Firstly, thank you to MN and Kidzania for a really lovely day.
Its really difficult to describe what Kidzania is, its kind of an indoor theme park where the jobs are the 'rides' you go in. Its built like a mini town and the mini shops of the town are places where you can carry out a job.
There are too many jobs to list, but theres a huge range. Once you've earnt your money you can either save it or spend it in the shop or on an experience like a GBK burger making course, Cadbury chocolate making, wall climbing. Theres again, lots of these to choose from and I won't spoil the surprise!
It was brilliant, my son had a fantastic time and was frantically running around trying to complete jobs to earn enough to open a bank account so he could have his own card for the cash machines.
Right onto what we thought about the day,
We spent the first hour not actually knowing what was going on. There was 1 lady by the door but she was always busy, it didn't really clarify much when we did speak to her, we didn't have a clue so just wandered round a bit lost. Eventually we joined a queue for the supermarket. The queue's seem quite chaotic with kids pushing in and no one managing it. No one explaining how long the wait or what the wait was for (you can be a worker or a shopper). If theres certain recommended ages for a job you don't find that out until you are at the front of the queue, so you could have queued for 20 mins to find your child can't read so they can't do the job.
Once we worked out what was going on it was great for my son, but basically as an adult you walk round with your child helping them decide what they want to do and then wait outside the activity for them to walk to the next one. There is no way, even with the security that i would leave my child and go shopping, its too busy, too big, too chaotic theres also a lot of people (other parents) just wandering about. Not to mention he wouldn't get the most from it. If I had taken a group of older children I might let them go to an activity whilst i have a cup of tea and then they come back to me before the next. But its really not the kind of place I would be happy to leave them. I had totally missed that adults needed to pay to get in, this is absolutely ludicrous! I can understand a nominal £5 charge, but even that seems excessive as the previous reviewer says it is not a family day out but a childs one. There aren't even benches outside the activity for you to sit on, so you are literally stood there queuing with them and then stood there waiting for them.
Following on the theme park premise, food and drinks are expensive. As is the parking (£9.50) so these are all things to take into consideration.
You get a set amount of time in the venue, as your child does each activity they scan their wrist bands. If they don't have enough time left they can't do the activity. So we queued for 20 minutes to do the DJ job, but his wrist band ran out whilst queuing, so he couldn't do the activity. This hadn't been explained to us at the start of the day, bless him he was heartbroken and it ended on a really bad note, especially as we had wasted an hour at the beginning really confused!
Best bits:
The organisation of the fire engine was fantastic, so all the little fire people go off to put out a fire, the little police arrive to seal off the scene and the little ambulance arrive to help the injured! All one co-ordinated event using the three jobs, fantastic.
The theatre was also great, the actors would audition and get roles for a play that is put on in the theatre and anyone in Kidzania can attend - great.
My little notes (well, i had to do something whilst waiting for him!!) for the good people of Kidzania are:
You can't charge adults, you really can't!!!!! Ive put that in bold so you don't miss it!!! But you know this as you have to really click through your website to find that bit.
You really need more direction for new people, we wasted a lot of time not knowing what was going on.
A countdown timer on each activity would be really helpful, so 'this activity started 2:30 seconds ago' so when you join a queue you know roughly how long you will be there.
Better queue management, there was pushing in and for the supermarket people weren't sure which role they were waiting for. your information signs about the job need to be at the back of the queue as well as the front, so you don't get 4 year olds that can't read queuing for 20 minutes to find they can't do the job.
In conclusion,
My son had a great time, he absolutely loved it and we were planning our next trip to show his dad. Unfortunately now I've learnt its an extra £30 for us I don't think we will be coming again for a long time. For a family experience that £70 can be spent better elsewhere.