Search result for "Middle East"
country: United Arab Emirates, Middle East
Wild Wadi, though quite small in size, is one of the major tourist attractions in Dubai. Congratulations to the builders for managing to fit such a competitive and beautiful water park into such a tiny space. The theme revolves around a cozy Aladdin-like village and works very well atmospherically. The location is great as well: you get views of the giant sail-shaped Burj Al Arab hotel and the Arabian Gulf, while being lifted up and down the seemingly-endless water slide...
country: United Arab Emirates, Middle East
This park in my Dubai neighborhood is such fun. I've never seen any cars in the parking lot, and there are always 5-10 times more employees in the park than there are guests. In fact, you will hardly find any guest. I wonder why they are still open. When you walk to the burger shop, the burger maker appears totally surprised that he will make a burger today. But the owners keep it open. Wonderland is a trashy-charming park with old fun fair attractions, not more, not less...
country: United Arab Emirates, Middle East
Located about one-and-a-half hour's drive north of Dubai, Dreamland Aquapark is a well-maintained water park right next to the sea, containing a good number of quality slides. The highlight of the park is a 'SpaceBowl', manufactured by Canadian water slide producer WhiteWater West: its centrifugal forces make you feel like you're being flushed down the toilet! Another must is the great salt water swimming pool which will have you float like on the Dead Sea. The 'Twisting...
country: United Arab Emirates, Middle East
I was really excited when I accidentally found an Universal Studios gate on Al Ain road heading to Dubai Outlet City Mall in January 2008. It serves as the entrance to the site’s office and there is construction going on behind it. Something is happening in Dubailand!Universal Studios Dubailand will feature, among others, a 'Ghostbusters' dark ride, a 'King Kong' dueling coaster, a 'Jurassic Park' river rapids ride and a 'Revenge of the Mummy' roller coaster. Announced...
country: United Arab Emirates, Middle East
Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum had another vision: he wanted to have a casino-free version of the amazing Atlantis Paradise Island Bahamas resort on top of his famous 'Palm Jumeirah', an artificial palmtree-shaped island reaching out into the Persian gulf. And lo, there was Atlantis Dubai! Besides being a picturesque hotel resort looking like a still from a Star Wars trailer, you'll find a brilliant water park and an absolutely marvelous Atlantis-themed...
country: United Arab Emirates, Middle East
Aside from the famous Burj Al Arab hotel, everyone knows the desert city of Dubai for its ski slope. Ski Dubai is part of the ‘Mall of Emirates’, inaugurated in 2005. It's fun to see local sheikhs and Emirates cabin crew colliding while they try their luck on snowboards and skis! It's actually not a bad slope: an average skier will get a decent thrill out of the curvy ski-run. A comfortable ski-lift transports beginners up to Level 1, sporting a restaurant and...
country: United Arab Emirates, Middle East
DUBAILAND! It sounds so good. It is the place where I live at the moment (July 2008) and I have to tell you a story about it:
Dubailand was announced in October 2003. When I moved to Dubai in the spring of 2006, I discovered a great showroom in the desert displaying the planned theme parks on a giant, awesome model. Unfortunately, two years later I can’t see any sign of construction of roller coasters or water slides in the Dubailand area. New villas, apartments,...
country: United Arab Emirates, Middle East
Ferrari World's signature attraction - the fastest roller coaster in the world - is also its best. 'Formula Rossa', built by Swiss/German coaster company Intamin, is a mind-blowing rocket ride that makes you forget everything else you had in mind prior to the monster-acceleration launch of 0-240km/h in 4 seconds. It's so mind-blowing that the Arab girl seated next to me couldn't help but clutch my arm, something that would NEVER happen on any other occasion. Formula Rossa...
