Ferrari World, the world’s largest indoor theme park and the first with a Ferrari theme, opened on Thursday in the Gulf emirate of Abu Dhabi.

The theme park, located near the emirate’s Yas Marina racing circuit, is spread over 86,000 square metres (925,696 square feet).

Its massive red roof covers 200,000 square metres (2.15 million square feet), and features the world’s largest Ferrari prancing horse shield.

Ferrari fans around the world have been forced to wait a little longer for the official arrival of Ferrari World in Abu Dhabi.

The park announced via its Facebook page that the soft opening date set for this week had been postponed out of respect to Sheikh Saqr bin Mohammed Al Qasimi, the ruler of Abu Dhabi‘s neighboring emirate Ras Al Khaimah.

Although the official page of the nearby Yas Marina Circuit has said that the park’s opening will now take place on Thursday, November 4, Ferrari World’s call center confirmed that the final opening date was still under discussion.

Abu Dhabi is set to challenge Dubai for dominance of the region’s fast-growing cruise market, announcing October 25 that MSC will become the first cruise line to call the emirate home.

MSC Lirica, a 59,000-ton, 2,199-guest liner, will be the first ship ever to use Abu Dhabi as a home port, beginning October 2011.

It will sail 19 seven-night cruises from Abu Dhabi’s Mina Zayed Port, traveling round the Arabian Gulf peninsula to Muscat, before turning round en route for the UAE’s eastern emirate of Fujairah on the Indian Ocean.

Rolls-Royce Motor Cars has announced that new Bespoke Phantoms have arrived in Abu Dhabi.

The cars are based on two different motifs which are inspired by the city’s rich culture and natural landscape.

The two Bespoke Phantoms in question are inspired by Shaheen (a very famous falcon) and by Baynounah (one of the historical places in Abu Dhabi City).

Abu Dhabi’s top hotel, the Emirates Palace, recently debuted a vending machine that dispenses gold bars.

The machine, named Gold To Go, allows customers to trade cash for gold in quantities ranging from coins up to 10-gram bars.

Customers using the shiny machine — itself gold-plated — can choose from 320 items, including gold customized with logos.

The price of gold, which was up to $1,245 an ounce yesterday, is measured by the machine every ten minutes.

As you probably know the Italian supercar maker has entered the entertainment business by building the Ferrari World Theme Park in Abu Dhabi.

Among the twenty or so rides and attractions featured at the park will be the GT roller coaster and this here is the first photograph of the car.

Each coaster vehicle in this particular ride is a replica of a Ferrari F430 Spider that can seat up to four people.