Days Out in England – KidZania, London

Since we have no big holiday booked this year I’m trying to make 2017 the year of mini adventures. So far we’ve been to Disneyland Paris and last month we went to visit my best friend Bee which included a trip to the cinema to see Beauty and the Beast. I know for a lot of people that isn’t really an adventure but our local cinema isn’t even SHOWING the movie yet so for us going to a cinema to see a newly released movie is a big adventure. This past weekend we ventured to London for the first time (the only time LM has ever been to London is to go on the Eurostar and the fly from Gatwick/Heathrow). We did a little bit of sight seeing including Big Ben, Harrods, South Kensington and Oxford Street, we also spent time with one of our friends from Florida who is on holiday with her husband, this was why we booked the trip in the first place! But the main event of our trip (while our friends went to Chelsea to watch the football) was a complimentary visit to KidZania in the Westfield shopping centre near Shepherds Bush.

Our tickets for KidZania were booked through AttractionTix who arranged our visit for us. Prior to this I’d never even heard of KidZania! Attractiontix have a page full of ideas for things to do with London and after doing a little research I decided KidZania would be the ideal place to take Little Miss. For starters, it’s all undercover and since we were visiting the Capital at the end of March/beginning of April it made sense to opt to do something indoors incase it rains. Booking through AttractionTix couldn’t be easier, you simply book through the website then call up to confirm the time you want to visit. Not only that, but with each child’s ticket and adult can go free!

So what is KidZania? You won’t believe this from the name, but KidZania is a mini city where children can take part in over 60 real life role playing activities. See what I mean when I say this would be right up Little Miss’ street? Even though i’d done some research into going I was no prepared for what it was really like, I kid you not, it was like something out of Disney with the amount of thought, effort and execution that has gone into it. Easily one of the best things I’ve ever done in the UK and the funny thing is, I didn’t actually do anything! It’s all aimed at kids!

On arrival you check in like you would an airport, it’s not real security it’s just set out like it. You collect your tickets from the desk and head up three flights of escalators and wait until you’re called forward to the desk. Here you’ll each be given a band which is securely fastened on. This is for a few reasons; firstly so they can track what your activities your child is doing, and to check they’re of the correct age to take part since they go it alone and secondly so no one can leave or enter without their knowing. This keeps the place completely safe. In fact it’s so safe that parents of older children can leave their children and collect them later. I had no issues with leaving Little Miss at an activity and going for a walk, I felt she was totally safe. Your children are also given some KidZania money called Kidzos which they can spend or earn more by doing jobs. And finally you’re given a map before you head off on your way.

A note on the Kidzos. If you feel like you’re going to visit KidZania more than once (and there is an option of an annual pass that is better value if you plan on visiting 3+ times a year) your child can open a bank account and save up their Kidzos to buy awesome things like clothes, toys and games. They also get interest on it. We didn’t do this because we live so far away if we come it won’t be more than once or twice a year.

When we first arrived I paid £3 for a locker to put all our bags and coast. We’d been shopping so we had a fair few bags and it was warm inside so it made sense to ditch our coats. Then we decided to grab some food. Aside from merch and the lockers, the only other thing that costs real money and not Kidzos is food. It was a little expensive but the same sort of pricing you’d expect to pay in a theme park. Little Miss got a 5 item snack pack with sandwiches, fruit, sausage roll, crisps and a fruit shoot from a coffee stop cafe. I opted for some skinny fries from a Gormet Burger Kitchen stand. There was also places you could get smoothies, burgers, pizza and pasta along with a truck stand that made mini pancakes with toppings. Over all I spent about £12 on food and drink the 4 hours we were in there. The snack pack was perfect for LM as whenever she got hungry we’d head back to our locker grab something to eat. There were no signs saying you couldn’t bring your own food with you and I did see some families with packed lunches made up!

After we’d eaten we decided to have a walk around so Little Miss could have a look at the different activities available. This city had everything! It’s split over two floors. The ground floor there are the emergency services, a hotel, a theatre, a stadium, the bank, the town square, the supermarket among over things. Upstairs there is the flight school, industries that make things, tv studio, music studio, night club along with some other things. We mainly stuck to downstairs as the things at the top of LM’s list to try were there. It was pretty busy when we went, loads of children and parents, pushchairs and even birthday parties which didn’t surprise me as it was a Saturday, it did however mean some queues were pretty long. LM being a pro at waiting in queues didn’t mind it at all and since only the kids were allowed to stand in the queues she made friends easily.

Each activity had a sign by the queue which indicated how long the activity would take, how many would be doing it and how many kidzos you could earn or it would cost to do. Activities ranged from 10 minutes to over an hour. We tried to do a mixture of long and short activities and over all our total was 6 in four hours. I honestly don’t think you could do them all even if you went from open to close there just really is so much to do. We were in from 2pm until 6pm and for a 5 year old that felt long enough for our first visit!

First up, unsurprisingy, she wanted to do the Acting Academy. This is a scheduled opportunity that only happens a few times a day. It takes up 55 minutes minimum and in that time they do some drama exercises, rehearse a play and then put on a play for an audience in the theatre next door. This time it was The Wizard of Oz.

