THE MOST ELABORATE SANDBOXES ON EARTH Digging deep into the UAE’s impressive theme parks By Stephen M. Silverman
You are about to board the fastest roller coaster on the planet, the 150mph Formula Rossa, the pride of Ferrari World Abu Dhabi theme park — where pride, like most everything else in this desert architectural playground, comes supersized. The first theme park in the universe devoted to a luxury Italian sports car, Ferrari World is also home to the brand-new, 75 mph 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, world-class theme parks are now springing up at roller-coaster speeds in the United Arab Emirates. Where once stood sand dunes, skillfully 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 Bollywood movies. “We’ve got something for everyone, from ages 5 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. Adjacent to the 2,000-acre Motiongate, as part of a $2.85 billion (KD 869 million) resort complex collectively known as Dubai Parks, are the new Bollywood Parks, Legoland and Legoland Water Park. Connecting them all is Riverland, a retail/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. 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 60-mph 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 58
sheltered inside a giant soundstage); 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. Far less sprawling, but abundantly charming, is the neighboring 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 blueprints 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 Jaan-e-Jigar requires a separate
ticket for its nighttime performances. “This is very much an evening park,” Jellum noted. Elsewhere in Dubai, the stand-alone IMG Worlds of Adventure is an anytime park, given that its recordsetting 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 cochairmen, Ilyas and Mustafa Galadari, the $1 billion (KD 304.9 million) IMG houses rides fashioned around Spiderman, Thor, The Hulk, 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. IMG Worlds of Adventure also has huge ambitions, seeking to attract 4.5 million visitors in its first year. Already, plans have been announced to build an adjoining park with nine more zones, including those for Pokemon, Barbie and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. To be called IMG Worlds of Legends, it is intended to span 2 million square feet. Like all of the other parks in the region, it should help set the stage for Dubai’s Expo 2020, the world’s fair and tourism booster that the ruler of Dubai, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, hopes will do for his already popular emirate what the 1893 Columbian Exposition once did for a certain town in Illinois.