Find out what Mumsnetters think of KidZania and tell KidZania what your DCs favourite role play game is – Family VIP pass to KidZania to be won! NOW CLOSED

[MichelleMumsnet]

This thread is for the 10 Mumsnetters who attended an event at KidZania on 25th July.

Here’s what they say, “Imagine a 75,000sq.ft child-size city where kids are in charge!

"Have your kids ever dreamt of becoming a pilot, a firefighter, or the next acting sensation? Watch the excitement on their faces as they try out more than 60 real life role-play activities in the bank, on stage or fighting crime on the streets as a police officer!

"Each role-play experience is crafted to teach kids essential life skills including financial literacy, team work and independence. Designed to empower kids, KidZania gives them the confidence to challenge themselves and inspire them to explore the world of opportunities.

"Where else could your kids experience sitting on the flight deck of a real plane?”

Attendees, we’d like you to answer the questions below.

Q1. What was your overall impression of the day and KidZania? What did you DCs think?

Q2. How would you explain KidZania to someone who hadn’t been before?

Q3. What was your DCs favourite part of the day?

Q4. If it came up in conversation, would you recommend KidZania to friends or family to go to for a family day out?

If you have any other thoughts please don’t hesitate to add them too!
All attendees who add their feedback will be entered into a prize draw where one Mumsnetter will win a £300 Love2Shop voucher!

Non-attendees: Do your DCs like role play games? If so, what’s their favourite role play game? Do they like pretending that they’re running a Bakers while serving you the mud pies? Or maybe they play at being secret agents with their friends in the back garden? Whatever it is, we’d love to hear it. Everyone who posts on the thread will be entered into a prize draw to win a family VIP pass for 4 people!

Thanks

MNHQ

School has always been the most popular, with teacher being the favourite role

Ds loves food related role play - restaurant/market/bakery etc. he's 8

Dd likes being Spider-Man or mummy/baby games - especially when her older brother is the baby! She's 5

They both like being knights and pirates.

Firstly, thank you to MN and Kidzania for a really lovely day.

What it's all about
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 like you would find in any town. Once you've earnt your money you can save it or spend it in the shop or, on an experience like a GBK burger making course, Cadbury chocolate making, wall climbing. 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, as its all big, different and confusing. There was 1 lady by the door but she was always busy, it didn't really clarify much when we finally 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 that as your child can't read, they can't do the job.

Once we worked out what was going on it was great for my son, he had the time of his life! As the accompanying adult you walk round with your child helping them decide what they want to do and wait outside the activity for them to finish, then 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, which raises safety concerns for me. 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 on their website as you have to click through the website to find this, 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, before you walk to the next 'job' to again wait.

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 bad note.

The Best bits
The organisation of the hotel fire 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. Although we are still confused why a fire fighter doesn't get paid?

The theatre was also great, the actors would audition and get roles for a play that they put on in the theatre and anyone in Kidzania can attend - great.

My Son's favourite part was definitely the supermarket, he LOVED it.

My little notes for the good people of Kidzania are (well, i had to do something whilst stood waiting for him!!):

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. £38 was an okish cost (inc parking) to take my son £70 is not.
The reason you can't charge adults is, What value is there for adults? What do you offer the adults? Its lovely watching your child enjoy themselves, and they really did have a ball. But paying £16.50 for the privilege to supervise the queues for you, explain whats going on to the kids for you, keep the kids out the way of the moving vehicles for you, and spend our money in the coffee shop & gift shop (the less you charge a parent the more they have to spend in the shops). I am also not convinced they are 'safe' in the venue - you cannot charge parents to supervise and keep safe!!!!
Parking the supervision and safety issue to one side, the one thing you offer the parents is the coffee lounge, but theres also lots of coffee shops outside the venue which you wouldn't have to pay £16.50 to enter.

You really need more direction for new people, we wasted a lot of time not knowing what was going on, perhaps a person to greet and take you to your first activity. Once you've done one you know whats 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 is desperate to go back.
I would also worry about queue times when busy, a 5-10 minute wait per activity is fine, anything more (baring in mind you have a 4 hour slot) and I would not be impressed (neither would the children).
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 where everyone benefits.

Oh missed one out!
would I recommend it
I did, and couldn't stop raving about it before i knew about the additional adult cost's. Now i would say its really good, but very expensive and poor value.

Thank you to Mumsnet and KidZania for the opportunity. We really had a fantastic day out and were very well treated by all the KidZania staff.

