Movie World for the under-10yos – our Aussie family review!
Warner Bros. Movie World is indeed Hollywood on the Gold Coast! Here’s how we did Movie World with 2 under-10yos…. 
We had a great fun time at Warner Bros. Movie World – this is the essential theme park visit for every Gold Coast holiday…
Twenty minutes drive from Surfers Paradise, Movie World is easy to find – just follow the huge and obvious signs. As all of the Gold Coast theme parks do, Movie World has miles of free parking.
As we visited during the NSW school holidays, it took us about twenty minutes to queue and get through entrance gates, however once inside we had no crowding issues at all thanks to this theme park’s sheer size – Movie World is massive in area.
We had visited Movie World for half a day last year, but hadn’t had enough time to have a good look around. Today we had the luxury of all day to do what we missed last visit – hurray!
Movie World Fast-Track bracelets skip you to the front of the ride queue
To maximise our time at Movie World, we used Fast Track bracelets. These are available during busy holiday periods, and allow you to skip the school-holiday ride queues, cutting waiting time down to around 5 minutes. Fast Track bracelets are available at an additional cost, but are well worth it. Holiday time is valuable – why waste it waiting in queues?
Catwoman shows who’s top cat on Main Street at Movie World!
Almost the moment we walked into Main Street (a bit like walking onto the set of a movie!) we came across a very agitated Catwoman! She whipped and screeched at her pursuers before beating them into submission and then regally prowling away, cracking her whip behind her – mreeeeow! You’ve got to love how you just come across the most fun street theatre at Movie World. The children just eat it up – they can’t believe that it’s happening right there in front of them, and they get right into it – it’s just priceless to watch!
Hollywood Stunt Driver 2 is a great show which runs twice a day
First-up we decided to go and see the Hollywood Stunt Driver 2 Show. This new show is a real gem, and exactly what Movie World can do like no-one else can – a quality theatrical production with whizz-bank action!
Hollywood Stunt Driver 2 is full of screeching tyres and daring stunts!
The Hollywood Stunt Driver 2 Show is a combination of fast, exciting car stunts, storyline and audience participation (with a good dose of hamming-it-up comedy!). This show is only presented twice a day, so make sure you don’t miss at least one of the sessions for an excellent piece of entertainment – Hollywood style!
You don’t have to be a car-buff to thoroughly enjoy Stunt Driver 2!
Straight after Hollywood Stunt Driver 2 Show we grabbed some “Sweet Treats” from the Sweet Treats shop to snack on. One chocolate-covered strawberry kebab and rainbow cake slice later, we were ready for more fun, so we eagerly headed off to the Scooby-Doo Spooky Coaster.
Choosing is the hard part at the Sweet Treats shop on Mainstreet!
The Scooby Doo Spooky Coaster – enter if you dare!
Entry to the Scooby Doo Spooky Coaster is through the spooky castle…
Last year, the thrilling Scooby Doo Spooky Coaster ride had scared the kids – this year, they couldn’t get enough of it! I guess that’s the difference a year can make.
The Scooby-Doo Spooky Coaster is a great middle-of-the-road roller coaster ride. Definitely not slow or gentle, but not as full-on as the really big roller coasters. It reminds me a bit of the old fairground Mouse Trap ride – but with a whole lot more sophistication, special effects and fun!
The Scooby Doo Spooky Coaster is super-spooky but super-fun! (Photo – Movie World)
As with all the theme parks, Movie World has several ride-photo options. I got the USB bracelet to which I could add our numerous ride photos too – it saves money if you’re getting more then two photos, and the photos are a funny souvenir to have when you get home.
Finally we left the Scooby Doo Spooky Coaster and moved on to an area we hadn’t had enough time to explore last year and were eager to explore – the Wild West Falls area. Here we enter an old-West style area – saloons and all! Moving from theme-to-theme at Movie World is lots of fun!
In the Wild West Falls we found our new favourite ride, the Wild West Falls Adventure Ride. This is another ride that the whole family (except for the littlies, who won’t make the height restriction anyhow) will just love.
It’s the Wild West!
Board your boat for a fun ride along the canals, through a Wild West-themed setting. You sail past a graveyard and through an invisible gunfight! Along the way there’s plenty of opportunity to get a fair sprinkling of water here and there, before climbing up and up to a massive mountain plunge back down into a huge cascade of water!
It’s lots of fun floating through a Wild-West scene!
The Wild West River ride has a big plunge at the end!
Ahh, some quality family time together – everybody screeeeam!! (Photo: Movie World)
We took turn after turn of this great family ride. Every time we took the steep, high plunge down into the big splash of water at the end, Samantha my 7yo would scream out “Awesome!, AWESOME!” – it was hilarious!
But do prepare to get wet on the Wild West Falls Adventure ride – you can pre-plan and buy a $6 poncho to keep dry or just get gloriously soaked. In mid winter, it can get a little chilly after a few turns, but you can always spend $5 on the instant dry capsule which is a really fun way for the entire family to dry off at the same time – sort of like stepping into an enormous hair dryer. The girls actually liked the dryer almost as much as the ride!
