theparklifekid's Middle East Adventures!

Been to an attraction recently? Planning a trip? Tell us about it here or get some hints and tips for your next visit.
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theparklifekid
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Hi all!
So after spending 4 years in Qatar i'll be moving to Dubai in the UAE, the country that contains many theme parks that i will hopefully visit in the coming weeks.
So to start off this topic, I've decided to do my local indoor park, which contains only one coaster called F1 coaster
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when i first arrived over 4 years ago, the coaster was rough, blue and had these cars
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since then however it got a re-paint (to red) removed the roughest part of the ride (a bunny hop) to a straight piece of track and gave the ride new cars to an racing car which looks a bit like this... Image
These changes made the ride a little bit more enjoyable.

Pictures...
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So yeah, I had my final ride on the coaster today, Im not going to miss it but I was able to film a POV which I will post soon!

So stay turned!! :D
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Wild Wadi

The first park I went to since I've moved here was a waterpark, (but i thought id post it anyway) the waterpark is one of 2 waterparks in Dubai, not as famous, but still a very fun place.
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Here is the park from the outside. (Doesn't look that interesting from here does it?)
When you get inside however...
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Theming!

Now onto the rides...
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Jumeirah Sceirah is the flagship ride in the park...

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Tantrum Ally and Burj Surge are my favourite slides in the park...

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Kids play area (with the famous Jumeirah Beach Hotel in the background)

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The Wave Pool (again with a famous hotel in the background (Burj Al Arab)

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They have these surf machine in the park

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They have a very interesting waterslide/lazy river connecting route, so you start on a lazy river and then connect to a slide over and over.

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There are not many places to get food, but the places that were open were very good, however cost a bit, 59AED (£11) for the cheapest burger which i had.

Over all a very fun park to visit and a great day trip to make! :D
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Sega Republic and Burj Khalifa

So today I went to the Dubai Mall, where inside is an Indoor theme park called Sega Republic and the entrance to the tallest building in the world, the Burj Khalifa. So first up is Sega Republic!!
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Now, the main attraction of the park is the Gerstlauer spinning coaster, Spin Gear....Image
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This is a very fun little coaster and was the first coaster themed around Sonic the Hedgehog!
POV here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cLDB-xoetiM

They had a drop tower called Sonic Hopper
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A mini Top Spin called Robotnik
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A weird Half pipe style ride called Halfpipe Canyon
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A great flat ride called Xyclone
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And a massive slide called Giant Slider
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After this I went up the tallest building in the world, the Burj Khalifa.
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Now lets just say its very high up...
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^that one kinda of looks like saw^

And to finish off....
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I had a fun day today, but lets just say on Friday I'll be going somewhere fun...
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Ferrari World Abu Dhabi

Today I went to the wonderful Ferrari World Abu Dhabi, so I could try out 2 coasters on my bucket list, Formula Rossa and Flying Aces. It took about an hour to drive from Dubai to the park where on the way I passed the under construction theme park "MotionGate Studios", and I managed to take a picture of the building where the indoor Dreamworks park will go.Image

But soon I arrived at the park...
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First off this place is massive!!!
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But I went to my first ride of the day, Fiorano GT Challenge
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This is a racing coaster, but due to it being a quite day, only one side was running.
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Luckily for me, I have visited the park before so i've been on the other side also.

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Through the day I had numerous re-rides (most on the front row!)

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The rides layout (notice the upcoming Warner Bros park under construction in the background)

After this, I went on a 4D tracked based simulator Speed of Magic: Driving Dream
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It has cars similar to those on The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man
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Overall It was a fun little ride, not enough for me to want to re-ride it though.


