My AWESOME Surprise Birthday in Dubai (Part 1)

For this special (three-part) blog post, I’m gonna take you back to about a week ago..

The Beginning

So I’m sitting on my mum’s bed, waiting for my sister to tell us what our surprise is for our birthdays (my 25th and my mum’s 60th), thinking she’s going to take us for a meal or a cheeky spa day somewhere and she gives us a ‘holiday packing list’?!? If anyone knows me, you’ll know I’m not keen on surprises so to find out that we wouldn’t know where we were going until the next morning almost killed me!

So the next day, she comes to the house and says the cab is here. We grabbed our cases and made our way outside, only to find a super sexy Range Rover waiting for us (oh, and the driver too)! Little did I know, this was only the start of the surprises to come over the next four days! The car was awesome! Plush cream leather interior, spotless, drink holders and (bought by my sister) a couple of bottles of fizz. Probably the best start to any trip to be honest!

So we get to the airport and my sister brings me and my mum to one side and starts recording us. Anyone who has seen the recording could probably tell by my face that the anticipation was just getting too much at this point and I was itching to know where we were going. Imagine my surprise when she says ‘we’re going to .......... DUBAI!!!’ My face dropped, wide mouthed, wide eyed, SHOCK. All three of us started jumping excitedly up and down and screaming (yes, in the middle of Heathrow Airport), I’m sure people were wondering WTF we were screaming about lol but we couldn’t contain the excitement. I had never been to Dubai before and had heard great things about it.

Before we had a chance to gain some self control, she had us running to ‘the next surprise’. “More surprises??” I asked, “This is just the beginning babes!” She replied. I could never have guessed what else was coming, inside of the airport, before the flight.. but we found ourselves in the Emirates Lounge! I have always wanted to step foot in an airport lounge, especially Emirates as they have such a great reputation for friendliness, class and helpfulness, and friendly they were! We were quickly shown to the main lounge where we indulges in a buffet-style all-you-can-eat lunch, accompanied by a glass of champagne each. As I looked around, people were charging their phones or laptops, taking naps on the plush sofas and even getting massages in the spa! Such a beautiful lounge, perfect for what lay ahead of us.

Birthday Cake from the Emirates Flight Crew

Ticket & Passport Ready!

Touch Down in Dubai Airport

Treats from the Emirates Flight Crew

Hello Dubai!

So after we landed, there was a lovely gentleman all suited and booted holding a sign which said ‘James’ - us, duh! My sister and him whispered about our next arrangements and my mother and I waiting impatiently to one side. We hen made our way to a kiosk where we were given a bottle of champers each before our guide flagged down one of those little airport buggies - you know, the little car things you see in the airports carrying a family and all their luggage. We wizzed past people until we got to baggage claim where another gentleman was waiting to help us with our bags. I could SO get used to this!

Eventually we found our transport and made our way to the hotel. Mövenpick Hotel in Jumeirah! And such a lovely hotel it was! You can read my review of the hotel HERE.

As we had arrived so early in the morning, we worried that we would have to wait for a long period of time before being able to check in. But trusty Louise (my sister) ensures that the hotel knew our flight times and were able to check us in early. ‘Great’ I thought, ‘At least I can have a quick nap’ but ohhhh was I mistaken. We didn’t sleep, we were straight back out again after freshening up. Actually, we didn’t sleep for about 48 hours. By the end of the trip I was WRECKED. But I don’t regret a thing.

So anyway, we made our way down to breakfast at The Talk on the 2nd floor. God it was delicious. Such a great selection of food and drink. Veggie, non-veggie, hot food, cold food, fruits, hot drinks, cold drinks. I think I got a little too food happy and ended up taking more food than I could actually eat (shocker).

Hotel Room

Hotel Room

Breakfast at it's Finest

Let The Fun Begin

After breakfast, there was definitely no time for a nap as we then got back into the lift for another surprise. What could she possibly surprise us with INSIDE of the hotel?? I quickly started trying to thing of all the amenities and activities the hotel could have to offer. Before I knew it, the lift pinged and we were standing in front of a lovely reception desk with the words ‘Body Talk Spa & Fitness Centre’ on the wall behind the receptionist. YESSS a massage! Just what I needed! The lady at the reception desk kindly greeted us and asked us about our stay so far before asking us if we were ready for our treatments. “Erm, which treatment would that be Lou” I said grinning. We got changed and made our way back to reception to fill in our client forms before being told that we were have a signature bamboo massage. My gosh it was great. So great in fact, that my mum and I both fell asleep... on the massage tables!! So friggin awkward. I woke up to the nice masseuse saying “All finished now miss James, you can wake up”. What made it more embarrassing was that I’m pretty sure we were snoring !! 😭

After the massage, we had a little tea, followed by lunch and my sister telling us we needed to get changed quickly for the next surprise. ANOTHER one?? I started to wonder how much these surprises must have costed her! Never-the-less, she hadn’t let us down with the surprises so far so I was down for the next one! We flagged down a taxi and she made us move a few steps backwards so we couldn’t hear her telling the taxi driver where to go.

After about 15 minutes of driving, we pulled into what appeared to be some kind of theme park. ‘It can’t be a theme park, cos Mum doesn’t like fast rides’ I thought. But we went with the flow. Slightly nervous but mostly excited. It turns out, she took us to Dubai Park Resorts! For anyone who doesn’t know, Dubai Park Resorts is a huge Resort with three theme parks and a waterpark. There’s also loads of restaurants and places to grab a snack or drink, shows, events, etc. The part we stayed in for the afternoon was called Motiongate which included rides, shops and themes from Cloud With A Chance of Meetballs, Shrek, How To Train Your Dragon, Ghost Busers and more! Such a great day out, we went on rollercoasters, water rides, ghost trains, the list goes on!

Shrek's Swamp!

Shrek's Swamp!

Motiongate - Lou & Mum

Lou & Shrek

Girlies

Spa Time..

When we got back, the fun continued as we got ready and headed down for dinner at Soul restaurant on the 2nd floor of our hotel where we were treated to dinner, drinks and more birthday cake! The staff even sang us happy birthday - which seemed to happen daily during our trip, yet the look of happiness and embarrassment on my face never got old!

After dinner, it was finally lights out. We needed a good night’s sleep for the surprises which lay ahead of us for day 2...

To be continued...