Oh that’s good! The giant hot-air dryers are heaven when you’re soaked through!
Young children love the Kids’ WB! Fun Zone at Movie World!
When we could finally tear ourselves away, we headed into the Wild West cafe for a quick bite to eat. Here I found the world’s best (well, it tasted that way to me!) pulled pork roll, served with lattice fries – just delicious. Here you can also get chilli cheese lattice fries – as Brooke my 9yo would say – oh my yum!
After a slightly-rushed lunch (“Mum, let’s GO!”) we headed off to the Kids’ WB! Fun Zone. The kids LOVE this area. This visit they found that there were some rides that they hadn’t been on before.
The Sylvester and Tweety Cages ride is a gentle ride that isn’t too scary for little kids. It has a low height minimum, and doesn’t move too quickly. Bright yellow cages full of squealing children raise up and encircle a gigantic Tweety bird. It’s very cute.
The girls were very eager to try it, and waited in line for their turn. Both girls really enjoyed their ride on the Sylvester and Tweety Cages ride.
The girls loved the Sylvester and Tweety Cages ride!
You can catch a train ride in the Kids’ WB Fun Zone
There’s plenty of places to play in the Kids’ WB Fun Zone
Next we headed for the ever-popular Road Runner Roller Coaster. This is such fun for the whole family. I recommend that you get on there with the kids and have a good old scream too!
Check out this video I took of the Road Runner Roller Coaster ride…and yes, some of those screams may be mine…
In the WB! Fun Zone you’ll also find the new Junior Driving School area – a really fun road course for the kids to negotiate – and parent’s help is welcome! You can sit on the back of their car to help guide them (let’s face it – it’s the only time you’re ever going to trust your kid driving!).
The Junior Driving School is a great new addition to the Kids’ WB Fun Zone
The Junior Driving School is popular with both girls and boys
The Sylvester’s Pounce ‘n Bounce is the best ride for parents to watch!
Make sure the kids don’t miss Sylvester’s Pounce ‘n Bounce where you can watch the kids being raised up about twenty feet and then dropped a few feet over and over. The kids scream-laugh and the parents laugh too – it’s just too funny to watch, and makes for some great close-up pics of joyful little faces!
With great reluctance I managed to extricate the children from the WB! Fun Zone and we headed back to Main-Street where we happened upon Batman himself catching some villains!
Batman biffed and pow-ed the bad guys into quivering cowards, before handing them off to the waiting police.
The buffed-up Batman then hopped aboard his awaiting Batmobile. He flashed a proud, hunky smile to the adoring, cheering children (and let’s face it, by now, drooling mothers) as he cruised past on his Batmobile – good work Batman!
Batman appeared in Main Street to take down the bad guys – and the kids went wild!
We then ventured into the 4D Cinema to see the movie Rio. This was a lot of fun, with some great 4D flying effects. The 3-D glasses, moving theatre chairs and other special effects all make for a brilliant all-family experience.
At other locations in Surfers Paradise you can pay go to one of these cinemas, but here at Movie World it’s included in the admission price – you just saved your family some holiday money – well done mum!
Looking cool whilst catching the Rio 2 movie in the 4D Cinema
After the 4D Cinema, we made our way to the Justice League ride. This ride is more of a techno-experience ride rather than a throw-you-around thrill ride, which makes it great for all-ages. A sort of moving-shooting gallery, the Justice League carriage-ride transports you through a variety of scenes where everyone can shoot the 3-D (thanks to your supplied glasses) star fish aliens with their laser guns. At the end of the ride everyone can compare their scores on their shooting panels. Brooke got 40,000, Samantha got 30,000, and I got a paltry 20,000. Clearly, we had a faulty car shooting system…
The 3D Justice League ride
You can shoot the Aliens with your laser gun on the 3D Justice League ride
Quick tip – if you are heading for the airport after your Movie World day, be sure to allow yourself an extra 15 minutes to exit the Movie World carpark, due to the many cars leaving at closing time – there can be slight delays!
We had a brilliant day at Movie World!
Finally, completely exhausted we stumbled towards the Movie World exit – it was 5 oclock and park closing time.
A last minute dash into the Super Hero shop was just the thing for my two new Batman fans, then off to our hire car and back to the hotel for a quick dinner and collapse into bed – aaaah!
Let’s Go! Info…
There are some great value passes to Movie World at the moment – you can buy a one-year VIP Magic pass for $99.99 per adult or child. The VIP pass gives unlimited entry to Movie World and Sea World until June 2016. For a full listing of tickets and discount online prices, see the Movie World website here.
All prices are accurate for August 2015
We reviewed this theme park as guests of Movie World
Have you visited Movie World? What’s your favourite rides or shows? Tell us in the comments below!
