Aquaventure Waterpark

When we made the decision to go back to Dubai, we also decided that we would make this a truly fun and relaxing vacation.  We love to see history up close and personal but in the past few months (maybe years) we have seen a few too many churches and museums.  Especially for the girls tastes.  This time it was going to be a true getaway - fun, sun, and too much junk food.  So we picked Atlantis as our hotel because it was a one stop shop that included all of those things and more.  Located on its grounds are a waterpark, private beaches, pools, an aquarium, over 30 restaurants, kids club...need I go on?  Think a Las Vegas Hotel that has been moved to the beach and then they added a Schlitterbahn and Sea World to boot.  Paradise for the little's and if I'm being truly honest, for the bigs too.  Exactly what the doctor ordered!

We got in too late the first night to see anything other than the sunset but that just allowed us to recharge our batteries and hit the waterpark first thing in the morning.

Since we were guests of the hotel, our entrance tickets were included in our stay.  The better part though was that since we were concierge guests (I highly suggest this as it will save you a bunch) we also got to skip the line and enter the park without waiting.  Which was fantastic seeing as the lines seemed like they were miles long and the girls (and B) were really eager to get their feet wet.  Literally.

Thankfully, those lines at the entrance did not translate into lines at each of the water slides.  We had collected the inner tubes we needed (doubles for us) and headed to the Tower of Neptune to try out their slides...

A huge thumbs up from both girls and a bit of silliness while we waited for the next ride...

Our next slide down took us through a tunnel underneath the shark tank.  We had fish (and people) staring at us from all sides...

We did a quick tour of the kid's playground where water seemingly spurted out at you from every which way...

And then we headed over to the other side of the park and the Tower of Poseidon.  Here we left our tubes behind as they put us in huge family sized floats to navigate these waters!  These rides were a lot faster, much steeper and we got a few more screams from the girls (and B).

No kids were hurt in the making of this video...And Stinkerbell truly did love it; it just shocked her, especially when we hit weightlessness.

The kids had worked up a hunger and a thirst so we stopped for a treat - snowcones...

And then went back to it.  We hit the lazy river (all 2km of it) and its rapids more than once.

And finally, at the end of day 3 (yep, I am putting all 3 days in here at once because it is just the same old same old each day so why write it separately?) B and I finally braved the Leap of Faith.  Dropping you 9 stories in one second, shooting you through a tunnel in the shark tank and landing you in a pool a mere 5 seconds after you started it truly lives up to its name.  But was oh so fun!

At this point, we all looked like this...

So we called it an adventure and headed to the beach/pool.  Yep, every day we left the water park so we could go play in the water...

Voted the 3rd Best Waterpark in the World (and #1 in the Middle East), Aquaventure surely lived up to its reputation.