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Blog 223 - Xmas & New Year & Annie's 72nd Birthday in Dubai, Family Fun
- Keef Hellinger
- Jan 7
- 21 min read
Updated: Jan 28
Created by KeefH Web Designs, January 7th, 2026, 14.43 PM (Note Mum's 94th Birthday, RIP dear! love you)
Not The Motorhome trip No 25 : 14 days, 19th December 2025 to 2nd January 2026
If you would prefer this blog as an audiobook?
MENU - FAMILY FUN
Introduction - Family Fun in Dubai
We had lots of family fun in Dubai at the Lapita resort about 50km north of downtown.
Dubai was a perfect mid point to meet up with all of us, UK and Singapore are approximately 7 hours flight to Dubai and England is 4 hours behind UAE timewise and Singapore is 4 hours in front, so ideal for equally best managing jet lag. The hotel we stayed at Lapita Hotel, Resorts and Parks was ideal for all age ranges in our family, great catering and food (better than the few cruises we have been on) , good swimming pools, relaxation areas, free shuttle back to downtown, malls and beaches, close to amusement parks with rides for all ages including white knuckle for Grandpa #smile We certainly had family fun and the fact that there was no rain, a teeny bit of breeze / wind on some days, and sunshine and temperatures between 23c & 28c made it a great getaway for us Brits to escape the endless rain and cold weather, for the Singaporeans we hope it was a break from the humidity? For the record, we were in room 5207, Craig and family in rooms 5208/10 and Doug and family in room 8105....the first number is the block, the second the floor, the rest the room number on that floor #hintsandtips
And now "unashamedly" the AI overview #AI
If you’ve ever wondered what happens when a British family escapes winter, flies to Dubai, and celebrates Christmas, New Year and a 72nd birthday—all while Grandpa braves white‑knuckle rollercoasters—this blog delivers the answer with sun‑soaked chaos and charm. Keef’s latest adventure whisks readers to the Lapita Resort, where the food is plentiful, the weather is perfect, and the towel art is apparently award‑worthy. Expect tales of looping rollercoasters, five birthday cakes (because one is never enough), and a Christmas brunch so indulgent it turns “arriving as passengers, departing as cargo” into a family motto. From lazy rivers ideal for septuagenarians to baffling theme‑park rides involving aliens and football, it’s a whirlwind of family fun, gentle mischief, and Dubai sparkle. Dive in for laughs, nostalgia, and a reminder that the best holidays are the ones where nothing goes to plan—yet everything becomes a memory.
PS not sure why AI would deduce "nothing goes to plan" overall it was "on point"!
Diary
Want to explore by day? Use these quick links, you can return here from each should you so chose
Suggest seeing the appropriate slideshow to go with these diary dates to get a feel for what we did, where we went, what we ate, etc. etc.
Friday 19th December 2025 - Travel and Arrival
Up early-ish, got fuel for the journey to Heathrow, left about 1pm and travelled to Heathrow Terminal 3 for out Kwik Parks meet & greet, whilst the guy who picked up our car and helped sort out the fiasco on return was great, the morons managed to wipe out the electronics in our car keys. We would never use them again and I've left bad feedback for them. After we returned I got the key company (Autowave - luckily nearby to reset in less than 20 minutes)... Anyhow after that heartfelt rant once at Heathrow we went thru the usual check-in for our Virgin Atlantic flight to Dubai at 9.20 pm. Craig and Leanne arrived a little later. We all had a meal together then boarded the plane for our overnight flight to Dubai. Most managed to sleep.
