Our family had planned to fly to Jordan on the thirteenth of June. However, on the morning of our departure, we heard news that overnight, Israel had bombed Iran. We weren’t comfortable flying into a country geographically located between Iran and Israel, so we cancelled our flight and hotel on short notice and decided to stay in Dubai for the weekend. The next day, Mom booked us tickets to Sea World in Abu Dhabi. Sea World is on Yas Island and is one of the largest aquariums in the world. Yas Island isn’t really an island, it's less like land surrounded by water and more like land surrounded by a few streams.
We started driving at 9:00 because Sea World opens at 10, and it takes half an hour to get there. Our goal was to arrive right when the park opened, so we budgeted another half hour of travel time in case of traffic. We arrived at 9:45, so we decided to drive around and explore Yas Island for a little bit before parking at Sea World. Like most places in the UAE, the roads were a bit confusing and we took a few “detours”. Yas Island has a high concentration of theme parks. Along with Sea World, we passed Ferrari World, Warner Bros. World, and Yas Island Water Park. It has been announced that Disney is building Disney Land, scheduled to open on Yas Island by 2030. It will be Disney’s first park in the Middle East.
After our drive around Yas Island, we returned to Sea World. The park had just opened, so we parked our car in a shady spot and headed in. The entrance was very grand. It had a tall ceiling made up of windows, there was also an artificial waterfall tumbling down some rocks. The check in process was seamless; to register tickets you send in a picture of yourself and everything is done by face recognition. Immediately after the check in gate there are some shallow touch tanks with sting rays and small sharks. Even though our plan was to head straight to the Manta roller coaster before the line got too long, we couldn’t resist stopping briefly at the touch tanks. The rays’ skin felt soft and squishy. The sharks’ skin felt more like fine sandpaper. We also walked past the dugong, a slightly different version of a manatee.
When we finally arrived at the Manta coaster, there was no line at all. We knew we wanted to visit the Manta coaster because it was the first thing we saw when we drove by and it looked incredible. Ansel was the most excited since this was his first upside down rollercoaster. The coaster is not very tall, but is quite long and the track zigzags up, down and upside down like waves. Sea World in its entirety is indoors, but the Manta coaster goes through a tunnel and blasts around outside. The ride is so fast that you don’t even feel the oppressive heat. The coaster was so fun that Ansel and I rode it 4 times each. Mom and Dad took turns riding and each went twice. After that, we were, to put it mildly, “a bit woozy”.
Charlotte was too short to ride the coaster, so she hung out with a parent and visited a couple nearby carnival style games, the gift shop, and a kids indoor playground. After our first run through on the coaster, we were astonished to find that Charlotte had been given a huge pikachu stuffie. It was so big that she couldn’t even wrap her arms completely around it! The man attending the game had been so happy to have her as his first customer, that even though she did not technically win the game, he still gave her the giant stuffie. Needless to say, she was ecstatic!
The Manta coaster was located in the “Tropical Ocean” section of Sea World. This part of the park also has many tropical fish exhibits, the dolphin show pavilion, flamingos, and another huge tank full of rays. This tank was my favorite because it had a shallow end where the rays could slide up and get pet and fed by yours truly. There was one massive ray that was longer than Charlotte. He loved poking his head out of the water to see if you had treats. During our time at the aquarium, I visited this tank multiple times.
Next, we walk back to a room called “One Ocean.” One Ocean is an enormous room with a giant wrap around screen showing scenes of ocean wildlife. Connected to this hub like spokes are the 8 different “realms” of Sea World: Tropical Ocean, Micro Ocean, Endless Ocean, Polar Ocean (which connects to Arctic and Antarctica), Abu Dhabi Ocean, and Rocky Point. It was Charlotte’s turn to choose where to go. She had heard that Micro Ocean had rides for kids her size, so off we went!
In the Micro Ocean there were huge jellyfish hanging from the ceilings and murals of other colossal sea life. Everything was backlit in a way that made it feel as though you were small (like the size of a plankton) and deep under the sea. There weren’t any live animal exhibits in Micro-ocean, it was mostly rides for kids Charlotte’s age. We rode a spinning octopus ride called the Octozoom, it was almost like a swinging boat ride at a theme park, but this ride was unique in that it could both spin and swing at the same time. After that, we rode the Eel Racer mini coaster, followed by the Jelly Plunge, a parachute style drop ride. At this point, the boys complained about being hungry so they peeled off with Mom to get food and I rode the Turtle Twist (a flying swing) with Charlotte.
The dolphin show started at 11:30 so we hustled back to the Tropical Ocean. The dolphin show was performed around a large, stage like island decorated with a tent and surrounded by smaller islands with tree houses and drums to set the theme of a place called Dolphin Island. The show started with a procession of drummers marching into the audience and leading the crowd in chanting and other interactive drumming activities. The show was kinda cheesy but had cool dolphin tricks. The dolphins spun, flipped, and performed some really high jumps. If you sit in one of the first few rows, you are in the splash zone. You don’t really get wet during the show, but at the very end, the trainers send the dolphins to beat their fins and splash against the wall of the tank. Some people got so drenched they had to go to the gift shop and buy a whole new outfit!
Next we headed to the Polar Ocean in search of another ride we had heard about called Hypersphere 360. We observed sea otters, walruses, penguins, puffins, and arctic foxes. When we got to the hypersphere, to our dismay, Charlotte was too short, so Ansel and Mom went first while Dad, Charlotte and I watched the walruses get fed. It was amazing how huge they were. The staff went right up to them and fed them out of their hands. While Dad and I had a turn in the hypersphere simulator, Mom, Ansel, and Charlotte picked out a lunch spot in the Abu Dhabi Ocean area. Dad and I met up with them and shared lunch, which was a couple of sandwiches. We all agreed that the simulator was very well done. It featured whales, along with other sea life.
After lunch, we hustled to make the sea lion show at the rocky point section of the aquarium. I found it more entertaining than the dolphin show. After the sea lion show, we all felt a little “aquariumed out”. Ansel wanted to make one last stop at the Endless Ocean.
The Endless Ocean did indeed feel endless. It was a huge tank. It was filled with hammerhead sharks, ragged tooth sharks, ginormous manta rays, and a gazillion other types of fish and smaller rays. We stopped to watch a staff performance on drums and marimbas disguised as pieces of submarine equipment. Then we enjoyed an escalator ride which brought us down to a huge lower tank, surrounded by glass. After that we all felt tired and ready to go home. We headed back to the car and rested all the way home.
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