Workers add final touches to Motiongate theme park
Site offers thrills for visitors, plus food and fun at Riverland
DUBAI // Workers are putting the final touches to the huge Motiongate Dubai theme park before its opening in December.
The heart of the entertainment is located in five themed lands based on films by Dreamworks Animation, including Madagascar, Kung Fu Panda, Shrek and How to Train Your Dragon.
Chief technical officer Mat- thew Priddy said the Dreamworks portion of the site was “a mini theme park within a theme park”. He described the Madagascar Mad Pursuit roller coaster as the “most thrilling” ride, with passengers reaching speeds of 95 kilometres an hour within seconds of launching.
The Dreamworks section, the only all-indoor portion on the site, features 12 of the 27 rides in the park. Motiongate is part of a development that includes Legoland Dubai and a Bollywood theme park, making the entertainment complex one of the biggest in the world.
Mr Priddy, who works across all three areas, said: “Each one of these is the size of a Disneyland, so it’s been an experience trying to co-ordinate all of this.”
And if the rides are not enough to keep the family happy, the Riverland food and entertainment centre, which opens on Monday, has restaurants, street entertainment and music.
It too is set across themed areas, divided historically: Medieval France; 1950s America; 1930s India; and turn- of- thecentury France.
The entire Dubai Parks and Resorts’ project at Jebel Ali cost Dh13 billion.
DUBAI // Motiongate Dubai is one part of one of three major theme parks to open this year, and the finishing touches for its December launch are all but done.
Motiongate is part of Dubai Parks and Resorts, the Dh13.2 billion project at Jebel Ali.
The big blue box, home to five lands based on DreamWorks Animation films such as Shrek and Kung Fu Panda, stands out on the Dubai to Abu Dhabi motorway. The 45,000 square metre indoor DreamWorks space is big enough to fit in five Airbus A380s. In the Madagascar- themed area, brightly-painted carousels are in place and the final checks are being made to its two rollercoasters.
Theatre backdrops are being rolled out in the Kung Fu Panda land, and the longest ride of the park – Shrek’s Merry Fairy Tale Journey – is ready and waiting. Dragon Gliders, in How To Train Your Dragon land, is one of the most anticipated rollercoasters, a suspended ride set to offer some of DreamWorks visitors the most thrills.
Shrek’s Candy Apple Restaurant stands out at the centre of its swamp-style zone, replicating the comical character’s home. In DreamWorks alone, there are 12 rides, among the 27 total in Motiongate Dubai’s park, which will also feature multiple daily shows based on the movie Step Up, with a cast of dancers recruited from around the globe. Although DreamWorks is the only all-indoors area of the park, all other attractions have air-conditioned walkways and queuing systems, which general manager John Hallenbeck said will make the park an attraction “for the majority of the year”.
Chief technical officer Matthew Priddy, who like Mr Hallenbeck has decades of experience in theme parks, said DreamWorks is “a mini theme park within a theme park”. “We have a tremendous amount of media here and it’s all being done by the top Hollywood people. All multimedia content in DreamWorks is done by the DreamWorks animators themselves,” he said. “The visuals and audio will be awesome.”
Excited mostly for the Madagascar roller coaster – Madagascar Mad Pursuit – he said it is the “most thrilling ride”, employing flywheel technology whereby the speed will increase in seconds, reaching 95 kilometres per hour.
“When it’s time to launch, you just get whipped out of the station and into a tight turn,” he said.
Health and safety for the 14,000 or so workers is paramount, both during construction and as the park opens.
“At one time, we had 150 million man hours in 24 months with maybe two lost time incidents,” said Mr Priddy. “It’s an extremely safe place.
“In our industry we hold safety sacred. The time and energy put into health and safety is paramount. “Even as the park matures, those operating its rides will have to renew their safety certifications annually, something not mandatory but a procedure the parks want to implement to ensure ongoing safety, in addition to the annual checks on ride vehicles and general site safety.
“We’re going above and beyond and not taking any chances.” Motiongate Dubai opens on December 16.