Although it said 55 minutes it was over an hour she was in there for including the 10 minute show they put on (gave me some time to take photos though and grab some pancakes!) I wouldn’t say it was my favourite of the activities she did, but they could have had something to do with the fact she ended up lumped into a birthday group who understandably given all the lead roles, were rather loud, older and boisterous but since they were VIPs nothing was said. She loved her role as a munchkin though but I feel she’ll be glad to get back to her real drama class next weekend with children her own age. The show was a bit of a train wreck but I don’t think that was anything to do with the staff more to do with the other children. I loved the layout of both the studio and the theatre and the idea behind it was great. Little Miss loved the activity which is definitely the main thing. They also offer the chance to put on a puppet show and a magic show in a rotation with the play if that’s more up your street. Each one takes an hour and parents can go watch in the theatre (it’s one of the few things they can do!)

Next, she wanted to visit the supermarket, as a customer.

The supermarket was so sweet! The set up was amazing and there was no more than 6 children in at once, 3 customers and 3 employees. The employees are shown how to scan on the till (which even prints a receipt!) and the customers are given a list of their groceries and a trolley. LM loves grocery shopping with me (we’re both weird and love it) so having her own child size trolley with her own list, she was in her element. Another parent even commented on all her facial expressions, she really took the task at hand seriously. This one was in and out in 10 minutes and she got to keep her receipt as a souvenir.

After this, she wanted to try baby care.

Again, this was another one I wasn’t remotely surprised she wanted to try. When she isn’t claiming she wants to be a rock star or a dancer, she says she wants to be a mummy or a teacher. She really is a proper little mother, to her dolls and younger children, it probably has something to do with her caring nature. Baby care is actually like the maternity unit in the hospital. They get a lesson in how to look after new born babies and get a doll each to practice on. As parents aren’t allowed in I have no idea what she was told but they were shown how to wrap the baby, put a nappy on, feed and wash before putting the baby down to sleep. This one was about 20 minutes long and LM especially loved it as she got to dress up.

A note on the weird white hair net. Each child is given one on the way in and whenever they’re dressing up or putting something on their head it MUST BE WORN. I assume this is for hygiene and health as it’s worn in pretty much all activities rather than just the ones dealing with food as they would do in real life. She hated it at first but as all other children were wearing them, girls and boys she ended up forgetting it was even there!

Just as she was coming out of Baby Care, the Police activity was just beginning and it wasn’t full yet so she headed straight on over to try that.

The first part of the Police activity involved dressing up, having a talk and watching a video. The second part involved marching around KidZania shouting “we are the police, we’re hear to keep the peace!” But not only that, during each activity the police, ambulance and fire service work together to put out a burning building and secure the area. There is a huge hotel that is “on fire” and each service plays there part in the emergency. I genuinely think this is why Little Miss wanted to do the police, even now she says she has no interest in being in the police, it just looked fun and she wanted to play! The police have the role of keeping everyone back from the building. They put out the tapes then guard the way. As you can see LM took this incredibly serious, look at that face! After the excitement is over the march bag to the police station.

As she felt the fire brigade had a more “fun” role she wanted to do that next, however it’s one of the biggest queues so while we waited we hopped on the tour bus.

The Tour was a bus that both children and adults could ride on around the KidZania city. It costs 1 kidzo for a child and adults are free. It only lasted about 5-10 minutes and we had a tour guide asking questions. LM only really cared about watching the world going by. Older children can earn kidzos on the bus by being a tour guide but they need to be able able to read properly. It was a nice way too pass some time and get off my feet. It was also nice as it was something I could do with LM.

Finally, it was time to fight some fires and LM’s last activity for the day.

Like with the Police, joining the Fire Service was in two parts. First part you had your talk and learned what it takes to be a fire fighter, then you go out and fight a fire. You get to dress up and ride in the fire engine. Unlike the police though, instead of earning 8 kidzos, you pay kidzos for the privilege, probably because it’s one of the more fun and popular activities and I’m sure LM will tell you it was her favourite of the day. Unfortunately I couldn’t get close enough to take her photo fighting the fire, which you do with a hose and real water. I’m not even sure how they do it but it’s awesome. It took a good half an hour for this one, maybe more. Again, I’m sure LM has no interest in being a fire fighter I think she just enjoyed what the role play consisted of especially riding in the fire engine and fighting the fire, it was so well structured and as each activity has a set number of children it means everyone got their own hose, their seat on the fire engine and an outfit, no one was left out.

Overall, KidZania is a fantastic experience. At £32 per child it is on the expensive side but I cannot reiterate the fact enough that it’s worth it, especially if you’re going to make a day of it. The whole city set is fantastic, the way everything is orchestrated so it fits smoothly from the shows, to the emergency services it’s a well oiled machine meaning everything runs smoothly and works fairly. The staff, I really cannot say enough about how amazing the staff were. How good they were with the kids, how seriously they took their roles and how great they were with the parents waiting outside each activity. So many of them came to chat to me while I waited. The atmosphere was friendly and 100% about the kids. As a parent it is going to be boring but there is an adults only area, plenty of seating and time does pass quickly (although I wish I had taken a book!) There are areas for younger children upstairs too than both adults and children can go into. There is face painting, an art area and other activities to do between each role playing exercise. Next time I will be booking earlier so we can make a full day of it, because yes, we’ll 100% be back later on in the year.

The tickets were gifted to us by AttractionTix but all opinions of the experience, words and pictures are my own.