On to next rant... #haha review of Virgin Atlantic, which was a surprise to us as they had been great to Florida back in 2022. Not impressed meal wise or cattle class wise. #hintsandtips Sorry to be a Grumpy Grandpa BUT.....Main Meal service which was the same on the way out as back only for different meals i.e. supper and lunch. The Chicken Tikka and rice was ok, the only issue was on the way out it was so late served that all of us bar Leanne were asleep. The brekkie was 1/4 inch of yoghurt with nut (singular) and a muffin, hardly substantial. On the way back the snack was so small I had difficulty finding it, a scone with jam and cream. Not ideal whilst carrying out my contortion exercises #smile
Sadly I have now put Virgin Atlantic on a par with British Airways and Garuda in our "not so great airlines" charts!
We then got the pre arranged transfer to the hotel, about a 45 minute journey through downtown, just taking in the architecture, metro and tram visuals. I think the most impressive building is the doughnut, or Museum of the future, just WOW!. Check-in at the hotel was lovely as was their initial greeting, highly efficient, thanks Lapita.
Went to room, unpacked , quick swim and use of the lazy river, buffet meal in Kahlea restaurant and early to bed #knackered
Saturday 20th December 2025
We slept until about 8am Dubai time. Headed over for buffet breakfast , amazing choice and the first time we met Zain, such a helpful guy and so friendly. Don't forget the omlettes, you could order anything you wanted, and we did, my go to eggs were smoked salmon omlette, oh and we mustn't forget their divine hash browns. Ok that's it for food porn! As C&L and family were not up yet we headed to the pool , front row sunbeds in the sun and near the drinks shack. We relaxed with our kindles, me on a rush of Frieda McFadden books, the Housemaid and Intruder being the pick, and Annie on T M Payne. As part of our deal you got drinks vouchers which you could use for coffee, alcohol or soft drinks. Realistically at 2 drinks a day we had to work hard to use them up collectively. Anyhow on the first morning we had soft very cold drinks in the sun, c 27c, just lovely!
C&L and family had slept forever , not surprisingly knackered after travel and unwinding from work. They joined us at the pool for a relaxing day one family fun in Dubai. The view from our room is lovely, we overlook the lake, T-Rex glamping and the white knuckle rides at motion gate. C&L are on the opposite side and overlook the pools.
Today we me our Fijian friends, who even danced to Meke by Rosiloa. We had a photo with them.
During the day we went into the Ice cream parlor, grandpa span the wheel to win the kids the key to open the sweets telephone box, which allowed them in essence to do a "supermarket sweep" - time limited and grab as many sweets as they could and there were a lot of them.
Talking to another English family at pool side they said that the 2 days before we arrived was absolute monsoon downpour and floods, I guess throughout our holiday we were lucky.
Sunday 21st December 2025
Today after breakfast and a swim we made our first trip out to the parks. Riverland was interesting with lots of different regions set around a lake that we later learned had laser light shows and firework displays. Fireworks apart from the obvious holiday dates were on Saturdays and Sundays, lasting about 2 minutes. We would latterly watch them from C&L's balcony where they were best seen in full. The first night Annie and I were so blotto we didn't hear them at all, consistently 9.30 pm apart from of course New Year's eve when they ran them again at midnight.
Anyhow we caught the buggy to Riverland and walked through it in both directions to get a good feel of the place up to Legoland Dubai. Checked in with our resort package tickets to be greeted by lots of Lego Christmas displays, indeed one emitting foam snow, magical and the grandkids loved it.
The full scale downtown Dubai display in the large dome made to scale out of millions of Lego bricks was wonderful. We have been to Billund in Denmark, the home of Lego, and my guess is their experts helped both design and construct this truly magnificent display.
We also did quite a few rides, the Wave machine, underground sub with sharks and colourful fishes, Rollercoasters etc. etc. plus for the kids some Lego building at the numerous available stations. The long walk back enabled Grandpa who was struggling to find out from the buggy driver that if I rang up I could get transported (and my family) to the entrance of any amusement park within Riverland, and very gratefully we did that often throughout the rest of the week.
