Friday 27 June 2014

Australia's Best Dark Ride

A few weeks a go I had the opportunity to ride on what I now consider to be the best dark ride in Australia, and it isn't at any of our big 3 Theme Parks. It is Overboard at The Ginger Factory on Queensland's Sunshine Coast. It is a simple boat ride, through the nations of the world. That might sound familiar, but there is a unique story and it's own ear worm song.


The ride was constructed by local Queensland firm Promotions in Motion, and is a wonderful 8 minute journey through an animated (and at times vaguely racist) world, searching for the elusive Gingerbread Man. It is fun, silly and colourful. If you lucky and it isn't busy they may even let you ride it twice. It is well worth the individual ride price to ride it. The Ginger Factory itself is more of an oasis than a tourist attraction. Hidden, but beautifully built and maintained. Be warned you couldn't find it by accident, but if you do seek it out it's well worth a half day visit!


And I don't like Ginger!


Sure Overboard is a rip off of It's a Small World, but there is nothing like it currently in Australia. The only other real Dark Ride in the whole country is the Justice League ride at Movie World on the Gold Coast. This, plus small parts of the Superman and Scooby Doo coasters, are the only dark rides in any of our parks.

If you are around Yandina on the Sunshine Coast, you should check it out. If you can't, well just watch it on YouTube and enjoy!

Behold: Overboard at The Ginger Factory POV

2 comments:

  1. Have definitely enjoyed two trips on this ride myself :) I think I had too much Small World expectations and after hearing how much it cost to build only heightened my expectations :P But hey - woohoo for tiny little Sunny Coast trying to step it up :) I took a few photos - you're welcome to use them for your blog post if you'd like:

    https://www.flickr.com/search?user_id=78422591%40N00&sort=relevance&text=ginger%20factory%20ride

    Hopefully they're easy to pull from the site :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Awesome Fee! Thanks. I only just saw this comment. I am definitely for little attractions punching above there weight. And the Sunny Coast is awesome for things like that. Remember Pineapple of the Damned? Gold!

    ReplyDelete