Part 12: Warner Bros. Movie World - November 11 & 14, 2016

12/12/2016

It was another early morning for Phillip and I as we made our way to Brisbane from Cairns. While we flew to Brisbane, we didn't spend a lot of time there as we came to the region mainly for the Gold Coast area, which is where the biggest theme parks of Australia can be found. Our original plans did call for a visit to Dreamworld in Coomera, unfortunately we would not be able to visit the park due it it's closure from a tragic accident that had occurred sometime before we made our way to Australia. Because of this, Dreamworld will have to remain on my to do list for the future.

With that being said, We would make our way toward the Gold Coast area from Brisbane. Now unlike our previous stops where you relied mostly on public transportation, we decided to rent a car since we would be traveling further distances. While renting a car isn't really that big of a deal, neither Phillip nor I had ever ridden or driven a car with the driver on the right side before! The good news though is that I am here sharing this story, so Phillip did a good job of keeping us alive.

After around an hour drive South, we arrived to our next theme park of the trip. Warner Bros. Movie World!

Warner Bros. Movie World was my most anticipated park based on what I had heard about the park, especially their coasters such as Superman Escape, The Green Lantern, and Scooby Doo Spooky Coaster. What we did not realize about the park is that it was actually quite small in total land area. But while the ride was small in size, I felt like it was still a nice park with some great rides. One of the things that I thought was great was the way they had the lines indoors and some of the main paths in the shade. It's not as common in the states, but some parks could really use something like this.

Unfortunately for our visit though, there were a number of attractions that were closed for refurbishment or other reasons. The day Phillip and I went, the closed attractions included Justice League Alien Attack, Green Lantern Coaster, and Doomsday Destroyer. While rides going through refurbishment in a park that is open year-round isn't unusual, it was kind of a bummer that these rides were closed since we were already looking at missing out on Dreamworld as well.

The Green Lantern Coaster being closed was probably the biggest disappointment. I rode my first S&S El Loco model at Adventuredome in Las Vegas and it was an incredibly fun ride. I had a feeling that Green Lantern could have been on par with it as it too looked like it would have been a great ride. For the time being though, this would add to my growing list of reasons to come back to Australia.

Rather than continue to dwell on what we didn't do, let's talk about what Phillip and I did, starting with Superman Escape. This Intamin Rocket Coaster is easily my favorite coaster in Australia! While it isn't the biggest coaster that I have ever been on, it packs a punch throughout the ride. There are some great airtime moments throughout the ride and it maintains some good speed throughout the layout.

The next coaster that we rode was Arkham Asylum. A Vekoma SLC with a theme that centers around a story in which the Joker and Harley Quinn have over taken the Asylum, and are conducting experiments on those who dare to enter by use of a fear toxin. The version of the Joker and Harley that they use is based off of the Arkham Asylum series of Batman video games.

As for the coaster itself, while the layout isn't really all that unique as it is the same as most other SLC's with the exception of an extra helix at the end some models feature. The main difference with the coaster was that they had trains from Kumbak that offered a restraint system without a hard over-the-shoulder harness, but rather a lap bar with straps over the shoulders. The result made the coaster a lot less painful than other SLC's, which actually made it kind of fun! This coaster does also feature a Virtual Reality experience themed to the ride story line. Unfortunately the VR system was undergoing an upgrade, thus it was not available for us to experience.

The front of the park also features an S&S tower themed after Batman's Batwing flyer. This ride had one of the longest lines in the park, thus we didn't really have much interest in riding. Perhaps next time.

Up next was the Scooby Doo Spooky Coaster. This coaster was themed for the Scooby Doo live action movies from a little while back, and this is easily THE BEST wild mouse style coaster I have ever ridden! Along with having some pretty good theming in line and on the ride, it has a part of the ride that is very much like a blend of a dark ride and small coaster before going to the lift for the regular part of the coaster (which felt like a rave party with a fast paced version of the Scooby Doo theme playing). I really wish more parks would look into doing more themed mice coasters like this.

The park also features a flume ride called Wild West River. It's hard to tell from the main pathways of the park because of the ride layout, but this was actually a fairly elaborate flume ride as it featured multiple turn tables, backwards flume sections and drops, and some added effects making it one of my favorite flume rides I have been on.

Finally, we rode our last coaster at the park, the Road Runner Roller Coaster. Located in a Looney Toons themed part of the park, this is a fairly standard Vekoma Roller Skater with the trains resembling those classic ACME rockets from the Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote cartoons.

As we walked around the park, there were several characters such as Batman, Superman, Austin Powers and Marilyn Monroe around for meet and greets as well as the occasional street show. This particular street show featured a confrontation between the police of Gotham City and Catwoman. Let's just say that she disposed of these rookie officers with her whip.

When heading out of the park so as to make our way to the apartment we were staying at the next few days, we took a moment to look over the construction area when Movie World's newest coaster is being built. It's going to be a large Mack coaster, and should be open in the next year or so. So along with the Green Lantern, this will also give me a reason to come back, along with more rides on Scooby Doo and Superman.

Now, for a moment we're going to fast forward a couple days to when Phillip had departed to make his way back home to the states, and I had one more day in the Brisbane area. Since the pass we had from Village Theme Parks (Movie World, Wet n' Wild and Sea World) was good for another day, I went ahead and came back to the park for an additional day. While in the park for a second day, I had a chance to walk around the area near Doomsday Destroyer, which had a DC Comics Villain theme. Here you could see the foes of Batman and Superman taking over.

I also got a chance to experience the Justice League: Alien Attack. This ride was quite different than the Justice League attractions that you find at Six Flags Parks in North America as it didn't pit members of the Justice League against Lex Luthor or the Joker. It also didn't seem quite as elaborate as its North American counterparts. Still neat to see a different version of the ride.

And that will end this look at Warner Bros. Movie World. While the park is a bit smaller than similar theme parks found in other parts of the world, it is still a pretty high quality park, and had some really fun coasters, especially Superman Escape, and Scooby-Doo. I would certainly enjoy the chance to come back to the park for the new coaster, as well as the get the Green Lantern Coaster as that also looks like a ton of fun!

Up next, we head north to Beerwah to visit a place that was operated by a favorite television personality.

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Part 12: Warner Bros. Movie World - November 11 & 14, 2016