Not your typical desert anymore | MOTIONGATE DUBAI | Theme Park Review

Are you ready to experience one amazing adventure now? Let’s bring it on!

Dubai is now being recognized as one of the top cities in the world in terms of tourism. The city thus holds several world titles, The Tallest Building, World’s Tallest Performing Fountain, Largest Indoor Theme Park, to name a few! Dubai IS NOT YOUR TYPICAL DESERT ANYMORE with their highly futuristic approaches in developing the city to its maximum potential.

In 2016 we have heard on news and read articles in papers and various social media platforms about several Theme Parks opening soon in two top cities of UAE (Dubai and Abu Dhabi). One of those theme parks is Motiongate Dubai, which opened its doors to public last 16th of December 2016 and known now as the largest hollywood inspired theme park in the Middles East. Motiongate is under the umbrella of integrated parks and resorts of DUBAI PARKS AND RESORTS that has merged the concept of leading entertainment properties such as Dreamworks, Columbia Pictures, Merlin (Legoland), Bollywood and Lionsgate in one amazing theme park destination.

All the parks can be accessed through its free entrance themed retail and dining destination, Riverland Dubai dubbed as THE FRENCH VILLAGE which is located at the heart of DPR (Dubai Parks and Resorts)

The Main Entrance of RIVERLAND

Well whenever I am doing my official business visit in Dubai, I often pass by French Village to relax over a cup of coffee while getting the european vibe 😉.

TRIPid TIP 💡: Free parking slots are available in Dubai Outlet Village and the Riverland entrance can be reached within 5 minutes walk only. Congratulations! You have just saved your 50 dirhams by doing that 😉. From Riverland you can find the first park train station, that can bring you to Motiongate for quick access. Though I suggest that you take a walk along Riverland and it’s definitely worth it. You can even have a quick stop on the entrance of Legoland and Bollywood for a photo op!

Dubai Outlet Village

Extremely excited having heard of Motiongate’s opening (I’m a super fan of theme parks and extreme rides). When it officially opened its gate last December 2016, many of its main attractions are not yet open and the entrance fee back then is 330 dirhams (single park entry, uuuhhhmm a little too much? 🤔). I could have gambled for it just to gratify myself, because if I miss the chance during that time, I have to wait for another 10 months (next winter season and I wouldn’t dare trying it on summer no matter how eager I am to experience the fun 😂) to visit the park.

So the waiting saga continues until winter of 2017 has finally arrived (Yahoooo!). Along with other churchmates, the young ones, young minds and forever young at hearts hahaha, we have decided to go for it, in lieu of UAE’s 46th National Day Celebration (loooooong weekends, oh yeah!). As part of their holiday special offers, the entrance fee was 165 dirhams, 2 parks entry, 1 park per day for UAE residents. Amazing right? The more reasons we have to push for it!

Having visited quite a lot of theme parks in UAE and other countries, I have 3 major rules STRICTLY being followed 👉🏻 for your ultimate enjoyment! ... I have proven this effective in all theme parks we have visited 😉

🎢 1: Be sure to know the park prior your visit
and its major attractions.
🎡 2: Arrived early in the park - full meal is a
must to keep your energy up and running
till late lunch.
🏰 3: As the gates open, off you go to your
pre-identified major park attractions.
This will save you a lot of time from long
queues to explore other park attractions
and activities throughout the day.

Other useful TIPS 💡 you can apply:

🎟 Select 1-2 live performances if a number of live shows are on the list.
🎟 Bring candies and chocolate bars with you (pocket/bite size) to control your hunger, because eating inside will not only cost you a lot, but is also time consuming no matter how you rush to get it done.
🎟 Most parks nowadays allow you to bring bottled water, so grab that chance! If they do not allow on the other hand, check out if the park is offering a single purchase plastic bottle, that is refillable to almost all restaurants inside the park, which also serves as souvenir.

In Motiongate they have it, where prices depend on the sticker you will choose, stickers are based on all juices or all sodas. It’s worth it actually considering the number of refills we have done. 😂 (I purchased the all juices unlimited refill at 35 aed)

🎟 As much as possible put on least priority those attractions and activities that requires less physical strength and do them after your late lunch meal.

🗝 to success: PLAN AHEAD! So you can maximize your visit to any theme park... remember we seldom get a second visit, because we rather spend our money for another theme park, agree??? 🤔😁

Motiongate has 5 main themed areas with attractions based from

STUDIO CENTRAL

DREAMWORKS ANIMATION

LIONSGATE

COLUMBIA PICTURES

THE SMURFS VILLAGE

The park is in full blast to entertain you with its 30 attractions in total (live performances, interactive attractions and rides). Check out the website below for the full list of ATTRACTIONS.

https://www.motiongatedubai.com/EN/attractions

Here are the major attractions in Motiongate you shouldn’t dare miss and be sure to prioritize!

• Capitol Bullet Train

• Madagascar Mad Pursuit

• Dragon Gliders

• Blast Off in Zombie Land

• Cloudy with a chance of meatballs - River Expedition

  

• 3D flight simulator in Panem Aerial Tour

• Kung Fu Panda: Unstoppable Awesomeness

Live performances:

• Fountain of Dreams

• Step-up Dubai: All In

Amongst those 9 main attractions be sure to queue in for Panem Aerial Tour and Capitol Bullet Train... these two amazing rides will always be on top of my mind whenever Motiongate is being mentioned! ... since we strictly followed rule #3, we have tried all 7 💪🏻👍🏻👏🏻

We have missed out most of the character greeting schedules despite giving our best effort to catch them, we could have catch them actually but the long queue made us decide otherwise. On a personal note since I have purchased the annual pass, I let my colleagues decide, anyhow I can always come back.

Puss in Boots

Shrek and Fiona

The annual pass is worth having given the price during the promotion season (265 dirhams) and I didn’t think twice since I will be having friends arriving in UAE on different dates who wanted to see the park.

For ticket prices and ongoing promotions as of
this posting kindly refer to the website below.

https://www.dubaiparksandresorts.com/en/annual-pass

Lucky us and thanks to my memory that day I was able to recall asking if “Emirates Platinum” card if being honored for food and drinks purchases. Oh yes what a perky perks day! 💪🏻😉 ... we were able to enjoy 20% discount!

I would suggest that you have your meal at CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF MEATBALLS RESTAURANT (we have ordered pasta and pizza), the food quality is good, big portion per serving and the dining area is great with indoor and outdoor seating . Each serving is good for 2 persons, well my appetite can finish 1 serving though 😂.

Theme parks are so amazing on how they can bring out that childhood spirit in us and we get to enter into their world for a day! I honestly don’t know how I feel whenever I’m inside theme parks. I’m just simply elated!

Our overall experience was great! The park, the rides, the prices inside and their staff were all wonderful! You’ll definitely be leaving the park physically exhausted but with memories and happiness in your heart that money can’t buy! 😃😉👏🏻

Let me share with you our fun-filled adventure with this video!

This experience was made truly special by the people you allow yourself to grow with, not just as a person but also through faith in God. In every adventure good company matters a lot!

THE GANG!

Thank you for dropping by and I hope you have enjoyed watching the video guys!