The next ride I did was a big one, the worlds fastest coaster, Formula Rossa....Image

It goes 150mph...
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And its Layout is pretty much Rita's but mirrored. (and bigger)
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Yours truly (looking derpy and sporting some towers love)
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Anyway, next up is Flying Aces! This is a ride that i've wanted to do for a while, as I liked the look of Skyrush, but knew I wouldn't get to ride it soon. But now I have been on this, and let me just say, ITS INCREDIBLE!!! Its in my Top 10 coasters defiantly.
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The ride is themed on the founder of Ferraris past of being a aviator in WW1, so the queue line is ver well themed.
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Please excuse the camera quality
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The ride car...
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Loading bay
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Here are some pics of the rides layout.
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Now its time for something special....
Ferrari World have decided to build not 1, not 2, but 3 new coasters for this year, the first was Flying Aces, and the others are still under construction and are a new shuttle coaster called Vortex....
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But the other...
I remember back when DBGT was in its planning phase, some of us were thinking it would be a new type of coaster called an SFX coaster, this coaster called Mission Ferrari will be an SFX Coaster.
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I did something I probably shouldn't of done, but there was a small gap in the construction wall, so I peeked my camera through and only managed to get what looked like a vertical loop inside.
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This trip was awesome and even though Pin badges were a little bit expensive it was a great time!
I leave you all will a few pics of Ferraris!
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Atlantis Aquaventure Waterpark

So the other day I went to another waterpark in Dubai, this time Aquaventure at the Atlantis Resort on the Palm!
This is probably one of the most famous waterparks in the World and it deserves that, as it is truly spectacular!

So we started up by driving to the resort.
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Its quite a magnificent building up close!
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Now there are 2 ways of getting to the park, ether by car or by the Dubai Monorail.Image

When you enter the park you see that quite a lot of it is shaded.
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But straight away you can see one of the parks rapids!
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And the lazy river...
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There are quite a few of them...
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It keeps going!
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And they all lead here.
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Childrens play area.
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I see something in the distance...
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The Leap of Faith
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This guy is about to go through a shark tank. (and its very scary)
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You come out through here... (while going very fast)
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In this tower (The Tower of Neptune) they have slides which are called the Shamal slides which are very fun.
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View from the top
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But they also have another slide going through the shark tank, Shark Attack!
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Its very fun and you get great views of the aquatic life
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Up next we have a newer slide complex called "The Tower of Poseidon"
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It has many fun slides
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Which interact with each other.
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This one was my favourite
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The slides in this tower were called "Aquaconda" "Zoomerango" "Poseidon's Revenge" and "Slitherine"
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The park also has a area for Dolphins!
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They were so cute!
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And to finish off here is a picture of me in the shark tank!
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Update time!

So firstly it turns out i'm going to be staying in the UK slightly longer than usual, and I won't be heading back to Dubai, until mid September. Secondly i'm going to be taking a lifeguard course so when I get back I can get a part-time job at one of the waterparks during the weekends. This basically means that due to this and school, spending an entire day at one of the theme parks is pretty much impossible.

However I will try to visit IMG World's of Adventure as soon as possible, and I have set aside my plans on October 31st, so I can visit the opening day of Dubai Parks and Resorts. (Which includes Motiongate Studios, Bollywood Parks Dubai and Legoland Dubai)

But in the meantime, here is the long overdue POV of F1 Coaster at Gondolania in Qatar
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4i57iuw13o0
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One day in Dusty Dubai, theparklifekid got some sad news that a family member had to have an operation and his family wanted to head back to the UK to show our support, so thats what he did. Luckily the operation was a success and theparklifekid's cousin suggested to take a trip to Thorpe Park, of course he said yes as he had not visited the park since 2011, this meant he had not ridden "The Swarm" (which was the first coaster he ever followed the construction of) and he could ride some of the other rides he had not been on. This is his Story.....


