My sister and I take the traditional Dreamworld shot

My sister after tackling 'The BuzzSaw'

Perhaps I should have heeded the warning?

Cooling down on 'The Log Ride' a perennial favourite

My sister and I take time out with Kenny and Belinda Koala

Revisiting one of my favourite theme parks brought back so many great memories of my childhood.

Every summer, my mother and I would head to the Gold Coast for a week over my birthday and visit the plethora of theme parks and attractions on offer.

We’d follow the, “one day at a theme park and one day at the beach” rule that I think was the only way my mum could handle the excitement of a young girl who had a penchant for going on every ride (sometimes several times) and seeing every show!

Heading back to Dreamworld this year, I had the day planned out to the minute and even allowed for the extra time I was certain we’d need to line up for their brand new ride, ‘The Buzzsaw’.

With time savers including a first for Australian theme parks, the ‘Q4U Virtual Queuing System’, and the early entry option, patrons can enjoy a stress-free day experiencing the park.

Having utilised the ‘FastPass’ at Disneyland, the ‘Q4U’ option is one that I think every theme park should implement.

My one pet peeve about theme parks has always been lining up for hours to go on a 1 minute ride... especially in the heat of the Gold Coast.

For only $7.50 per person, plus a $10 rental fee, you can hire a beeper like machine that allows you to schedule in what time you would like to ride.

With up to six people per ‘Q4U’ you can reserve a time and simply head to the ride on or after the time you select! Get ready to feel like a complete VIP entering the ride via a dedicated entrance whilst many others wait in line for their turn.

If you’re anything like me, you’ll feel a tad sorry for them, but, for such an affordable price, there’s no reason why they shouldn’t have invested in a ‘Q4U’ as well!

With my theme park map in hand, our group of eight people was much easier to coordinate than I imagined, with everyone happy to head off and do their own thing throughout the day and meet back to experience the ‘Big 7’ thrill rides together.

Strategically passing ‘The Claw’, ‘The Shockwave’ and ‘The Wipeout’, three rides that guarantee to make my stomach do somersaults, we headed to ‘The Cyclone’.

A fun fact about this ride is that it is actually the old ‘Big Dipper’ from Luna Park in my home town of Sydney.

The tallest, high-speed gravity rollercoaster in the Southern Hemisphere is surprisingly smooth and takes you 13 storeys high before shooting you into a 360 degree loop giving you the chance to just catch your breath when you arrive back in the station.

Travelling on this ride with a very scared friend was an eye opener. I think I spent more time watching his reaction at the dips and thrills than on the actual ride, but it made it all the more entertaining for me!

Once he had conquered ‘The Cyclone’, it was time to really test him out on ‘The Tower of Terror II’ which surprised me by going backwards to start rather than forwards!

The screams from riders could be heard in the queue and, whilst I was certain my friend would chicken out, he really took the ride on the chin and conquered his second ‘Big 7’ thrill ride...could I get him on ‘The Buzzsaw’ though?

I was leaning towards using him as a feasible excuse to give it a miss but a supportive (read persuasive) sister and the chance to ride it on the first day of opening was too good an offer to refuse. So we took a deep breath (possibly the last one we’d ever be able to take) and joined the queue.

My advice for anyone attempting this ride is to take a bottle of water with you, preferably an icy one, and something to fan yourself with, because the queuing area is indoors and very warm with little air.

Not being able to see the ride from our place in the queue didn’t help the high level of fear that was rising within and the feedback from my friends without a ‘Q4U’ was that there needed to be signs indicating an approximate wait time...along with a wider corridor to queue in for those who may feel claustrophobic.

The time was nigh, I was about to embark on possibly the scariest ride of my life...

Riders are seated in an open carriage and strapped in by a single waist harness which, surprisingly, does make you feel very secure and not as inhibited as the shoulder harnesses that most roller coasters feature.

You zoom up a 46 metre vertical ascent and my advice is not to laugh or scream unless you want your head to feel like it will explode!

The car then flips so that you are dangled upside down 15-storeys above the ground before free-falling through a 360 degree heart roll and a final drop at up to 105km/hour...all this takes about two minutes at most and, whilst it was the most scared I’ve ever been, it was well worth it!

The ground was a little wobbly afterwards so we decide to stick to the less extreme rides like ‘The Log Ride’ and ‘Thunder River Rapids’ before meandering through the park for the rest of the day.