Advertisement
Published: April 21st 2014
Edit Blog Post
Thursday and we arrived on time mid afternoon in Dubai, tired but after another good trip with Emirates. Having said that I do not want to watch any more movies in a while!
We took the short hop by taxi to the Atlantis Palm which has to be seen to be believed!! (again take a look on the web to see the full extent of the hotel!) After a quick check in we headed straight out to the waterpark which adjoins the hotel for a little taster of the rides which were to follow. Although Michele came out looking slightly drowned after the “lazy” river which we later found out was tame compared to the other rides.
Determined to stay awake, we went to see the dolphins (also part of the hotel) and then headed back for a lovely early supper at the Asian buffet which had more choices than you could possibly think of. We headed to rest around 9pm determined to make the most of the time difference for an early start on the Friday.
Friday morning, both Michele and I were wide awake by 5am and walking
on the beach by 6am. The kids were also up early and so it was breakfast at 7.30 and then off to make the most of the day.
We opened up the Atlantis Waterpark at 10am and all four of us then tackled some of the exhilarating slides on offer. The kids and David tackled the worst they could throw at us including The Leap of Faith which is a near vertical slide which drops around 20-30 metres before passing through the middle of an aquarium (via a tube which is lucky as there were sharks in it!). The ultimate challenge however was Poseidon’s Revenge which involved standing in a launch tube from which the floor suddenly retracted leaving you to freefall about 10 metres before then speeding down through various twists and turns to the bottom. I can honestly say I have never travelled so fast through water in my life.
These were a leap of faith too far for Michele but she did go on almost all of the other rides over the next 2 hours or so.
After a bit of lunch and a rest we then headed
out to the pool before then going off late afternoon for the kids to have their “Royal Swim” with the dophins. Whatever you might think about dolphins in captivity they really have an amazing set up at the hotel and it was a really professional operation.
The kids had a thorough debrief for close to an hour before venturing out into the water with Estu the dolphin. The experience included kisses and hugs with Estu and watching her perform the usual repertoire of tricks. They also both were towed across the bay by two dolphins, hanging on to their dorsal fins and also being propelled at great speed on a boogie board with Estu pushing with her nose. A marvelous experience for the kids and I think they really appreciated the grace and immense power of these amazing animals. Alex was a little unsure about the kissing bit (too cool for school!!) and they both declared that dolphins have fishy breath (you heard this scoop here first!)
At the end of a brilliant day we headed off to a lovely Italian restaurant inside the hotel.
On Saturday morning Michele
and I were up again early and on the beach for a run and some triathlon swim training for David (the sea is even warmer than the pool).
After breakfast we had another brilliant morning at the waterpark producing video evidence of all the rides we had been on the previous day! A great laugh but actually very tiring because of the adrenalin rush and also thousands of steps to get to each ride.
In the afternoon we had a relaxing afternoon by the pool before heading off in the evening to a place called Souk Madinat which is a new complex on the mainland which recreates the traditional feel of the Arabic markets but with inevitable 5 star luxury and a strong hint of Venice . We had a wander around the markets and then after a meal along the waterside, we took a boat trip through the waterways which run throughout the complex. Jet lag took its toll for the first time since leaving Australia so we then headed back to the hotel for a good nights sleep before the last full day of our wonderful trip.
Easter Sunday and a more gentle start to the morning as we are starting to adjust more towards European time. After breakfast we headed off for our final adventure of the holiday, one which probably had the team more nervous than doing the Leap of Faith at the waterpark.
We headed off to the massive aquarium in the centre of the hotel and there had a 30 minute snorkel dive. The aquarium is home to 65,000 marine inhabitants (don’t ask me how they count them) including 4 types of sharks, huge rays and countless other fish. Given the paranoia over sharks for most of the time we were in Australia (not to mention the fact that a woman was killed by one the day we arrived in New South Wales) there was some trepidation amongst the Coleman family. Izzi in particular was very brave in overcoming her fear and I think was thrilled by the sheer amount of marine creatures we were swimming above. It also it gave us a good taste of what the Barrier Reef might have been like and reinforced our determination to revisit Queensland sometime in the future.
After our
snorkel we settled down for a last session on the beach and by the pool and as I write this blog we are packing up ready for tomorrows flight home. After this we have an Asian buffet to look forward to and then its an early night ready for the final leg of the journey.
One final blog to come tomorrow when we land back in Blighty.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.057s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 12; qc: 44; dbt: 0.0344s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb