Hi, has anyone holidayed in Gold Coast recently, especially in January, with kids? How long did you have to queue up for rides at theme parks? Any tips regarding using virtual queue? Is one day at each theme park enough? Are ticket deals still available on the Entertainment Book app? (My last time there was more than 10 years ago, without kids, so it will be like a new experience for me again.)
Thanks
Probably a good call.. you will definitely get more bang for your buck and if you avoid school holidays you will get almost no queuing at all for most things. As a kiwi its a bit hard to imagine but don't underestimate how good the weather is in GC in Winter as well, I find it nicer than Summer. - of course you can get unlucky but its literally rained here like 5 times this year and most "winter" days are 20+ degrees and blue skies.
We just came back. Went to Movie world. Sea world and paradise country.
Paradise country easy, max 2 hours. Good to younger kids who want to see animals.
Movie world was a massive let down. Long waits, most virtual ques didnt work.
Place was inefficient which made waiting times worse. Utilize perant swap where you can.
Sea world waa brilliant. Most things are shows and walk through exibits. So no real waiting.
Meant no annoyed kids. The leviathan is brilliant, but can be a big wait.
Food is expenny- across the road from movie world, there are a stack of fast food joints, so you could get lunch from there.
If you get the souvenir refillable cup, buy on the app. Much much cheaper.
We bought our passes from costco coomera.
AUD$164.99 for a 7 day pass.
Because of this, we went back to movie world on a second day just so the wife and I could get onto the DC hypercoaster.
As a aside, harbour town was over rated. Just a bigger dressmart with the same deals. It did have a larger range of sizes though
The Costco pass is just a "Super Pass"
Thanks for the tip. On their website a 3-day pass is $179, so a 7-day pass for $169 is a great price. Do you need a Costco membership to buy this pass?
Normally you will need membership to buy anything.
As a one off purchase, you can ask someone with membership to get you Costco Gift card which you can use to buy anything in store. I haven't tried this but I know you can do this, just not sure on those 7-day pass. In saying this, you can easily ask someone to get you the pass anyway.
Harbour town is only good at sale time and then it can be really good. They do one in the middle of the year and then New Years and they can be exceptionally good but overwhelming busy as well. Sometimes they do another sale around Black Friday time.
Virtual queues have been removed at MovieWorld /Sea World altogether now. They say as it was slowing down the main queues to much.
Like anything, go in a quieter time and you will have a better time. The weather is a lot nicer middle of the year when its shit in NZ
Agree that Leviathan is awesome. I used virtual queue in the Roadshow app, didn't have to wait in line at all, I went at the time and walked passed the line and into the loading area. I was on my own so maybe that's why it was so easy, there was one other single person in the virtual queue who I followed in, this was in Feb this year. The wait times weren't long, I rode most on my own while the wife and kids waited. The shows were great. We stayed at Sea World Resort, was $60 (AUD) at reception for a 2 day pass that covered the Roadshow parks, we went to Paradise Country for a few hours the next day, would have stayed longer or timed it better to do the koala photo but it was pouring and we needed to get up to the SC, our Shaun the Sheep 4 year old fan enjoyed it, was ok for something different to rides.
(just read above about no more virtual queue, bummer)
Family are there right now as at beginning of October. Had to wait over an hour for the new ride and got to their turn only to have it closed for the day……not impressed especially with three youngsters in tow.
Havent had updates re anything else as yet. This wouldnt even be the main season …so think carefully before you book perhaps ? Have fun whatever you choose !
Its a public holiday today in Queensland and a long weekend - and school holidays both locally and in NSW and NZ - its going to be slammed.
Dont discount Dreamworld, they have a lot of good rides, a waterpark that I prefer over wet n wild and it often can be a lot less busy and cheaper tickets.
On non holiday times, rides are almost all walk on's and they have a bunch of animals etc that the kids all get into and some shows for the smaller kids.
I live 50/50 in the GC and Auckland and when people come to visit the GC - I generally recommend Dreamworld as it covers most bases.
January is a really busy time, as it is everywhere, but if thats your timeframe then you will just need to deal with it, personally I would come in like April- Sept - the weather is amazing here - it barely ever rains - most days are 20-25 - with some standouts shooting up to 28-32 - you can swim in the beach all year round as the water temp doesnt drop below 20, and there is barely a cloud in the sky. Today its 31c and just sun.
Mind if I ask what you do for work? Just curious about the 50/50 split.
I run an IT company - with offices in AU and NZ
Thanks everyone for your feedback. I've decided to postpone the trip, possibly to winter. We were willing to put up with the eye-watering airfares and hotel prices, but long queueing time is a bit too much to bear on top of the high prices to get there.