Q1. What was your overall impression of the day and KidZania? What did you DCs think?

Great fun! DS (7) did climbing, radio presenting, cabin crew, policeman and drumming. We really tried to cram as much in as possible but that was the most we could get in in 3 hours. The queues weren't too bad, 20 mins max for the radio thing as I think we started queuing as soon as the previous session started which probably wasn't the best planning. I think that the strength of KidZania is the variety of activities on offer and the fact that many of them are not available elsewhere. I also really liked that children were encouraged to be independent and go and do the activities by themselves. DS is confident and sociable and enjoyed this aspect of it but I can imagine that a shyer child might struggle.

Q2. How would you explain KidZania to someone who hadn’t been before?

As a kind of indoor theme park where children can try out lots of different role play activities

Q3. What was your DCs favourite part of the day?

DS enjoyed everything. His favourite was probably the radio presenting - he literally bounced out of the booth going "that was awesome!" He even enjoyed being a policeman which I thought he might find a bit tame and babyish but he said it was fun.

Q4. If it came up in conversation, would you recommend KidZania to friends or family to go to for a family day out?

Yes, I already have! I'd definitely consider it for a special treat as DS had so much fun and I know his cousins would love it too!

Other random thoughts:

I thought it was a nice touch that for some activities they got little souvenirs (stickers for cabin crew, lanyard and pass for the radio thing) which was great as the gift shop was eye-wateringly expensive.

It was great that older children can wander around by themselves but there needs to be a bit more discipline in the queues - at the climbing there was a risk of some younger unaccompanied children being barged out of the way by older ones...Although I was also told off by a keener member of staff at the cabin crew thing for standing in the queue with DS despite the sign saying "parents welcome"

I found the constant music and dim lighting to be a bit much. After 4 hours it was really nice to get outside into the fresh air. But I feel like that after spending too long in any shopping centre type environment so it's not really KidZania's fault!

I used the parents' lounge a couple of times when DS was doing activities nearby. On the plus side, the chairs were comfy and the coffee was good and not too expensive. It was also quieter than everywhere else (no music - yay!) and BBC News was on the TV. It could only be improved by some newspapers and a stronger WiFi signal - I struggled to get a good signal anywhere.

We were treated so well by the staff and really enjoyed the tea! DS also had lots of fun learning the dance routine and meeting the dog mascot. The goody bag was really nice too - DS took his new blanket and soft toy to bed with him.

I do think the pricing should be looked at. Charging £18 for an adult when there's really nothing for adults to do other than tail around after their kids is a bit steep, especially when under 8s can't do in by themselves anyway. Perhaps there should be a sliding scale? So a reduced rate for adults accompanying under 8s, or for the first adult with a group of older children and then additional adults could be charged at a higher rate. I understand that they don't want the place filled up with tons of adults but the current system does seem a bit unfair and would put me off returning again.

The earning/spending of Kidzos seemed to be a bit random. Why do cabin crew earn Kidzos but you have to spend them to be a pilot? DS wanted to do all the activities to earn Kidzos and then ended up with a wad of cash at the end of the day and nothing much to spend it on as the stuff in the shop that you could spend Kidzos on was quite expensive. It would be nice if you could swap a few Kidzos (like under 50) for a souvenir like a certificate or photo on the way out.

I just talked to someone who's been here last week, it has made me cross it off my holiday list, and I'm glad I had that conversation before getting there and being trapped into ridiculous amounts of money.

It sounded awful though my friend said she thought it might be ok for older children, as long as they were super confident and switched on, possibly having done it before, and knowing exactly what they wanted to go on.

Crazy busy, no supervision so it's filled with over excited children pushing in and parents comforting upset children who didn't get to go on the role play they wanted to due to poor signage on the queues, arbitrary money earning/ money spending, and spending most of the time queuing.

And then to top it all off, the incredibly high costs which means you expect a better experience than the one you get ie with fully staffed guidance so you know what's going on and how to navigate it all, and stopping the pointless queuing and all the pushing in etc.

I'm disabled with an under 8 yr old so the lack of waiting areas and seats would make it horribly painful for me, and then having to pay for myself And a carer to swap in and out to help DS navigate it would add insult to injury. So for a normal person it sounds hideous, but it sounds completely inaccessible & designed against disabled people. Ugh.

What a shame, we're super close to one and really wanted to go this summer.

Non attendee. It all looks like great fun, and from the website it looks like there is free entry for Carers and priority check in lanes so it sounds like there is good support for special needs which is important for us.

