Dubai 2017 Day 3 – Creek Park and Dubai fountain show

Our first day of the Lunar New Year started with K crying for milk at 630am in the morning. Quickly made him some before he went back to sleep. At least he was waking up a little later than before, much closer to what was supposed to be in Singapore.

An hour later, everyone was awake. We got ourselves ready and mommy prepared the lunch ingredients and let it simmer in the cooker while we went downstairs to have some breakfast.

We entered a Lebanese fast food restaurant called Man’dushe street and ordered a chicken Tika wrap, a orange juice and a latte while mommy popped by Carrefour next door to get K a box of cereal (they were sold in small individual boxes) which he loved. Somehow nearing the end of our meal, K dropped the box and we had to get him another one.

We went back to the apartment and prepared to go out. Decked in new clothes because of the Lunar New Year, we packed K’s meal in a Lock and Lock tupperware that we bought in Carrefour as we have forgotten to bring the container from Singapore, we left the apartment for Dubai mall to take a taxi.

The morning was cool and the walk was not too bad. We didn’t have to get into the mall for the taxi as I hailed one on the main street and asked to be brought to Creek Park.

It was a quick journey there, a 15-20mins drive and we arrived at entrance 1, for 30Aed taxi fare. The entrance costed 5Aed per adult and K did not need to pay.

The first thing that caught K’s attention was the colourful bouncy castles on the left of the entrance. We proceeded there and paid a 20Aed per hour for K to enter, and thus began the everything also must pay visit in this park. He was so happy to get up castle and climbed all the way up but apprehensive when reached the top. As another little girl came down the slide, we encouraged him to follow and he did, only to be off balanced. That frightened him and then he didn’t want to come down the slide again though he wanted to climb up. The girl even wanted to show him how it was done by going up and down the slide but K was too scared to do it again. Unfortunately adults werent’t supposed to go up, and mommy being the smaller size of us two had to go up and bring K down.

K went to climb another one and again was afraid to come down the slide, even when so many other kids did it. But fortunately this time around, he managed to slowly come down the stairs by himself. We left this little compound and got onto the static rides just outside, one time costing 5Aed. I went to get a blueberry smoothie drink for 10Aed.

On the right side of the park was a large helicopter simulator in a huge helicopter but didn’t seemed to be in operations. There were also a small compound for camel and pony rides, there were 2 of the tall animals there walking in circles with their passengers high above. We walked towards the playground where there was some slides and swings and ladders to climb while mommy went to sit at the bank of the creek to avoid the sun. Then K had his lunch by the bank bench under the shade too.

After the 30 mins lunch break, we walked to the Dolphinarium and was disappointed to find out that the next show was at 3pm and it was only 1230pm. Should have checked the timings before assuming that show was frequently on. We walked to the souvenir shop and mommy bought a tee for K and also noticed that there was a Happy Valley cafeteria and we had our lunch there. I got myself a meehoon for 29aed and mommy bought a burger set for 20aed and didn’t realized it came with 2 burgers. We had to takeaway one of them. K concurrently down a bottle of milk and fell asleep on the chairs while we had our lunch.

After lunch, I carried K outside and we decided to just sit in the park while K slept. Under the shade of a tree, the grass was comfortable enough for us to sit there and rest ( I even dozed off lying down on the grass patch). Mommy went to get an ice cream cone and just after we finished, I had to move my legs already numbed from K lying on me, and that’s when K woke up angry with only just 1.5hrs of nap time. We tried to get him back to sleep and walking him to the banks but he stayed awake.

Almost 230pm and we proceeded to the Dolphinarium to get ourselves VIP tickets for 120aed per adult and 80 for K(slight difference from the standard tickets but with better seats). We went to the restrooms before proceeded to our seats.

The arena wasn’t big and before the show began, the host was selling off lucky draw balls for 20aed for a chance to get prizes such as photographs with the dolphins. There were many in the audience who wanted to try their luck but only the top 3 balls that were caught by the dolphins will get something. 3 out of 20plus did not seemed like good odds to us.

The show began shortly and on time. It started off with an illusion show, with 2 tricks. They were good tricks though it seemed a little out of place of this place. The second were clowns doing their clowning and splashing water into the crowd. Typical clowning fun. The third act was some nice acrobatics on the ropes above the water. They hanged from the ropes and moved with such skill and balance that it was just amazing to watch.

The seal then came out next with some of its own acrobats, starting off with the easy tricks then followed by really difficult ones such as moving on its flippers like legs and even balancing on one flipper. It was amusing yet a little too unexpected that an animal can do such tricks.

The highlight of the show was then 2 dolphins, jumping out of the water with such height and making a splash during their introduction! From then it was lots of high jumps and out of water poses and even some singing. Of course there was the lucky draw part where the audience who had bought the lucky ball threw all together the balls into the pool and the first three ones that were picked up by the dolphins won something, while the rest of the 20 something paid for these 3 winners essentially. I was particularly entertained by the part where the dolphins played beach ball with the crowd and they could hit the ball out of the water really far into the crowd.

After the show, we left the park and took a taxi readily available at the entrance. We wanted to visit the Hard Rock Cafe (which we usually would if there was a branch available) and it was situated at Festival city, 25aed and 15 mins away. K was having fun with the staff and running up and down the slope while mommy and I got ourselves some tees. After the short visit, we tried to get a taxi back to the apartment but again was unable to readily get one as the driver wasn’t familiar with the place and had asked another passenger to board. We waited for another one and called the rep whom explained to him and the driver was able to bring us back to the apartment, 30aed and about 15mins away too.

Back at the apartment, we gave K some milk and wanted him to take a nap as he didn’t have adequate nap time earlier on. Mommy prepared his dinner and he managed to fall asleep. All of us rested as well.

Woke K up at about 715pm after about an hour of nap time and brought him to bath and get ready to go out for dinner. We managed to leave the apartment about an hour later and it was a 15mins walk to Dubai mall. On the way there, we saw the fountain show started and quickly walked into the mall to avoid the crowd after the show. We couldn’t watch the show anyway as it was too crowded too.

After walking around, we ended up at Wafi gourmet for some Lebanese cuisine. The restaurant was still quite packed and we could only managed to get a table near the entrance ( this restaurant had outside fountain views options but were full). Ordered some chicken rolls, a grilled lobster, a grilled sea bass two juices and a desert for 325aed. The food was quite tasty especially the mains.

After dinner, we went outside to watch the 10pm show and this time, it was far less crowded and we managed at least to see the fountain. The show was a short 3 mins but enough to wow us, especially when the water curtain shot up so high into the air. It’s a pity still that we could only catch the partial view as the full view would be a grandeur (the area at the Souk Al Bahar would be less crowded and had a fuller view).

Then it was the walk back in the cool evening but tiredness made the walk felt longer than usual. Back at the apartment, we quickly got changed and have K go to bed while I took care of the garbage bringing the bags to the ground level. I checked out the supermarket as it felt weird not having any beer on a holiday trip, but none were sold. Got back to the apartment for my bath and then straight to bed.