With the Easter holidays in full swing it is only a matter of time before the kids start with the I’m bored chants, so when we were invited down to Kidzania along with a party of friends to see what is on offer it was not only the children who were overjoyed.
Kidzania incase you’ve not yet heard of it is a huge kids play area with a difference, the children enter via passport control using their boarding passes (printed tickets) and pass through the airport into the city – the city is for children only, grown-ups pretty much become redundant for the 4 hours of your play time slot and the children take over.
Everyone is given a wrist band to wear, this band is electronic (a nice way of tagging your children), and contains your party details on it, the child’s age and your time slot information. This band is scanned whenever the children enter a new activity and when they leave.
On entry the children are given £50 in Kidzania money which they can choose what to do with themselves, they can spend it in the boutiques, use it to pay for face painting or a tattoo in the tattoo parlour. They can then build up their money by getting a job! When they have £75 they can go and open a bank account, deposit their money and get their own credit card, money can then be withdrawn in the cash machines just as us adults would do.
That’s right this playarea teaches the children the value of money by putting them to work in various different fields. Within the city, which is contained over two large floors of this huge building there are various shops, banks, theatres, supermarkets, hairdressers etc which the children go into in small groups to learn the job roles.
 |
| Pit lane experience, A&E, Special care baby unit |
Queueing within Kidzania is for children only, no parents allowed in the queues – this reduces the time greatly although we found nothing required more than 8-10 minutes standing around as there was so much to do once inside if one thing was busy you could come back later. Also on the doors of each room were signs which tell you how long each activity lasts once the children are inside – most of them around 20 minutes. It also tells you how much the children can earn – they are paid a salary for working within that establishment. Some activities are training activities which the children need to pay to partake in such as pilot training and fire fighter training.
Kidzania is for children aged 4-14 years of age, there are a few activities which under 3’s can partake in but only around 6 in total and I personally wouldn’t bother taking a child under the age of 4 as they may want to join in with the other activities but won’t be allowed (I know Harry isn’t quite 4 yet, you regular readers know that, but he is very tall and outgoing so very easily passed for 4 – shhhhh).
There is so much for the children to do here that deciding where to start can be tricky, I took 7 children with me and there were 4 adults including myself.
 |
| Radio station, A&E, Couriers, Climbing Wall, Super Market, Police Patrol |
One thing I found if going with a party of friends is that some of the activity rooms cater for a lower number of people than others, some can only take 6 children at a time while others 8, this meant that the children couldn’t partake in an activity all together at times and therefore split the party up from the start. Obviously not a problem as there were lots of other activities but it did mean that we didn’t actually manage to regroup and all get into the same activities at the same time as some of the party were still inside an activity when other party members had finished. Also because of the age differences of our party the older children didn’t want to do the same as the younger ones.
I took children of ages: 13, 9, 7, two 6 year olds, 5 and 4.
What I loved about this day out was the wide range of activities/job roles the children could try out – there are too many to list but a few are:
- Pit Lane experience
- Acting academy
- Dentist
- Hospital and A&E
- Radio station
- Beauty salon
- Hotel
- Police station
- Forensics lab
- Fire station Jewellery shop
- Aviation academy
- TV studio
- Science lab
- Dance club
There are so many more things for the children to do, so much so that we didn’t manage to cover half of it and are now desperate to go back for another play.
The staff are really good at putting the children at ease, Emmy being shy wouldn’t usually go somewhere on her own however from the off this grabbed her and she was keen to try new things out – she went straight into the hospital with her 2 cousins and put on her green coat, sat listening to the lad explain to they what they were doing, watched a brief first aid video before hopping into the awaiting ambulance with her team to go to the aid of their awaiting patient.
Harry happily went to work in the radio station, donning his head phones and doing the chart updates when it was his turn – obviously he had help but he was able to join in with the other children and he loved it.
Working in the supermarket was also great fun, the shoppers were given shopping lists and had to find those items before heading to the tills, and Emmy and Harry both had a great time working in the beauty salon – although I did get a little peeved that as a boy Harry was asked if he was sure he wanted to join in and then when all the others were given their purple hairdressers aprons he was given a black bib that you wear when having a haircut – he wasn’t happy as wanted the same as the others, it was at this point I opened the door and asked if he could wear the same.
