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Old 12 Nov 18, 10:18 PM  
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Geordieprincess
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2nd trip to Dubai, Halloween 2018 mini trippie

Halloween in Dubai, October 2018

We are a family of 4 with two kids, a boy of 12 who loves sightseeing and a girl of 8 who loves the pool.
We were last in Dubai 18 months ago as a 5 night stopover on the way home from Australia. We stayed at Atlantis the Palm, which we loved, but it was pricy and a bit out of the way, so when I got a good deal on flights and 8 nights B&B at the Grand Hyatt near the creek we thought we'd have a cheeky week in the sun, mainly to chill out by the pool, but also to visit some of the places we missed last time. We got free tickets to Motiongate theme park from Emirates so decided to visit on Halloween as they had trick or treating, pumpkin decorating, Hotel Transylvania and Ghostbusters. This was our only planned day out, with 3 pool days either side and evenings out - because of the heat, many of the attractions are only open in winter and/or evenings.

You can read about our 1st trip to Dubai here:

https://www.thedibb.co.uk/forums/sho... php?t=1104715

Second trip to Dubai

Saturday 27th Oct - travel day
1.45pm emirates flight from Newcastle to Dubai - great as always. I hate flying but the bigger plane with the huge choice of movies and games makes it not so bad. Arrived at midnight and the worst part of the journey was getting bussed to the terminal. It seemed to go on forever - I think it took about 15 mins! Huge queues at immigration and for taxis but the hotel was only a 10 minute taxi ride so we were there by 1.15am. First impressions were good with a huge posh lobby. It took ages to check in and just as we were leaving for the lifts the receptionist said you’ve got a king size bed so I’ve ordered a roll away to be brought along. As there are 4 of us, I said we’ll be needing 2 of those! Now anyone who saw my trippie about Malaysia will have seen we had the same problem in Penang earlier this year. What is it with them thinking you want to share a bed with your kids? They clearly don’t have one who likes to practise her karate in her sleep! It took about half an hour for them to bring the first bed then my husband moved furniture around to make room for the second bed. We waited and waited. Eventually I phoned housekeeping who weren’t actually planning to send a second bed, but they did pretty soon after my call. We finally made it to bed at 2.30am - an hour later than we should have if the beds were ready! Frustrating after a long travel day!

Day 1 Sunday
We had a lie in after our late night, got up about 9am. Breakfast was the usual buffet style with chefs making eggs, waffles, pancakes etc and it was pretty good. By the time we went back to the room to get sun cream on and get our stuff it was around 11am when we hit the Pool. This isn’t typical for us (usually early risers) and we struggled to find beds with shade. We got 3 beds together so made do and the pool attendant brought us an umbrella. They are really attentive, always come to help you move beds and umbrellas, and when he saw us starting to blow up the kids' rubber rings he took them away to blow them up with a pump.
The pool is huge and nicely done with fake rocks and trees. Our beds were by the deep part (2m) and while we can all swim, I’d rather be where I can touch the bottom. There is a shallow part, a separate baby pool and a separate splash park with 2 slides, but most of the beds are around the deep part so we’ll have to be early for beds near the shallows.

The hotel and pool:





We had a great day just chilling and playing in the pool. Kids loved the slides and they are at an age now where I don't need to watch them every second. We had brought some crisps and biscuits from home which kept us going, along with free bottled water from the room. At about 4pm we got baskin robins icecream for about £4 a scoop. Sunset was 5.40pm so we left the pool around 5pm, showered, changed then headed for dinner at the local Wafi mall, a 5 min taxi ride away. It was very quiet. We ate at Papa Johns a family meal deal with 2 medium pizzas, chicken pieces, salad and 4 drinks costing a little under £25. Kids played space golf for around £10 each and we wandered around the Ripley’s believe it or not free exhibition.

Wafi Mall with Ripley's exhibit:



Day 2 Monday
Up a bit earlier today and managed to get beds beside the shallow part of the pool which was noiser but better for the kids.
We ate a late lunch of 2 shared kids meals (£10 each but very big for a snack/lunch) by the pool before leaving about 4pm to get showered, changed and out to The Dubai Frame - a giant picture frame with views over old and new Dubai. There is a small exhibit about Dubai past and future and a visit to the top of the frame (£30 for family). We spent around an hour there.

