MiceChat reader, Tre, recently visited Ferrari World in Abu Dhabi and shared this amazing account of the ambitious park in the Middle East.
I just recently visited the United Arab Emirates for the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions (IAAPA) 2015 Leadership conference and it was my first time back to the UAE since 2013. For those of you who may be less familiar with the Middle East, the UAE stands for United Arab Emirates. This is kind of like the “United States” except they call them “United Emirates.” I’m sure most of you may have heard of Dubai, which is famous for many world-class attractions such as the Burj Khalifa (worlds tallest building) or the Burj Al Arab (the worlds only seven star hotel that looks like a sail boat). The UAE is also home to a blossoming top-notch (and top-budget) theme park and waterpark market.
In essence the conference was a 3-day tour to showcase best business practices in entertainment/leisure facilities in one of the richest countries of the world. We visited the following:
-Developing IMG World of Adventure theme park
-Burj Khalifa (Worlds Tallest Building)
-Dubai Mall (Worlds largest mall)
-Ski Dubai (Indoor Ski Resort)
-Mall of the Emirates (home of Ski Dubai)
-Atlantis the palm (Lost Chamber Aquariums and Aquaventure waterpark)
-Wild Wadi waterpark
-Ferrari World Abu Dhabi (Worlds largest indoor theme park)
-Yas Waterworld Abu Dhabi (Most expensive waterpark ever built)
Although I could write a novel about all of these facilities, I’m going to focus on Ferrari World Abu Dhabi and give some Kudos to Ski Dubai.
For me, one of the most unique aspects of Ferrari World Abu Dhabi has always been the perceived expectation of guests vs. the reality of what the park is. What do you expect from a park all about Ferrari Cars? I believe the most common expectation is one of two dream worlds: A. an endless track with a variety of Ferrari cars to test drive. Or B. a theme park jam-packed with high speed/ thrill coasters and attractions.
What was reality when they opened their doors in 2010? Neither. FWAD is hybrid theme park made up of moderate to high thrill rides and Ferrari pride/ history. Imagine if Epcot and Six flags made a baby. And dressed it in Ferrari clothes. That was was Ferrari World. It looked better than most babies, was pretty fun to play with, but still had a lot of growing to do. Since then that baby has begun to mature into a more powerful and progressive theme park.
It is home to Formula Rossa (the world’s fastest roller coaster) reaching reaching speeds of 149 mph. I will say that this ride alone is worth the visit. It is a truly “fun” coaster. I have never seen someone finish the ride without a giant smile on his or her face. In my opinion it’s very similar to the feeling of skydiving, if you can relate; the ultimate rush that takes your breath away. Don’t believe me? Compare for yourself you can visit Ferrari World Abu Dhabi and Skydive Dubai all in the same day. Ha!
There are many other attractions in the park such as simulators, live shows, a dueling coaster, go karts, and so on, but there are also many notable attractions that have been removed or changed since my last visit in late 2013.
Lets talk about G-force first, it was the tallest point on Yas Island, offering a breathtaking view of the worlds largest roof, the worlds largest logo (Ferrari) and all of the other great attractions on Yas Island (such as the Yas Links Golf Course, Yas Marina Circuit where the Formula 1 finals are held each year, and Yas Waterworld Abu Dhabi water park). G-Force was actually the first attraction installed at Ferrari World; in fact, the whole park was built around it! If you look at FWAD from a top view, you will basically see a big red triangular spaceship looking thing with a hole in the center of it. That hole was home to G-force. From my understanding it wasn’t as much of a thrill as guests wanted, so it go the boot. The big question is what comes next!? Something very exciting. Although I couldn’t get a full answer on what is planned to be there, you can expect it to move quickly. Considering that this section of the park has glass windows, I think we can also expect some near misses and really cool views. I’m pumped and can’t wait to see what’s coming.
Some alterations to existing attractions have also taken place over the last 2 years. When the park originally opened there were 2 children’s go-kart tracks (Junior GT and Junior GP). The intention was that JGT would be the driving school leading up to the JGP. However, these were electric powered, and really not that fun for anyone over the age of 6 (lets be honest) but since then, they have updated both.
JGT (the original driving school) has been sized down and is really just for the littlest of children. The track is a bit like bumper cars at the moment, but that’s what it was when it was a proper circuit too… The JGP on the other hand has transformed into a much faster full size electric go cart which is more thrilling for everyone, even adults will have a blast at the new Karting Academy. The best part is you can drift like nobodies business. If you don’t know what drifting is, watch Disney’s CARS, or one of the Fast and Furious movies.
Another big change was in the children’s play area. Known as the junior training camp, the play fortress has nearly doubled in size and is a lot more thrilling than the previous. Even as an adult it made me wish I had a niece or nephew (no kids for me anytime soon thanks!) to chase around in there.
Something else was missing when I visited Ferrari World this year. They were in process of gutting V12 another one of the original park rides! V12 was a dark indoor flume ride that was originally intended to be one of the top 3 rides, but wasn’t so riveting when it opened.
One of the challenges was that many people didn’t realize it existed. This is because it was in a box and you couldn’t really understand what it was looking from the outside in. In short the attraction was fun, but always struggled with keeping guests dry and could have used a bit more theming. I know that the new attraction to be installed will be another roller coaster. However, if they just plop a coaster into the same box they will have the same recognition problems that they faced with V12. My guess is they are thinking “both inside and outside of the box” and the attraction will be something similar to space mountain in Disneyland Paris, or Rock n’ Roller Coaster in Disney Hollywood studios.
For the first time ever, Ferrari World Abu Dhabi also has some steep competition coming its way. A new IMG Worlds of Adventure theme park is currently under construction in Dubai. To give you and idea, Dubai is about 1 hour away from Abu Dhabi depending on your taxi driver. In an exclusive tour of the developing IMG park, we were informed that this park would be “the worlds largest climate controlled theme park” aka the worlds largest indoor theme park… aka snagging Ferrari Worlds tag line “Ferrari World Abu Dhabi- The Worlds Largest Indoor Theme Park.” Of course being only an hour away, FWAD is well aware of this and making plans to seize this tag line back with more expansion and attractions. Heck, you may just have the chance to drive a Ferrari After all!
One really cool thing I forgot to mention is that the Park in now connected to one of the largest malls in the world, the Yas Mall. You can literally walk out the park and go shopping at you favorite branded stores or vice versa. This has always been in the master plan for Yas Island but it was great to finally see the mall come to fruition.
I would like to throw out Kudos to Ski Dubai. We visited a lot of facilities during the 2015 IAAPA leadership conference and Ski Dubai really stood out. Originally the facility was just skiing and snowboarding, but now they feature so much more! There is A kids play ares, penguin encounter with live penguins, zorbing, sledding, tobaggining, and zip lining. Not to mention co branding with Disney’s Frozen. Want to double your retail sales in a day? Add Frozen merchandise and a statue of Olaf to take photos with. This is a small facility making a big impact.
Overall my visit to Ferrari World Abu Dhabi was superb (as were all of the other places we visited). We can see that FWAD is finally tapping into their potential and getting closer to reaching to matching the expectation of their guests. I cant wait for my next visit so I can experience all of these cool new attractions.
Final thoughts: If you are a theme park enthusiast, you’d really enjoy a visit Dubai and Abu Dhabi in the UAE. It’s a really cool vacation destination as well. It will be a bit pricey but you will love it.
Until my next adventure, thank you for reading!
