Day 42 • Tuesday • 16 Sept 14 • Today’s High 41º (Abu Dhabi)
While any Diva would love to have a mini me to fuss over, I wouldn’t give up my family of boys for anything because when you’re the only girl, you often get fussed over, as it should be! Inevitably however, having that much testosterone around means a LOT of car talk, so on this particular kids trip, it was very much “forget the shopping mum, we want to go to Ferrari world” – oh joy!
Don’t get me wrong, of course I love luxury cars, especially when they come wrapped in a big bow with my name on it, but that doesn’t mean I need to know everything about them. As long as they start, get me from A to B and make me look good, what’s there to know?! Thankfully, Ferrari World Abu Dhabi is also the world’s largest indoor theme park with other things to do besides ogle at cars all day long. So with that, Poss hired a car (not a Ferrari) and a driver and we set out on a road trip to Abu Dhabi.
Now I don’t know which part of ‘largest indoor theme park’ I didn’t get, but I actually made the kids put sunblock of their faces before we even left the flat! We’ll just call it a reflex action. It takes about an hour to get to Abu Dhabi and the scenery along the way is basically desert and in case you miss it, more desert. As you can imagine, Ferrari World is massive with the infamous Ferrari red everywhere. How they keep the temperature in such a big space at a cool 24ºC is beyond me but it means you can visit all year round, regardless of how scorching the outside heat is.
There are 2 roller coasters in the park. While I rode on the more moderate Fiorano GT challenge which has you riding in a Ferrari F430 Spider competing with another coaster on twisting parallel tracks, I drew the line at Formula Rossa, the world’s fastest roller coaster. From a standstill, you accelerate to 240km/h in under 5 seconds – I figured if I wanted a facelift that badly there are plenty of other ways to get one minus the whiplash! The boys loved it so much, they went on twice in a row because apparently being the fastest also equates to being the shortest ride.
While you actually get on the coasters within the park, the tracks are outdoors – so you see, the sunblock wasn’t a complete loss! Besides the 2 coasters, the only other thrill ride they have are the racing simulators. And for an extra AED100, you can try out the advanced simulator which is like the ones used by the F1 drivers themselves. Mr teenager A who will be going for his driver’s license next year tried the advanced one, of course – all I can say is, I hope he drives a real car better than a simulator or we had all better TAKE COVER!
The rest of the park’s attractions pretty much showcase Ferrari & their racing history so it’s great if you’re a Ferrari fan. Me, not so much which was made evident by the fact that I walked through the store without purchasing a single thing. This from a girl who can normally find something to buy anywhere – even a little general store in the boondocks!
All said, it’s a good day out, especially if you have young kids or car fanatics in your family. The park wasn’t very full when we went and we were done in about 3.5 hours. Oh and if you’re buying tickets online, I wouldn’t bother going for the Premium tickets (which we did) unless it’s really peak season – it lets you skip lines but doesn’t give you priority seating on the rides.
With my boy racers having satisfied their need for speed, it was time to slow things down a little. It was Mum’s turn now and I knew they were just gonna love what I had planned next!
Diva Does Domestic 