Abu Dhabi: Day#10 Almost Ferrari

We planned to reach Abu Dhabi before 10 a.m, but as usual, although we thought we had rushed everything in the morning, things still didn't go exactly as planned.  

And my sister speeding like an F1 racer on the 6-lane Sheikh Zayed Road/highway, while I quoted, saying to her husband on the phone, "We're trying, but I doubt it we will get there on time.  They're too slow."

So we decided to stretch it to 11 a.m., and give our 1.5 hour trip a view.

Oh, look at the sand at the edge of the road. There's a mini sandstorm happening.

Road is clean

Road is sandy

After a while, we started to see a different view out of the window. We were heading to Yas Island.

Yas Island is a man-made island, about 30 minutes from the city of Abu Dhabi, reachable by car, plane or boat. It occupies a total land area of 2,500 ha (25 km2), of which 1,700 ha will be claimed for development.  Yas Island was named the world's leading tourism project at the World Travel Awards in November 2009.

What's on Yas Island?

To name a few: Yas Waterworld which has the largest surf-able sheet wave surf in the world, Yas Marina Circuit which has hosted the Formula One Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix since 2009, largest IKEA store in the Middle East and North Africa region, UAE's second largest ACE Hardware store (the largest one is in Dubai, of course!), Yas Links which ranked 24th World’s best Golf courses outside the USA (Golf Digest USA, 2012), and ..

FERRARI WORLD

The park was empty, as it was not opened yet.  We could wait, sure, but initially, Ferrari World was not our main target in Abu Dhabi.  Besides, how could we enjoy playing in the world's largest indoor theme park in a hurry?

Here's some facts: 

• The park’s foundation stone was laid on 3 November 2007. The development was completed in three years, opening to the public for the first time on 4 November 2010.

• It features more than 20 rides and attractions - from the world’s fastest roller coaster to advanced racing simulators - designed to tell the Ferrari story. 

• It opens to visitors every day, year round, from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. and it’s always 24 °C inside the park.

• Its iconic sleek red roof, inspired by the classic double curve side profile of the Ferrari GT body, spans 200,000m² carrying the largest Ferrari logo ever created, uses enough aluminum to cover 16,750 Ferraris, or if you laid the roof flat you could place 20,100 Ferrari's side by side and end to end. 

• The logo itself measures 65m in length and covers an area of 3,000 m² which could fit at least 7 basketball courts.

• The enclosed indoor area accessible to the public is 86,000 m² large enough to fit seven football fields head-to-toe.

• If Ferrari World Abu Dhabi was turned upright, it would be the tallest man made structure in the world at over 300 floors.

• It includes 1,200 dining seats – enough to feed the entire park at full capacity in 3 hours.

• The volume of concrete in Hoover Dam could fit inside Ferrari World Abu Dhabi.  The 100,000 m³ of concrete were used to pour its slabs, which is 10,000 m³ more than what was used for Wembley Stadium in London. It needed 12,370 tons of steel to create its structure; the Eiffel Tower only needed 7,000 tons.

• The gross footprint area of the plaza level is equivalent to approximately 15 American Football fields.

• Formula Rossa, with cars designed to resemble the Ferrari F1 car - “Rosso Scuderia” - is the world's fastest roller coaster with its 4.8Gs (the same G force one would feel driving in an F1 car and braking at maximum speed) and acceleration of 240km/h in under 5 seconds that can launch everyone 52 meters into the sky.  

Formula Rossa

[pause, a very long pause]

[followed by hysteria] Aaaaaarrrghh!!! Why didn't we have time to go inside?? *sob*.  Our time there was only long enough to stop the car at the entrance, go out and feel the chilly wind and take some pictures.

(I did wonder, what would happen if I managed to ride on Formula Rossa in this chilly winter weather? Would my face be frozen afterwards?)

Then we really needed to continue our trip to the city.

And the fuel sign was suddenly on in the middle of the highway. Mayday! Mayday! Our new main destination: The Gas Station.

Since the GPS couldn't help much, we kept our eyes alert for any exit and any gas station sign. Thank goodness, we found one after we entered the city.

That made our 11 a.m. target too tight.

.. to be continued in Day #10 The White Marble