My DD loves dressing up and playing with pretend food/empty food boxes. She takes orders from us in her 'cafe' and brings us the food! DS wants to be a superhero (he changes his mind which one frequently) and is always flying off the sofa

Non-tester

Oh my children are begging to go to this......So - they love role play and are constantly at it. They play out films that they have seen. They spent a glorious days playing out Victorian School. They play at running a restaurant. They play cops and robbers. They never stop playing roles - often stimulated by what they have seen. So they love playing out strips from the Beano!

Non-tester

It sounds like an interesting concept, but with flaws which would make it unworkable for us. My dds both have ASD (one severe, one high functioning), and both wou,d enjoy it, but would need proper timed entry - ie for it to be possible for us to arriv as something is starting, rather than queue for an u specified amount of time.

They would also need someone to be with them to enable them to get the best out of it - info on the website is unclear as to whether this is possible. Yes, a carers pass is available for entry, but it isn't clear whether I would be able to stay with dd1 to help her get the most out of the activities. She would be unable to do it without 1:1, but would still enjoy some of the activities. Dd2 might need full support, or might not, but I would be unwilling to pay the entry price to find out she does, but cannot have it.

Overall, it sounds like a reasonably good idea on paper, but poorly executed, and with no option for those of us who need to plan to the nearest minute to do so, despite the apparent planning aspect of having a timed ticket etc.

Addition to previous post: Having investigated their website I now read that there is a discounted carer ticket. Though it's not clear if that's only to go with a child or for disabled parents too, but assuming its for anyone who needs one that is better than I'd first thought.

Q1. What was your overall impression of the day and KidZania? What did you DCs think?

Excellent overall, though I agree with others that the price is pretty steep. I don't think that parents should have to pay almost £20 to wander around doing not much tbh. Whilst it was indeed great to see DD having such fun, I can get watch her having huge fun at other places, for free.

We certainly had no issues at all with queues. Almost all of the places had a clock showing when the next session would start, and if they didn't, it was easy to work out and we queued accordingly. The longest we waited was for the supermarket, but that was only 15 mins, and it was all very orderly wherever we went.

I would pay a nominal £5 willingly, but I'm not sure I'll take her back until she's 7 at the end of the year, and I can leave her there. She practically shooed me away at times so she could do her own thing, and she's certainly confident enough to do that.

She particularly loved earning her KidZos and came away with 170 of them. She went for the high earning roles... And paid out once when she wanted to be a pilot.

The tea at the end was hugely appreciated! We were both pretty peckish by then, as had had a v early lunch in Westfield beforehand. DD was also pleased with her goody bag, particularly the large bar of chocolate...

Q2. How would you explain KidZania to someone who hadn’t been before?

I guess exactly what it is. A huge two floor warehouse made up to look like a little town with added extras, housing everything from a supermarket to an airport, beauty salon to a F1 Pit Lane, stadium to university. I didn't count, but I'd say there were probably 50+ professions that they children could try, each one lasting between 10 and 20 minutes.

Q3. What was your DCs favourite part of the day?

She loved so much of it. When pushed, she says she can't decide between manning the checkout in the supermarket and being a security guard (when she had to don her 'armour' and head off to collect three valuable packages from various businesses around the town.

Q4. If it came up in conversation, would you recommend KidZania to friends or family to go to for a family day out?

Yes, I would and I have. If I'm honest, then I think children aged between 6 and 10 will get the absolute best out of it. Having said that, I think the prices for adults are ridiculous and will put off a lot of people I know, not because of the expense, but because paying £18 to do bugger all is madness.

I will go back with DD and perhaps a friend of hers, but probably not until they're 7 and I can leave them. She would be absolutely fine and I think the 'independence' it will give her for the afternoon is a good thing (though she's my 5th DC, so I suspect I'm much more relaxed than if she was a PFB), and I'll most certainly enjoy doing my own thing for a few hours.

Thank you MN and KidZania for a lovely afternoon, all in all we had a great time and it was so nice to see DD doing all her jobs and balancing out earning/spending. She's put her KidZos away safely and is looking forward to racking up done more.

Non-tester here.

DD enjoyed playing "teacher" when she was little, and gave out detailed reports to her cuddly toys. Since they've got older my DC have enjoyed more specific games based on TV and books, like The Doctor and Amy Pond fight aliens, or Percy Jackson and Annabeth at Camp Half-Blood - which is now merging into writing fanfic as DD gets older. One memorable holiday was spent playing James Bond with teddy bears.