country: Iraq, Middle East
Yes, you read it correctly: 'The Baghdad Zoo And Entertainment Experience' theme park. Announced in spring 2008 with projected construction costs of $500 million, the park is supposed to be built next to the Green Zone, encompassing Baghdad's existing zoo. 'Ride & Show Engineering', the company behind the project, is a California-based developer owned by former Walt Disney Imagineers, responsible for wonderfully atmospheric rides like the E.T. ride at Universal Studios. ...
country: Bahrain, Middle East
This is where my journey started. On 2 November 2007, I decided to become The Theme Park Guy while visiting this just-opened water park in Bahrain, a tiny island in the Persian Gulf. Lost Paradise of Dilmun, set in the sparsely populated desert landscape in the south of the kingdom, is absolutely world-class. All slides are state-of-the-art and the whole park is well-themed after Bahrain's ancient history (Dilmun is speculated to be the true location of the Garden of Eden)...
country: Kuwait, Middle East
Kuwait is certainly not on the itinerary of most international travellers and Aqua Park Kuwait wouldn't change that: it doesn't match the standards of Dubai's Wild Wadi, Aquaventure at Atlantis The Palm, or Bahrain's Lost Paradise of Dilmun. However, its iconic location next to Kuwait Towers and a solid collection of thrill waterslides make for a good day out. Definitely the better water park than the super-tiny Mesilla Water Village 20 kilometers south. ...
country: Lebanon, Middle East
Lebanon’s sole theme park is a true jewel and the best of its kind between Italy and Central China. Built by a well-reputed Dubai-based family enterprise and engineered by German perfectionists, its setting on the slopes of Lebanon’s mountains is hard to beat: imagine riding a brand-new spinning roller coaster (like Crush Coaster in Walt Disney Studios Paris) and ‘flying’ on it over the edge of a cliff before turning, twisting and twirling through...
country: United Arab Emirates, Middle East
This 2009-opened Japanese indoor theme park in the 'Dubai Mall' looks, feels and smells more like a gambling house than a theme park. Highlight is the spinning roller coaster on the upper floor which is a bit short, but great fun and very smooth. The Indiana Jones inspired ‘Jungle Adventure’ simulator ride next door is better than I expected, but I recommend taking the coaster for another spin or two instead. Try to avoid the queues on Friday and Saturday!...
country: United Arab Emirates, Middle East
I love empty theme parks. It's like opening an extravagant Christmas present just for you. This one is brand new and no one is inside. Great. After being announced 99% complete in a press release in 2007, it took another two years to complete the remaining 1%. That time could have been spent improving the roller coaster; it isn't pleasant and really hurts your head when going into the curves. The 3-D cinema shows a passable dinosaur and space movie, the children's...
country: United Arab Emirates, Middle East
Ice Land Water Park finally opened its frosty doors in September 2010 in Ras al Khaimah, one hour's drive away from Dubai, and I've got good and bad news about it. Let's start with the bad news: unfortunately it is very noticeable that the body slides (on which you slide without a tube or ring) weren't manufactured to the highest standards. While the slow ones are mildly bumpy (it doesn't hurt, but it does affect the fun factor), the steeper ones snaking out from the...
country: United Arab Emirates, Middle East
Khalifa Park is a 2007-opened public park in Abu Dhabi with an array of gardens and fountains. That's what you'll read about it on the web, if you happen to come across it at all. "Museum and aquarium at the other end of the park, sir" says the employee at the entrance of the totally empty venue. Entering the park. Silence. The sounds of purling fountains far away. A long walk through the heat. Then, a windowless building with a glass door and the notice 'The museum to...
country: Israel, Middle East
Israel's premier amusement park, 20 minutes south of Tel Aviv, is to some extent charming, yet it offers nothing more than the standard collection of roller coaster, flume ride (water ride on log flumes), river rafting ride (water ride on circular rafts), ferris wheel and carousels of various colors. However, given that the next comparable theme park located in a country that allows Israeli passport holders visa-free entry is over 2,500 kilometers away – it's really...
