We wanted to treat the kids so after our weekend in Abu Dhabi we had booked a night at the Atlantis so the kids could make the most of the Water Park. We knew you could use the water parks before check in so we left Abu Dhabi after breakfast and drove to Dubai for lunch.

We were so excited to arrive at the Atlantis and there was even a red carpet you could walk up which the kids (and Stu) thought was cool!

Our room wasn’t ready as we were hours too early for check in, but they took our bags and we headed down to the shops below the hotel to find some lunch. There was a gigantic fish tank on our route which was full of sharks and rays – we spent ages just watching the fish.

^Fish!

We had a wander and there was a ‘Gordon Ramsey Bread Street Kitchen and Bar’. The menu looked good with food the kids would eat so we went in. Stu and I both ate off the set lunch menu – and that meant we got a glass of wine (although Stu had a beer) – our first alcohol since leaving England as our hotel in Abu Dhabi was dry.

^{Our set lunch where we both chose salmon followed by beef burger}

After lunch our room was ready so we headed up to check it out. It was really nice with a brilliant view towards Dubai.

^{Inside our room at the Atlantis}

We didn’t stay long as we were all itching to go into the water park. Walking out from the changing rooms through the park was quite difficult at first as the floor was so hot and it took a while for our feet to get accustomed to it. The one thing we noticed was how immaculately clean the park was – no litter or dirt of any kind – everything sparkled.

The first ride we went on was the Rapid River where we shared tubes (Stu with Tom and then me with Izzy) and went around the river. The kids loved it – especially when we encountered the rapids. At one point Stu dropped the Go-pro in the water so had to very quickly dive down and retrieve it before it was carried away by the currents! We then decided to try something a bit more adventurous – the Zoomerango – where we were on a 6 seater tube. This was a bit too fast for us so we decided to stick to the more chilled out slides after that.

We made our way to the tube slides where we went down in pairs. Shark attack was quite cool because at the bottom you were under the aquarium so could see all the sharks and fish – although this ride had the longest queue. The other slides (the stinger, the storm) didn’t really have any queues so we got ride them a few times.

After an afternoon in the park it was time to head back to the hotel and have tea. We had booked ourselves into the hotel buffet at the Saffron Restaurant – and if we thought the buffet in Abu Dhabi was amazing this completely eclipsed it. There were so many stations with foods from around the world.

^{Food stations at the Atlantis}

The food was fantastic but we were all impressed again by how impeccably clean it was. The stations were constantly being wiped down so it looked as good as new.

After tea we headed out for a walk along the beach and then visited the Aquarium (as we had free tickets for staying at the Atlantis).

^{The hotel beach at night and kids in the sea}

The following morning we admired the sunrise over Dubai from our room – watching the same fog which had delayed our plane for 2 hours on arrival!

Then headed down to a buffet breakfast – again it was superb. Largest breakfast buffet we’ve ever seen! Lots of fruits, cereals, pastries and different breakfasts from around the world.

We didn’t know how long we’d be in the water park so checked out of our room – not before looking out of the window one last time and watching people on ropes cleaning the outside of the hotel – they must have a very good head for heights!

We were able to leave all our cases in the business area of the hotel which also had showers and bathrooms. The park was quiet so we revisited all the slides from the previous day and the kids had a go in the surf pool which looked hard work but really good fun. If they fell off the body boards the force of the water would send them flying right to the top of the slope!

^{Surf Pool}

When we left we stopped off to have a Cold-stone ice cream and admire the fish tanks one last time before heading to downtown Dubai for the final 5 nights of our holiday.

We absolutely loved the Atlantis and were so pleased we stayed here for the night. For us – one night was definitely long enough for what we wanted to do.