Twix

We went there Friday morning and getting in and parking was no problem, but it was a nightmare leaving the place. It took us 25 minutes just getting out of the car park . It wasn't fun being stuck in the car with a screaming newborn and a toddler requesting the same song over and over again . Don't think we'll be going there again until they separate the exit route from the entrance one.

typical

Where did you get held up? When we came out it was queued massively to get in, but we got straight out...

I really like the way they take you halfway up the car park when you enter, and then you work your way back down to park and then to exit...

deemi786

Me too, for some reason everyone was queuing up to get to car park 2, took me 2 secs to et into car park 1 and 2 secs to get out after being ushered by sleeping stewards with star wars wands in their hands...

Place was awful, hardly any shops open and the aquarium was shockingly busy, those poor fish. The best part of the day was watching my 4 year old evade the security guard after he decided to run all over this electric ddisplay catwalk they have there!

Brilliant....

Tell you what though Ibn Buttuta has never been quieter.. ill be shopping there from now on, closer to my place in JLT and is a little less wembley market for me.

W10

Yes - old Dubai is still lovely. Thankfully I think (no evidence just a hunch) that the ridiculous and ghastly Satwa destruction project will get put on hold.

Dubai Mall...I went on the day it opened. Soulless, ugly, badly designed, generally appalling. The aquarium is impressive but I don't agree with it ethically (are they charging money to walk through it?).

Bloomingdales will be just like Harvey Nicks (ie - nothing like the original stores). Waitrose is mostly fantastic in the UK because of its fresh and organic food, so I doubt I'll be paying that too much attention.

Spugsy

and waitrose does good, cheap fizz as well, can;t see that happening here.

Hello.Kitty

we went too and what's with the car park?! Endless ramp up to a nice bottleneck at the top with all the locals wanting to stake out that "nearest space" - 10 mins of queueing to get to the ramp to the next floor down and it was almost empty - talk about well designed!

The mall itself was completely non-descript. It didn't even look new for some reason. Also, little odd and ends like the cleaners not having polished offthe builder's handprints from screens and the like just made it look poorly maintained. I've a sneaking suspicion people will get bored of it before all the shops are even open!

The aquarium...hmmm... overpopulated springs to mind. Just made me think how this place considers life as disposable - doesn't matter if half of them die - just get more!

Loved Waitrose though... pity they don't do the Nature Baby range of eco-nappies like they do in GB. I may have to write to them.

Bambi in Abu Dhabi

I absolutely cannot wait for them to open a Waitrose in Abu Dhabi, I imagine the prices will be pretty steep, but they've got to offer a better product range than Spinneys, surely?

Hello.Kitty

yeah, and nice things like the Waitrose own brand of fresh pressed juices *with no added sugar* (ofc!) and real cheddar cheese along with a really great deli section. They also have Lincolnshire, Toulouse and other pork sausages.
Didn't spend too much time in there cos of a hungry toddler, but my general impression was that they don't have the organic selection they do in GB, but still a decent, if slimmed down range of their stuff. Real shame about those nappies tho... they're great!

typical

Bear in mind Waitrose here IS Spinneys.

Bambi in Abu Dhabi

Well, it's not really, is it? They might carry a few Waitrose own-brand products, but not many.

typical

Which, Waitrose or Spinneys?

Roadking

My office looks out over satwa towards the sea. There arae a lot of partially demolished buildings out there. And also a HUGE BIG whole in the ground.

Investoman_uae

I just got back from Dubai Mall. There was no parking problem or traffic inside the car park... I think you guys went when it first opened or the first few days.... I found a parkin space quite easily.

BUT....

Which smart son of a gun decided that a 1.5m x 1.5 meter lift (2 of them workin one is not) is enough for "The World's Biggest Mall". Are you friggin kiddin me? We queued for 10mins tryin to get into the lift. Then, when you get in, some idiot keeps pressin the button outside so the door re-opens.

Why cant we have huge lifts?

I think they rushed it abit....imho.

Inv.

Ethos83

Saw the Dubai mall for the first time today. These are my impressions:

1) not as big as I'd expected, given the amount of media devoted to its size. However, it's still big enough to be a pain to walk from one end to the other.

2) parking is puzzling, as others have mentioned. Drive all the way to the top, endure a bottleneck, then down one level to find it nearly empty. But it wasn't too bad for me, in smoothly, out smoothly.

3) the aquarium is impressive. Some of the fishes didn't look real and I had to look closely to make sure they weren't some type of engineered robots.

4) some of the architecture was nice, in a pleasantly generic contemporary style, but it lacked the hustle and bustle of Festival City and MoE. The Gold Souk was a pain to walk through as it rambles on forever without the charms of an actual traditional Arabic or Turkish souk, and the less said about Arabic style jewelry, the better.

5) when all the stores are open, the mall will indeed have an impressive array of high end British/French/American stores. However I noticed that while the food court was packed, the aquarium packed, and plenty of people ambled up the corridors, the stores were surprisingly empty and very few people appeared to be shopping. A sign of the times?

6) Bloomingdale is hardly special. It's a moderately upscale American department store but don't wet your panties on this place once it does open.

7) Waitrose is indeed open in the basement, and my first impression was: wait, isn't this Spinneys? Other than a larger selection of good British and French cheese, some prepared foods, Waitrose looked absolutely identical to my local Spinneys on Al Wasl Road. The pork room was identical, carrying the exact same range of sausages. Even the baked goods looked strangely identical to the baked goods I saw in Spinneys this morning. What this Waitrose does not appear to have, besides the booze, is the large array of prepared frozen dinners and desserts. Some, but not the range one finds back in the UK.

Conclusion: the mall is worth going to if you have a certain store in mind. As in soap from Jo Malone for the wife (once it opens). But otherwise I'm not in any hurry to return to the place.

Investoman_uae

I agree it is a nice mall, and I wouldnt mind revistin now and then. I think once all shops open and the works are fully complete... it will be a nice place to hang around in.

I liked the Ice Rink....and the Aquarium. But people were around the Aquarium like crazy. 50 dirhams to go into the Aquarium Tunnel.. thats abit harsh.

People are not shoppin because prices are high... bring the prices down dam it. 44 dirhams for a couple of cappucinoes me and my bro had with a chocolate bun and a croissant.

A small piece of chocolate cake was 20 dirhams. WTF???

Also, we need scooters in there... cos I had to walk alot from one end to the other...and this is making me fitter... I hate that! We need some sort of transport system in there. Some go-karts would be nice.

Inv.