Saaaaaaaaannnnnnnnnnnnddddddddddd!!!!!! (plays Darude - Sandstorm)
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Im actually surprised we even managed to take off.
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*Eastenders theme intensifies*
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I'm Backkkkkkkk
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First up of course it was Derren Brown's Ghost Train
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I actually found the ride really cool, not only was the VR way better than Galactica, the theme was awesome and I generally felt scared at points (so scared I accidentally punched one of the actors on the train #-o , luckily when I apologized the guy said "Don't worry i've had far worse" :lol ) 8.5/10 from me!
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Next up was one of my bucket list coasters....
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The Swarm!!
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And I can safely say it exceeded my 5 year hype for the ride, one of my top 5 coasters and one of top 3 in the country.
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Dat Plane Dow
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Had a go on Storm Surge, not really a fan.
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Next up was a new cred.
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Nemesis Inferno!
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I found Inferno to be a really fun ride, not as good as the original, but still fun.
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Next up was my final new cred for the park, Colossus.
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I found the ride very bumpy and I only did it once (on a side note even though it will never happen, my cousin said if there was ever a coaster at Thorpe to get the VR treatment it would be this).
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Next up was going to be Saw.
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However after queuing 45 minutes, the ride had to close due to technical difficulties... :cry: Luckily I already had this cred, still its annoying all that time was wasted.
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So instead I took this opportunity to ride Slammer.
I found the ride to be very intense, not really my type, but still a little fun.
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After a few rides on Tidal Wave, X and Rush, we headed to our final ride of the day, Stealth.
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However the second we got onto the train, it started chucking it down with rain. And it was not nice having rain in your face at 80mph.
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Alas, I had to say goodbye to Thorpe Park :cry: , I'll see you again in 5 years! :lol
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Later I headed back to the airport and got on my flight to Dubai. Here is Dubai at night from the sky.
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Next Up is IMG Worlds of Adventure!!! (If I ever seem to find the time! :lol )
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Great TR. Personally, I think VR Colossus would never work - imagine the queues, it's already one of the worst on-park for throughputs!
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I've really enjoyed following your adventures, look forward to seeing the next edition! :)

The new coaster for Ferrari World looks very interesting...
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Tom-TT wrote:I've really enjoyed following your adventures, look forward to seeing the next edition! :)
Thanks! :D

I've brought my tickets for the opening day of Legoland Dubai on the 31st October and I've decided that I'll visit IMG Worlds of Adventure before that (probably the week after next) so you can look forward to the updates then!
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So I (finally) visited IMG Worlds of Adventure today and all I can say is WOW, I am very Impressed with this park and hopefully this is the start of great things to come for theme parks in this part of the world.

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*Gasps*

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*Struggles to maintain breathing*

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*Passes Out*

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*Regains vision*

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I'm here!

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So I thought that Ferrari World was big, this place is MASSIVE!

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When you enter the park you walk down IMG Boulevard

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I rushed to the Lost Vally section.

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So I could ride the Mack MegaCoaster, "Velociraptor"

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Love the trains.

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Once dispatched, you go through a jungle section and a projection of dinosaurs appear, then it launches.

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Even though this is a clone of Blue Fire, for someone who has never been on a mega coaster it was awesome, smooth and fun. Its now a top coaster for me.

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Yours truly.

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Next up was the (MLG coaster) "Predator", a euro-fighter.

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Its a fun coaster and very fast.

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*Jurassic Park Theme Intensifies*

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This was a dark ride full of dinosaurs and the animatronics were great.

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Next up was the Marvel Section, here is a little kiddy ride.

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The next and final coaster was "Spider-Man: Doc Ock's Revenge"

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Its in my opinion the weakest coaster here, but still fun.

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Still it has a great queue line though. (Kinda reminds me of Saw...)

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Next up was a surprise hit "Avengers: Battle of Ultron"

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As someone who is a big Marvel fan, this in the queue was awesome and made me go "Oh wow"

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Especially having Captain America's old shield in there.

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This is a ride similar to Transformers: The Ride and its now one of my favourite dark rides, it had great 3D, awesome simulating cars, and little touches here and there that made it great.

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From a good ride to a bad one. "Hulk: Epsilon Base 3D"

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The 3D wasn't that great, made you feel dizzy, some animations felt uncomplete and the hulk looked a little strange (as you can see)

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Next was "Thor: Thunder Spin"

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Its a Huss Top Spin and was quite a fun ride.

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The final area is Cartoon Network

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First ride was "PowerPuff Girls: Mojo's Robot Rampage" which is an Air Race, very fun.

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Ben 10 wasn't that great, as was "The Amazing Ride of Gumball"

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The final thing I did was "The Haunted Hotel"

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It was very well themed in there.

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Its a walkthrough attraction where actors scare you, its very good but the queue was big.

Overall IMG Worlds was awesome, in my opinion its better than Ferrari World and its a must visit if you ever come out here.
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Great reports - keep them coming!

Looking forward to going back to Dubai in January and riding all the new stuff.
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So.

Just so.

I'm honestly shocked, shocked about how disappointing this was. If you promise after lots of preview events, that your park is ready, rides are all complete and ready to run, good shade to keep you out of the heat and enough to have a good day out, then you should deliver on that.