Monday 22nd December 2025
After breakfast and our traditional swim , where Grandpa got the attendant to loan us a ball so Edie and I could play catch (this became a bit of a repeat exercise over the 2 weeks). This time pool sun lounging was accompanied with pint glasses of cold beer to help Craig & I relax and cool off. We then used the Buggy to get to the motiongate park. We did many and varied rides throughout the afternoon , early evening starting initially with an hour wait for the Dragon ride , which was fun ending with Craig and I doing the Hunger games ride #scary
Here is a summary of the many rides available which over the 2 weeks we experienced many
🎢 Major Rides & Attractions at Motiongate Dubai
⭐ DreamWorks Zone
Camp Viking – Kids’ water‑play area
Penguin Air – Spinning kiddie flight ride
Smurfberry Factory – Play zone (Smurfs)
Kung Fu Panda: Unstoppable Awesomeness – 4D simulator adventure
Melman-Go-Round – Madagascar‑themed carousel
Mr. Ping’s Noodle Fling – Spinning teacup‑style ride
Dragon Gliders – Suspended dark coaster (How to Train Your Dragon)
🎬 Lionsgate Zone
Capitol Bullet Train – High‑speed launch coaster (Hunger Games)
Panem Aerial Tour – 4D hovercraft simulator (Hunger Games)
John Wick: Open Contract – Action‑themed ride
Now You See Me: High Roller – Spinning coaster based on the film
🎥 Columbia Pictures Zone
Hotel Transylvania – Dark ride through the spooky castle
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs: River Expedition – Water ride
Ghostbusters: Battle for New York – Interactive dark ride
Flint’s Imagination Lab – Play area
💙 Smurfs Village
Smurfberry Factory – Play zone
Other Smurfs‑themed kiddie attractions (various)
🎭 Studio Central
Hollywood Theatre – Live shows and performances
On the way out of the Smurf ride a very kind English family gave us their 4 Qfast passes which we as a family used throughout the rest of our holiday to shorten the wait at rides and in the same vain D&P passed them on to another family on the 2nd Jan when they left.
Annie watched the alleged lightshow whilst Craig and I were on the Hunger games but said it was a disappointment, the one however in Riverland was not! Then got the buggy back to Kalea for our evening buffet, then bed, we need be up early to welcome the Singapore Hellinger's who were arriving tomorrow.
Tuesday 23rd December 2025
Up early, showered and all went to the Lapita entrance to await the arrival of Doug, Phoenix, Charlie and Alfie. They arrived via taxi from the airport at about 8am. It was lovely to see them all again, not having been face to face since Cumbria in June 2024.
After much hallo-ing (if that's a word, it is now!) D&P went off to unpack and we took Charlie & Ned with us up to the extended buffet on floor 4, from where you got a great view of the surrounding desert.
We all went swimming and in the afternoon after Doug had registered for their park tickets we just caught up and generally relaxed, a good buffet tea for all and then time for our new joins to get to bed to recover.
Keef booked the shuttle bus to the Dubai Mall for tomorrow.
