The Emirates Aviation Experience and the Emirates Air Line are located at the North Greenwich tube station and are not far from the O2. If you happen to be in London, wondering what to do, it is worth checking out! This is the first of its kind globally featuring the world’s first public flight simulators and the changing view of the city over the Thames. You will see some of the capital’s most iconic buildings and attractions!
This half term, we were invited to a fun-filled day of story writing and drawing with award winning children’s author and illustrator duo, Sarah McIntyre and Philip Reeve. You can read about some of their top tips for writing and drawing. Then in the afternoon, we were invited to experience the Emirates Aviation and take a ride on their Air Line cable across the Thames! It was very easy to get there by the tube. Once we arrived at North Greenwich tube station, the location of the Emirate building was very clearly labelled. Or you can ask the Emirates’ information counter for more details which is located on the ground floor.
It took us about 10 minutes to walk to the location, which is very easy to find! We first went on the Emirates Air Line and had the whole cable car by ourselves. Both my children were buzzing! This was their first time sitting in a cable car and they loved it so much and wanted to go again!
It was a warm clear afternoon when we took a return journey from Emirates Greenwich Peninsula across to Emirates Royal Docks. The ride was smooth and comfortable. We managed to get some nice photos and it’s such an excellent way to get a 360 degree view! I am not very good at identifying buildings, but luckily, there was an in-flight guide to help us locate and identify them.
The Emirates Air Line is open every day but please check the time before you go. The single fares for child is £2.30 and adult £4.50. If you have an Oyster card (pay as you go, Travelcard, Freedom Pass etc) a single child fare is £1.70 and adult fare is £3.40. It is very affordable and a great experience. You might experience queues during peak hours. But there are 34 cabins that carry up to 10 people each and moves between 2.2m and 4 m per second!
Once we alighted the cable car, we made our way to the Emirates Aviation Experience which is just next to it. It gives visitors a glimpse behind the scenes of a busy Dubai airport with interactive aviation displays, flight simulators and life-size aircraft models. The entrance ticket is £5.00 for adults and £3 for children under the age of 12.
As we entered, there was the real Rolls-Royce Trent 900 engine which has been dissected to show you the mechanics and parts that make up this powerful engine. The touch screen interactive display will show you all the information and details of the engine.
Then both children went to try out the interactive touch screens to play games and find out information about the airplane. The ‘Be the Baggage’ film was very interesting and takes you on an incredible journey through Dubai’s cutting-edge baggage handling system. There are also plenty of replica A380 economy seats where you find out what happens ‘behind-the-scenes’ on the aircraft during a long-haul flight.
Later, we made our way upstairs where we continued our journey to the Simulator Experience at 4pm. This Simulator Experience starts from £60.00 for up to 4 people for a 30 minute slot, when booked in advance online. The minimum age for this experience is 9 year old. Children between the ages 9-12 must be accompanied by an adult.
This was booked for myself and Mr K to experience, but Ms C also wanted to take charge of the plane and sit in a real cockpit. The instructor was very patient and kind to us. She even made sure that Ms C’s seat was raised with cushions in order to see the view.
They both took turns to be the pilot and co-pilot to fly their airplane. They were able to select to depart from one of six locations and to choose the type of weather conditions and day. To be on the safe side, both children went for a clear and bright sunny day to test their flying skills in the A380 Airbus flight simulator.
The whole experience was so interesting! You get to control the speed, taking up and down of the landing gear, reading the instruments and checking out all the views. During this 30 minute session, we had countless crash landings and missed the whole runway but it was super fun. Both of my children loved the whole experience and had so much of fun flying. I would definitely recommend this experience! For more information visit: http://www.aviation-experience.com/
Watch our Emirates Aviation Experience here:
Disclosure: We were invited to these experiences for the purposes of writing this review, however all thoughts and opinions remain our own.