As everyone would know, Gold Coast is known for their beaches as well as their theme parks. There's a shuttle bus called TX2 that would bring you to these theme parks. A little tip: Go early!

Something else to keep in mind when you're heading to Gold Coast, it's MIGHTY expensive to buy individual tickets into these theme parks. It's a better option to buy them as a package. Just go to MyFun and pick the option that suits you most. As for us, we took the unlimited VIP pass to 3 parks (Movie World, Sea World and Wet n Wild)  for only $99.99, valid till 30th June 2011. 

We spent 1 day for each park. Let me show you a sneak peek of Warner Brother's Movie World. FYI, the general admission for Movie World costs $74.99!!!

Welcome to Movie World by Warner Brothers

We arrived at the entrance 30 minutes before their opening time and it was already filled with tourists, schoolies and families. Just look at the queue!!! With such a big crowd, we can't help but to do a little strategic planing. lol!  

Planner: Ok, once we go in, run straight to Superman. Then we can head to whatever rides after that.

Me: Okok.

Gate opens, *Runs straight to Superman*

Superman Escape!!! 

Theme parks are everywhere these days, and they'll have almost the same rides in every theme parks. So in order to be different, every ride here has a short story behind it. As the Planner says: It's not about the ride now, it's about the experience. And I must say, it's really was an experience, something really different from other roller coasters. Instead of slowly moving upwards, Superman ride is the opposite. The speed starts from the very bottom all around till the end. With the force of 4gs, the impact you'll feel when going upwards is just... WOAH!!!! You really have to experience it for yourself. So if you happen to be there, do not, I repeat, DO NOT miss the superman ride.

After that, we went for the Batman stimulator. This was a so-so ride. At least we helped Batman save Gotham city :)

Wanted to try the Batwing Spaceshot but sadly, it was under maintenance when we were there :(

Oh, while being in Batman's library, I found a hidden mickey (the picture above) LOL!!

Next was the Scooby Doo ride. Located deep in a haunted castle. Another roller coaster ride, this time, in the dark! Pretty enjoyable...

We also went for a short movie at the Roxy Theatre - Journey To The Centre of The Earth in 4D. Pretty enjoyable as well.

Then it was lunch time! There are a couple of restaurants and cafe in the park but it's pretty costly, obviously. So we headed to a fast food restaurant for some cheaper lunch - Burger and Chips.

After lunch, it was some action time at the Hollywood Stunt Driver show. A burnt tyre smelling, adrenalin pumping action show. A MUST WATCH!! I went for this twice, once when it wasn't raining and once when it just finished raining. 2 very different experience. When the roads wet, it's less kan-cheong than when it's not. You won't feel the thrill as much as when it's not raining. Trust me. 

It's story is based on some jewellery robbers robbing a jewellery stall. Robbers being chased by polices. You get the story. Below are some pictures of the action.

The last show of the day was the Star Parade where almost all the cartoon characters come parading down the street in the picture above. You know what that means??? CAMWHORING TIME!!! :)

Lucky boy got his picture taken with Batman.. I wanted to take pics with Sylvester and Catwoman :(

Below are pictures that I snapped during their parade.

Daffy Duck

One of my favourite Looney Tunes Character - Sylvester!!! <3

Tweety Bird

Scooby Doo clan

And the Hollywood Stunt Driver clan

Apart from them, there's still batman, joker, catwoman.

After the parade, we went to check out some of the shops available.

This shop below will definitely interest those Harry Potter fans out there...

Harry, Hermione and Ron dolls. Funny thing about these dolls, the pricing.

Harry = $20

Ron & Hermione = $10

Familiar sight???

I like how this Guest Services office's look. So mysterious...

Oh and Ben & Jerry's opening soon!!! :)

Budget
General Admission: $74.99

with VIP pass: $33.33

Next post: Wet n Wild. Watch this space :)

Oh gosh, after being in Aussie for about a year, I'm so dependent on the fast internet they provide over there that I can't stand the slow tortoise internet that I have to go tru back here in KL. Well, at least I have internet to use, so no complains there. Just keep chanting this "patience patience". 

Awhile ago, I visited Gold Coast with the Planner/Navigator. Our trip there was 1 big drama which I won't go into. Arrived in Coolangatta Airport at around 8 plus. Took a shuttle bus from the airport to our backpackers - Cheers International Backpackers. 

Cheers backpackers is located about 10plus minutes walk away from Surfer's Paradise, along this quiet residential street. From the pictures below, you can tell that it's a bar/backpackers, and walls in the land down under are all paper thin, so it gets pretty noisy at night. Sometimes even up till 4 in the morning! Pretty irritating I must say.

Service vice at this place, I'll give a 3 out of 10. Only 1 girl was friendly to us, the other 3 were practically useless as they didn't even give any eye contact, they weren't polite, and they were pretty impatient. And I don't even want to mention about their kitchen. Yes, you can buy your own groceries and cook your own meal but once you see the kitchen, I don't think you'll have the appetite to cook there. And yes, we ate out all the time. But food from Coles and bento sets from this Japanese stall.

They provide double rooms and dorm rooms. You can check for rates tru their website here. Dorm rooms accommodates 4 people and double rooms, 2. In double rooms, you'll get your own fridge and and TV and of coz privacy. Toilets are obviously shared among everyone. Cleanliness, 5? still bearable. There're about 7 toilets, so no worries of queuing and waiting. Other than that, if you're one who just needs a place to stay and not one who cares much bout the appearance and cleanliness of a place, this can be 1 of your option.

Below are some pictures of the place.

1st thing you'll see once you step into Cheers - Pool Tables.

Check-in counter.

Eating area, meeting area, hang out spot.

The bar counter.

They even have some arcade gaming machines.

Decos on the ceiling. only noticed they hung jerseys on their ceiling on the day we checked out.

The double Room.

Budget for this post:

Air Tickets: $90 (return)

Shuttle Bus: $33 (return)

Backpackers (Double Room): $75 per night (between 2 person)

Since the beach is not far away, we spent the whole day tanning on the beach. The day we arrived, was the only day that was sunny the whole day. The rest of the week, it was rainy rainy rainy~~~ 

Our awesome beach towels

From the picture above, you can safely say that the waves were massive! Pretty awesome. They're pretty strict with their swimming borders tho, YOU HAVE TO SWIM IN BETWEEN THE 2 YELLOW FLAGS!!! 

Another thing while planning to go to Gold Coast, NEVER EVER GO DURING THEIR SCHOOLIES SEASON! I think it's during the last week of november till beginning of December. Schoolies refers to the Year 12 school leavers. It's like this tradition they do every year where Year 12 leavers travels to Gold Coast to enjoy their summer holis and basically just drink and party till they drop dead...

It's such a big thingy that they even set up stalls for them to customize their schoolies t-shirts and tank tops.

*Warning: They are EVERYWHERE!!! *

So be careful when you're there during schoolies season, the crowd tends to get a little rowdy, as they party pretty crazily...

Next Post: The parks!!! So stay tune ;)