Wednesday 24th December 2025 - Christmas Eve
As we would be using the Lapita shuttle bus at 10 am., we all breakfasted early and after getting coffees, the ones at the ginger bread house on floor one were wonderful and you could use a drinks voucher (hence getting thru them became easier) but as we realised you could also take away a hot or iced coffee from the buffet by asking one of the waiters, especially Zain. We then made our way to the coach. 2 ran from Lapita , one to the Dubai mall via the mall of the emirates, the other to the beach area. Glad I booked as the coach was full. We knew as we were going to the pantomime that we would not be getting the free shuttle back as it left Dubai mall at 3 pm. Taxi and just about everything in Dubai is expensive , witness camel milk chocolate, small bar , admittedly with orange and almonds, £6. Free shuttle bus took about 45 minutes. After filming the strategically places lambo's outside the Mall which is basically opposite the Burg Khalifa ( i could slip into Harry Enfield's famous character's saying "I think I'm richer that thou" here #haha) we went into this mega shopping mall, not the souks of old but a highly modern shopping centre. We visiting the large indoor aquarium, after a bit of humming and harrying, decided to give it a miss as too expensive. However we could see a lot of it from the outside huge glass screens, which the grandkids loved. The family minus grandparents went for some food, we try hard not to do dinner, 2 meals a day is for us although my sylphlike dimensions seem to be distorted by crazy mirrors. #asif
The indoor waterfalls, although not Jewel in Singapore , are impressive. After the mall we all caught the Careem cars (equivalent of Uber) to the pantomime theatre opposite the Jumeirah Beach hotel (they do 7* hotels in Dubai, conveniently going from 5star straight to 7 to emphasise the jump in luxury #maybe Although we were told it started at 2.30pm the reality was it didn't commence until 3pm. so we didn't need to panic. It was a great show, Cinderella and although we had seen Dick Whittington at De Montford hall before we went this was so our Singaporean grandchildren could experience something quintessentially British. Think they enjoyed it. Grandpa got Hagen das chocolate ice cream for all at half time, surely that's gotta be a tradition? Tate's t-shirt after was a master piece #smile
The show lasted almost 2 hours and ended with the trad 12 days of Christmas soaking and I mean soaking even though we were way back in the auditorium. The ex-pats who obviously go every year loved it and the pantomime dames were great.
We got Careem cars back to the hotel and all went to evening buffet and then off to bed, everyone still a little jet lagged.
Here's the Lapita coach shuttle service details
Here's some highlights from the day
Thursday 25th December 2025 - Christmas Day
Christmas day and what a day to remember, different in many ways but hugely pleasurable for us oldies to have our whole family together for Xmas. Both sets of grand children were visited by Santa on his mammoth journey, the hotel left a small hat with sweeties on each room door.
So we started with a few presents before breakfast, to avoid carrying loads we UK Hellinger's had done a mock Xmas back in Blighty the weekend before. After breakfast we rested preparing for the main event, the full scale UAE Christmas Brunch, 5 hours of eating , drinking and making merry with entertainment , Caribbean band, drumming lessons, Santa's visit, me getting to hug the giant teddy, annie got a cuddle, free teddies for the kids, face painting, juggling, large balloon blowing, and it did not disappoint #wonderful
Food highlights were lobster, Angus beef, full turkey dinner with all the sides etc., Various cheeses and bikkies, hummus to die for, Limm Ali for pudding, Egypt's national pudding, cross between bread and butter pudding and rice pudding, I am determined to learn to cook back home.
Drink highlights, Craig managing what was it 7 Mojitos or was it Cubra Libre, by that stage I'd had a few G&T's , Gin with Orange and lovely Shiraz. #hic This was way in excess of our evening 1 or 2 shiraz (to use our vouchers up, no other reason obviously) BUT hey it's Xmas!
In the evening we rested around the pool whilst the girls (& craig) did synchronised swimming, we have the evidence on film #haha
Some highlights
Friday 26th December 2025
Boxing day, clearly not a thing in UAE but all the incredibly friendly staff continued to wish us all a Happy Christmas. After breakfast we caught the buggy out to Legoland Dubai and spent the day there. Great family fun! The mistake we made is the park doesn't open until 11 (which was true for all of them) and the 1st ride doesn't open until 12 noon, so learning point after that was we always went to the pool(s) after breakfast and then to the amusement parks early afternoon. Today we spent an hour in the reenactment of downtown Dubai in Lego hall, just wonderful what they have done there. The latest on Lego (is it fake news?) is they are going to introduce technology into their next range of bricks, wow AI Lego .
At 12 most went on the Wave and Annie sprayed them. I have video of Tate soaking Grandpa the previous time we went so Granny was on pay back duty #haha We did the submarine and various other rides culminating in Dragon ride white knuckle rollercoaster. Granny used her now famous line "I'm not going on that one again!". Grandpa decided after the bar crushing down for about the 4th time (in order to avoid the ride warning error) that this sadly was his last white knuckle ride as my hernia repair was beginning to hurt.
