Day 3 daddyless : Kidzania mania...

Since kiddo and I were at loose ends today, we jumped at the chance to go to Kidzania with a friend and her kids. 2 moms, 5 kids (2 were my friend's nieces), a WHOLE lotta screaming.... Result : utterly exhausted moms with hyper kids.

Buying the tickets was an experience in itself. You queue like you're checking in at the airport. Trust me, it was as crowded and noisy as Soekarno-Hatta on a Friday. Then they give you a ticket that looks exactly like your Air Asia plane ticket, and a wrist band which is colour coded depending on whether you're with a party, an unaccompanied kid etc. There are 8 categories. More on that later. The band is used for logging them into various activities. Yes, parents get banded too... No, you can't participate no matter how much you beg. All the doors have 'no adults allowed' signs. I was rather disgruntled as being only 5'1", there were kids there much taller then I am...

Top : Kidzos , Mid : bank card, Bot :
drivers license, L/R : back and front
of tickets

On entering, you first come to Main Square, where the food is. Very wide selection but don't expect Cordon Bleu. With time pressing (5 hours is waaayyyy too little time), you just want something quick. The kids didn't eat much anyway. Probably had 15mins before they were off to the next thing. There's a 'Metropolitan Theatre of Kidzania' where the kids can stage a magic show or Peter Pan. Kids imitate the staff, so there's not much memory work needed. Best of all, a plaque displaying the 'Independance Declaration of Kidzania' sits in front of this huge monument to kiddy emancipation! One of the statues looks like it's casting off chains! I kid you not!! Someone PLEASE tell me I'm wrong...!

For kids, it's great. Wonderful atmosphere. No need to speak softly or tip toe around adults. For adults, it's P.A.I.N.F.U.L. Noise, noise and MORE noise. For someone who already has hinky ears, I couldn't hear nuts. Kiddo had to yank on my arm every time she had something to say. Every hour on the hour, they play the Kidzania theme song. Ouch. The kids can join a marching band, ouch. That's in addition to the welcome song and dance and the farewell song. Everything being played at MAXIMUM volume. Also sirens for the fire engine, ambulans, police (kids have to catch an escaped felon while being coordinated by other kids in the 'control room'. He has tattoo sleeves and breaks out of the prison that has rubber bars. Hilarious...) OUCH.

All the different activities are in their individual sound proof rooms. Each room takes 5-12 kids and lasts 10-30mins depending on what the activity is. You MAY NOT help your kid. Which is why I hope the KL version will be more English based than this one. The default language here is Bahasa, unless the majority of the kids need English, they will conduct it in Bahasa even though the other kids can speak English. You get payed in Kidzos ('local' currency. Upon starting you are given a 'cheque' you have to bank in. Kids either use the 'bank card' issued or withdraw Kidzos from the ATM to buy things) to do certain things like, wash windows, be a dentist/ scientist/ doctor/ tax agent (Huh??) or pay for services. Eg. getting your photo taken... Some activities have minimum ages, like being a tax agent (8. Huh x2??), some have minimum age suggestions, like being a scientist in the Yakult lab (6. Free Yakult included in the job...). Others are ok for all ages. Usually the food related activities (eg ice cream factory, cookie factore, Aqua plant etc) will give you a free sample of that item. Little tip from my Kidzania veteran friend, C : get your kids to do the pizza/ burger making activity and the Aqua bottling activity just before lunch. See! No need to pay extra for food!

The cutest thing there is the driving activity. You have to drive around, get fueled up at the pumps, go through a car wash (no water moms, don't worry). But in order to do that, the kids need, wait for it, a DRIVERS LICENSE!! To get this they need to get a medical check up (not real moms, don't worry), go through a driving lesson, and pay 20 Kidzos. Check out the photo above, it looks and feels real! With this, they can also do a go kart like racing activity. Kiddo was not interested in that, though looking at it, those go karts didn't seem all that go to me. More like, amble karts...

All in all, it was a fabulous outing. Moms had to crash at the Times book store cafe with some rejuvenating beverages for bit (actually so long the staff kept wandering by looking at us) while kiddos had some down time reading. As kiddo said at bedtime, 'I had an amazingly, fun time mummy. Let's go again!' For sure, apple of my eye. Let's just wait till mummy can hear again shall we...

