bobbyfaescotland

Well my oldest son received an invite to Sea World for a free entry to SeaWorld for his birthday.

So Off we all went.

What a bloody rip off, and I thought the last time I went was a rip off.

$80 each adult and $50 for my other son so $210 to get in, but as usual you have to pay more for activities when you are in.

Climbing wall = $10 per adult and $5 for a child
Visit to water park = $10 per adult and $5 for a child

The Jet Ski roller coaster has no where to put all the items you are not allowed to take on the ride, but they do have a locker for hire at $1 a time, so 4 trips on the coaster during the day = another $4

No buffet restaurant anymore so only the usual crappy dried up burgers etc, but another $60 for the four of us.

So all in all, over $300 for the day. What a load of s**te.

In my opinion the Dreamworld World pass is much better value at $100 for the year and you can take your own food into Whitewater world, visit both parks and once you are in, there is no other expense unless you want to stroke crocs etc.

Rant over

bcworld

One thing that always struck me about the Gold Coast theme parks is the charge about the same for entry as their American equivalents but you get about 1/3 of the entertainment!

Kim67

We got local 3 park summer passes to Sea World, Movie World and Wet N Wild as we've had overseas guests over this summer. We did Sea World first, all four kids booked themselves a Dolphin swim on the day - apart from a couple of rides, it was the only thing they got to do. Couldn't get into any of the shows, they were closed off at least 30 minutes before they went on because they had so many people at the park, waited for three monorails before we eventually got on the fourth (stupid cows driving them would open the front gates first and let everyone run down to the rear carriages, leaving those of us queuing unable to get on), the chairlift wasn't open. I spoke to a guy from Melbourne at the dolphin swim and he was really disappointed too - Sea World used to be a great day out, now it's just a big rip off. Wet N Wild however was a great day out. The kids and husband are going to give Movie World or Sea World another bash today to see if the holiday rush has died down any. We're going to have to go every week for the next six weeks to get any kind of value out of the passes we bought.

chris955

They are very expensive places to visit and unfortunately the spending doesn't stop at the gate.
Yes I agree about the American parks, way bigger and so much more to do for about the same money.

Kim67

We don't' pay for anything extra, take an eski full of sandwiches and fruit and our own bottles of water and just go out to the car and get it as we need it.

chris955

Yes we started doing that but I meant the extras like the water park and climbing wall and if you want a souvenir photo or an ice cream or whatever.

Kim67

Haha, yep, no photos or ice creams for my lot - they have their own business and bank account if they want that stuff. They paid for the dolphin swim from their own pockets too.

bobbyfaescotland

I think they have stopped you doing that too, I am sure movie world only allows you a 10 minute pass out now to stop people going out to the car for lunch, or Maccas across the road

Kim67

No we've done it over these holidays at Sea World and Wet n Wild and at Movie World I took a big bag on wheels and we had our picnic in the main square with heaps of families doing the same thing.

DeadVim

It's economies of scale, American parks have more visitors, they are bound to be better value for money ... Australia, despite some concerted attempts, isn't America.

Anyone that buys the food and drink at theme parks deserves to be fleeced and the additional activities are all in the brochures/websites. Some research would seem to be in order.

FWWI we did a Stay And Visit at Seaworld Nara resort and enjoyed ourselves a lot, got a discount from the Entertainment Book but I believe the RACQ do a deal also.

DadAgain

Until this year we've had Dreamworld passes:

$69 for unlimited entry for a year seemed like pretty decent value - and the place itself is much more manageable if you're just popping in for an hour or two when passing rather than making a day of it!

We've even rocked up - seen its a busy day with queues too big and left to go elsewhere. No point spending the day in a theme park if you have to queue all day.

Seaworld isnt in the same league at all - but I did spend a very enjoyable corporate evening there last year, with unlimited food (quite edible), unlimited beer/wine/shots, the decent dolphin show and all the rides open. We must've been on the jetski ride about 4 or 5 times just yelling "Go again!" to the operator everytime we stopped before someone decided they'd had enough. I'm not sure theres enough to justify the regular ticket price into the park and I certainly wouldnt pay to take my family there.

Kiwikaye

We've been to the Gold Coast twice, once in 2007 and again last year. The first time I think Dreamworld was the only one where you couldn't take your own food - all the others were fine. Last year, I think even Dreamworld was ok about bringing your own food in.

renth

I thought Sea World was great. Been twice.

I'm sure if you get a special multi theme park ticket it's much cheaper than just turning up and paying to go to only Sea World.

Last time I went I coughed up about $400 for a helicopter ride over the Gold Coast - it was amazing!

moneypenny20

MovieWorld changed their rules a few years back to say you couldn't take food in at all and had to either eat it before you went in or dump it. I guess they reversed it quite quickly when they realised how pissed off everyone was.

Kiwikaye

Well, I think its a bit ridiculous - I am coeliac for one thing - I can't eat burgers, fish & chips or anything crumbed mostly - they have to make allowances for people, and especially kids, with food issues - just say you're lactose intolerant or something.