In the evening we went to the Kahuna restaurant as a change from the buffet, Italian starters and pizza, boy what massive pizza, not sure any of us managed the challenge on the night so it was take away boxes to enable a follow up around the pool the next day.
Saturday 27th December 2025
Saturday was a day like many other with a slight difference, we all breakfasted together, went swimming, got coffee from the ginger bread house in reception, played ball in the adult pool, scored synchronised swimming by the girls, the boys played Spidey stuff, the adults sun bathed and read, some amongst us went to the spa and in the afternoon Craig and family went with Doug and family to Motiongate park using the Qfast lanyards BUT granny and grandpa had the afternoon off, relaxing and reading on our balcony and later on Grandpa went to C&L's room to watch the magnificent Forest play Manchester City at the world famous City ground, I even wore my shirt which I had bought with me, sadly we were robbed (I would say that wouldn't I) and lost 1-2. The rest of the family back from the parks we all buffeted together and then it was early to bed. We had some lovely swan towel work on our bed when we returned and used the PlantNet app to discover the name of a lovely bush outside our balcony (and elsewhere on the site) which was Pride of Barbados. Other lovely bushes on site are the magnificent Bougainvillea.
Keef booked the coach for tomorrow to the beach and called in at the ticket office to get the 10 tickets for us to use the Sheraton hotel at JBR beach's private beach front. Sheraton is part of the same chain of hotels as Lapita so good news.
Sunday 28th December 2025
All up early to breakfast as we were booked on the 10 am coach to Jumeirah Beach area. The journey took about 25 minutes and afforded us the opportunity to marvel at the skyscrapers on route. Those with holes in the middle, those wonderful architect designed stations for the metro and much more beside.
We checked in at the Sheraton, Keef having stopped to snap various high performance cars, indeed as an aside on the way back when we were waiting outside the Sheraton for the coach that road had a steady procession of "sports" cars, my Lambo was missing though! #haha
Once through check in we used the loo's by the pool to change ready for the beach and the sea. There was a wedding to happen in the grounds later and it's splendidness was being set up. We were glad not to be in the Sheraton for our holiday as believed Lapita to be so much nicer.
Then through security we were on the man made beach for the day, a row of Hellinger sunbeds , provided hotel towels by Sheraton and an ability to order food and drink directly from one's sunbed, how decadent!
We went in the sea, very salty and sharply shelving from the beach area. Some of the jet ski's could only have been in Dubai, they were constructed with a sports car outer shell , we watched tourist dhows on the seascape. Sadly Annie & I only worked out towards the end of the holiday, as we had wanted to go to the traditional souks and dhow boat areas, that we could shuttle to Jumeirah Beach or Dubai mall areas and get a hop on hop off tourist bus that would take us to those areas. If we come again we would do that, Lapita hotel is quite a way north of that downtown area and taxi cost a lot so this was a great money saver transport wise. #hintsandtips
The girls played on the swings on the beach, D&P went and walked over the bridge to the tourist areas on the other side of the beach to get food to bring back. The 2 places they visited were closed but they did find some pita vendors. The surprise was they bought me a tee from the Hard Rock cafe Dubai whilst over there, what a treat, my holiday is complete. That's probably HRC shirt number 60, I must count them when I have nothing to do, as a pensioner that is NEVER.
Got the coach back, circa 3.20 pm , it was a little late because of heavy traffic and had buffet tea.