Anyway today was the opening day of Legoland Dubai and Dubai Parks and Resorts and it was an interesting experience.

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This was when the excitement was building

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You enter in through Riverland to connect to the park, which was actually really well done.

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You walk past the entrance for MotionGate...

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And Bollywood Park Dubai....

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To get to Legoland Dubai!

https://www.facebook.com/legolanddubai/ ... 466211056/
The official opening ceremony (skip to 5:45 for the opening)

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A lot of media was here today, I got asked a few questions if I liked the place coming from an enthusiast (I was wearing my Smiler shirt), I said something along the lines of "Its a great family fun addition for the city, but they need to sort out the operations and shade", I have yet to see it pop up on the internet.

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There was some school doing a marching band thing.

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Of course you have to have the massive Lego store.

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Miniland is in this dome

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Its actually very well done

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They had famous buildings in this region recreated in Lego

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However there are issues involving effects, there are buttons that when pressed, do something cool. About 80% of them didn't work.

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CLOSED
As was 65% of the park, I mean seriously, come on.

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This sign was plastered all over the place.

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One ride that didn't have this sign was the "Submarine Adventure", so I entered the queue, walked round the cattle-pen and came to a dead end..... I walked around the building trying to find a way in and the only door I found was one that said "Maintenance only" and a closed shop one. In other words.... THEY FORGOT TO PUT A DOOR ON THE BUILDING.

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They had a "Laser Raiders" style ride, which was awful and incredibly lazily designed. This ride took about 2 hours to open and was only open for about half an hour.

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Wave racer was an ok ride, however there were water cannons off-ride that weren't even plugged in. I even saw one person want to try uses it, so he giggled it, only for the handle bar to fall off. Seriously Legoland, sort yourself out.

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On the plus side, I felt like I saw back in the X-Sector when I saw this :lol

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The staff were trying to get "The Dragons Apprentice" open (why not the real dragon tho :( ), at this point, the park was dead. I think everyone realised how boring it was, when nothing is open.

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I think I saw 2 people go on the driving school and the boating school was still under construction.

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These were the people who interviewed me earlier

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The 4D theater opened and this was my highlight of the day (which is quite sad).

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The Dragon's Apprentice finally opened and I was on the first public train (Achievement unlocked?) and that was cred number 50, so yay...

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After a ride on a bad flat, and waiting another 2 hours to see if The Dragon would open (which apparently opened in the parks final hour....) I decided to join the rest of the public and leave the park.

In a sad sort of way this has made me less hyped for MotionGate and Bollywood, but I guess this is the smaller of the parks and I did see The Hunger Games Mack Megacoaster being constructed and Zombieland being tested, which made me hopeful. But wow this is a dull park, I would probably class this as a "Soft Opening" but they need to sort stuff out. Bad operations, not enough shade and AC, people were even still painting some buildings and lots of areas felt empty. I wouldn't say this is a must visit park at the moment and is the weakest park in this region. But hey, I got a free commemorative brick.
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I would have expected at least a free return ticket..
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So its the holidays for me, so that means more parks! Over the next few weeks you can expect updates from the following:

MotionGate Dubai
Ferrari World Abu Dhabi: Winterfest
Global Village

Maybe if I have time also the Dubailand Sales Office, Bollywood Parks Dubai and IMG Worlds of Adventure: Festive Fun!

So stay tuned!
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What better way to celebrate the christmas season then at Ferrari World! So the park have decided to hold a holiday themed event called "Winterfest"! So I went to check it out!

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Driving to the park from Dubai, you get a great view of Formula Rossa!

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Ho Ho Ho, welcome to Ferrari World

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The park was looking very nice with lots of christmas decorations over here.

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I loved this area of the park.

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Now onto some rides! The first thing I did was Fiorano GT Challenge (as this ride gets very popular later on in the day) and luckily both sides were operating, so I got a great duelling ride on it!

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The layout of the ride and an update of Warner Bros Abu Dhabi.

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A snow dome had dancers in here later on in the day.

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Mission Ferrari still looking good.

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Construction on Vortex was moving swiftly (with a vertical spiral now present)

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The station of Vortex was looking all Sci-Fi

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Did I mention that its Christmas?

