Monday 30th April - Wednesday 2nd May 2012 - Gold Coast

Today was the first of three days at the theme parks. Today we were at Sea World. We booked into the Sea World Resort for 2 days which also gave us a family admission ticket to Sea World, Movie World and Wet'n'Wild.
We got into Sea World at 9.30am as we could get in early as we were at the resort. We spent the morning exploring the animals and going to the shows.
The first show was the seal show which was kind of silly, however the seals were great.
They had several touch pools which were full of stingrays, starfish, sea cucumbers, baby sharks and big sand whiting that Ed wanted to eat! Touching the stingrays was nice, avoiding the tail of course!
We visited the Little Penguins when they came out for their first swim of the morning. We then went into the Penguin Encounters exhibition and saw loads of penguins.

It reminded me of Happy Feet. They were beautiful to see but it is a shame that they are inside this enclosure.

We went onto the Dolphin Show which was spectacular to see, however it is kind of sad that they are teaching them all these tricks. I wasn't sure if some of these dolphins weren't from the Atlantis Marine Park in Perth ?????

You wouldn't believe it but as we were waiting for the show to start I noticed the Rond Family from school. Charlotte & Trinity were in class together. It really is a small world.

Thomas didn't want to be in the photo with the gals. Trinity is in the black shirt next to Charlotte.

After spending the morning seeing the animals we went to our room and had lunch. We changed into our bathers and shorts so we could get wet! We first ran around a high rise obstacle course with the kids before we started to get wet!

We then hit the pirate boats. Ed and the kids we in the boat and I was outside shooting the water cannons at them (with a little help from some others as they were soaking me too!)

Ed and the kids on the boats with the water cannons.

It's hard to see but this is Charlotte and I are on the front jet ski's on the roller rollercoaster!

Charlotte and Thomas enjoying a ride.

Ed and Olivia enjoying a ride

We then went on to enjoy a jet ski roller coaster (Ed, Charlotte & I) and the dragon boat water ride (all of us). We then went on several smaller kids rides, the monorail, chair lift and the jet ski high speed show. We were tired after a long day in the park. We went out for a Thai meal and retired exhausted but happy after the day.

As part of our hotel package we got to have a look in on a dolphin training session in the morning. One of the trainer spoke in more detail about their training and care. It was good to hear their information and the dolphins are beautiful.

2 of the Sea World dolphins

Tuesday was Wet 'n' Wild. We didn't take any photos as you can imagine. We enjoyed many rides and slides. Thomas even went twice on a half pipe slide by himself. He also went with me, a little reluctantly, on the Black Hole which was a tube slide in the dark! Charlotte and Olivia went on all the rides with us. We just had to alternate with Thomas. The one ride Charlotte wanted to do she wasn't heavy enough! She is 38kg and the minimum weight was 45kg. No probs for me. It was a free fall loop where thee floor dropped out from under you and sent you rocketing down into a loop before flying out to end the ride. It was intense. Olivia's favourite ride was the Tornado, Thomas loved the half pipe, Charlotte, Ed and I loved it all. It was good fun. We returned back to the hotel tired. A warm shower and pizza for dinner ended a good day.

Wednesday was Movie World. We enjoyed many rides and shows.

Our first stop was the interactive 4D movie experience. We were in the front row for 'Journey to the Centre of the Earth.' Not only did you see a synopsis of the movie in 3D but you also had a moving chair, felt water on your face and even felt wind going on your feet. It was really good.
We then explored the kids section of the park where Charlotte (reluctantly) went on the kids rides with Thomas and Olivia.

Charlotte and Thomas on the Tweety Bird ride

Olivia on the Hollywood Cars!

The next stop was the Stunt Car show. Those guys were very clever with the tricks they did in such a confined space.

The cars on 2 wheels instead of 4!

We then hit the rides in-between the shows that they put on. The shows were designed for the kids and some were a little lame - even for Charlottes age! Along the way we saw many characters from  the cartoons and movies.

Ed with Marilyn

Batman and his super Batcar!

The kids were so excited to find a Harry Potter shop there. They each bought a wand so there are now many spells being cast around us!

We went on nearly all the rides. We all went on The Wild West water ride which saw us going backwards at one stage down a water tunnel. The ride ended with a huge downhill drop through a large spray of water.

Hard to see but this is Ed and the girls on their 2nd ride in the Wild West.

We also went as a family on the Scooby Doo ride. Thomas and Olivia were a little pale afterwards as it was a roller coaster in the dark, however Olivia recovered and wanted to do it again!

Charlotte and I enjoyed the Green Lantern and Superman roller coasters where you went very fast, upside down sideways and around several loops. They were awesome!

After 3 days in a row of theme parks we were all very tired. Thomas and Olivia fell asleep before we left the car park!