Abu Dhabi 2

Day 2 was all about Dubai: the Parks, the malls, the fountains and the brinner.

First up, MotionGate. 

We did actually debate Legoland, seeing as we'd been to the one in California years before and loved it, but were recommended MotionGate as it was better for older kids.  It's made up of a Columbia Pictures, DreamWorks, Lionsgate, Studio Central and Smurfs Zone, and all of them were absolutely dead.  On the positive side that meant absolutely no queuing for any ride (and who's gonna complain about that?!) but on the negative it meant you kinda lost a bit of the excitement and anticipation and thrill of what was to come... still, I'd take the not queuing over building excitement!

The indoor Dreamworks Zone was our first port of call and it provided us with one of our best rollercoaster experiences ever.  In fact, not only was it one of the best, but it was one of the fastest, which came as such a surprise that I think I laughed in shock and fear the entire ride.  I mean I'd literally just finished telling the kids not to worry about the coaster because we didn't have proper over the shoulder harnesses which meant it wasn't going to be a particularly fast or scary ride, when suddenly WHOOOSH!  I was still shaking and laughing like a crazy person when I came off, but of course the kids wanted to go again which is at least easy to do in an empty park!

Lightning, meanwhile, had been feeling a bit "meh" the whole morning.  He wasn't really ill, and enjoyed certain rides like the Madagascar Mad Pursuit (twice!), but sat out on others like the spinning teacups and was generally just not right, wanting to lie down any place he could.  And then he threw up, all over the bathroom floor. I mean at least it was in the bathroom, but it wasn't quite in the toilet - the Don tells the story very well - and thankfully wasn't over himself.  While the Don was dealing with Lightning and the pool Indian cleaner, the other three and I carried on through Dreamworks and enjoyed Shrek and Kung Fu Panda and a couple of other rides before the AC froze us up so much that we had to head back outside for some warmth.  Once warmed up it was back into Dreamworks for lunch and the How to Train Your Dragon rides, which we would also totally recommend.  Lightning missed lunch and slept on my lap for most of that hour, before waking and throwing back up.  Again.  In exactly the same bathroom.  And still not in the toilet.  At that point we decided he really wasn't well and the medic that came to see him gave us a courtesy 'buggy' to push him around in.  We did have the option of sitting in the Medical room and letting him sleep, but then either the Don or I would have had to stay with him, and well, when you're part of a family of 6 sometimes you just need to suck it up!

Which I think he was glad for, because he was feeling well enough at various points in the afternoon to enjoy the Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs water ride with us (again twice!), as well as the ones in Hotel Transylvania and Ghostbusters, though he did pass on the ice cream and Green Lantern rollercoaster.  My other scariest moment of the day was joining Tiger in the Zombieland Blast Off - the 58m sudden drop tower - which you can see in the photo below. I have to say that that was very quickly my last ride of the day, and not something I'm sure I'd ever go on again!

4pm in the afternoon and downtown MotionGate is pretty empty...

When we were eventually all motioned-out we carried on up the E11 to our favourite Dubai Mall and Fountains.  We shopped till be dropped, found an outside spot at an iHop to enjoy a US style brinner and enjoyed the beautiful fountain displays.  Thankfully the table we were given also had bench seating because Lightning ended up snoozing the hour away.  Poor boy.

It was a very late night, but oh so worth it.