Thank you so much for the opportunity to do this. We were thinking of it for DD'S birthday so this was a fabulous chance to experience this.

Q1. What was your overall impression of the day and KidZania? What did your DCs think? We had a fabulous day (two 10 year old girls, DH and I). The girls were so excited about going and the day totally lived up to their expectations. They cannot wait to go back. They felt that they definitely needed at least four hours and could have done without the afternoon tea session at the end as that ate into their time (DH and I enjoyed that bit though). Would have been value for money for the girls but we would not have felt happy paying that amount for two adults.

Q2. How would you explain KidZania to someone who hadn’t been before? It looks like the shopfronts/street scene of an indoor version of a Disney Main Street USA. Whereas at Disney the shopfronts are just a "front" to the huge store inside, at KidZania each shop is a separate entity devoted to each real life activity/job. The kids go in and role play and learn about the activities/jobs. The adults don't go inside and participate though; they have to wait outside and watch through the window. We had been on the website and researched so the girls knew what to expect and what they wanted to do.

Q3. What was your DCs favourite part of the day? The British Airways Flight School where they used the flight Simulator and the Capital Radio DJ'ing.

Q4. If it came up in conversation, would you recommend KidZania to friends or family to go to for a family day out? Wd def recommend as a family day out. However if you have older children who are older than seven and happy to be left (like our two were - we were dismissed by them around five minutes after entry!) I would only pay for one adult ticket (if I hadn't been before) just so I could go inside for a short while to make sure they were ok and then I would leave them in there safe in the knowledge that they were happy, secure and occupied, and go and hit the shops in Westfield with another adult or myself. There is an adult lounge area but I wd rather use the time to wander the shops. There isn't much interaction for the adults: it really is an area for the children. DH and I hung around for about an hour to see what it was all about and to investigate the adult zone: we then left and came back 2 hours later.

DD is already planning the activities she is going to do when we go back for her birthday and she wants to get there as soon as it opens as it will be quieter then and the queues less.

Again, thank you so much. I think 10 was an ideal age for this.

Non - tester in the UK although we have been to Kidzania abroad few times. At Kidzania my dd loved caring for the newborn babies the most. Second most favourite was climbing onto the building / construction site, where she got to do some fun physical games / activities like those in PGL holidays, she got to do play with bricks building stuff & upstairs she got some climbing with ropes etc. This was the the highlight of the day for her, closely followed by fashion house - catwalk experience and chocolate making & then firefighting - putting out fire at the residence. She loved the whole experience but it was very tiring even for her. Kidzos she earnt was not enough to buy even a mug in the shop in other words if you want to be able to spend all day's earnings you can't really buy anything apart from some small stickers. All in all a good concept but unnecessarily expensive. It would be lovely to win a VIP day to London Kidzania but I have a question I always wondered : if (again a big IF) we win a VIP package for a day for a family of 4 does it mean we have to be a family of four exactly? ?? We are a family of 3 and my husband works at weekends whilst I work during the week. We can hardly be free at same time. Does it disqualifies us if we win? Can someone from MN admin clarify this please?

A building experience would be really good

This place looks amazing.

My DC love to pretend to play school. The 4yo thinks this is what school is actually going to be like in September, and I suspect the 5yo is a bit bossier than the teacher normally is!

Q1. What was your overall impression of the day and KidZania? What did you DCs think? went with my sons 8/13 intended to leave them to it but they wanted me to go round with them. there was lots to take in at the start and decide what activities you want to do. we started with the climbing wall that they both enjoyed . they then decided that they wanted to make ice cream. we went and queued for that. the queues were not long for some things but not all children seemed to know how to queue so that was a bit of a shame. my boys enjoyed earning money for some of the jobs that they did.
Q2. How would you explain KidZania to someone who hadn’t been before?
lots to see and do and educational

Q3. What was your DCs favourite part of the day?
my son 8 liked the hotel and tidying the room etc shame he isnt the same at home! my son 13 enjoyed delivering the parcels the best

Q4. If it came up in conversation, would you recommend KidZania to friends or family to go to for a family day out? yes i would definately the boys had a fantastic day. the only down side was there wasnt much for adults and i dont think adults should pay to go in. i just walked around with them to see what they were doing. there was a parents lounge but it was not really near the activities. it would be better if there was more parent seating and viewing areas.the boys have not stopped talking about it. they loved earning money doing the jobs and making things. thank you for letting us try this day out the boys said it was amazing!

