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Yas Waterworld Abu Dhabi was a great surprise during our visit to Abu Dhabi. We’d now say that it’s one of the best theme parks we’ve visited on our world trip, and you can see we’ve visited many over the last few months…
Noah would definitely agree with that as well, especially considering that he asked us to go on the same attraction 13 times in a row!!! That’s right, 13!!
We had a lot of fun during our visit. After visiting Ferrari World Abu Dhabi – located right in front of Yas Waterworld and part of the same group (Farah) – the bar had been set very high for theme parks.
The only thing we were concerned about was the long queues that we experienced at a few of the theme parks in the US. As this was the week of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix – held at the Yas Marina F1 Circuit, located just next door – the town was extremely busy with high occupancy at the hotels so it was normal to think that the park would be crowded. But even though there were lots of visitors, we didn’t have to wait too long in the queues for the attractions and we were able to enjoy Yas Waterworld Abu Dhabi a lot. The park is big, with many attractions for all ages and tastes, and has excellent facilities and services such as private cabanas for rent, lockers, towel rental and a prayer room.
Right at the entrance we met some of the characters from the cartoon that the park is based on, and Noah posed for some pics with them.
On the topic of the variety of the attractions, unfortunately Noah couldn’t go on the big slides due to height restrictions. As he wasn’t wearing shoes (of course), he was just a few centimeters short of the minimum height of the slides (1.1 meters), so I was the one “in charge” of testing the “adrenaline-packed” attractions. But he loved the areas in the park for kids, and the rollercoaster even more so.
Noah was really looking forward to going to the swimming pool so as soon as we crossed the Qaryat Al Jewana Zone (entrance area) he immediately ran to the Amwaj Wave Pool. He is getting more and more confident with his swimming skills, learned in Bali a few months back, and he had no issues swimming against the waves.
After a short while in the Amwaj Wave Pool Noah asked to go to the big slides. We really thought that he would be just tall enough for those attractions, but unfortunately not yet. Instead we took him to two areas that are ideal for kids, which also have slides but not such radical ones, and we played with him there for some time. Those were the Marah Fortress – a very nice water playground, with cannons, dumping buckets and water-shooting geysers – and the Yehal, a family pool play area where there are some small slides for children.
There he also made some friends who he played with until he started to get a bit hungry.
There are some restaurants, snack bars and kiosks spread through the park, so we ordered a proper lunch for him with pizza and his favorite soda – Sprite!
After that we took him to the attraction that turned out to be the one he enjoyed the most (probably of all the ones he’s been on this year …): the Bandit Bomber rollercoaster. He was tall enough to enjoy that one and with the fastpass we didn’t wait long in the queue.
Well, our little daredevil enjoyed the Bandit Bomber so much that he asked us to go on it again, and again, and again … 4 times in a row. That was only possible with the fastpass, which allowed us to beat the queues, but there came a time when we were getting tired of going downstairs and upstairs again to go back to the entrance of the rollercoaster, and we asked him if we could go to another attraction.
So then we went to the Yadi Yas Lazy River, a circuit with a fast flowing wave river.
While Ruth was taking care of Noah, I decided to try the big slides. It turns out that there are quite few big slides, each one better than the last, and some of them are pretty scary.
I used the same strategy as the day before at Ferrari World: no waiting, no thinking, just go to the “worst” slide first. That was, in my opinion, the Liwa Loop – a very steep waterslide in which you drop straight down a transparent tube not knowing what is coming next. You stand there waiting for the staff to open the platform below you and you free fall for a few meters until the looping starts, which is definitely a heart-in-mouth feeling. Of course after the first time you try it, it’s less scary and you feel compelled to go again, which is what I did.
After this one all other slides didn’t seem so terrifying – although they were 🙂
Falcon’s Falaj is a very intense and entertaining one, and was an attraction that I went on once and wanted to do again immediately afterwards. This is a kind of rollercoaster on water, with turns and drops, and is very thrilling.
The other slides are also totally worth experiencing:
Hamlool’s Humps and Jebel Drop;
Sebag, where you could have a competition with 5 other people;
And Slither’s Slides.
I also stopped for a second at Rush Rider and Bubble’s Barrel, two areas for those who enjoy surfing and bodyboarding or want to learn a bit. The queues were too long, so I decided to go to the other rides and skipped those two.
It was time to go back to meet Ruth and Noah again and enjoy the rest of the day at Yas Waterworld as a family. It was almost end of the day, the park was closing in less than an hour, and as we had experienced almost all the attractions there we let Noah choose whatever he wanted to do. Once again he chose the Bandit Bomber …
As many people had left the park by that time there wasn’t a queue for the rollercoaster, and we were lucky enough to go on several times in a row without waiting in queues … In fact, I’m not sure if lucky is the right word to describe this, because Noah asked to go again and again, 13 times in a row!!!! In the end even I was a bit dizzy from so much adrenaline in such a short period of time. That was it for him. As soon as we left the attraction we noticed that he was exhausted and in serious need of sleep.
We just had time to take a quick shower and buy some food for him to eat and then he slept as soon as he got in the taxi, at 6:30pm. We got to the hotel and he continued to sleep right through to the next morning.
That was proof enough that he enjoyed the day at Yas Waterworld a lot. Time went by so fast that it felt like we only spent a few hours there. If we are ever in Abu Dhabi again we are definitely coming back, and next time Noah will have the chance to go on the other slides too … Or maybe to go on the Bandit Bomber again and again 🙂
Thank you so much Maia for giving us the opportunity to enjoy a full day in this wonderful park.
Family Travel Secrets visited Yas Waterworld Abu Dhabi as guests. All opinions and the oodles of pictures remain our own.