Gold Coast Pt 2 - Wet 'n' Wild (16-23 Jul)

On Wednesday we visited the first of our theme parks - Wet 'n' Wild.  This is a water ride park, with waterslides and pools.  It opened in 1984.

As with my other park posts, I will list out the rides and our experiences, rather than document our day in the park.

Entry

View from outside showing the Super 8 Aqua Racer, Aqualoop, River Rapids and Constrictor (left to right)

Park Map

Lunch was burgers or chicken tenders

Our first ride was the Mammoth Falls, just right of the main gates.  It was a raft ride for up to four people (we went in a group of 3 and 2).  The kids highlight of the day was watching someone ride a waterslide in a waterpark wearing a waterproof rain poncho.










To the left of the entrance was a set of waterslides.  The first, the Aqualoop, dropped straight down a chute into loop. Tomas wasn't heavy enough to ride this one, so we took some pictures and moved on to the next ride:

The Aqualoop

Next was the Super 8 Aqua Racer, an 8 lane waterslide that times your descent.  Kris won the first race, but did manage to bite her lip as she went over the bump:

Super 8 Aqua Racer behind the Aqualoop

To the right of the Aqualoop was the River Rapids - a set of four slides, two covered and two uncovered:



Next up was the constrictor, another raft ride.  This was my favourite, but there was only one chute so the line took forever:

We then took a walk around the back of the park, coming to the Calypso Beach, which was closed for maintenance:

Likewise with the Surfrider:

Next was the Whirlpool Springs, a series of spas:

We walked through Wet'n'Wild Junior, which had a series of smaller versions of the rides for kids and a few splash play areas:



I didn't take too many pictures in this area, as there is something about a big bearded man taking pictures of a kiddy pool play area that just seemed very wrong..

Next we came to the Extreme H2O Area for the thrill rides:


We ended up only riding the black hole, but the first ride was the Kamikaze, a raft slide down a half-pipe:



Next up was Tornado, similar to the Lalandia rides in Denmark it was essentially a giant funnel:




Next was the Black Hole, a dark enclosed slide.  The only issue with this ride was that it was for two people, so we ended up with an odd one out.  Cameron ended up going with a girl from new Zealand and they talked the whole time - I imagine she knew his life story by the time they hit the bottom.  He says they were talking about the All Blacks rugby team.



Just behind the Blackhole was the Mach 5, which had been closed and was slated for demolition:



The final area was the kids' favourite - the wave pool.  It cycled 10 minutes of waves the a 5 minute break.  I think the kids would have spent the whole trip in here if they could:






There was a final paid ride just to the side of the pool called Flowrider, where you could pay to ride a surfboard or bodyboard in a continuous wave.  (There was also another paid ride, The Skycoaster, which I believe works like a slingshot, but it wasn't running):



We only ended up visiting Wet 'n' Wild once over our seven days, but the wave pool was a firm favourite with the kids.

The park closed earlier than the others (3:30pm in Winter), so we headed back to our cabin, had showers and then drove down the Surfers Paradise.  We were due to catch our friends for dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe, but we were early and the beachfront markets were on, so we decided to check them out.  Turns out our friends were also early, so we ended up bumping into each other.  It was a good evening and a nice meal.