Friday, November 15, 2013

Fun with Kids: KidZania Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

The Malaysian school holidays have officially started today. Am sure many mummies and daddies are scratching their heads to come up with a plan for a fun, fulfilling holiday for their kiddies. 

KidZania would be a great place to bring your kids for a day out. What is KidZania? It is an indoor family edutainment centre which offers an interactive learning and entertainment experience for kids in a kid-sized city to deliver the first-of-its-kind edutainment fun. The KidZania experience is about real-life experiences, empowering, inspiring and educating kids through role-play.

KidZania KL is located opposite Ikea / The Curve in Curve NX, you know you have arrived when you see the head of an aeroplane sticking out of the building. There is parking within the same building, otherwise park at the other nearby malls and walk over.

KidZania Kuala Lumpur

Upon arrival, we bought our tickets and were handed our "boarding passes" and told to go upstairs to the immigration counter to check-in to KidZania. Tickets are priced at RM35 (age 2-3), RM60 (age 4-17), RM35 (Malaysian adult) and RM50 (International adult). They also have online booking system on their website where you can buy tickets as far as 3 months in advance, as tickets are sometimes sold out within hours on weekends and public holidays. On weekdays, you can stay all day in KidZania, whereas on weekends and public/school holidays, there will be 2 sessions per day.

At immigration, each of us are given an electronic tag, which they will scan everytime the kids go for an activity. Since KidZania is designed for kids, parents can walk and bring their children around but not enter the outlet where each activity is carried out. Only children 8 years and above can be left without parent supervision. Kids up to age of 17 can play in KidZania.




Receiving their Kidzos (KidZania money) in a form of a cheque


First, the kids went to the bank to cash in their cheques. Once they got their cash, we went around to check out KidZania. Basically, kids choose what occupation they want to do, and they will be given a salary by the time they finish the jobs. Inside each outlet there will be Zupervisors (trained adults) which will supervise and guide the kids in their job. This is to encourage learning through role-playing activities.

You will find police station, car dealers, petrol stations, supermarket, cinema, construction company, acting academy, jewellers, cooking school, radio station, dentist, beauty salon, Air Asia flying school, hospital and more in KidZania. Children can role-play over 90 different activities in over 60 different establishments, such as being a chef, pilot, surgeon, nurse, lawyer, fire fighter, policeman, actor, reporter, artist, courier man, newscaster, photographer and more.


In front of the Independence Fountain of KidZania


Although kids of all ages are allowed, most of the "experiences" have a minimum age requirement or height, hence we were disappointed to find that our kids couldn't go into the many outlets, including the Oreo factory or Cadbury factory because they were too young. I wish the girl at the counter told me this, as she tried to sell me the higher priced ticket for Baby D with the excuse that he could have more "experiences" in KidZania.

Our kids favorite stop was the Z-Mart aka KidZania's supermarket. Since there were no other kids in there, our kids took turns to become the shopper and cashier. They obviously loved it - some of the things they get to do is scanning barcodes or shopping according to a list given, and at the end of it all, they get paid for doing the job properly. When they received their first salary, their faces look so happy and proud!







Woohoo! I got paid for doing a good job ;)



Working as bricklayers at the KidZania Construction company


Hard hats and hi-vis jackets complete the "construction worker" look


Working at the Window cleaning company - hehe good life skill, maybe they can help clean mummy's windows next week?



Photographers at Sony Photo Lab


Getting briefed about the camera and its functions


Then, they were taken to a few sites to take photographs



Petrol station attendants


One of the most popular occupations in KidZania is becoming a fireman... there was constantly a queue of kids in front of the fire station. The kids need to receive "training" and then sit in a fire truck which brings them to a fire scene and they get to help put off the fire. It looks fun, but we didn't really want to queue an hour to get to play this.



Surgeons



Mechanics - learning about car parts and changing tyres


Last stop before home - Karatz Jewellery


Pay for this activity with Kidzos but your child gets to keep the bracelet that they have made :)


To learn more about KidZania, you can visit their official website here.


Tickets are priced at RM35 (age 2-3), RM60 (age 4-12), RM35 (Malaysian adult) and RM50 (International adult).

Location: KidZania Kuala Lumpur, Curve NX, 18 Jalan PJU 7/5, Mutiara Damansara, 47810 Petaling Jaya,
Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia.

Tel: 1300 88 KIDZ (5439)

GPS Coordinates: 3.158042, 101.61413


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