Miscellaneous information

Tips from today's experience and C

1) For first timers, don't bother rushing to the bank when you arrive to get a bank card and cash your cheque. You can quite happily go around without it till later when it quieter.
2) Check the age/ height limit before q-ing. No point standing there for ages then getting told your kid is too short/ young.
3) If you have 2 parents, while one is waiting for the kids, the other can scout out an activity that is finishing. That way, less waiting for kiddos and they get to fit more in.
4) Head upstairs early. People tend to stay downstairs for a long time before going up. Early on the 'factories' upstairs tend to be quieter.
5) Get there early. You will need EVERY second of your time there.
6) Wear comfy shoes. Parents do A LOT of running around.
7) Don't bring a lot of extraneous stuff. There aren't many seats around for adults so by the time 5 hours is up, you may feel like your glamorous Prada has morphed into a deformed saddlebag. Next time I'm bringing a backpack and foldable chair...
8) Call ahead. If avoidable, you don't want to be squeezing with a whole bunch of school kids. My experience thus far is they don't really have a good grasp of the concept of a queue. Also there are no roped off areas to form the q, so unless your kid is good at standing up for themself (mine isn't), they can get totally shoved to one side.

Toilets

Clean and easily used by unaccompanied kids. Kiddo is about 105cm (what can I say, pint sized like mummy), and had no problems going on her own. Even the sinks had 2 levels. Low and super low. Best of all, the sinks are outside, so if you're a hand washing freak like me, you can personally supervise the soaping (provided) and scrubbing.

Security

Everyone is tagged in one of 8 colours. Once the kids are in, they cannot leave the premises unaccompanied. Dropped kids are picked up by their guardians at a designated place and the adult has to bring some proof of identity. When we were leaving, the security personnel were going around asking blue tagged kids if they had call their pick ups etc. The are also constantly on walkie talkies at the exit relaying information on how many blue tagged kids were still inside. Really impressive. I don't now how fool proof the system is though. C's nieces came later and were blue tagged, and yet were allowed to leave with us when we said they were part of our group.

From R : Party; responsible
adult for the party; School
group; Responsible
adult for the school; Accompanied
kid/ Adult (that's us); toddlers
aged 2-3yrs; Unaccompanied kids;
Babies/ Adults >65

Location, price and timing

Pacific Place 6th floor.
021-5154 222 / 021-5154 888 ext 101, 191, 192
www.kidzania.co.id

Mon-Thurs : 0900-1600 (7hrs) - 2-3yrs Rp5ok, 4-16yrs Rp130k, +16yrs (that's us, moms) Rp90k
1100-1600 (5hrs) - 50k / 115k / 75k

Fri, Sat, Sun : session 1 0900-1400
session 2 1500-2000
50k / 115k / 75k

View from outside Kidzania

Holiday season : session 1 0900-1400
session 2 1500-2000
100k / 155k / 155k

NB : if you're a grandparent >65 with 2 or more grandchildren in tow, you get to go in free... Otherwise it's the standard fare. Hmm, I wonder i one can get away with 'borrowing' grandchildren...

As many stations as I can remember

Theatre, magic show, hp art studio, ponds sunsilk beauty saloon, burger place, pizza place, window washing, cosmos electrical shop, indomart, BCA, tax office (hee hee), yakult lab, archeological site, hospital (couple of different things there, there's a pretty lifelike surgery station), dentist, photo studio, fire station, construction site, wall painting, police station, telkomsel workshop, news station, radio station, Aqua bottling plant, Kapal Api factory, Walls ice cream factory, biscuit factory, cookie factory, milk production plant (box milk ok!! Not human!), baby nursery (kids are the nurses learning to diaper and clean baby dolls. Good for moms wanting to see if their kids might help with a younger sib??), Flight simulator, go kart track, driving track, driviers lessons... Waxworks pending... I definitely haven't got it all. Let me know what I've missed. Oh, and if the kids get tired, there are mini blue/ silver bird taxis and buses to get to their next destination... Pay in Kidzos please. Other currencies not accepted... Forget it big people, apart from the driver, no adult allowed. Check out the photo, the 'cab driver' can't even sit up straight!!