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My No 1 coaster was still great. (Excuse the blur)

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Advice for anyone who gets out here to ride this beast: Its FULL of airtime, nearly blacking out intense (especially on the first drop and loop) and for the best airtime sit on the back row on one of the winged seats (on last section especially).

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(Forgot to take a picture) I did the interactive family ride "Benno's Great Race" and its actually very charming. Its about a mouse who wants to win a race against a bully and you use your spanner (which is your gun) to help him assemble his car, clear obstacles on the road and other things. Its pretty good.

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They had some "Festive Treats" on offer at this event, this was a very delicious and very well priced "Snow Frosted Choco Crêpe".

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One of the only rides at this park I have yet to do is "Viaggio in Italia", the line is always very long and from what I've heard, its a flight simulator which sometimes had bad syncing.

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Nobody was really on this ice rink all day and in the spirit of Christmas, it was Free!

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Formula Rossa was closed for most of the day.

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However, in the last hour is was in the park, it opened!

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For some reason it felt slower than last time I rode it, but thats probably due to me riding it before. I asked the operator after the ride how fast we went and he said 148.8mph, so nothing was different. Still a cracking good ride though.

So that was Winterfest at Ferrari World Abu Dhabi, it actually was much nicer than the last time I went to the park and would highly recommend it to anyone who wants to come out here. I leave you with one final pic of Formula Rossa, vroom vroom.

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Nice report.

Christmas in Dubai seems odd - maybe there is just too much heat and desert :)
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YEAH BOIIIIIII

If you know me well on this forum, you'll know that I have been covering a lot of updates on Dubai Parks and Resort, specifically MotionGate. So for me finally getting to visit the park was like achievement. Although the park opened in mid-December, I didn't want a repeat of Legoland, so I delayed it as much as possible (while still being in my school holiday) and I visited it today.

And all I can say about the park is "Hey, thats pretty good".

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So as always with Dubai Parks and Resorts, you walk through Riverland to get to your desired park.
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I can't stress enough how good Riverland looks.

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Of course in order to get to MotionGate, you need to walk past the other parks. Bollywood, Legoland Waterpark and DisappointmentLand.

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I'm finally here!!

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Loving the oversized chair.

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When you enter the park lots of the buildings are like movie items.

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This was the "Main Street" of the park, they still had christmas decorations up.

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When you reach the end of the street, the park splits off into the 3 zones, one of the sections is Lionsgate which is still under construction, which holds a 4D flying theatre "Panem Aerial Tour" and a Mack MegaCoaster "Capitol Bullet Train". This section is supposed to open early this year.

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If you continue down however, you reach the indoor Dreamworks section, which holds another 4 areas: Shrek, How To Train Your Dragon, Madagascar and Kung Fu Panda (as it doesn't have a area dedicated to Bee Movie it gets a 0/10 from me).

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They had statues of various Dreamworks mascots over here.

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OH HELLO THERE!

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:/

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Nice fountain welcoming you.

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I went to the Madagascar area, which is themed to the third movie.

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A cool looking kids ride here.

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But the main draw to this area is the Gerstlauer Infinity Coaster "Madagascar: Mad Pursuit!"

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The queue for the ride has lots of circus theming around it.

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The ride vehicle. The coaster itself I am very mixed on, its a non-inverting Infinity Coaster yet its the parks fastest coaster with a powerful LIM launch. I had 6 rides on it today (and it was a very quiet day so I had 3 in 15 mins), toward the beginning of the day it was very smooth, intense, pops of airtime and just pure enjoyment. However later on in the day it was very bumpy, so much so I dubbed it "Headache: The Ride". The ride experience starts with seeing some models of the animals hiding from the villain from the third film, they say some lines and then it launches through a lit up tunnel, lots of sudden twists turns and drops in the dark follow, with near misses lighting up along the way (they seemed to be still in the rehearsal stage as not everything was working), in summery, its a fun coaster but ride at the beginning of the day to avoid a headache.

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The area dedicated to How To Train Your Dragon was still being finished, so unfortunately this ment that the Mack Suspended Coaster "Dragon Gliders" was not ready.