Monday 29th December 2025
Breakfasted, had a swim and in the afternoon everyone bar G&G and the young boys went and did the escape room. G&G got the buggy and took Tate and Alfie to the mega soft play area called Neon Galaxy where we got them ice creams to cool them down after some high octane activity. I had to do lots of form filling to exact the 50% off in all Riverland experiences allowed on our holiday booking #hardwork We then all walked on to Motiongate. Granny & Grandpa went on very little but the family used the Qfast passes which in general shortened the queue but the Panda boat ride even tough we were in the fast queue took about 30 minutes for Craig, Phoenix I and Tate. Beforehand we had watched the alleged show, which it definitely wasn't. After that G&G caught the buggy back and the family stayed on for a while enjoying the reduced queue in later evening. We all met up for supper a little later that night. The best white knuckle ride seemed to be Mad Pursuit, going thru the roof of the Madagascar area. I would loved to have gone on it but thought sensible to rest my hernia scar.
D&P were considering the Desert car experience but declined once they worked out the price for what in essence was half a day. Everything in UAE is expensive.
Tuesday 30th December 2025
Hellinger routine again, breakfast, take away coffee, pool, swim, read, sunbathe, drinks from poolside bar.... It's a hard life but someone's gotta do it
Early afternoon for the first time we went to Real Madrid world park which was mostly empty, no need for fast passes here, most rides were 5 minutes maximum. The previous day and today had been windy meaning the pool guys banned Doug when he tried to put the shade beach brolly up.
The park itself was odd in the fact that it used to be called Bollywood world, no doubt sponsored by Indian cricket, but when that sponsorship fell thru who should step in but a mega rich Spanish football team. Anyhow the kids loved the rides, all good family fun.
The most scary bit was Craig deciding to go on the giant chair-o-plane with the wind whistling around at the top and the chair suspended in Doug's words by a coat hanger. Craig adopted his mum's line on landing "well I won't be going on that again" #haha
We went to the Ari poolside restaurant in the evening, good burgers, Mum found her green coconut bun and chili just not to her liking sadly.
Wednesday 31st December 2025 - New Years Eve
Went to breakfast on return it being Annie's birthday tomorrow the room staff had decorated the room and written happy birthday on the mirror, did I say she got 5 separate birthday cakes throughout the holiday. Such clever art. Post breakfast we did pool, swim, D&P borrowed some towels and early afternoon we got the family buggy to Legoland again to do some rides we hadn't done before. Then we made our way into Legoland's waterpark next door. Loved being under the big bucket of water with Tatey who didn't mind one bit. Everyone bar Phoenix and Leanne went in using the various facilities but we didn't make it to the big pool with wave machine, said we would return on another day but time ran out sadly.
G&G loved the lazy river but without the help of our granddaughters we would still be on it now. We tried at the end of the first loop, very relaxing by the way in a big rubber ring, to get off but couldn't so ended up going around again. On the start of the 3rd loop luckily Charlie and Edie helped us dock #phew The pool closed as 5.30pm so we had to all get out, then caught the buggy back, folks had showers and then we went to dinner. As we weren't doing the special NYE brunch (way too expensive) we had our buffet on floor 4 where we had been for breakfast once before. The staff were no where near as good in this one.
We kept the young boys up so we could all congregate in C&L's room to watch the fireworks at 9.30pm, spectacular.
Although we all went to bed before midnight I coincidentally woke at 11.59pm and therefore we heard the mega loud New Year intro fireworks over Riverland at midnight.
Happy 2026 one and all!
Thursday 1st January 2026 - New Years Day & Annie's 72nd
Twas Annie's 72nd birthday as well as New Year's Day. After opening a few presents Craig and family called confirming going to the Emeriti restaurant as her present, yippee what a great food experience it turned out to be , hugely traditional food and pomegranate mocktails to die for.
We all met up for buffet breakfast where Zain and co arrived with yet another birthday cake and singing happy birthday, Annie was a little emotionally overwhelmed, witness the tears of joy. We asked them to cut the cake in 10 for the family and as that wasn't possible the included a second cake, wow, what service.
The weather wasn't great although ok to go in the pool we decided to give Legoland water park a miss, quite blowy. So a relaxing day until we got the buggy to the restaurant. During the mel we went outside to see the lightshow. The owners tried to get us a buggy back but that just didn't work so we walked back across the bridge, very full, so good to work off such an excellent meal, and got the buggy at the Riverland gate, the kids were all very tired.
