Great day for an "Aquaventure" !

Last week the UAE celebrated Eid al-Adha and we got two days off school.  Flights out of the city were quite expensive and even hotels within the country were either booked or charging high rates for the holiday.  We decided to stay in Dubai and relax by spending the day on The Palm - yes, that man-made island shaped like a palm tree!  On The Palm is a huge resort called Atlantis.  Although we did not stay at the hotel, we spent one full day with our friends at the huge water park next door which was called Aquaventure.  On their website they claim to be the #1 water park in the Middle East and Europe.  If you are a resident of the UAE you can get a big discount by showing a piece of civil ID.  I did not take this photo (it's from the booking.com website) but it gives you an idea of what the Atlantis hotel and The Palm island looks like.  In the background the skyline is Dubai Marina, and on the far left you can sort of make out the Burj Khalifa and downtown Dubai.

Despite buying our tickets online in advance, we still had to wait over one hour to receive our wristbands needed for entry.  Luckily the lines at the water slides weren't too long and it was pretty easy to get a raft for the "Lazy River" floating around the park.  The Lazy River wasn't so lazy though, as it had rapids in certain sections and a "Torrent" section with large waves.  John wasn't expecting such a large wave to wash over his tube, and he ended up flipping over!

Aquaventure is right on the beach so you can also swim in the Persian Gulf waters which are very warm and calm.  From the beach there is a great view of Dubai Marina, the monorail connecting Atlantis to the rest of The Palm island, and in the distance you can see Jumeirah Beach, Burj Al Arab (sailboat-shaped building), and the Burj Khalifa downtown.

We brought our GoPro camera to Aquaventure to take some pics and video.  Aquaventure was a lot of fun and we definitely want to go back!