Abu Dhabi (United Arab Emirates)
13 September - 15 September 2019
As one of those travelling families that have utilised Abu Dhabi merely a point of transit of the years, getting to be familiar with the International Airport, for us, was akin to establishing familiarity with the city itself. Which is to say, we really haven’t discovered a lot about the poorer/richer cousin of the brash & dazzling Dubai. Somehow on this occasion the feeling we took away was a place that was more engaging and more interesting. I couldn’t tell you the reason for that, we didn’t take in tours of discovery or undertake any culturally insightful events, we had a simple stay at the Bab Al Qasr hotel, a decent view, some sheesha, cocktails and relaxed vibe. Maybe that’s all that was needed. A little time reflecting on another great holiday, and figuring out where the next might originate.
The next day we were at the airport, ready to make our way back to Melbourne. Typically going the rigmarole of checking-in is laborious and boring at the best of times. With a 6-month old it becomes a challenging event, which makes it all the more frustrating when Eithad lets you know that the confirmed seats you have for the flight does not actually guarantee that you’ll get onto the flight. Typical, it seems for Etihad, as this has happened to both my parents and myself in Abu Dhabi previously, Etihad overbooks its flights, by what seems to be a far larger percentage that is common to industry practices. These means therefore that even if you turn up to the airport on-time, your chances of getting offloaded with a fully paid ticket are relatively high. An absolute nuisance and frustration, and a lesson to be learned in terms of drilling in the process of compulsory online check-in. For us, the day delay wasn’t a major drama other than the fact that I was commencing a new job the very next day, and so, re-arranging flights out meant that our new schedule had us in Melbourne at about 6:30am on Monday morning. For any of us that may have arrived home on a long-haul flight and committed ourselves to the torment of heading into work the same day, you know the pain, your working day is nothing short of torture. Still, Etihad gave us $600USD credit each and complimentary accommodation and meals, so not an entire disappointment.
Having talked up the Formula Rossa ride at Ferrari World for the past four weeks, the additional day gave us the opportunity to introduce Inga to the fastest ride on the planet.
There are simply no words and nothing that can prepare for the adrenalin rush the first time you accelerate out of the terminal. Touchpoints you thought that you may have had to any other roller coaster disappear when your body is thrust into the back of your seat and you gasp for air. Reaching 240kph just before you climb vertically into the Arabian sky feels almost surreal as you reach the apex of your first drop and the rest of the park is spread out before you.
For those that want to know the stats, 1.7 G-force at launch, 4.8 G throughout the ride and 0 to 240kph in 4.9 seconds – they’re some serious numbers.
I was happy that Inga got to share the experience because I had been talking up the ride for a while and I know that she didn’t quite believe that it would live up to the expectation – in her words, as she walked towards me after the right ended, ‘Oh wow…wow…I couldn’t breath …I didn’t expect that’
…Exactly
After our afternoon at Ferrari World we headed back to the airport hotel, had some dinner and crashed out for the night.
The next day, thankfully,
we boarded our flight without any drama and I made it into work for 9:00am
start o Day1 at Australian Unity.