Parents do not go into the activity rooms with the children, they watch from outside, all the shops are glass fronted or open so it is easy to see what is going on and also for your child to see you watching. There are seats outside most of the areas for the parents as well as lots of establishments to but food and drink.
We had an amazing time and our 4 hours flew by before we were ready to leave. The children were on the go constantly from the moment we arrived, stopping only for half an hour for lunch. There are quite a few places to eat inside and I found the prices to be very good – usually when contained in one place I find the food prices can be inflated but this wasn’t the case here.
It may seem expensive for a day out, I initially thought it was however for what is involved and the experience the children get it is certainly well worth it and it is around the same you would pay to head to a theme park for a family day out with a lot less queuing meaning the children can actually get onto and into more than they would in a theme park.
I also urge you to let your children be cabin crew on the aeroplane if you do go as once they have had their inflight training parents can head onto the plane and are then given the flight safety instructions by their child and then served an inflight meal – it is just the cutest thing I have ever seen!
 |
| The cutest cabin crew I have ever seen |
Prices start from £29.50 for children (term-time) – Weekend and school holiday prices are:
- Children 4-14 years £32.50
- Adults (15+) £16.50
- Early years 1-3 years £10
- Infants under 1 year FREE
For further information please visit: www.kidzania.com
Disclaimer: We were provided with complimentary tickets for our party in exchange for a full and honest review.
If you enjoy reading my posts then I would be honoured if you would consider nominating me into the following awards – Just click on the badges below. Thank you
Ahh this is fabulous Clare, sounds amazing! It's nice they get to be independent but you can see them, I like that. It's funny I heard about this as a concept a couple of years back so it's nice to see it for real if you know what I mean x
oohhh that is different in a very good way!! Very unique and something my kids would love to try
I really want to visit even more so after reading your review 🙂 It's such a unique sounding experience! x
OMG this place sounds incredible! I want to go never mind my son haha I have never heard of anything like this before, such a great idea. I hope it expands around the country
What an interesting place! Looks great for role playing! We'd love to visit Kidzania now!
I've not heard of this before, it looks like lots of fun for the children 🙂
I really love the concept of this place and I think my youngest would have a ball there with his mates!
Sounds like you all had a great time. Emily looks so cute in the baby unit.
It looks amazing! I love the fact that the kids can get jobs and earn more Kidzania money, what a brilliant idea.
Mine adored it at Kidzania and we are hoping to go back soon
That looks like such a great place to go as a child. 🙂
Mookieslife
It sounds like you had a great time! We went last year and Little Man was only two and a half so we had the issue with different ages… Would definitely go again when they're both older x
I can image that was hard Donna, that's why I put H down as 4
This looks ace! I've never heard of kidzania before x
It's so much fun
I love the idea of Kidzania – I wish we lived nearer!
Hopefully you'll get to experience it one day – there are more opening I believe
This always sounds really fun for kids and I'm sure we'll go with my daughter when she's older. For now, aged three and a bit nervous sometimes if I'm not there, I don't think she'd get the most from it yet. The plane sounds fantastic!
No definitely wait until she is older, there isn't too much to do for 3 year olds, while only £10 for her she won't actually have much she can do sadly
This sounds like a lot of fun and an amazing experience x
I absolutely love the sound of this, I think even an adult would enjoy the experience! Just a pity it isn't a tad cheaper.
I think there will be offers around but can see the price putting some off, especially though with bigger families like yourself
I actually don't think the pricing is too bad, it sounds like a good value entertainment package. However I've asked them for consideration of children with Special Needs, who would struggle with big groups and queuing etc, and they've not come back to me yet 🙁 my girl wouldn't be able to cope with any of this, and yet teaching her about jobs and money etc would be so worthwhile.
The were very little queues inside at all, some of the activities had none and you could walk straight in but I did find it to be quieter in the morning when we arrive, after lunch it was rather busy as it did get crowded. I hope you get a reply soon as I agree it would be a great experience for her
oh wow this actually sounds fantastic would love to give my little ones a trip here
They would love it Lisa
It all looks totally amazing and I bet the kids loved it. Two of mine would love it too, but I don't understand why parents have to pay so much for entry if there is nothing for them to do but watch. It seems a little unfair.
I've been having the same conversation with Paul, I would actually visit more often if it were cheaper for parents
Sounds like fun. I am sure even my boys who are a little older would even love this.
I saw quite a few older boys having a whale of a time, my niece who is 13 loved it