Taking a Break From the Sun!

Hello all,

The girls and I decided to take a little break from our cooler, 90* weather we've been having and spent the day at Magic Planet and Favorite Things. Magic Planet is located within the Mall of the Emirates, Dubai's current largest mall. The next largest mall has just officially opened, the Dubai Mall, but with most of it still under construction, and only about 500 of the 1200 stores open, I will still give Mall of the Emirates top billing!

Magic Planet, located close to Ski Dubai, is in the back upper part of the mall. You essentially get a Magic Planet debit card at the cashiers stand. You tell the worker how much money you want to put on the card, he/she loads up the card, and you're set up for some fun. As you can see from the pix there are quite a few rides for the kids to ride inside and we're not just talking kiddie rides! They have lots of the interactive video games, rides, and some Chucky Cheese type games where you earn tickets to get some cheap prizes. There was never a line and some of the rides after the ride stopped, the operator just let the girls stay on and started the ride again, of course after swiping my card again twice! That's the deal with the card, you or the operator of the ride just swipes the card through a small machine located at each ride/video game and it deducts the cost of the ride from your card.


After we had our thrill of Magic Planet and our card was pretty much depleted of all cash, we left and headed over to Favorite Things. I needed to put a deposit down for Lily's birthday party that we are going to have at a place called Favorite Things. A brilliant concept! This place you pay for your child or children to come and play for an hour or more. They have a separate section for 3 years and younger. The other rooms are all connected and your kids can meander through to there liking. One room is set up like a Hollywood dressing room, where kids get get into costumes and have their faces painted. One room is strictly for water play. One room is all arts and crafts. One room is all climbing equipment. One wall is a rock climbing wall (very small). And then they have the party room, where they serve food, play games, and presents.

The brilliant part, since I know there are places like this in the States, is that on one side of the rooms is the door etc..just like normal but the back wall of all the rooms is glass and on the other side of the glass is a small mother/child clothing store and a cafe with a coffee/drink (no not alcohol!) bar. So while you are having coffee, lunch, actually having a conversation with an adult, you can watch your children playing in all of the rooms! Now the 3 and under room, you actually have to be there, but they have a separate sitting area for you.

So I put Ava/Lily in the 3 and under room, went to the cafe, ordered a coffee, and then the waiter brought it back over to my section!I had my coffee sitting watching the girls play and then when finished actually went in to play with them. So not only do they have staff waiting on you at the cafe, they have staff working in all the rooms helping the kids do whatever it is they want to do, even in the toddler section.

Brilliant! Miss you all....Love, Jennifer