Motiongate, the largest of Dubai Parks and Resorts' theme parks, celebrates the world of Hollywood movies and features attractions based on films from Lionsgate, Columbia Pictures and Dreamworks.
Motiongate, the largest of Dubai Parks and Resorts' theme parks, celebrates the world of Hollywood movies and features attractions based on films from Lionsgate, Columbia Pictures and Dreamworks.
| Opened | 16 December 2016 |
|---|---|
| Season | Year round |
| Website | www.motiongatedubai.com |
| Nearby | Bollywood Parks Dubai (0 miles) Legoland Dubai (0 miles) Global Village (21 miles) IMG Worlds of Adventure (23 miles) Sega Republic (26 miles) |
Entrance to the Columbia Pictures area
Motiongate opened in Dubai on 16th December 2016 as the largest of the cluster of three theme parks launched as part of Dubai Parks and Resorts. It's overall theme is Hollywood inspired, and features a number of areas representing Columbia Pictures, Dreamworks and Lionsgate, plus a children's area themed around The Smurfs (apparently very popular in the Middle East!).
Columbia Pictures is the largest outdoor area, and features Green Hornet: High Speed Chase, a Gerstlauer Bobsled coaster; the large Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs: River Expedition rapids ride; and Zombieland Blast Off, a 58 metre tall shot tower. There are also three indoor attractions in the area. Ghostbusters Battle for New York is a superb interactive dark ride. Hotel Transylvania uses trackless cars to give a tour around the monster hotel, with cars dancing around each other in the hotel's central ballroom scene. Underworld 4D is a typical 4D cinema experience, with an a-typical movie featuring extraordinary levels of violence and blood ... within a few seconds of the start one of the characters has been shot in the head. Probably best to leave the kids outside for that one.
The Dreamworks area fountain centrepiece
With the exception of the Step Up Dubai, All In! theatre, Lionsgate is down as "Phase 2", and both its Hunger Games themed coaster and motion simulator were still under construction during my visit in March 2017.
Dreamworks is a gigantic indoor section, more like several distinct areas rather than a single one combined. The Kung Fu Panda area's star attraction is a brilliant 3D motion simulator ride named Unstoppable Awesomeness. Riders board a boat for a crazy journey down a roaring river with Kung Fu Panda and co, in a ride which shows off some of the best in 3D simulator technology around at the moment - it is definitely unstoppably awesome!
Studio Central, the park's main entrance street, at night
One of Dreamworks' two coasters, Madagascar Mad Pursuit, is an Infinity Coaster from Gerstlauer and was by far my favourite in the park. There are some great theming details and the ride is very very smooth. The How To Train Your Dragon section was still under construction when I visited, but when it opens it will feature a Mack Inverted Powered Coaster (the same ride system as used by Arthur at Europa Park).
The last section in the Dreamworks area is Shrek. Again, sadly the rides were unavailable during my visit, but the area itself looks fantastic.
Although there are still parts of Motiongate under construction and its full ride selection was not yet available when I visited, I had a wonderful time at the park. Everything is of extremely high quality, both in terms of the rides themselves and the attention to detail in the theming. Staff are all very friendly and well trained, and there is some tasty food on offer too. I can recommend Baby Brent's Luncheonette if you're very hungry - it offers freshly prepared pasta, pizza and salad - not a choice between them, you get all three in a single meal!
50 metre high shot and drop tower
Bobsled coaster from Gerstlauer, featuring high speed tight turns and drops
Tour around the world's only hotel for monsters on this trackless dark ride
Awesome river rapids 3D simulator ride experience
High energy hip hop dance show, based on the Step Up film series
ECC Arabian Adventure UAE Trip 2017: Motiongate