country: Qatar, Middle East
Aqua Park Qatar is a small, basic water park consisting of a three-storey slide tower featuring five slides from Canadian manufacturer WhiteWater West, a small wave pool and a small lazy river. Nothing wrong with it, but nothing special either. Although it recently opened in autumn 2010, it was closed when I went there in March 2011 and is due to reopen in April. Expansion is underway. The good thing is that the brochures call it the 'first water theme park in Qatar',...
country: United Arab Emirates, Middle East
The rise and demise of theme parks can have a uniquely melancholic poetry to it. Like in the untainted villages of Chuansha, just before the Shanghai Disneyland bulldozers came. Or in Chernobyl, where an abandoned, bright-yellow ferris wheel stands in sight of the grey entombed nuclear reactor. Or in cheerless North Korea, where a brand-new amusement park illuminates the dark nights of Pyongyang. Yet, one of my timeless favorites graces the barren desert of Dubai. Tucked...
country: Iran, Middle East
Wow. If you have never been to Iran, don’t judge it by the political see-saw you grasp from the news. Yes, at this point in history, Iran is governed by a clan of spooky moralists with – as it appears to me from what I saw – a rather corrupt bureaucracy below them that is hypocritical beyond belief. But what they do not manage to stifle is a modern, 21st-century, open-minded, unprejudiced, hospitable, warm and cultured population that loves the world and...
country: United Arab Emirates, Middle East
This vast and promising Arabian-history-themed water park was announced years ago and is now finally under construction. Adjacent to Ferrari World, it will include a huge number of Canadian-manufactured world-class thrill water slides, an inverted roller coaster and lots of sand-brown wind tower buildings offering the feel of old Arabia. It feels great, it looks great in the concept art and its location is just right as well. This could become the big tourism hit Abu Dhabi...
country: United Arab Emirates, Middle East
The URL has changed to http://www.thethemeparkguy.com/park/yas-waterworld
Please follow this link: Yas Waterworld
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Visited 2011. Rundown funfair next to shopping mall. Given that everything in Iran looks a bit rundown, it's not a disturbing sight. I really love the Iranians. What wonderful people they are. What stupid government they have. Oh, my review gets clouded. No rating...
Visited 2009. A mixture of defunct and rotten, and I counted more employees than visitors. Do I need to say more?...
Visited 2009. Is this sufficient in size and scope to be called a water park? Visit Aqua Park Kuwait instead, a short drive away...
Visited 2012. Located in Al Ain, 90-minutes drive from Abu Dhabi. Recently rebuilt theme-free amusement park. Might work for the locals, but for a tourist it's just deplorable to spend your time in such a mediocre funfair given the presence of the stunning, red desert all around whose gracious sand hills allure you to climb, run, roll and board, or just sit on them and wallow in thoughts...
Visited 2012. Located in Al Ain. Features a massive wave pool against the stunning backdrop of Jebel Hafeet mountain, plus rafting and kayaking on artificial rapids. An absolute must-visit, even though I have moderate safety concerns with the rafting part...
Visited 2013. What a great idea to prepare kids for real work life through a miniature city full of branded tasks. Plus, I believe it's a great business model, as well. KidZania spreads like crazy around the world these days, and in a couple of years there will probably be very few global metropolises without one...
Visited 2011. Part of Villagio Mall. Small indoor theme park that hosts an awful coaster and a number of family rides. Dark, dull, depressing, but probably fills a market niche...
Visited 2012. Only worth it if you go frequently and manage to control your movements inside the wind tunnel. Try real skydiving instead!...
Visited 2012. Cheesy, small family entertainment center inside shopping mall. The most exciting part is its proximity to the abandoned Universal Studios Dubailand site. Drive past Chuck E Cheese's to your right up on an unpaved desert road, then turn right. Don't get stuck. There it is. ...
