House of Dancing Water

When I went on my Macau trip a couple of weeks ago with my in-laws, we were excited to check out The House of Dancing Water, which is the centrepiece of the City of Dreams, and their answer to the lavish Cirque du Soleil production of Zaia which The Venetian brought to Macau. I saw Zaia last year, and I have to say I wasn’t hugely wowed. I should confess though that I’m not the world’s biggest fan of Cirque du Soleil shows in general – there’s a little too much “Wa wa wa” music and not enough story to hold my interest, so I’m usually impatiently fidgeting in my seat after half an hour. Thankfully, The House of Dancing Water seems to have been designed for people just like me, as any time you’re even in the slightest danger of getting bored there’s an amazing dance piece, a crazy acrobatic performance, a contortionist or even, MOTORBIKES! The story isn’t really the point of the show, so you’ll need to just sit back and let the whole thing wash over you… Needless to say, of course it’s a love story, with a handsome hero, a beautiful captured princess, a random Chinese hero who they seem to have brought in just for the sake of it, and a whole enormous troop of evil baddies.

The spectacle is just amazing (and should be considering the set reportedly cost 250 million USD to build), with props and performers disappearing in and out of the water, huge high dives and a stage which somehow comes up out of the depths to become perfectly dry in a matter of seconds.

It’s the perfect pre-dinner show – you’ll be massively entertained and left with a lot of “how the heck did they do that?!” thoughts, but you won’t exactly be deeply emotionally moved.

In terms of seats, they sell various categories from VIP all the way down to those right in the front where you have a very high risk of getting a soaking and where the performers will interact with you a bit. Fun if you’re with kids, but otherwise I’d recommend getting the second most-expensive class of ticket which means you’ll be at the back and more able to appreciate the scale of the show and the high acrobatics. You can kill two birds with one stone and book a fab getaway at The Grand Hyatt Macau at the same time. It’s all booked up for CNY though unfortunately, so make sure to reserve well in advance of when you want to go!