Queensland Trip

Some of my friends have asked me about the trip I took to Brisbane and Gold Coast, to be honest it was probably one of the best family trips I have ever had with my family! Because not only that it was very affordable, the two cities also offered really good sightseeing places for the tourists (and the travelers of course!). 

So it all started with me booking all the itineraries from Expedia. It was my first time trying to book a trip from the website, and I believe it was cheaper than other sites and it was also very convenient. It cost me 1076$ for the roundtrip tickets (for me, my husband, and my son) from Sydney to Gold Coast, a 3 nights stay at the Sea World Resort (a 4 star hotel with amazing facilities), and the unlimited pass for all the theme parks in Gold Coast! (this includes the passes to Sea World, Warner Bros Movie World, Wet n Wild, and Paradise Country). It really saved us a lot of money because actually for a single ticket to each of the theme parks, it would have cost us 79$ per person (even with the promo pass, it would cost around 149$ per person just for the 3 theme parks for a week). 

We also pre-booked our shuttle bus from the Gold Coast Airport to the Sea World Resort using the Con-X-Ion (pronounced 'connection') shuttle bus service (it was around 90$ for round trip tickets for the three of us). The bus was air-conditioned, the drivers were very warm and friendly, and they picked us up on time. 

About the accommodation, after booking the rooms at the Sea World Resort, I was surprised that some of the reviews from their customers were actually quite bad. I started to become worried about staying there, but ever since we arrived at Sea World Resort until the last day of our stay, we never experience a single bad thing, in fact, we were very satisfied with the services they provided. We had a clean double room (yes, with 2 double beds) which was directly facing the kid's playground so it was really good for our son, they offered us free gym and spacious swimming pool, as well as the water playground for kids, and they also had this seasonal event where kids could meet their nickelodeon's characters every morning and have a blastful water dance at the water playground every evening. Moreover, I don't know what the reason was, but although the hotel did not give us free breakfast (there is an extra 32$/person charge for an all you can eat breakfast and around 52$/person charge for the dinner buffet), they gave us a 'buy 1 get 1' free breakfast and dinner coupons which we could use everyday, so that we actually only paid 32$ for the breakfast buffet (for the three of us)!

Kinza and the Breakfast with Ninja Turtles, free program from the Sea World Resort!

Another great thing about the Sea World Resort is that they have this monorail system which connects the resort and the Sea world so you don't have to walk/drive to go to Sea World, because you can simply jump onto the monorail which is located just near the reception desk of the resort (very convenient for pregnant moms, and lazy-ass person like me haha)!😁 aaand.. another fantastic thing about this resort was that it has this fun programs for kids where the kids can join for free and enjoy or play with their new friends and fun characters from the movies. Kinza had the chance to meet the Ninja Turtles during breakfast and spent the night with Spongebob and friends at the evening and had this colorful splash party with the other kid visitors! 

Anyway, so we spent the first day going to the Sea World (because we arrived at the resort around 11AM while the check in time was 2PM, we decided to spend the whole day there then have a late check-in so that we would not waste our time). Great thing about the Sea World in Gold Coast is that we can actually touch and interact with some of the animals without having to pay an extra money, and although they only have something like 4-5 animal shows, they were really great and it was quite amusing for kids my son's age😊

                 

 


On our second day in Queensland, we decided to pay a visit to our dear friend, Kak Bea who lived in Brisbane. It approximately took us 1 hour and 15 minutes from Gold Coast to Brisbane using the translink QLD (train). I love how calm and chill Brisbane was compared to Sydney. It is surprisingly busy but the vibe was just different. Everyone was not as rushed as in Sydney, and it looked like a perfect place to live. No wonder my Dad really loved it there 😊

Reunited with Kak Bea!

On our third day in Queensland, we spent the whole day in Warner Bros and The Paradise Country. It was amazeballs!! We loved it so much, but I was quite disappointed because there was literally no attraction that I could ride, even with Kinza because I was pregnant lol. But I was very glad that Kinza loved it (what kind of kid doesn't like Warner Bros? 😀) I like the fact that there were a lot of places with shade and benches there, so I could just sit wherever I wanted, and the price of the foods were not as expensive as it would have been in Indonesia. It was reasonable, and I truly appreciate the all you can drink slushee! Haha all I had to do was buy one big ass cup which cost me $15, and we could just refill the cup anytime we wanted.

Me and Kinza at the Warner Bros!

In the Paradise Country, we were so glad because the place was actually very close to Warner Bros Movie World, we took an uber for 12$, and when we were there apparently we did not have to pay extra to hangout with the Kangaroo and the Koalas. In Sydney Zoo, we had to pay extra money (which was ridiculously expensive) to be closer to the animals and feed them. My kid was so happy and it was worth the time 😊 I would highly recommend you to come and visit this place as it is very family-friendly (I think it's similar to the farm park we have in Lembang, Indonesia, but bigger).

Chillin with the Roos

On our last day in Queensland, we decided to just chill and roam around Goald Coast City. My husband thought the city was the perfect place to spend our retirement days and I could not agree less. Gold Coast is like Bali, very touristic but somehow it's more relaxed and definitely no motorbikes lol. We talked with our Uber drivers along the way, and surprisingly the living cost in Gold Coast was not that cheap and a lot of people are commuting to Brisbane for work.

I would say that our trip to Queensland was amazing and we were so glad that we decided to go! (I was a bit worried with my almost 8 months old pregnancy, but it went smoothly) And I definitely would recommend anyone planning to travel to Australia for vacation to go to Queensland! One tip that I can give for traveling preggo is that, you just have to enjoy the time you spend during the trip. Of course I could be a little bit more exhausting than usual, and there are times when you are upset that you can't really do the stuff people usually do on their holidays (do the bungee jumping, or the attractions at the Warner Bros in my case), but there are a lot of things you can still enjoy and explore too. Make sure you check the comfortable places to visit for pregnant woman or family with kids in that certain place you are going to visit before you depart, and make plan B & C in case the plan A doesn't work. This way, it will help you maintain a good mood during the trip and happy mom means happy family! 😊