I was one of the lucky few who received a complimentary ticket for one of the Adult lates at Kidzania.(Normally costs around 30pounds a person)
My name was on the list, so I gained entry at the mezzanine floor quite quickly. But by the time I reached the top of the escalators, there was a humongous crowd at the checkin counter and it was not until I reached almost the front of the line, that I saw a sign saying that this line was only if you wanted to deposit your bags and coats (1pound fee per item) - waste of time / unclear signage
A glass of bubbly was next and that was a good thing to calm my
irritation down. There were enough staff on the inside to keep clearing
the empties.
As I passed through a metal detector, I
was handed a map and 40 kidzos (currency) The map did not have too much
info on it and there was no explanation as such as to how things would
operate. It wasn't until after 2 hours or so, when I realised that I
could also earn kidzos, not just spend them.
There were lots of fun activities to do and once I met my friends
inside, it was even more fun. Every individual shop/activity had a
queue, so like Disneyland a lot of time is spent just waiting in line.
I tried the
Face painting - costs 15 kidzos - awesome!
Tattoo - costs 15 kidzos - its just a sticker - not worth the cost, unless you have money to burn in the end.
Police Station - earn 8 kidzos - fun
Reporters - earn 8 kidzos - good fun - you even get a printed news sheet with your story (and name if you like) on it.
Recycling paper - earn 8 kidzos - very good
Cadbury's
chocolate - costs 12 / 15 kidzos - you just get to fill the tempered
chocolate in a mold - not worth the queuing time for me - you get a
voucher for 2 tiny bits of chocolate to be collected at exit.
Tour bus - costs 1 kidzo for a ride - earn 8 kidzos if you become the official tour guide and do a good job.
Magic show - free to watch in a lovely theatre - you get to perform if you head to the auditions next door.
The airplane / hospital / dentist / radio show / al jazeera tv show /
Kwality Ice cream / firemen booths were all terribly overcrowded. so
they seemed like the most fun.
4-5 hours aren't enough to explore even half the place.
I don't see how kids would be able to manage on their own on the
inside. They do need an adult with them I would think, unless they are
teenagers or maybe tweens. There are a few eating options inside - GBK,
The Diner, a juice and coffee bar etc, but they all need genuine cash.
I
did eat a burger at GBK, as I wasn't sure if I would get anything at
Shake Shack or the main GBK after 10:30pm. But if I had the time, I
would have eaten outside in one of the mall eateries.
If you have more than 70 kidzos left at the end, you can open a bank account with kidzania bank (or so I was told), but I just had 30 left and I was told to take it back and use it on another visit or give it to a child who was visiting.
Its fun to visit if you want to feel like a kid again. But I wish there was at least a 5-10 minute video at entry to outline the concept of how the place works. They have instruction videos playing at a lot of the shops - the police station, the fire station and others. Should not be too hard to include a video at the start
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