Visited 2013. Hooray! Here is an example of how to launch a leisure park the right way. Start small, then adjust, then expand. This beautiful, locally-run theme park/zoo hybrid is a marvel. Lots of theming, lots of attention, a place worth coming back to. Located near the Dubai-Abu Dhabi highway, a few miles short of the Yas Island exit...
Visited 2009. Basic non-themed water park in the suburbs of Beirut. Does the job in summertime...
Visited 2017. Gargantuan indoor theme park which suffers from some sort of IP overload identity crisis. Huge number of rides, from roller coasters to dark rides ripping off the latest Disney and Universal attractions (such as Universal's 'Transformers' and Disney's Animal Kingdom's 'Dinosaur'). Major flop is the Spiderman spinning coaster, on which you spin so much you notice nothing from the show sets surrounding you. The overall theming is elaborate, and it is evident that...
Visited 2013 & 2014. Small water and amusement park in the center of Sharjah. Very green, and quite charming in the evenings...
Visited 2018. High-budget indoor theme park. Great theming and attention to detail. Better than the WB parks in Australia, Spain and (formerly) Germany. Lacks innovation, though: how many Spiderman rides does the world still need? There is almost nothing in the park that we haven't seen before, apart from the interesting pre-park-show concept: the Central Square showcases highlights from Warner Bros movie & IP portfolio from 10am, forcing guests to digest it before...
Visited 2013. Real Madrid football club-themed amusement park which was to be built on an artificial island off the coast of Ras al-Khaimah, one hour's drive north of Dubai. Never built...
Visited 2014. Small, dated funfair in the heart of old Dubai. Part of a bigger entertainment complex that caters to the Indian expat community, and includes clubs, concerts and nightlife...
Visited 2014. Somewhat romantic Venice-themed pedestrian zone in the heart of Sharjah. Features a Ferris wheel and a couple of amusement rides. Provides urgently required alleviation of tension created by the city's infrastructure and traffic situation...
Visited 2014. Sizable indoor amusement park located inside Sharjah's Sahara Centre mall. Sports a range of roller coasters, including an Italian-made motorbike coaster (Zamperla)...
Visited 2014. Themed indoor family entertainment center located inside Sharjah's MegaMall. The amusement park is mediocre, but I've never witnessed such an amount of unruly, amok visitors anywhere else in the world – a true attraction in itself!...
Visited 2008. Long-running seasonal funfair in the heart of Dubailand that offers antiquated roller coasters, Ferris wheels and lots of country-themed merchandise. ...
Visited 2013 & 2015. While it markets itself as merely a festival, the annual, two-week event is no less than an open-air, romantic old-Arab-times-themed little world that serves as the missing city center of Abu Dhabi, equipped with museums, shows and education. Organizers, consider making this a permanent part of the cityscape!...
Visited 2015. Probably the cleanest and best maintained small theme park of its kind in the whole GCC, located right opposite Jeddah's attractive Corniche. Features a Vekoma coaster, an artificial lake, a jungle restaurant, an aquarium next door and even a planetarium (cinemas are banned in Saudi Arabia!) in the final stages of construction. I was positively surprised...
Visited 2015. Just-opened KidZania outlet in a modern mall close to Jeddah's airport with some serious accessibility issues. Both mall and KidZania were quite deserted on my weekday visit, but I was told it's the opposite on weekends. Malls in Saudi Arabia, by the way, do not live up to their conservative gender segregation reputation. I had no issues entering as a man on my own and both men and women were inside, some of them with the headscarf down. Felt like in Abu Dhabi...
Visited 2017. One of those older, depressing GCC shopping mall family entertainment centers. Avoid...
Visited 2017. Global Village changed beyond recognition: from the low-end fairgrounds to a remarkably well-themed, atmospheric Middle Eastern Epcot Center, showcasing architecture, food and merchandise from countries as diverse as Pakistan, Iran, Syria, Kuwait, Serbia, Russia, Germany, China and many others. The ticket price of AED 15 (less than $5) turns this still-in-the-middle-of-nowhere destination into a social hub during the November-March season. A UAE theme park...
