Pink Cadillac
Giga Poster
Whew, talk about a delayed report! It will be mainly just pictures as I can't be bothered writing much. It was a really short trip so I didn't get time to everything (including going up the Burj Khalifa, but it was great seeing it from the outside)
There was so many crazy looking buildings in Dubai, this was the winner:
This was the first time I'd been to a city brimming with skyscrapers, it was so surreal.
Our room was only half way up the hotel, but even that was around 400ft high!
Every morning it was incredibly misty which was again really surreal to look at from the balcony and made for some really cool photos.
At night when the fog had cleared:
My favourite moment of the entire trip was looking out of the balcony at night in the warm air, hearing the call the prayers (adhan) over the hustle and bustle of the city.
~artsy photo~
We were staying the Dubai Marina which is the best area btw, especially at night with all the lights. An amazing place to go for a walk and eat dinner.
Now, time for Motiongate. Theme of the day:
I got to the entrance and realised I had lost my phone
Also i was on my own for motiongate and had no watch on so I no idea when I needed to out of the park by. And Motiongate is PACKED on Christmas day (everything at least 30 mins) and I had only allowed myself 3 or so hours. And I couldn't remember the name of the hotel to get the taxi back. And I didn't bring my camera to the park as I'd planned to take pictures on my phone. If anything it went from worse to worser.
The park itself was a lot better than what I expected. The areas were really nicely done, especially the indoor "Dreamworks" mini-lands. Wish I could've spent more time in those areas.
Capitol Bullet Train was a coaster that in terms of the layout, I didn't know that much about and would be my first mack mega coaster. And you know what, it was a bit of a let down. There were a few good airtime moments, but it was short and was expecting it to be the best ride in the park.
Madagascar Mad Persuit was much better. There was a cute onride pre-show and the launch was suprisingly intense. The rest of the ride was a really solid family coaster with simple theming & effects and you got see the pengins on the brake run!
Dragon Gliders was another ride I think I preffered to Capitol Bullet Train. The mack suspended powered coaster is really great foundation for a story-driven coaster. The ride is a mix of screens and real theming and finishes by flying over the entire miniland which was fab.
Later on that day I was dragged to the Dubai Mall, which isn't anything special. It has a nice fish tank and we had christmas dinner at the Rainforest Cafe.
Next day we went on a cute little walking tour of the old part of Dubai
and later walked around the souks
And in the evening we had a desert safari. And YES I was the only one who got motion sickness.
Thank god for a break!
If anyone else wants to do a desert safari, make sure it is a 'sunset' one.
at the end of the tour you get taken to this fortress to have a gorgeous buffet dinner
They had camals, a falcon and lots of traditional arabian entertainment
Some of it was questionable. Be Our Guest!
Final day: Ferrari World!
Headed to Formula Rossa first as it gets a queue later on in the day (it got to 100 mins!)
The launch is terrifyingly fast on the front row. The most wtf launch I've done. The rest on the coaster is nice, especially the bunny hops at the end, but it really is a front row coaster.
Onto Flying Aces, the coaster I was most excited about on the entire trip:
The queue line is one of my favourites ever (outside of a Disney/Universal park), its very WW2 and I dont remember seeing a theme like that at any theme park before. However, we put stuff in lockers before you enter the queue so I didn't get any pics of it. I didn't like the ride ops because they kept on making everyone cheer until they dispacted the train.
It is fab and is probably in my top 10. The positive and negative gs are both really intense. I prefer the twisty second half of the ride (and the barrel roll <3) compared to the airtime-filled middle section. The drop and the non inverting loop were also highlights.
Turbo track was as you'd expect really. Was worse when you factored in bitch ass children constantly pushing, brushing and tickling my legs. At both parks no one knew what was personal space was.
The Fiorano GT Challenge was good, but I would have preffered not to wait an hour for it. I liked how a lot of the turns were just not banked.
The end thank god.