The Frame:



View from the top of the Frame:



As it was getting dark ~6ish we headed for the Dinosaur Park and Garden Glow which cost £55 for four not including the ice sculptures.

We aren't too big on dinosaurs so just had a quick walk round:



Garden Glow was huge - way bigger than we expected, and we stopped for some snacks of pancakes and ice creams half way round.







We were glad we hadn't bothered with the ice sculptures as we were ready for bed by the time we'd finished the garden

Day 3 Tuesday
Alarm set for 7 again but we are really struggling to get out of bed even after 10 hours sleep. Got to the pool shortly after 9am but couldn’t get our preferred beds. As we set up camp we could hear thunder rumbling and the clouds were really grey. Luckily we had set up under a gazebo so we just sat it out as the rain started. I didn’t think it was supposed to rain in the desert! It was almost 11am by the time the rain cleared. Another great pool day with kids loving the slides, splash park and playing ball and floating around in rubber rings.

In the evening we took a taxi to Festival City mall where we watched the Imagine light and water show (there are 2 different ones which alternate) and had dinner at the Cheesecake Factory - 4 meals, drinks and 2 desserts including tip was around £70 so not too bad.



Day 4 Wednesday, Halloween
Today was our theme park day. We got free tickets from Emirates which we chose to use at Motiongate which looks a bit like Universal. Could also use them at Legoland or Bollywood land. We all wore our pumpkin t shirts. There was a free bus from the hotel to the parks - it took about an hour and picked up at two other hotels. We arrived just as the park was opening at 11am.



The Halloween theming reminded me of Disney.



A large part of the park is indoors which is great in the heat of the day - it covered Madagascar, Shrek, how to train your Dragon, Kung fu panda. Outside was hotel Transylvania, smurf village, ghostbusters, hunger games, cloudy with a chance of meatballs.
The park was so quiet and lots of merchandise was 80% off. They had pumpkin decorating and trick or treating around the park and also around all the restaurants in Riverland (the restaurant area outside the parks, similar to Universal's City Walk). Check out Riverland Dubai’s official Instagram page and see if you can see us in our matching pumpkin T shirts on their Halloween promo video!
Because there were no queues we were all done, some rides more than once, and got the 7.30pm free bus back (rather than the 10.30pm as we’d originally planned). Great day out, theming was well done, but they must be losing a fortune at the moment on running costs vs visitor numbers. It’s literally in the middle of no where so no doubt all the land around it will be earmarked for more hotels, parks etc and in a few years it will be a destination in its own right.

Day 5 Thursday
Another pool day then an evening spent at Global Village. It’s a bit like EPCOT world showcase with a small global area with Eiffel Tower, Big Ben, Statue of Liberty etc but the majority of the pavilions are countries of the Middle East. They sell food, souvenirs/items from the country and have shows on like singing, dancing in traditional costumes.

There was also a stunt show in a large arena which was excellent - bit like the car stunt show at Disney - the motorbikes jumping were the highlight. There was also a big stage with singing and dancing show on and the atmosphere was great - at £3 a ticket it seemed to be the place locals meet and sit on the grass eating, drinking and watching the entertainment. There were fireworks, a fun fair and street entertainers. We were there 5 hours and just popped in to most pavilions and didn’t go near the fun fair, could easily spend longer there but the kids were getting tired.

Pavillions:





Dancing show:



Stunt Show:



Fireworks:



Day 6 Friday
Another pool day then we went to visit the QE2 which now has a permanent home in Dubai. We did the 5pm heritage tour which took about an hour. The guide was a flamboyant English man who had both worked and cruised on the QE2 - it was clearly his life and he was very passionate about it. The ticket price (£30) included a £20 food voucher. I had planned to have afternoon tea onboard but they wouldn’t let under 12s in the restaurant they served it in so instead we had dinner in the chart room. We enjoyed our visit but compared to modern cruise ships with their huge glitzy atriums it felt very small and drab.