Friday 2nd January 2026 - Goodbyes & Travel Home
Sadly our last day and a travel day. So up early Doug and family also joined us , we got there at 6.30 am but it didn't open until 7, which was our mistake, the staff were lovely, hugs and selfies all round.
We had our cases transferred to the entrance, waited for our transport back to the airport, Doug and Phoenix weren't flying back to Singapore until in the evening so spent some time back at Motiongate. We all bid a long goodbye up at the entrance, some very special times, just so lovely.
The airport for us was amazingly efficient and swift , bit of duty free shopping to use up the Dirhams, then the long flight back , about 7 hours, Edie told us (often) she was bored, but she managed quite a few films, I watched a Kiwi movie (A mistake - good) and the final Downton abbey film (average). Once back we had the hoo-hah about our car and finally got back at 9.30pm, knackered straight to bed, Craig & Leanne back about 7.30
Now it was time to get over the jet lag before writing this blog, what a fab family fun time in Dubai.
Map
Lapita hotel and resort parks is north of downtown Dubai, that mega metropolis, with the Burg Khalifa and Burg Al Arab (sail architecture) highlighting what is already a congested skyline, to think most of this was sand back in 2005, if we were to come back in years to come my guess is it would be so much more dense with skyscrapers. As cities go though the one thing I like is that all buildings are different unlike the Russian utiliterian concept adopted in say Helsinki, Finland, anyhow here is the map.
Slideshows
In ascending order by day, note the PRIVATE slideshows are because they contain our grandchildren, and are only visible if you write to the website provider via email to KeefHWebDesigns@outlook.com and we will consider your application and if accepted add you to the viewing list, thx, I'm sure in this online world you understand why! Thanks
The 1st set is for between 19th December 2025 when we flew to the day Doug and family arrived from Singapore the 23rd December 2025. We explored Legoland, Grandpa and Craig did the true white knuckle ride looping the loop at Motiongate, which some concerns about Grandpa's retaining bar, got used to the pool, sunbathed and well and truly locked o at the buffet, breakfast and evening meal. It seemed a case of arriving as passengers departing as cargo and a heavily extended waist line, time to recover back home now! #smile
The 2nd set is for between 24th December 2025 and the 27th December which includes visiting the Dubai Mall by shuttle, seeing the pantomime at the Jumeriah Beach Hotel, Christmas brunch and all that entailed for 5 hours (great fun by the way) , Boxing day at the pool and parks, and evening Italian meal at Kahuna and the 27th relaxing and seeing some fab towel work by the young lad what does our rooms in Lapita block 5.
The 3rd set and finally set is for between 28th December 2025 and the 2nd January 2026 with shuttle to the beach, park visits, Riverland, Legoland Dubai, Legoland water park (and the fab lazy river, ideal for Septuagenarians) , Motiongate, Real Madrid world (as if, grr, converted from Bollywood world as a change of sponsorship was needed and it showed , what the hell was that ride in outer space with Taj Mahal questionably that turned into an aliens footie match #haha) meal at aria restaurant, plus fireworks, celebrating the New Year and Annie's 72nd birthday (with eventually 5 birthday cakes, towel art, they couldn't do enough bless them) and a meal at the Emeriti restaurant in Riverland, plus of course sadly having to say goodbye to our extended family and all make the long trip home to the cold or hot if it was Singapore .
The Talking Movies
Words of wisdom or is it just family fun in Dubai for the Christmas and New Year period and of course my lovely wife Annie's 72nd birthday, all great fun!
Other Stuff
Here are some of the associated "stuff" we picked up on route to act as memorabilia
AUDIOBOOK
Here are the spoken words to summarise this blog if you would prefer
The End
What a fab family holiday, such fun in Dubai.
what fabulous family fun