merely a 4D version of a portion of the Ice Age movie.  It's pretty lame.

In the whole park, my kids' favourite ride was the Green Lantern roller coaster.  Touted as "the steepest inverted drop in the southern hemisphere", it has various sharp turns and corkscrews.  It looked pretty terrifying to me but my kids claim it's not as scary as it looks.  They went on this ride multiple times.

Here's a video we took of the ride. The kids are seated in the front row, far side.

Before we arrived in Gold Coast, Andre had planned to go on the Arkham Asylum roller coaster but unfortunately, it was down for annual maintenance when we were in Movie World.  This is a renamed coaster. It used to be called Lethal Weapon (pic taken in 2006).

Quite surprisingly, it was Lesley-Anne who then suggested to Andre that they go on Superman Escape. Now, this is a roller coaster of epic proportions. You're propelled out at 100km per hour and at one point, there is a 90 degree drop.

I'm not sure why Lesley-Anne suddenly became so brave during this trip. I think she always had the grit in her but just needed to bring it out of hiding.  She treats roller coasters now like a personal challenge, which I guess is one way of channeling one's inner courage!

Here's a video of the ride.  You couldn't pay me to go on this.

After Superman Escape, Lesley-Anne said she feels like can face anything!

The last ride the kids tried was the Batwing Spaceshot. You're shot 60m upwards and then dropped back down.

Here's a video clip. Luckily, Lesley-Anne went on this when she was all fired up after Superman Escape because she said she left her heart up the tower of the Batwing.  Never again!

A last look at the park before we departed.  Green Lantern's insignia could be seen for miles.  Pretty cool.

Revisting a childhood Dream (World)

Day 2 (Mon, 3 June 2013)

Gold Coast holds fond memories for us. Kenneth and I visited it for the first time before the kids were born, and we revisited it in 2006, when Lesley-Anne was only 9 and Andre 5.  We had a great trip each time and remember it as a fun and vibrant city, partly because of the many theme parks.

In fact, one of main reasons we decided to go back to Gold Coast once again was so that our kids could live out their theme park fantasies before they got too old.  Just looking at our 2006 photos made me nostalgic - the kids were so cute then! It was also fun to compare the "then" and "now" photos, which I'll be doing a fair bit in this post.

If you have been reading my travel blog, you'll know that we're quite a theme park family. We normally arrive just before the park opens and leave only when it closes.  My kids, especially Andre, go crazy and will go on their favourite rides over and over.  Just as well they get their money's worth as I've grown increasingly chicken as I age.  I used to brave corkscrews without hesitation but these days, just the thought of it makes me feel queasy.  Kenneth, with his hereditary motion sickness, has always preferred his feet on terra firma.  At theme parks, he is the default bag handler and camera man.

Gold Coast has a myriad of theme parks but we decided to visit just two this time as they have the best rides, in our opinion. The first one we went to was Dream World.  When the gates opened, we made a beeline for the ride Escape From Madagascar.  This ride has a funny story to it.  In 2006, it was called Runaway Reptar and I'd made Lesley-Anne go on it with me.  She was rather timid back then and she was terrified by it. Andre had wanted to go on it badly but he missed the height requirement (110cm) by just a couple of cm.

When we first found out we were coming back to Gold Coast, Andre immediately googled Dream World and was disappointed that Runaway Reptar no longer existed. It was only later that we discovered they had merely renamed it as Escape From Madagascar. Clever way of making rides current, without having to demolish and re-build! 

The ride is one of those where your feet dangle and since it's a family ride, it is exciting without being terrifying.  Great fun. It's mild enough for Lesley-Anne to realise just how much of a chicken she was back then, to have been scared out of her wits by it!

We went on another nostalgic ride - the River Rapids. This was our favourite ride in 2006 - we lost count of the number of times we went on it.

The signboard hasn't changed in 7 years!

In this ride, you may get totally soaked or emerge completely dry, depending on where you sit and how the boat turns.  It's really the luck of the draw and it was absolutely hilarious because Andre wanted to get wet but Lesley-Anne didn't.  On 4 consecutive rides, no matter where she sat, Lesley-Anne got completely drenched and Andre remained dry.  It was almost as if the waterfall was gunning directly for her!

In the end, it didn't matter because we went on this so much that we eventually all got wet. 

Throughout the park, the kids posed in various places for old times' sake.  Like these:

One tip about theme parks in Gold Coast - the food there tends to be pricey and very limited. For example, at Dream World, a nondescript burger and fries platter costs A$14.95.  Fortunately, I found out about this in advance and following online tips, we packed our own lunch.  We'd bought two buckets of roast chicken legs at the supermarket the day before, heated them up in the morning and brought them along.  When we feasted on them at Dream World, we saw many envious looks.  A$12 fed the whole family.  My advice: pack a lunch.

Dream World has a wildlife section which features Australian animals. Feeding the roos - always a popular activity.  2013:

2006:

A couple of lovely animal shots by Lesley-Anne:

In 2006, one of Lesley-Anne's greatest disappointments was that she was too small to be allowed to hold a koala.  Obviously this time, we weren't about to let the opportunity pass by again, so the kids went for it.  Some states in Australia don't allow koalas to be carried by strangers as it can be stressful for the animal.  But according to its handler, this koala is so relaxed it doesn't mind being carried for pictures.  You can probably tell from the way it's not even bothering to cling on to Andre. It looks like it's just draped on like a rag doll.

