Most of our only full day in Dubai was spent quietly, attempting to recover from the 22 hour long haul and transfer from NZ followed by the long arrival day in Dubai. The hotel served an and excellent and cosmopolitan breakfast - I booked the breakfast included rate on all our hotel bookings. We then hung around the hotel - the girls swimming - until 3pm, then took the hotel shuttle bus to Dubai Mall.
Our Arabian Adventures Dune Safari driver had recommended a visit to the Mall around this time to take in the fountain and light display at 7 pm . That would mean missing the return shuttle, but it was well worth it. Sue, the Brit teacher we shared our Dune Safari with, suggested a visit to the souk adjacent to the Mall. The Dubai Mall is really a day visit to be able to take in all it offers in the way of shopping and entertainment; however with two tween girls our focus was on entertainment and we did no window shopping, except Dad did get a short visit to the Bose shop while Susan and the girls checked out a Converse store.
In our four hour visit to the Dubai Mall we had a quick look through the restaurants and exotic shops of the souk, then went looking for the aquarium and zoo. We spent an hour at the aquarium then had dinner in the food hall where we had the best tasting burgers at Burger Fuel, a Kiwi owned chain. Burger Fuel had tables that looked out over the ice rink.
We then made our way back to the lake to wait for the fountain display. The Mall of Dubai, lake, and souk are at the base of Burj Khalifa, which opened in 2007 as the tallest building in the world. We were not quick enough to buy online tickets to the top, which are quarter of the cost of on-the-day prices, so missed the experience on this occasion - though Susan was not upset.
The view of the cityscape and lights on our taxi ride back to the hotel was spectacular; then to pack and an early night for our 7.30 taxi to the airport. We decided to cancel our pre-booked Arabian Adventures minibus transfer because pick-up was an hour earlier and the taxis are so cheap; 96 dirhams (NZ$32) for 25 min trip to the airport.
PS I haven't managed to upload video of fountain display and city lights - will keep trying.