Writing this feels weird. Literally feels like an absolute lifetime ago that we were exploring the awesome parks in the UAE - right now I'm sat here listening to Halloween theme park music and wondering where the hell the time went! Anyway, the UAE! I feel like the UAE is one of those places that has a lot of myth and hearsay about it, things you should/shouldn't do, people massively blowing things out of proportion but I think you get that a lot with places that not a ton of people have visited. Don't get me wrong, I know loads of people who have been, but it's not exactly Florida where everyone and their mum has been and has a million pointers to give. As always with these guides, these are all based on my personal experience and what I had happen to me first had, as that's all I can use to share my wisdom with you guys! Here's my top six tips for taking on a theme park in the UAE.
As you'd expect for theme parks built in the literal desert, these parks are hot as balls. And for the most part, yes there is quite a lot of aircon relief where possible, but in places it's so hot that not even that is enough. It's an obvious one, but bring water with you and stay as hydrated as you possibly can. When I say it's hot I mean HOT - it was pushing 40 degrees when we visited and that was in April. The other reason I mention this is because the UAE is EXPENSIVE. Just a drink and a snack was setting us back about £10-15 a time, so a good way to watch your pennies is by making sure you bring your own water with you where possible. There are also plenty of places to refill in all the parks we found so a quick and easy 'hack' to get on board with.
Because of the weather, the parks are absolutely dead for the most part. We found that we were getting to parks for opening as we usually would on any trip and were done and bored around 2-3PM. In my opinion, I would try and find an activity to do in the morning, or just spend time chilling or swimming or shopping or something to wait for it to cool down, then head to the parks in the afternoon. They all have amazing opening hours meaning you'll get plenty of evening time to enjoy all of the attractions solely for this reason. Yes, the parks are slightly busier in the evening as more people venture outside once the temperatures drop, but honestly the difference isn't exactly major and it's a good way to ensure the sun and heat isn't absolutely beating it out of you.
Similarly to Orlando, the parks in the UAE can generally be found in clusters. There's a massive tourism industry over there and as such, lots of awesome combo deals to take advantage of. The Dubai Parks & Resorts off several multi-park options depending on which parks you'd like to do, Ferrari World has offers pairing up with Yas Waterworld and Warner Bros. World and IMG Worlds has an excellent combo offer with the Burj Khalifa excursions. Basically, my recommendation would be to make a list of all the activities and parks you want to do whilst you're over there and then have a really good Google to figure out what combos are going to give you the best price. As with all of these things, these offers do have a tendency to expire or change so make sure you're checking regularly to ensure you nab the best deal!
Obviously visiting parks and attractions, you're going to want to take a bunch of photos and maybe make a vlog or two. If this is the case it's probably a good idea to brush up on the UAE laws regarding photography - which I myself was completely ignorant of until we were there and a friend of mine we met up with informed me of. There are three major things to be aware of. Firstly, taking photos of people, especially women, without their permission is against the law, so try where you can to not capture people's faces if you're taking ride photography. This is a sensitive issue in local culture so make sure you take the time to respect this. On the back of this one, it's also illegal to publish photos of other people online without their consent, so just make sure you're double checking before you upload! Finally, avoid taking pics of government or military buildings. This is obviously for security reasons, so if you're unsure what a building is and want to snap away, probably a good idea to check what it is first.
Because of the ridiculous heat of the desert, the off season in the UAE is actually the summer months! It's actually a great way of breaking up the European/American closed season by booking a trip to the UAE November-February time. Not only does it minimise those dark and desolate non-park days, but it also means you're not faced with as debilitating weather as you potentially would visiting in the summer months. What you'll also find from this is that there are a bunch of extra events on as this is the prime season in the UAE. Global Village will be operational, for instance, as well as a bunch of other fun events at the parks. Again, obviously the downside to this is the parks may be slightly busier as the temperatures are a bit more bearable but it's a small price to pay.
This was one I was super wary of. For the UAE portion of our trip I mostly wore t-shirts and maxi skirts/long dresses. Basically I always ensured my shoulders and knees were covered wherever we went. I had a bit of a mini-panic when we went to Yas Waterworld as I wasn't sure what the acceptable dress code was but I soon realised everybody else was walking around in bikinis so it didn't matter one bit. Turns out, nobody really even cares if your shoulders/knees are covered unless you're literally in a mosque. It's obviously more respectful to not walk around with your tits and arse cheeks hanging out for the world to see just because of the local culture, but from what we saw if you do choose to dress in such a way nobody is actually going to stop you from entering a park. It was all actually very chilled.
Those are my main points for you if you're thinking about booking a trip to the UAE (and I truly recommend YOU DO!) As always with these things, if you have any more specific questions please do feel free to pop me a message and I'll do what I can to answer it with you.
Talk later xoxo,
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