More rides in the afternoon.  Shockwave is touted as a family ride but personally, I think this is a mis-classification.  The track is similar to the Viking, only lower, except that you sit around a circular contraption that keeps spinning and never seems to end.  Andre went on it and staggered out, saying it was scarier than it looks as you feel like you're going to be flung off.  I'll bet. I saw several unsuspecting aunties and ah peks clinging on for dear life during the ride. I'm sure they were praying for it to stop.

We went on many other rides throughout the day but the one that stood out most for us was Mick Doohan's Motocoaster.  This is a roller coaster ride unlike any other.  You're strapped in on one of the motorbikes and speed along a track to simulate riding on a very fast bike.  There are many sharp turns but no drops, so it's good fun for people like me who hate heart-stopping drops.

Here's a video Lesley-Anne shot of the ride.  Andre is in the second row of bikes.

I went on it 3 times and Lesley-Anne about 5. Andre loved it so much he spent the last hour at Dream World just taking and re-taking this ride. There was hardly any waiting time so I think he managed about 13 times in all.

Unanimously, we agreed this was hands down, the best ride in Dream World.

Dream World - a local theme park

Day 3 (Tue, 21 Dec 2010)

Few people think of going to a theme park when visiting Bangkok. In fact, most people would be surprised to learn that there's even a theme park in Bangkok. But that's the perk of having friends living in the city, they have the insider information.

Lilian and her kids had previously visited Dream World and thought it a fun day out for families with kids, so she recommended it to us. It's about an hour's drive from Bangkok city and it's quite large with a wide variety of rides. We took the promotional package where for THB 1,000 per person (about S$43), you get unlimited rides in Dream World, entry to Snow Town, a buffet lunch and most importantly, transport to and from any Bangkok hotel.

The entrance looks suspiciously like Disneyland's Small World, doesn't it? The park is quite well maintained, considering it's a local theme park, definitely much better than the one at Genting, Malaysia. The decor, well, all I can say is, it looks familiar. Imagine a mashup of Disney, Warner Brothers and Cartoon Network, except without using the actual names of characters.



















The first ride the kids took was near the entrance, the Speedy Mouse coaster. It's like a blast from the past, didn't we used to have these old-style rides in the 1970s at the now defunct Wonderland?

Paddle boats.










Then we came across the big one - the Sky Coaster.


This coaster works on shoulder harnesses and your legs are left dangling.










Andre immediately wanted to take the ride. The rest of us were not quite as courageous so he decided to brave the adventure alone.

After the guinea pig had gone and emerged unscathed, he told his sister it was very fun, so she agreed to go on it with him.









Shoeless!

This next one was a ride the whole family enjoyed tremendously. It's called Bump Boats and it's the same concept as Bumper Cars except it's on water.










Grand Canyon, which is a rapids ride. You'll definitely get wet so wear your ponchos! We bought ours inexpensively at the park.

Another ride that Andre went alone - Super Splash. The rest of us were too chicken to take the plunge.










There's no subtlety to this ride, it's just a ride up up up, and then a very steep drop and a giant splash!

Everything within a 50m radius gets wet. I foolishly ventured too close with my camera in an attempt to get a better picture and got soaked. Not to mention, not much of a photo!

Snow Town is an attraction in Dream World that costs extra but our package had entry included. It's probably similar to Snow City in Singapore. You experience sub zero temperatures - always a novelty in tropical cities.

They give you boots and a jacket to shield you from the cold but unfortunately, as you can see from the picture on the right, we were wearing bermudas so our legs were freezing!

The highlight of Snow Town is the snow slope, where you sit on an inflatable snow tube and slide down. It's fun but pulling the snow tube up the stairs is quite a chore, especially when you have frozen hands and the handles of the snow tube are ringed with ice.










There are many other rides in Dream World, but some of them, like the go-kart and bumper cars, have a height requirement that Andre didn't meet so he was pretty disappointed about that. There's even a section with rides for toddlers and little kids so I guess there's something for everyone!

The lunch buffet that came with the package is apparently a standard for tour groups so though the food was ok, the typical kiasu rush and queues were rather off-putting. However, it did save us the trouble of finding our own lunch (didn't see many great options in the park) so I can't complain.

As we were walking towards the exit, we came by the Giant's House which was quite interestingly done and obviously based on the story of Jack and the Beanstalk.
















The only drawback of taking the package is that you have to leave by 3pm to catch the free transport. On the other hand, it probably beats leaving later and getting caught in the horrendous Bangkok traffic for a couple of hours.

We were back at Lilian's place by 4.30pm, leaving us plenty of time to rest and shower before dinner, which was at Je Ngor - a restaurant Lilian also previously blogged about. I didn't take many pictures of the food but what we had was pretty good. I think Lek Seafood was better but this was still a worthy contender. The sweet and sour pork, as well as the morning glory (again!) was excellent.










We finished the day on a sweet note - bagging a couple of slices of cake from a nearby cake shop, Secret Garden. This is their famous crepe cake. It's thin slices of crepe sandwiched between dollops of fresh cream and topped with strawberry syrup. Heaven on a plate!