Non tester : My sons' role plays usually involve some kind of superpower, or life in a galaxy far far away, and baddies. The baddies are mostly required for taking the blame when anything gets broken. On a real-world level they also like being spies and archaeologists, film makers and composers, and actors and directors of shows. It sounds like they would love Kidzania, if we were lucky enough to win!

Non tester. DD2 is obsessed with schools at the moment and shops. It's usually one or the other. I am intrigued by this.

Non-attendee - mine still love to play supermarkets

non tester my DC love playing cafes and are frequently taking my orders. When they are outside playing, they are usually playing superheroes saving the world!

Non-tester
I was interested in this thread as I was planning a trip with my DS in September before he starts school. I have to say the reviews (and trip advisor) have put me off somewhat. I get the impression that i will end up traipsing around with a frustrated and overwhelmed 4 year old with a few interludes of fun, and pay a fortune for the privilege. It sounds better for my older children but I wouldn't be able to afford to take them all. My Children LOVE role play and spend almost all their playtime in role as superheroes, spies, shopkeepers, zombies(!), mums&dads&babies. They spend hours this way. However living in London is already so expensive and we do free or cheap activities plus one expensive one a year like theme park and I would hesitate to use it in an experience like this.
The pricing should be cheaper for under 6s who will need an adult with them. Adult prices should be redeemable in the coffee shop and should be no more that £5.

Beyond the usual Super heroes, Pirates, Knights, dragons, magician, monsters, MerBoys (in the bath), dinosaurs, that my child loves, he also likes being an explorer, discovering safari animals or exploring mountains/ jungle/ quick sand danger etc...

He does a lot of fairy tale based stories or book/ character based ones, which I guess is not what the place is about... Jack & the bean stalk etc. though you could do a few scenarios which capture the adventure, heroics and magic of fairy stories/ folk lore. Like getting stranded on an island, or a quest of some kind, or finding a cave of jewels etc

He also likes to be an inventor, or an artist, tv presenter like Mr maker showing children how to make things, or a musician in an orchestra, or lots of being an actor.

A really funny one is when he pretends to be using huskie dogs on a sled to travel fast across the Arctic (I love that one so much, picking the huskies which are miscellaneous teddies, setting them all up in their harnesses, getting the sledge ready and snuggling in as it's snowing, then off they go holding the reins and avoiding artic foxes and polar bears, Icey patches, crevices etc). Call of the wild style which I would have been reading at his age I guess, so a bit of nostalgia for me!

He still plays at being a daddy too which I'm surprised at but is very sweet, getting the buggy out & taking a baby for a walk, going to drop him at nursery or going to a cafe with his baby (teddy!),

In the actual venue, think you could do:

1. an electronics shop where they make a big robot together which then can walk

1. a canoeing/ boat workshop where they 'make' a boat / get it into the 'water' then get to use the boat to get across of river (pretend or with some real water to splash)

1. A space rocket one, where ground staff make the rocket & astronauts put suits on and do the whole count down thing to press the lift off button at the same time, and land on the moon etc...

... And maybe a few based on seasons, gardening, beach combing, farming with mini tractors or make a scarecrow, a street safety thing or rail track thing where you put salt down or shovel snow, put sandbags down etc.

What about some specifically Brit type scenarios, it all feels a bit soullessly 'global' at the moment, eg Milking cows would be super fun and then delivering on a milk float would be lovely... Window cleaners also, lollipop lady helping kids cross the road, ice cream van.

Countryside-y stuff would be nice eg horse mucking out/ riding (you can already get those pretend horses that are really fun to make move by bouncing up and down)

And other ideas I think my son would like are; being a photographer, circus entertainer, fair ground ride operator, candy floss seller, dog groomer, weather man, being a burglar and being put in gaol (!), bellhop as long as there's a lift, train driver, hot air balloon rider,

And I bet you already do Christmas specials like decorating a tree etc.

DC favourite imaginative play at the moment is to be a Spy. So an area where they could solve crimes, something gentle like "the case of the missing biscuit, or similar. Fingerprints, looking for clues, gathering evidence.,
Also anything to do with superheroes. A 'green screen' with a bench to lean over and a fan - hey presto Superman flying!

This sounds great. Am sure my DD (7) would love it. Her favourite role play game is 'Mums and Babies' (where strangely she was a donkey last time!) and 'Petastic' (pets and vets) she also likes playing at schools and currently thinks she wants to be a teacher when she grows up.