The grandest sandboxes on Earth?
UAE theme parks springing up at roller-coaster speeds
You are about to board the fastest rollercoaster on the planet, the 150-m.p.h. Formula Rossa, the pride of Ferrari World Abu Dhabi theme park — where pride, like most everything else in this desert architectural playground, comes supersized.
But before you’re launched from the confines of a glistening indoor pavilion that spans the length of seven football fields, there is the vital matter of adjusting your racing goggles — to keep the bugs out of your eyes.
The first theme park in the universe devoted to a luxury Italian sports car, Ferrari World is also home to the brand-new, 75 m.p.h. Flying Aces coaster, which boasts not only the world’s steepest cable lift (51 degrees) and tallest loop (170 feet), but presumably the most fearless riders on earth.
Not a car fan? No worries, because Ferrari World is but one spoke in many wheels.
Formerly the exclusive domain of Southern California and Central Florida, worldclass theme parks are now springing up at roller-coaster speeds in the United Arab Emirates.
Where once stood sand dunes, skilfully engineered immersive environments now allow visitors to interact with internationally familiar pop-culture icons.
Included in the mix: Smurfs, dinosaurs, Marvel superheroes, protagonists from the Cartoon Network, “Hunger Games,” “Ghostbusters,” “Shrek,” “Kung Fu Panda,” “Hotel Transylvania” and, the jewel in the crown, blockbuster Hindi movies.
“We’ve got something for everyone, from ages five to 100,” said John Hallenbeck, general manager of the Hollywood-inspired Motiongate Dubai, which welcomed its first guests in December.
Mostly made up of family groups from
the Arab states, the audibly enthusiastic crowds — some 5,000 to 6,000 people a day, a park rep told me — tend to filter in not first thing in the morning, as in American parks, but starting late in the afternoon, after the midday heat. Talk about an oasis. Adjacent to the 2,000-acre Motiongate, as part of a $2.85 billion resort complex collectively known as Dubai Parks, are the new Bollywood Parks, Legoland and Legoland Water Park.
Connecting them all is Riverland, a re-
tail/dining area that also accommodates the 500 rooms of the Polynesian-themed Lapita Hotel, along with the construction sheds for the region’s first-ever Six Flags park, due in 2019.
“Theme parks are new to the local culture,” said Hallenbeck, a Wisconsin native and a seasoned executive of Universal Studios internationally. “People may get in line and not know what they are in for.”
What they find inside Motiongate are five separate, tree-shaded zones set to different themes.
While one remains under scaffolding in anticipation of a late spring reveal, eventually the park is poised to offer 27 rides, five of them roller-coasters.
The fastest, the smooth-as-silk 60m.p.h. Madagascar: Mad Pursuit, is now operational and, like Disney’s Space Mountain, runs its course entirely in the dark.
Among the park’s distinctions: It’s the first anywhere to unite rival studios (Columbia Pictures, Lionsgate and DreamWorks, the last of which is sheltered inside a giant sound stage); the first to exploit both “The Smurfs” and “Hunger Games” franchises; and the first in the region to offer a water rapids ride, the “Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs” River Expedition.
And, yes: The ride vehicles are designed to carefully contain the flowing Arabian robes worn by some guests.
Far less sprawling, but abundantly charming, is the neighbouring Bollywood Parks Dubai, which tips its turban to the Mumbai film industry’s exaggerated escapist fare.
Outstanding among the more than a dozen exotic attractions is the Lagaan: Champaner Cricket Carnival, a robust motion-simulator adventure based on a 2001 Hindi sports drama.
(All ride narratives are in English, though safety instructions are also delivered in Arabic.)
“Bollywood is a lot about shows, and India is a lot about food,” said general manager Thomas Jellum, emphasizing that his park, where at any given moment a live musical number breaks out on the grounds, places human experience above mechanical rides.
In fact, a planned-for roller-coaster remains in the blueprint stage, though Bollywood does boast its own pulsating landmark — the 850-seat Rajmahal Theatre, home to the elaborate stage extravaganza “Jaan-e-Jigar,” a musical melodrama about twin brothers.
“Disney has its castle, and we have the Rajmahal,” Jellum said of the Taj Mahal-like entertainment venue. “Inside is a full Broadway musical, with a cast of 70.”
That’s actually about three times the size of Broadway’s largest cast, but Bollywood is about extravagance — and “Jaane-Jigar” requires a separate ticket for its nighttime performances.
“This is very much an evening park,” Jellum noted.
Elsewhere in Dubai, the standalone IMG Worlds of Adventure is an any time park, given that its record-setting 1.5 million-square-foot expanse is completely enclosed, at times making it seem that you’re inside an enormous shopping mall.
Open since August and named for its co-chairs, Ilyas and Mustafa Galadari, the $1 billion IMG houses rides fashioned around Spider-Man, Thor, the Hulk, the Avengers and even the Powerpuff Girls, not to mention a haunted hotel maze restricted to those 15 and older, an upscale Iron Man restaurant and, in its prehistoric Lost Valley zone (one of four), the aptly named Predator coaster.