Anniversary Getaway: JBH + Wild Wadi

I was too lazy to plan for any overseas getaway for our wedding anniversary recently, so suggested going for a 'Cuti-cuti Dubai' instead. And since my idea of a perfect vacation always includes a beach and water-related activities, we decided to book a 2-night weekend stay at the wave-shaped Jumeirah Beach Hotel, which offers private beach access and most importantly, FREE access to the neighboring Wild Wadi Water Park, oh yeahhh~

Upon checking in, the hotel receptionist asked whether we're there to celebrate any special occasion; weddings, birthdays, graduations (do we look like we just graduated from college or something?), etc, so we told her yes, we're celebrating our wedding anniversary and she kindly upgraded our room to the one with a balcony yeay! But to be honest, I believed she would've given the upgrade even if we're not celebrating anything coz it's not really a peak season, hence, they had a lot of room-with-balcony available, so they used it as an opportunity to make hotel guests feel great - by giving them upgrades/free stuff hehe. Well, whatever the reason, we appreciated the nice gesture since the view from our balcony was just fantastic!

The hotel's private beach was right in front of the 5-star Burj Al Arab Hotel - kalau swim dari tepi pantai memang boleh sampai lah Burj Al Arab tu. And it made me realized, semahal2 Burj Al Arab tu, dia takde private beach on the island itself, instead you have to cross the bridge to get to the beach, tak best ahh. Should reduce 1 star di situ hehe.

The Wild Wadi Water Park right beside the hotel was smaller than Atlantis' Aquaventure Water Park, but the rides were much more awesome than those in Aquaventure. Unlike in Aquaventure, Wild Wadi didn't have water escalators to take you up, instead, they used something like water-boosters to push you and your tube up the slides. Kinda fun coz they made the rides seemed longer tapi adehhh, sakit bontot weh!

Dear SRB got stuck halfway once, somehow the water-booster didn't manage to push him up the slide and they had to stop the water flow and start it up all over again while the rest of us waited and wondered, "OMG am I heavier than that guy who's stuck? Will I be able to make it through?" ahaha! Well, I think it was a technical glitch sikit kot, coz ramai je orang lain yg lagi bapak besar compared to SRB and they berjaya je naik hehe.

Besides a variety of slides, another awesome-factor of Wild Wadi was their surfing simulators called Flowriders, one for beginners, one for those with a bit of experience. SRB tried the one for beginners, after queuing for almost 2 hours and ended up with some bruises. I guess surfing on artificial waves was not much easier than surfing on real waves.

And oh, this time we did try the tallest free-fall slide in the water park. Setelah survey2 and kaji2 sikit, we decided that it's less scary than Aquaventure's Leap of Faith since dia banyak lengkung2 so it's not really a vertical drop, hence do-able sikit laa. Agak lemah lutut while climbing up the tower (ada org tu dah nak patah balik turun pun hihi) but in the end, it was not so bad. NOT gonna try it again though hahaks!

So peeps, if you come to Dubai and want to cool yourself down to beat the brutal Middle-East summer heat, I'd recommend going to Wild Wadi Water Park instead of Aquaventure. (Free advertising sedikit di situ hehe).