Mall of the Emirates

Have I mentioned the malls here in Dubai? Oh my, they are amazing! We could visit a new local mall here every day and be occupied for weeks (months?)! While home on winter break, we really enjoyed visiting some of the malls and exploring what they offer.

One of our favorite new malls is Mall of the Emirates, which is one of the bigger ones in the city next to Dubai Mall. We visited this mall the day after Christmas, which was good in some ways and not in others. As it turns out, there is an event called Dubai Shopping Festival (DSF) across the city where most stores offer their biggest sales of the year from the end of December until the end of January. The big DSF sales kicked off on Dec. 26, so we were right in the thick of the event with all of the other bargain hunters in the city when we visited Mall of the Emirates. The mall was still beautifully decorated for the holidays, too.

One of the cool places at Mall of the Emirates that we wanted to make sure to see in person was Ski Dubai. Have you heard of this? It's the indoor ski facility with snow, ski lifts, penguins, and more! It looks and sounds amazing. We just walked through the area and it was PACKED. One of these days, we definitely plan to visit.

Walking through the Mall of the Emirates was just as interesting as the other local malls. This mall was quite large and we hit a new step goal with all of the walking! It's always exciting to see what stores we recognize from America as well as other new stores available here but not back home. Probably the most exciting discovery of the day was for Kaitlynn. I'm not sure how I didn't know this already, but look what store we found!

Kaitlynn squealed with delight upon seeing that one of her favorites, American Girl, was here. We had no idea! 

Another fun discovery which has now sparked a new obsession for Connor was Krispy Kreme. We purchased a couple of glazed donuts for our lunch dessert, and we couldn't believe how delicious they were. I didn't take a picture because the donuts were devoured in mere seconds. Ha! There are Krispy Kreme shops all over Dubai, including one pretty close to our villa, so I have a feeling that we'll be enjoying those from now on.

We really enjoyed exploring the Mall of the Emirates and I'm sure we'll be visiting again. The only drawback to our visit was the crazy traffic in and out of the mall. I'm sure it was worse that usual due to the big sales kicking off that day.

One random note. Most of the store advertisements I've seen during the citywide DSF sales event use the phrase "Part Sale," which I found interesting and had never seen before in the States. I guess it means that only "part" of the store's wares on sale? Made me laugh!