Legoland Dubai 11th January 2017

Legoland Dubai was in the first completed section of the Dubai Parks & Resorts complex. It opened to the public on October 31st last, some two days after a final inspection by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum. It is a bright and colourful place, though those who have been to the other six parks in the chain will find it quite small; we were ready to leave in a little less than two hours despite exploring at a relaxed pace. Enthusiasts should be aware that all the attractions in the park are copies of those elsewhere, and the selection doesn't include any of the range geared at older visitors (such as Ninjago the Ride, Project X, Power Builder, and Polar X-plorer). The Submarine Adventure ride was still under construction during our visit, though it may well be open by the time these words are read.

We began our day with Dragon's Apprentice, a Zamperla-built family coaster. In the Malaysia park the designers elected to go with Zierer for both of their signature coasters, and I asked one of my contacts why that hadn't been done here. The reason turned out to be the minimum height restrictions; the Zamperla restraint was designed to support a minimum of 105cm, some fifteen centimetres less than that of the competing Zierer product. We were told that the ride at Malaysia was a mistake, and while I think that's overly harsh I'm a middle-aged coaster enthusiast rather than a four year old crying over the fact that I'm a few centimetres too short to ride my first roller coaster.

The hardware is a revised version of the not-terribly-venerable 80STD design, re-engineered last year to comply with new European standards. The most visible difference from the perspective of the enthusiast is the removal of the pain airtime hump towards the end of the layout, though the trains have also been redesigned to provide a more comfortable ride. We immediately noticed that there was enough space for two of us to sit in the same car, a nice upgrade from the older units, though the operators asked us to take different cars for weight and balance reasons. Both of my rides were in the front seat, and from that location the ride was respectable enough; though the tracking wasn't perfect it was nevertheless noticeably better than the norm.

Our second stop was at the Dragon, a Zierer Force Five with a section of dark ride at the beginning. The queue was built into a castle structure that at first glance looked to be the same as the one at Legoland Malaysia, but as we walked through glass doors at the entrance we realised that the entire courtyard had been enclosed, with the temperature held at a very respectable twenty degrees celsius through the magic of air conditioning. It felt really good to step inside, and it would probably feel even better during the summer months. We took our time walking through the queue towards the ride boarding platform.

We ended up in the back car for our first lap, and that location allowed us to fully appreciate the merits of a top notch design. When I wrote about the Malaysian version of the layout last year I said that it "felt like any other large format family coaster", but in hindsight I think that was unfair of me; the reality is that this design has several thrilling moments that the rear seats serve to amplify. The initial drop, enclosed within the dark ride section, is case in point, as those unfamiliar with the layout will find themselves unceremoniously dropped perhaps twenty feet in a thoroughly dramatic manner. The main part of the ride is forceful yet smooth, delivering a memorable experience that we just had to do a second time.

I was somewhat less impressed with the Lego Studios 4D movie, not least because a significant number of seats were blocked off with out of order signs, an embarrassing situation for a park that has been open less than three months. The film that we saw was an argy-bargy over the Book of Creativity, claimed to be the most powerful and dangerous magic book yet (though as a Terry Pratchett fan I rather suspect that the Necrotelicomnicon holds that title still). The only memorable aspect of the performance for me was the occasional appearance of a sickly looking character that vomited up maroon Lego pieces which assembled themselves into an impressive-looking dragon, albeit not of the roller coaster variety.

The park has its own version of the Lost Kingdom Adventure target shooter built onto an Omnimover-style system, albeit one where every second base element has been left empty. One presumes that the system was deployed this way to minimise costs while also allowing for an increase in capacity in the future if required. The ride has four different colour targets, of which blue is worth the most at five hundred points. I concentrated all my effort on those, and for once in my life I beat Megan who had tuned out while the operator was telling us what to do.

With that done we concluded our visit with Miniland, an impressive collection of model buildings that thankfully was both enclosed and air conditioned. There was a definite emphasis on the local in the selection, which included a replica of the centre of Dubai, part of terminal three at the airport, the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque, and the Burj Khalifa. Other featured attractions included the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, the Kuwait Towers, Petra, the Pyramids, and the Taj Mahal.