Royal Voyage 2015 Day 19: Sliding to the Finish Line
I don't want to write todays post. By writing about today, it will mean that what I've dreaded for three weeks has come to pass, our trip is ending. Before we all break out the metaphoric tissues (real for me) we had one more day in Dubai. It was time for some water slides.
Jenn asked me today when did I fall in love with water slides? The honest answer is I'm not sure. I remember going with my family to a waterpark in Palm Springs and I want to say that's when I got hooked but I'm not really sure. Needless to say with our last day in Dubai we headed over to The Atlantis right down the road from our hotel to go to their Aquaventure Waterpark. Before we could do that we had to enjoy an incredible breakfast on our balcony. Jenn ordered room service a little after 9AM. She had a waffle with orange juice and I had their Eggs Benedict with a coffee which was actually just a french press. The breakfast was out of this world and we took in the prettiest morning we've had here in Dubai.
We made our way down to the hotels shuttle at 11AM and got to Atlantis a couple of minutes later. We waited in a pretty lengthy queue before getting our locker, towels, and wristbands and let into the park. Once we were in we dropped off our stuff in both the lockers and some loungers at the beach (right near all of the waterslides) and we off. Instead of boring you with a bunch of tales of our different slide adventures I will abbreviate it a bit. We did four slides in a row where we were paired up together on an inner tube. Those were always the most fun because I could tease Jenn who to be honest isn't a big fan of water slides. She endured today for me though! There was one of the slides that went straight through the parks aquarium where you could see a ton of sting rays and sharks.
The last two slides were absolutely the highlight of the day. The second to last slide we went down was two side by side enclosed slides that you race down. I've lost to Jenn a lot this trip, but I blew past her on our race down the slides 20 seconds to 24 seconds. Like I said she's not a big fan of the slides. The last slide we went on was one which you literally just go straight down and through the aquarium again. Jenn hasn't rode one of those slides in a long time and was obviously nervous. She did great though and we both enjoyed the blast of adrenaline a slide that's nearly at 90 degrees will give you.
We left the slide, picked up our stuff, and made the walk back to our hotel down the street. A nice twenty minute walk with a beautiful ocean breeze and the Burj Al Arab in the background. We made our back into our hotel and began the sad but needed activity of packing for our return trip home. Before we closed out the night we got room service one more time. What can I say we were feeling exceptionally lazy on our last day in Dubai. Jenn got the spaghetti bolognase (couldn't finish a post without it) and I got the chicken club sandwich. After we ate Jenn took a bath and a shower and I started making sure all of our electronics were packed for the return trip home.
Tomorrow we leave Dubai at 10AM and fly to London and then back to LAX where we should be home Monday evening. It's always bittersweet writing these last day posts. I carry so much joy on the journey that we've had. But there's always part of me that craves more. And so as we end our Royal Voyage in Dubai I look forward to whatever amazing adventures await us in the years to come. For me traveling with Jenn has been and remains one of the best things in my life. These are memories and experiences that I wouldn't trade for all the money in the world. And this was yet another incredible journey and I can't wait to book the next one!
