Howdy all, and today I am turning my attention to what I considered the best single day of the whole Dhaka to Dakar experience – and that was the day I went to a WATER PARK! Okay, so you know what, I am nearly 50, but somethings remain fun no matter how old you get! And I think I will always love water parks and theme parks!

When I knew I would be spending a few days in Dubai I knew one thing that I really wanted to return to from my previous visit there back in 2009, and that was the ‘Wild Wadi Water Park’, so imagine my dismay when I found out it was closed at the time I would be there for periodic regular maintenance. But then it turned out that there was another water park in Dubai, the Atlantis Aquadventure Park, which in fact claimed to be the biggest water park in the WORLD. Ok, alright, this might satisfy my wanderlust I thought!

I bought my ticket online, as well as a locker for the day and towel. The total price paid for the day including those extras was 400 Dirhams, which works out at today’s exchange rate to be around $109USD. That is I think pretty steep, but prices all across Dubai are no bargain to be honest with you.

The Atlantis Aqua Adventure is linked to Atlantis at the Palm, a resort on the very fringe of the ‘Palm’, man made islands in the shape of a palm tree. To get there from my hotel, the Millenium Place Barsha Heights, I took a shuttle bus and then the monorail. The monorail sits high enough to give you a decent view of the Palm. The Atlantis is one of the most prestigious resorts in Dubai so it’s pretty spesh, I guess.

Getting in you alight the monorail at the Atlantis and final stop, and end up walking through a sort of mall of shops before hitting the proper entrance to Aqua Adventure. It was quick enough to get in, and I grabbed a map and made my way to the lockers which were strangely a fair way from the entrance. A spoke to a lady at a kiosk who told me that I would be able to take my action camera as long as it wasn’t connected to the selfie stick (I had one specially for underwater), so I hooked a wrist band onto the water proof case and bob’s your uncle! I was very surprised (in a good way) that this was allowed. I was told I could take it on ALL the rides – which turned out to be true!

And then basically it was a day of rides! How long could the rides conceivably keep you occupied? Well easily for the full days, that’s for sure. The goiid news for me was that they weren’t that busy that day. Well, look you don’t know what is normal for the place and certainly it was busy enough. But the wait time weren’t crazy, I did have one wait that was more than an hour and a couple that pushed an hour I guess. But apart from those three, the wait time at others were negligible. Of course, there were advantages to being a single rider on many of the rides too. Time for a summary of the rides I took, there were many I did not :

Slitherine Ride & Poseidon’s Revenge

The Slitherine Ride was my first ride of the day and it was up a tall tower. Well, most of them are! It seemed a good one to start with. The wait was maybe 10 minutes, and it was a classic waterslide ride. Poseidon’s Revenge was right next to it on the same (the top) platform. This is the classic thrill ride where you stand, arms crossed, on a platform (me holding the action camera pointing downwards near my shoulder) and the platform releases and you fall into the slide. This one certainly is pacy! There was a wait, because one of the platforms was not releasing and had to be repaired! And then I was one of the lucky couple who got to use that one! Thankfully it worked for me! Great ride, super fun but sadly it was over in less than 30 seconds!

Surge and River Rapids

Surge was a lot of fun, it was a ride where you use a ‘tube’ to go down it. This ride ends into the River Rapids, which is a long river circulating around much of the park. It even had a sort of ‘tube escalator’ to increase the height and then you float slowly around it until you hit a bunch of rapids which is short but fun. It can be relaxing too and there are many drop off/on points to get on and off. I waited for an hour on the Surge – because the River Rapids was closed because of contamination. They had to wait for the water to normalise I guess before allowing people in it. I was told a kid vomited in the River Rapids. You would think it probably is something that happens pretty regularly.

Shockwave and Vortex

The Shockwave is a lot of fun – it’s a ride in a large circular raft. I went in a raft with a father and his son and it’s a ride that goes for maybe 2 minutes and you spin around. On the same tower is the ‘Vortex’, a more conventional waterslide. That was pretty cool.

Stinger and Shark Attack

The Stinger was another fun ride on a tube. This one takes you into the dark for a fair way. I took a few other rides but these were the main ones I took leading to the final big ride, what seemed to be the most popular ride in the park – Shark Attack!

Shark Attack was a long line sort of ride. I had left it to the end of the day to see if the line got shorter, which it did although it was still a wait, and then it was one of the shorter rides of the day again on a tube. Straight away you are in the dark, it’s pretty short and then you go through a section of tunnel surrounded by a large tank with many fish, including sharks, in it. It was a nice way to finish the day but honestly it’s not worth the wait!

The park has play areas for kids and loads of deck chairs, places to eat and places to relax. I don’t think from memory I actually bought any food for the day – big breakfast at the hotel and big dinner on the way home. But it was a lot of fun. I took a few rides more than once and spent quite a bit of time on the rapids relaxing. There’s a bit of a beach facing the coast with a great view too, and there is a part where you can see sea life and dolphin shows etc which I’m not a big fan of ton be honest and I didn’t want to lose ride time. But all in all, despite it being pricey, it was a great day of fun fun fun! Do check out the video below of the day too!

Thanks for popping by! Take care wherever you may be in the world, and May the Journey Never End!