Sheraton Mall of the Emirates - Dubai

After a great five days in Abu Dhabi, we headed to Dubai to check into the Sheraton at the Mall of the Emirates. Abu Dhabi is just 150 kilometers southwest of Dubai and it's very common for taxis to make the trek between the two cities.   We go a taxi at the St. Regis and the fare was only about $50 US to take us all the way to Dubai.  It was an easy drive as it's pretty much a straight shot up one main highway through the desert.  I got a bit nervous for a few minutes when the driver pulled over at a rest stop seemingly in the middle of nowhere and got out the car without saying a word to us.  I was going over worst case scenarios in my mind, but he returned a few minutes later and we continued on to our destination. 

We checked in at the Sheraton and were upgraded to a huge suite - as usual the girls had a great time checking it all out.  It wasn't quite as luxurious as the Park Hyatt or the St. Regis we just came from, but it was still plenty nice for what we needed.  Unfortunately Joe had to fly back to Tokyo that evening for some important meetings that had just come up so the girls and I were on our own for about 36 hours.  Luckily, the Sheraton was conveniently connected to the Mall of the Emirates so we didn't even need to set foot outside for entertainment, shopping and food. This gave both Joe and me some peace of mind about me staying behind with the girls. 

Living room of our suite at the Sheraton

Bedroom

Having breakfast in the lounge

After we got settled in and said goodbye to Joe, we headed out to explore the Mall of the Emirates.  The mall itself is absolutely huge but pretty average otherwise.  It was very crowded and a bit confusing the navigate.  We set out for Pinkberry and after lots of wrong turns we finally found it and shared a delicious froyo whilst reminiscing about Los Angeles.  Afterward we popped into a nail salon for manicures. 

Just a little mid morning snack!

Getting our nails done at the salon.

By far, the girls' favorite part of this section of the vacation was a semi rundown play place/arcade called Magic Planet. I think I loaded about $15 onto a Magic Planet card so they could play a few games and do some ridiculous toddler rides.  The credits were spent very quickly and we won enough tickets to trade them in for a few plastic key chains. What a deal!!  I let Annie pick the restaurant for a late lunch/early dinner and she easily decided on P.F. Chang's.

Having a great time at Magic Planet!

Thrill ride.

They thought they were actually playing. :)

Showing off their spoils.

I can't say no the Chang.

The next morning we stopped by the lounge to check out the breakfast offering but opted for donuts at Krispy Kreme instead. We only had a few hours to kill before we transferred to the Park Hyatt Dubai so we headed back into the mall to explore some more.  I wasn't quite confident enough to venture outside of our hotel and the Mall of the Emirates with the girls by myself, but in hindsight it would have been totally fine and probably a bit more enjoyable for all of us to get out and see a different part of Dubai, even if it had just been another shopping mall.  We ended up back at Magic Planet (sad face) but the girls were honestly having the times of their lives there.   I refused to waste anymore money at Magic Planet after our 15 minutes of fun yesterday, but the girls decided to go on a hunt for left behind tickets and sure enough they ended up finding a ton of them! It became a fun game for them, racing from one machine to another sticking their arms in the little doors and every few times emerging victorious with forgotten tickets.  We traded our tickets in for some more treasures (some plastic butterfly hair clips for Lizzy and another key chain for Annie) and took the escalator back down into the mall for lunch.  I picked the restaurant this time and we had our 2nd delicious Shake Shack meal of the trip. 

Donuts to start the day off!

Lizzy found an entire roll of unclaimed tickets!

Very serious while modeling her new hair clips.

After lunch and a little more shopping and wandering around (not very fun with two kids and one stroller in a VERY crowded mall) we went back to the Sheraton to check out and get a taxi to the Park Hyatt where Joe would meet early the next morning.  I was a little nervous doing all this by myself since Joe always takes the lead on these kinds of things, but it went very smoothly except for the fact that I left part of my Macbook Air charger plugged into the wall. The manager even gave the girls free ice cream while we waited in the lobby.  The bellman helped us load our luggage into a taxi in front of the hotel and we were on our way!

Enjoying some complimentary ice cream.