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However, I sneakily stuck my camera behind the construction wall and snapped this. I overheard one of the staff members say to someone that this area is aiming to be open by the end of next week.

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This was the Shrek area, the main dark ride was still under construction. There was a nice little Rockin' Tug themed to a log, which was fun. But the theming in here was like it was ripped straight out of the movie.

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Kung Fu Panda had a very impressive area, smell pods made it smell of noodles and peaches and had a neat little spinning cup ride themed to noodles. The main ride in this area is a 3D simulator "Unstoppable Awesomeness", unfortunately this here was closed all day until the last few hours when it "soft" opened, I missed it though. :/

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The other area of the park is Colombia Pictures. (I could have sworn it said "Sony Pictures" originally)

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Its a really nice area.

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The next coaster was "Green Hornet: High Speed Chase"

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Its a compact Gerstlauer Bobsled Coaster

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Empty park = empty queue! From what i've heard, that car was one of the real Green Hornets used in the film.

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This coaster is quite a fun family coaster, I managed to have several rides on it on the day. Its got lots of sharp turns and a nice atmosphere. Sometimes the ride was a little rough, but most of the time very smooth. Plus I really like the car.

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Not sure about you but, I ain't afraid of no ghost.

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The ride is themed to the original film, not the remake. I really do like the queue.

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The ride itself however, is a complete let down. The projections are sub-par for the most part, the transitions between scenes are awful, the ride was still in technical rehearsal as some animatronics weren't working properly. I really think this ride could have been better if they added 3D, its just 2D screens your looking at.

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Outside the ride, a show goes on where the Ghostbusters get possessed and they dance to some funky tunes. Its quite funny.

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Ohhhh, whats that interesting structure?

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Its Hotel Transylvania!

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The ride is a trackless system with a very interesting layout, you go through various hotel rooms (with various effects not working), but due to it being trackless and a very fluid dispatch rate, it looks like you are going to are going to bump into other cars! That alone makes it fun! Even though its a little boring.

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Underworld 4D was probably the best 4D cinema experience i've ever had. 9/10

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The Smurf's Studio Tour was another dark ride, they had parody movie posters around the queue.

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Quite a charming ride actually!

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After that, I went and watched the main show at the park, "Step Up Dubai: All In!" Its a brake-dancing show and is very entertaining.

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Another ride not ready yet was the parks rapids ride.

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Looks nearly ready to go though.

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Yup! Looks VERY nearly ready to go!

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I saw an evac in progress on Green Hornet.

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*Gasps* It's Zombieland: Blast Off!

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Can I just say, this is probably the only movie based ride, to literally take a scene from a movie and replicate it accurately. Also Zombieland is one of my all time fave movies so this ride for me is :love:

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The queue line is split in two, it starts off with a weird twisted funhouse....

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And ends in an employee area.

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I was hoping this wouldn't suddenly blink.

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Yeah, they do need to find more Twinkies, because I was hoping they would sell them!

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For those wondering what the rules of surviving are.

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Probably my favourite ride in the park, its a S&S Combo Tower. It shoots you up, bounces you around (with lots of floater airtime), then raises you to the top and drops you straight down. Pure. Adrenaline. Rush.

Me on the ride

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The Smurf's Village Express was testing all day, I saw a group of park officials, who were apparently "signing it off" for tomorrow. Dammit.

After a few more rides on various attractions, it started getting dark. I managed to get a night time ride on Green Hornet and then finally ended the day with a night time ride on Zombieland.

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Overall I very much enjoyed my time at MotionGate Dubai, its got a great feel to the park and although not all the rides were open, the ones that were I really liked. I can't wait to visit the park when the Lionsgate area opens and the park is complete. :D

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Chris
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Great report!

I still can't believe there is so much not yet open, can't be good for anyone who visits at the moment. I'm visiting at the end of the month and very much doubt the Lionsgate area will be open going by your photos!

It will be interesting to see how the park does compared to the neighbouring Six Flags. I guess that will be a step up in terms of thrill compared to Motiongate, but doubt it will match the quality of theming.
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Danny
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Always enjoy reading your updates and trip reports- so thanks!

The quality and detail of the theming is immense, I'd say Disney/Uni standard, and once the park is complete it will make an awesome park for all the family. Slightly jealous you can visit so frequently :D
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