Day 7 Saturday
Final pool day then the kids choice for this evening was to go to see the Burj Khalifa fountains. We saw them last time we were in Dubai and this is the only thing we’ve repeated this holiday. Dubai Mall was crazy busy and so were the fountains. We watched them just after we arrived but the crowd was already 2 or 3 deep so we didn’t have the best view. Kids wanted Pizza Hut, we got a fountains view table and watched 2 shows while we were eating then went outside to watch another one from the front row. While we were waiting, a light show came on the Burj Khalifa, which we had never seen before. DS wanted to see the divers waterfall again so we did that then headed back and all in bed by 9pm as we need to be up at 3.30am for our flight home tomorrow.



Sunday
Alarm set for 3.30am for our 7.30 flight home. The plane was an older version 777 with small seat back TVs and temperamental touch screens - not as nice as the outward flight. They also gave my DS12 children’s meals which he wasn’t too happy about as he prefers the adult choices. This is his 6th Emirates flight since turning 12 and the first one where he didn’t get an adult meal so I’m not sure why. We took off on time and made it back 40mins ahead of schedule so that was good.

So that’s it. We had a great week. I think I liked this location (near creek) better than the palm as it made getting places much quicker and we didn’t seem to see as much traffic or as many building sites/cranes. I don’t usually go back to the same place twice lightly but I think we’ll be back in a few years as there are still things we haven’t seen. The Miracle garden wasn’t opening until mid Nov and I’d love to go and see all the flower structures. Bollywood themepark next to Motiongate also looked worth a visit. DD would love to have a week at the theme parks and I’d imagine in a few years it will be worth a whole holiday to itself. We also still haven’t made it to the marina/walk area yet.

Edited at 10:43 PM.
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Old 12 Nov 18, 11:12 PM  
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Melbatb
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What a fabulous week! I think Dubai can be as relaxing or as manic as you need it to be!
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2016 Quebec - Kuala Lumpar - New York City 2017 Dubai - Eurocamps France - Ontario and Quebec - So-Cal 2018 Montreal - Bangkok - New England 2019 Argentina - Quebec City - Hong Kong - 2020 Switzerland 2022 Arizona - Costa Med Cruise - Oslo 2023 Hong Kong - Gothenburg
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Old 12 Nov 18, 11:24 PM  
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laudan14
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Great read we are going in April from Newcastle first timers. Have you ever used any of the vouchers ie Entertainer for food/activities?
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Old 12 Nov 18, 11:36 PM  
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Geordieprincess
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Originally Posted by laudan14 View Post
Great read we are going in April from Newcastle first timers. Have you ever used any of the vouchers ie Entertainer for food/activities?
We were half board the first time we went so I didn't even consider it, but I looked into it this time as I'd read lots of comments about how it saved you a fortune. It was expensive to buy, and with the kids we weren't looking to eat in high end restaurants, so I was struggling to see the value. Would love to hear where/how people use it though as I do feel I'm missing something!
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Old 13 Nov 18, 04:25 PM  
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Jet
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Good read ..thank you.
We are going to Dubai in May...it's Ramadan then and the hotels are so cheap!
I have also booked one night on the QE2 just before we come back...I have got a few things to iron out ...what to visit etc so will be asking loads of questions...just hope I can cope with the heat ...DH will love it ..it's a surprise for Xmas.
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Old 24 Nov 18, 07:42 AM  
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WileyCoyote
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Great week. Shame about the faff with the beds on arrival. Loved seeing the pics of places we didn’t get to like Garden Glow and Global Village.
Sounds like a good week even with some rain !
Hotel sounds like a nice place to relax.
Thanks for sharing
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Old 7 Dec 18, 03:49 PM  
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Jules32
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Another great read, thanks I love the look of that hotel its on my list of contenders
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Old 7 Jan 19, 01:17 PM  
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Pixiedust40
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Ive loved reading both your Dubai trip reports, they are both really interesting.

Thanks for sharing
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Old 9 Apr 20, 07:35 AM  
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dozy
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never knew there was so much to do in dubai for children - theme parks too

thanks
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Old 9 Apr 20, 08:34 AM  
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Geordieprincess
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Originally Posted by dozy View Post
never knew there was so much to do in dubai for children - theme parks too

thanks
If you have young kids and are interested in theme parks look at Lapita hotel, it’s the onsite hotel about 40-50mins from Dubai centre and has Legoland park and water park, Motiongate (like Universal), Bollywood park and Riverland is the shops/restaurants bit.
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