Day 4 - Aquaventure Water Park & Burj Khalifa in Dubai

October 14, 2024

After breakfast, we head back to Dubai... it wasn't actually planned that we would go to Dubai this often, but it has somehow turned out this way. Whatever, I know the route by now. We even manage to NOT get lost on our way to the Palm and reach the shuttle parking lot at Atlantis the Palm on the first try. From here we take a shuttle bus to the Aquaventure Water Park entrance. We exchange our City Pass vouchers for a ticket (it works smoothly!) and walk along the beach to the Poseidon Tower slide tower, where we find a lounger by the rafting canal.

We first test the slides at Trident Tower, where the Odyssey of Terror and the Racing Reifen slide become our favorites.

Unfortunately, the 'Shark Attack' slide is closed due to the aquarium in Poseidon Tower, which is even empty. What a shame!

We slide all the tire slides, chill in 'The Wave', because the otherwise cool wave that has thrown more than a few tires over the years has been completely dismantled!!! There is hardly any water coming out of the wave 'automaton', creating only a slight current. Boring... we are disappointed.

After probably 6 rounds through the rafting canal, lunch, and chilling, we are exhausted and leave the park around 5:30 PM, as we have a lot planned for today.

Now comes my highlight of the day - my 'horror highlight' - during rush hour across Dubai to the Dubai Mall. It takes us over an hour for the almost 30 km!!!

Upon arriving at the mall, we stop at highlights like the Ice Rink and Aquarium and watch the next water shows before heading to the queue for the Burj Khalifa.

It’s very crowded, and patience is required... at 9 PM we are finally up and now have all the time in the world to enjoy the view. This is my third time up here, and last time we had the more expensive sunset tickets, but I must say, in the dark, this sea of lights is the most impressive!

We see the water shows of the Dubai Fountain at 9 PM and at 9:30 from the very top, then we make our way back down.

The biggest fun now is finding the car. We have remembered where we parked, but in this giant mall, we just can’t figure it out. It takes a while to find the Chinatown corner again and then we head back towards Abu Dhabi. There is a lot of traffic outdoors around Dubai Mall and in Dubai, so the GPS takes us all the way around!

Apparently, the fastest route is indeed ALL the way around, because we find ourselves, as we realize too late, first on the 611 and then on the 311 - which results in us passing our planned dinner stop 'Last Exit'....🙈🙈

Advantage - which is spooky - on this secluded highway, we are completely alone at night.....

Around midnight, we reach Abu Dhabi, and for dinner, we now have crackers and cookies - by the way, it’s still over 30 degrees outside!