Amore Ocean Blog

Day Two in Gold Coast

On the morning of 26 Nov 2014, we visited a convenience store at a Caltex petrol station near to the Swell Resort to get some pastries for breakfast. The Caltex station was about 203 metres away from the Swell Resort, about a 4 minutes walk.

After breakfast at our apartment, we headed down to the tour desk (which also doubled as the resort's reception) to get the theme park tickets. The resort's staff was able to book the tickets online which gave us a combo pass that enabled us to visit the three parks (Sea World, Movie World and Wet 'N Wild) at a lower price than if we were to purchase them at each theme park. We could have purchased them online before going to the Gold Coast but we chose not to. We didn't want to bring so many documents over. The combo pass deals varies from time to time and some offers were only meant for locals.

The reception staff also helped us to book a cab to Sea World. We did not rent a car although it might have been cheaper as we were not familiar with the roads there. Taking a bus would take up too much waiting and travelling time. The bus fares were not cheap either so it was more efficient for us to take a cab since there were four of us. I think the cab fare was about double that of Singapore.

On reaching Sea World, naturally Lynn and Sera wanted to visit the Penguin encounter. They are crazy about penguins :p.

Polar bear behind

The Sky High Skyway was under maintenance so we did not have a chance to take a ride in it.

We managed to catch a 3D movie on Spongebob Squarepants.

Lynn and Sera were glad it was a 3D and not a 4D movie. They didn't quite like the water spraying on them and the tickling they felt when they watched a 4D movie at Universal Studios Singapore :p .

After walking for a while, we boarded the Sea World monorail so that we could enjoy a bird's eye view of Sea World and take a rest for a while.

After some souvenir shopping at Sea World, we went back to our resort by cab.

That night, we walked along Cornor Street to the many eating places there. We turned left from Cornor Street and found a chinese restaurant called Go Yum Cha along the Gold Coast Highway. They served various flavours of fried rice.

After dinner we walked down the street and after a left turn, we found another supermarket called the Golden Casket along West Street. There were pre-paid sim cards sold there and we felt comfortable getting one after one of the staff opened a package to show us the instructions on how to activate the sim card. We also bought some food and fruits for breakfast.

Qoo10 - [LTS]LH-ML103/Mini water dispenser/Penguin shape/8-cup daily need /des... : Household Goods

Day one in Gold Coast

We arrived at Swell Resort which was located at Burleigh Heads at about 4.15 pm (Gold Coast time). We were greeted by the friendly staff at the reception desk on arrival. The check-in procedure was fast and we were allocated an apartment on the 4th floor.

This two bedroom apartment had an ensuite bathroom in the master bedroom and another common bathroom near the other bedroom. This was the first time we booked an apartment for our overseas trip. It definitely costs less than booking two rooms in a hotel. The downside of staying in an apartment was that we had to clear our own rubbish as there would not be frequent housekeeping service. According to the Swell Resort website, they do provide "mid-stay" service if the guests stayed for eight nights or more. For our case, we were only staying for five nights, so there was no housekeeping service.

Sera was happy to sit on the high chair. A full kitchen behind the bar counter.

King size bed in master bedroom. I like!

A small walk-in wardrobe in the master bedroom that lead to the ensuite bathroom

Bathtubs in both bathrooms

A rectangular dinner table that could accommodate up to six persons.

The other bedroom had 2 single beds.

The pictures below were taken from the apartment's balcony.

Sera sitting on the sun chair at the balcony

After a long flight, we were all very tired so we rested for a while before venturing out. We wanted to go to a Woolworths supermarket, which was supposed to be the nearest from the Swell Resort. Along the way there were many of these trees.

The flowers were orange, bright and beautiful.

We were a bit lost with no mobile data access to Google Maps. We did not use data roaming as it was pretty expensive and we had intended to purchase a pre-paid sim card in the Gold Coast itself. We approached a man to ask for directions and he actually brought us to the supermarket himself. Such a kind soul! Woolworths was hidden away from the main road so without that kind man's help, we would probably be going up and down the slope with the supermarket nowhere in sight.

We bought some fruits from Woolworths and went to Crust Pizza for dinner. Crust Pizza was just outside the Swell Resort when we took the lift to the ground floor and exited through the carpark .

After dinner, we headed back to our apartment. We were all very tired and rested early.

We did not book a sea view room as it was more expensive. We were not so particular about having a sea view. Our apartment was quiet at night.

Our Scoot Experience - On the Way to Gold Coast

Sera was very excited to board the plane. To her, it was her first time onboard an aeroplane. Actually it was her second time. She could not remember her first time onboard an aeroplane as she was too young then.

It was quite cold onboard the Scoot aeroplane, similar to other full service airlines.

After taking off at about 2.30 am, the airline staff (the scootes) went around the cabin with their Scoot cafe's snacks and beverages. Anyone could buy from them. We were already full at that time so there was no need to get any food.

We managed to sleep for about an hour or so. After that, it was quite difficult to fall asleep again for Ardon, Lynn and myself. There were a lot of "ding" sounds arising from passengers pressing the "call for help" buttons which were located at the side of the seat handles of every seat. While some were genuine calls for help, others were pressed accidentally. This included myself and Sera. I accidentally pressed it when I came back from the lavatory as I held onto my seat's handle for support to sit down. Sera accidentally pressed it while she was asleep.

Meals (included in our FlyBagEat package airfare) were served at 6.30 am (Singapore time). Lynn was too tired to eat so she only ate a bit. Sera also took a few bites only. Canned drinks (Coke or green tea) and Toblerone chocolate bars were served with our combo meals. As Lynn and I did not want to consume the canned beverages at that time, we paid another $8 in total for a cup of coffee and a cup of tea. I thought we could keep the canned beverages for later consumption. I only noticed that there was a water dispenser near to the lavatory much later. Then at about 7.30 am, we realised that we had to disembark at the Sydney airport to go through the security checks at the airport again before boarding the same flight TZ 3 Scoot aeroplane. We were too full to drink the Coke and green tea. We had to disembark at around 12.45 pm Sydney time (Sydney is 3 hours ahead of Singapore time). The flight arrived early at around 12.20 pm Sydney time. We had no choice but to leave the canned drinks on board :(.

After boarding the same TZ 3 flight at around 1.15 pm Sydney time, the plane took off at about 1.55 pm. From Sydney to Gold Coast, there was a baby onboard the flight who kept crying. It seemed that the baby was having some problems and needed medical assistance. The air crew had a busy time doing first aid work. The plane arrived at the Gold Coast airport at about 3.20 pm. Before landing, there was the strange smell again.

We were told to remain in our seats as the medical team had to come up first to check and help the baby. So, we waited for another 15 minutes or so before we could disembark. We had to walk down a flight of stairs from the aeroplane and take a short walk before reaching the Gold Coast airport terminal building. Luckily we didn't have a lot of carry on baggage with us.

At the airport's public area, there was a cafe so we ate some food before going to our holiday accommodation - the Swell Resort.

Taxis were readily available at the airport. There was someone there to guide us to a Gold Coast cab. The cab driver helped us to load the luggage into the cab and helped us to unload when we arrived at Swell Resort. Such excellent service!

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Sunday 7 December 2014

Day Two in Gold Coast

Day one in Gold Coast

Our Scoot Experience - On the Way to Gold Coast