Australia
Brisbane
Sea World / Gold Coast / Outback Spectacular
Feb. 21, 2008
Sea World
Helicopter
Australian Outback Spectacular
Description & Accessibility
This was a full day tour to the gold coast area. If you can at all try and get a tour up to the gold coast area, it is full of theme parks, beach areas, beautiful scenery. You will not have time to take in everything in just one day.
We used a private touring company called ‘Personally Yours’ which is run by John Donaldson.
unfortunately I can no longer find his website
He was an excellent tour guide, if I had found his services sooner I likely would have used him for all the tours in and around Brisbane including the city tour, but I had already booked a couple of tours through the travel agency I used for the 2008 trip by the time I found him. On the other day of touring with John we went to the Fassifern Valley, for further information on the link to the right.
He will provide a wealth of information about the area and if you remember a 1/3 of what he tells you then you are doing good.
If you have the budget the two most important tours you should take in while in Brisbane is the Brisbane city area tour which usually includes Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary, and a tour of the gold coast attractions. Next to that would be the Australian Zoo (home of the crocodile hunter) – click on link on the right for information regarding the Australian Zoo. Brisbane has a wealth of beautiful areas and attractions around it.
Sea World itself is hard to beat, there is also helicopter tours from within Sea World, a variety of flight options to choose from and will vary in price depending on length of flight.
Beautiful views from the Helicopter.
After most of the day at Sea World, we took a sight seeing tour of the area, made a stop at surfers paradise area and did some souvenir shopping.
At end the day we took in the Outback Spectacular show. It provides an entertaining story of Australia frontier and outback, if you like horse shows this is one you do not want to miss.
Food is also served during the show as stated on their website…
“So, during the height of excitement, 40 stockmen and women serve up a three course Aussie BBQ feast with beer, wine or soft drink to every member of the audience ? all in record time.”
No pictures or video allowed during the show, I think their biggest concern is flashes that may spook the horses, so they simply ban photography completely.
Accessibility:
All the places we stopped at was accessible. The helicopter ride at sea world you had to transfer into the helicopter, you could go in your wheelchair or scooter to the helicopter and then someone would take it away and then meet you when the helicopter returned. But you had to with some assistance be able to stand and get into the helicopter. In my case John our tour guide pushed me out to the helicopter and was there to meet us again when it returned. The crew would insure that you the seat belt was on properly.
Sea World completely accessible. Outback Spectacular was accessible, but note as stated on their website…
“Australian Outback Spectacular offers a limited number of seating for guests in wheelchairs, disabled parking and wheelchair access. Please advise us at the time of booking if a member of your group is in a wheelchair.”
John our guide (Personally Yours Tours) mentioned to me that most places will allow free admission for the tour guide if he calls ahead particularly if the guest need his assistance. He pushed me around in the wheelchair at all the places we where at except for the Outback Spectacular, where he pushed me into the place and then left and came back after the show to pick us up.
By: Donald Kerr