Visited 2017. Another Legoland park with the same old rides, but this one comes with a lot of shades and a huge central dome showcasing the usual collection of local & international architectural marvels built with Lego bricks. While the dome is a bit depressing, Legoland Dubai is a good place to cool down from the other parks in summertime...
Visited 2017. I expected less. Motiongate is the Middle East's best operating theme park today. Some of the theming and attractions are up to Universal Studios standards (particularly those inside the DreamWorks building); about 30% of them are yet to open. One of the highlights for me was the fact that you can meet local Emiratis performing customer service and ride operator jobs ‒ a rare sight! Don't miss any of the DreamWorks and Columbia Pictures attractions. Smurf's...
Visited 2017. Noisy, Indian movie-themed amusement park with lots of shows, Indian food and a range of really lousy and unsustainable screen-based attractions. Given the lack of competition in India, this could have worked in Mumbai but I don't see it working in Dubai...
Visited 2017. A Lego-themed water park with no soul. Highlight is that there is water in the desert. You could also just take a shower back at your hotel...
Visited 2017. Brand-new, noisy, gaming-themed indoor theme park; part of Dubai's charming City Walk development. Features dark rides, 3-D attractions and virtual reality experiences. Built for a different generation than mine. I personally think we already spend too much time in virtual reality – we need less of it, not more...
Visited 2017. Small, KidZania-inspired children 'edutainment' center featuring Mattel themes and characters. Nothing special...
Visited 2017. A little piece of rainforest in the heart of Dubai. Now THIS is a real attraction! Featuring humid air, tropical plants, animals and predominantly African staff doing their best to keep their spirits up. Worth visiting!...
Visited 2017. Audio-guide museum attraction with wax figures depicting the life of a Turkish sultan. Not really worth the steep US$25+ entrance fee...
Visited 2017. Dubai has invested billions of dollars into new, gargantuan theme & water park developments in the past couple of years, but ironically none of the attractions is as enjoyable, novel or cutting-edge as The Void's virtual reality Ghostbusters experience (which only cost millions to build), situated in a tiny building. Sometimes much less gets you so much more when you have the right minds and mindsets behind the project. Visit this one, it's worth it. You...
Visited 2018. Small water park with a single slide tower adjacent to the Salalah Rotana resort. Nothing special...
Visited 2018. Family Entertainment Center inside Salalah's biggest shopping mall 'Salalah Gardens'. While it works as a welcome distraction for local families, Salalah and the Dhofar region have so much to offer, no tourist would ever have any good reason to come here!...
Visited 2018. Major water park with a variety of towers and slide shapes currently under construction in close proximity to Salalah international airport. Will be back to explore the final product. ...
country: Oman, Middle East
If there is one place in the world that with 100% certainty doesn’t need any theme park or other form of man-made, artificial entertainment, then that’s the Governorate of Dhofar in southern Oman. It took me more than 10 years of travel and over 150 countries to find my favorite holiday refuge on earth, and it’s right here. Blessed with otherworldly nature, sunshine and safety, this is a place rarely found in guidebooks; the place none of your neighbors...
Visited 2017 & 2018. I fail to understand what happened here. Why would you build three theme parks at once in the middle of nowhere, NOT extend the existing metro line and NOT build covered walkways for the summer months? Walking from the Bollywood Park to Motiongate in July or August may easily cause a heat stroke. Hundreds of seasoned consultants and specialists worked on this project, and this is what they came up with. Hard to believe...
Visited 2018. Family entertainment inside Oman Avenues Mall in Muscat. As shiny, flashy and attention-grabbing as a slot machine-infested casino floor. Prepares your kids well for turning into gamblers later...
Visited 2018. Small family entertainment center inside a tiny mall just before you reach Sur, coming from Muscat. Don't eat at Subway next door, you may contract some serious food poisoning here...