A spooky evening and a burlesque show?

My friend Emma surprised me with 2 tickets upon my arrival. The first being a ticket to all the theme parks in Gold Coast, and the second being a ticket to Draculas (which you’ll see below). I was pretty thrilled that she was kind enough to do this, but also part of me felt a bit upset that I could offer her no money for it (she wouldn’t accept anything in return :().

Having grown up around many theme parks back in Florida, my home, I was ready to see what Australia had to offer. My friend, Emma, said that if we’d hurry we would be able to see the parade of characters before the park closed. So we jumped in the car and made it with 15 minutes to spare. Now, I won’t go into details about my impressions on theme parks in this post, because I’ve created an entirely separate one having only to do with theme parks. My first day was just a taste of what was to come the day after where I spent all day at the theme parks.

Oh god. The “parade” starts out with 2 audience members wearing crowns and waving at the crowd in a nice car. They are followed by the justice league, catwomen, the joker, and then… wait for it. Looney tunes characters like Lola Rabbit and Bugs Bunny. Then they all do an awkwardly choreographed dance and it’s over in 15 minutes?! WHAT? You could not understand my confusion and amusement at this spectacle.

I decided I’d seen enough and tore Emma away to try and get a good spot in lime for Scooby Doo while everyone was watching the show. Although it turns out that it didn’t really matter becaue the line was still 90 minutes long. I must have watched the extras from the Scooby Doo DVD about 35 times until we finally made it on the ride. It was worth it.  It reminded me alot of a mix of Cheetah Chase at Busch Gardens with Space Mountain at Disney because it was an inside coaster and everything was dark. The best part was the reaction of the girl in front of us. Because she had waited so long in line, she was bursting to pee. She told us that her water bottle contained vodka and that she might “piss her pants” on the ride. Her commentary during the rides sharp turns were enough to have me in tears from laughing so hard.

Inside decor of the the ride with the monotonous video to the left.

After our small taste of Movie World my friend surprised me with another free ticket. She didn’t tell me what it was for, all she said was that it was a dinner show that was very popular in Gold Coast. She told me “dress nice and don’t wear thongs”.  Thongs as in flip flops, not as in G-Strings. So I got all dressed up and we arrive at this ghastly looking building with vampire posters everywhere. We were greeted by strangely dressed men outside, as well as a very sexy vampire that was rockin’ a pair of fishnet stockings. I soon realized that this was no ordinary dinner show.

I had always wanted to see some kind of Burlesque show. And when I say burlesque I do’t mean like the banana bar I went to in Amsterdam, although that was fun too.

Upon entering the lobby, we were greeted by a friendly vampire who named me Florida for the rest of the evening. Why you might ask? Because he apparently traveled all around my home state and knew almost every major city. Even some cities that I didn’t know exisited! Anytime we crossed paths he’d try to convince Emma and I to buy one of his thong roses (the underwear not the shoe). We were then ushered into a small room where you are prompted to look up to see the screen above you. You are surrounded by vampires that are looking down at you inside your Grave. They tell stories of the adventures that you will have in the after life while the room vibrates around you. It was pretty cool. Once the door opens to the “afterlife”, where we are to have our last feast, it was like walking into the Underworld.

On one side you see the bar with the most unique styled drinks. Some looking like syringes and other like blood in an IV drip. After you walk over the skeletons in the ground and take in the decorations around you, you then get in line for a picture that will be photoshopped with all the vampires in the show.

It’s a small 2 car that seats two people and takes you through an area of the “haunted house”. But be warned that there will be things jumping out at you to scare you as well as one person that will jump out at you. Your reaction will then and be played on the TV screen in front of everyone during intermission.

Before the show starts there is live music and you are served dinner. I’m not going to lie, the food was pretty damn spectacular. I’m not sure if it was because all I’d eaten that day was pancakes, or if it food was just that fantastic. I’m pretty sure I inhaled it, I was that hungry. The dessert was the best part! It was a tiny chocolate coffin with creme inside. Our waiter also photobombed one of my pictures. Though is many attempts to scare me were unsuccessful. 

The theme for this show changes every season, and we happened to come during the “70’s” theme. It was wonderful. The singers were fantastic, as were the instrumentalists and acrobatics. It was so much fun. I knew all the words to all the songs and sang along quietly. The e actors were lively and the comedians were hilarious. They didn’t leave anyone unoffended, to include me. But the ending was perhaps the most epic. They did a puppet rendition of Queens’ Bohemian Rhapsody. Everyone was singing along and it was so perfectly in tune that I got chills. It was an amazing way to end a perfect first day in Australia.

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