Can I Get To Theme Parks With Gold Coast Marathon Road Closures

by Eric
(Singapore)

Can I Get To Theme Parks With Gold Coast Marathon Road Closures

Visiting Gold Coast with my family from 2 to 7 July. I just realised that we arrive on Saturday and right into the Gold Coast Marathon. I was planning to book accommodation in Surfers Paradise. Could you help me with a question on the road closures?

I would like to know whether I'd still be able to drive from the my Surfers Paradise hotel to theme parks such as Movie World on Sunday morning (day of the main marathon races) at about 9am?

Would it be a total road closure or would there be like at least one lane still open to vehicular traffic?

If not, does it mean we'd be "stuck" at Surfers Paradise until the roads re-open in the afternoon? How about public buses would they still be operating during the road closures?

I had a look at the road closures on the Gold Coast marathon website, and they probably won’t mean much to you, but here is the link for Gold Coast Marathon Road Closures

Saturday, has different events and you shouldn’t be pinned in to Surfers Paradise, but you may still need to detour to get to Smith Street Motorway to Movie World, Dreamworld etc. Roads should be reopened by around 10am.

Getting to Sea World on the Saturday should not be a problem from Surfers Paradise.

On Sunday, from what I see, the marathon route in Surfers Paradise is along the Esplanade and there aren't hotels on the otherside of the Esplanade so you should be able to can get out. If you were planning on staying in Main Beach it might be a bit more complicated, so Surfers Paradise is good!

I cannot easily see how to get to Sea World, but you should be able to get to Movie World, Wet n Wild, Dreamworld and Whitewater World theme parks.

You will have to choose your route carefully if you drive yourself. The normal route to Movie World, Wet n Wild, Dreamworld and Whitewater World theme parks is straight up the Gold Coast Highway to North Street/Smith Street Motorway in Southport and pretty much follow that to Oxenford and Coomera where the parks are.

Instead, if I was you I would head over Chevron Island (Using Thomas Drive) to Bundall Road and turn right there and head up to North Street/Smith Street to get on the motorway to get to the theme parks at Oxenford (Movie World and Wet n Wild) and Coomera (Dream World and White Water World).

I checked on the Sea World website, but it looks like they haven’t put up any information about how to get there on the Sunday and I have no idea except to walk! Usually, early on you can cross between runners – but at the time you would want to get to Sea World, it would be VERY busy. So if you can I would schedule to go to one of the other theme parks that day. I am sure there will have arrangements however, I cannot find any information about them!

Public Buses will be affected, where the runners run, it is completely clear of traffic etc. However, they will know the detours.

If you plan to drive yourself the instructions above plus good old google maps should give you some ideas.

Shuttle transfers will still operate, they may just require you to walk to a location near you for pick up, or they may be able to come to your hotel – you will have to check with them.

On Sunday, the roads reopen by about 2pm so getting back to your hotel should not be a problem either.

We used to live on the marathon route and we were completely hemmed in, so we would leave our car over the other side of the highway the night before so we could get out and then just walk across the road between runners! That is always an option if you find yourself hemmed in!

Hope that helps, please let me know if you have any more questions.

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PS:: If you are looking to save time and money on your theme park entry tickets, it is worth while buying them ahead of time as then you can join the Pre-Paid queue and present your vouchers. Here are the latest deals for Gold Coast theme parks.