Kidzania - Dubai - May/2010

On our trip to Dubai last weekend; we had one day left before we had to get to the airport for our flight back to Oman and were all shopped out so the kids wanted to see this place in Dubai Mall called Kidzania. This place is so cool! Had I known that it was suitable for my kid's ages; I would have taken them a while ago. Nonetheless, you live and learn. I took them and it is set up in the mall and you go through Emirates Airlines as if you are getting on a plane and it seems to be all real props! EA is a local airline to the UAE (United Arab Emirates) and you 'pay' and go through the check points and you enter a 'city'. It was done so very well! Once inside, you see this monument thing.

I did not want this to be picture heavy so skipped the pics where the kids were cashing in their 'checks'. They got money (fake) and then tried to join some 'jobs'. But then, Amal decided that only with a university degree could she and Ali make or earn some money. So, they went to University...

One of their first 'job's' after University was as couriers. They were running all over the place. We only had four hours!

Then, they signed up to be Police Officers and got to do some adventurous things. By this time; I found the food and coffee and a CHAIR! I did not know; but I picked the BEST place to sit. It would have been more enjoyable for me if I had someone to talk to but I made friends with some Brits and got to watch all these kids running here and there. It was awesome and precious as kids from all ages come to this place where they can 'be' any profession for a bit.

At some point, they earned these ribbons. For my kids, Ali 11 and Amal 14; I think the art of trying to use up their 4 or 5 hours to the best and to get the amount of money they wanted to 'buy' the little toys was their strategy. I think that the process was enjoyable and challenging. They kept touching base with me and I was able to snap these pics.

After 5 hours here and still an hour of sitting in traffic to get to the hotel to get our stuff and get to the airport; I was getting nervous. We ate crap all day so I was adamant that I wanted us to have a decent dinner as our flight was very late getting into Muscat and the kids had school the next day and I had a big meeting to be at on Saturday. As I started to say, after FIVE hours with all these screaming kids and kids actually fighting with their parents and maids dragging kids of all ages around (so glad I raised my own kids! Was HORRIFIED to see how these maids handled little ones!). Well, I was DONE with kids. I must be getting old!

My babies were so DISAPPOINTED to find out that they needed REAL money to buy these silly little toys and deduced that all that planning and plotting and running around was for nothing! I asked them if they had fun in the process and they said YES!!!!!!! so, it was a good five hours!

We made good time to the hotel. Got our luggage and grabbed another taxi to get to the airport and got there in really good time so had about two hours to spare. We found a really nice restaurant after walking the entire airport and had a very nice meal. We got treats for dessert on the way to our gate and settled in to get the flight. It is only one hour or less from Dubai to Muscat and we were home and Waqar was late to pick us up! The kids were so wound up that we got to bed late but I am a stickler about school and they got up and went and we all had an early night Saturday! Whew! Can't wait to catch our plane for the US. Can't wait!!