Final Thoughts

Contrary to what it may seem, we did not spend our entire time in Dubai submerged (though many in the family would have had no complaints).  One evening we took some time out of the water to go see it from a different angle. Legend has it that for thousands of years the ancient ruins of Atlantis were lost beneath the sea.  While building the Atlantis hotel and the Lost Chambers Aquarium they claim to have discovered the ruins of the city.  

Let's start with the Ambassador's lagoon.  Holding 11 million liters (just under 3 million gallons) of natural seawater it is the home to thousands of species indigenous to the Persian Gulf.  Add that open top...

The view from 12 stories up...

 and that stunningly huge front glass...

This is from the 2nd story and it is only the front middle panel of 3...

and you can see why there are always people standing around watching the sea life swim by.  And every once in a while a real life diver...

This guys stopped to touch hands with Stinkerbell.

We even got lucky enough that we were front and center when they were hand feeding the fish one afternoon.  It was amazing (watch the video and I am sure you will agree)...

Feeding time over, we headed inside the aquarium to see even more spectacular fish and even the albino alligators.

This one sat and relaxed for a bit watching the sea go by.

We headed back to our room after a day well spent in and out of the water.  But we weren't done with our adventures yet as the next day we had dinner with a friend from Prague who had just moved to Dubai.  So, the next afternoon we cleaned up (after a day at the waterpark, of course) and headed over to the Dubai Mall to wander around, show B the Burj Kahlifa and have dinner at one of our favorite restaurants from Paris...

 And with that we called it a vacation.  We took a snapshot in the King's chair and boarded our flight back home with memories of the sand, slides and sunshine filling our thoughts.

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.

Atlantis Dubai

Six months ago, the girls and I put a check on my bucket list and added another continent/country/city to our visited map when we spent a few days in Dubai (posts are here, here and here).  We went sans B because he declared that he had no desire to visit and couldn't get away so it was the perfect spring break destination.  And then he saw the pictures of the sand and the sun and how much fun we had and decided that perhaps he would like to visit after all.  So, with a few days left in our fall break after our long weekend in Prague for Halloween, we did a quick unpack/repack and hit the airport bright and early on Wednesday morning.

We flew with Emirates again, which is quickly becoming one of my favorite airlines.  Their service and attention to detail are second to none.  They even came around and took pictures of the passengers wearing their attendant's caps which made MadHatters whole flight... (Stinkerbell missed it as she was sleeping).

 We learned a few things from our last trip and one of the most important was that you don't want to land at DXB too late because it will take you forever to walk from your gate, to luggage claim, passport control and customs.  Then you have to find your taxi driver and drive the  1/2 hour to the city and your hotel.  All in all it's about 2 hours from touchdown to your hotel.  Last time we landed at midnight which meant we didn't get into bed until well after 2 am.  This time we booked the trip to land us about 4 pm and get to the hotel in time to eat a late dinner and sleep.  Which is what we did - after marveling at their gorgeous lobby fountain...

We were up slowly the next morning with nothing on our agenda except the water park and the beach/pools.  So that is exactly what we did (I will post the waterpark pictures in their own post).  I snapped a few pictures of the hotel as we were walking through...

Our view

The view from the beach

These guys had a great time in the Gulf.

 I didn't take a ton of pictures as we played because, well, we were playing but I did manage a few...

 We played until the sun went down, literally.  We dried off walked to our concierge club for drinks and a light dinner and then fell into bed without even getting dressed once during the day!  I would call that a successful first day.