If there’s one thing kids love more than toys, sweeties and sulking, it’s a theme park. Fling shiny, expensive fast cars into the mix and you stand a pretty good chance of persuading dad it’s a good idea too. So it’s little wonder that the huge Ferrari World theme park – the first ever – is billed as a must-visit for fans, thrill-seekers and families. Our brood, on an afternoon visit for an early Father’s Day treat, is revved up into a frenzy of excitement just entering the cavernous, airport-like venue, where the primary colours and simulated roar of the F1 engines get us all in gear and ready to go.
We spill into the central area, where the G-Force drop zone rockets up above our heads, and eagerly open our maps. With more than 20 attractions, there is plenty for all ages, and we make a sedate start with the delightful Bell’Italia. Rose (four) is happy to take the wheel of a small-scale open-top Ferrari 250, flinging herself into the corners like a Massa in the making as we meander through miniature Italy, over mountain passes and quaint villages, past the leaning tower and a down-sized Colosseum. Hardly adrenaline junkie stuff, it’s a perfect start for pint-sized petrol heads.
But we have a need for speed, so we hotfoot it to the Junior GT section, home of the Junior GT driving school. Rose takes it all extremely seriously, listening intently to the safety briefing and driving tips, smiling sweetly for her license photo and sprinting to bag the shiny yellow car which, our brochure reliably informs us, is a scaled-down Ferrari 430 GT Spider… cool. Then she’s off around a mini track complete with traffic lights, roundabouts and (largely ignored) one-way systems while the supervisors are kept on their toes, extracting stuck vehicles and breaking up road smashes. It’s all very exciting stuff.
Rose just makes the height restriction for the Junior Grand Prix, but doesn’t quite have the leg strength to power the track-hugging Ferrari F1 racers. Like a mini Miss Marple, she pootles round the paddock like she’s on a permanent pit-stop. The bigger kids whizz past, leaving her in their wake, but she doesn’t care. She takes so long to negotiate the under-tunnel chicane that we’re beginning to wonder if she’s given up and gone in search of popcorn but no, she finally emerges at a glacial pace to cross the finish line to much cheering and flag-waving from her parents.
For a rest, we pop her on the Carousel featuring classic Ferarri cars and bikes, but it’s a little too slow-moving for our speed-demon and, anyway, dad is beginning to whine (‘can I have a go?’) so it’s off in search of thrills. We find ourselves in a long queue for the Formula Rossa, the world’s fastest rollercoaster. Definitely only for crazies above 130cm tall (Rose gamely stands on her tippytoes and stretches her neck turtle fashion) we watch from the balcony as dad hurtles 52 metres into the sky in less than five seconds (that’s 240km/hour, so now he knows what true F1 speeds feel like). We giggle at his G-force hair-do and goggle-eye imprints but he’s not bothered as, ready for his next thrill, he marches us off for the Fiorano GT Challenge, the duelling coaster that reaches speeds of 100kph. Obviously, there’s no chance of Rose riding
this one either, so dad is off on his own again. It’s a lurching ride that accelerates like a sports car and is just the ticket for adrenaline junkie kids who meet the height requirement, but relatively tame for grown-ups.
Hunger pangs a-raging, we’re mulling our eating options (we’re delighted to report that the park is largely junk food free) but get waylaid at the Junior Training Camp where Rose works up even more of an
appetite, climbing the grandstand and playing with a foam Ferrari. After refueling on perfectly tasty (if rather pricey) pizza slices at Mamma Rossella, we head to the Speed of Magic a 4-D fantasy ride. Rose starts off all gung-ho, looking comically cute in her over-sized 4-D glasses but her ‘whoo-hoos!’ turn to ‘whoas!’ as we plunge down ravines and race through snow-capped mountains. In hindsight, a pre-pizza visit may have been more sensible.
While Rose’s tummy settles, mum and dad have a blast racing each other on the Scudeira Challenge (mum wins – yay!) so dad puts in a bit more practice on the state-of-the-art racing simulator around a virtual Yas Marina circuit. He gets such a buzz, we fear he’ll struggle to stick to the speed limit on the way home. We’ve time for one last spin around the Junior GT track before we all leave, suitably exhausted, after an afternoon of highly recommended, sheer combustible fun.
Dhs225 for visitors over 1.5m tall; Dhs165 for juniors under 1.5m tall, annual passes available. Open Tue-Sun noon-10pm (closed Mon), Yas Island. www.ferrariworldabudhabi.com (02 496 8001).
