The first time I visited Kidzania Kuala Lumpur was in 2012 with my eldest kid Adam Farihin who was 8 then. It took another 5 years for me to visit it again this time with my youngest kid Hana Alisha who is 6 years old. Well the entrance fee wasn’t exactly cheap anyway, it was RM55 then but gone up to RM85 now (without discounts). Tickets for adults stayed pretty much the same and after the 20% discount for showing my Tesco Clubcard, I only paid around a hundred ringgit for both.
As always we got there bright and early. Although the official opening time is 10:00AM, we got in about half an hour early. At the counter the staff said there will be 800 school children coming that day and warned us that the queues might be longer than usual. By then it doesn’t matter if there’s a thousand people in there, since my youngest has been excited of coming for weeks. Nothing is going to stop her now and she’ll be super-disappointed should I postpone the visit even another day. We took the same escalator up the level 5 where once again they did a really thorough check on your bag. No contraband food or water will make it pass the gates. They’re dead sure of making you spend money on their pricey restaurants and food stalls.
Sure enough the place was already filled with school kids running all over the place. This time they got a numbering system where you go get booking stickers for the activities. So instead of queue for a long time, you go and take a number and then go do something else and return to the place when your time is up. This is booking system is only applicable for some of the more popular attractions though. For the rest you’ll just have to queue outside the room like normal. For the first few hours, I systematically got Hana through all the popular attractions with booking stickers. In between waiting, I let Hana play the rest of the activities.
At noon we had no choice but to spend money at their expensive restaurant. I paid 12.50 ringgit for 4 piece of nuggets and a soft drink for Hana’s lunch. As for me, I managed to sneak in a piece of sausage McMuffin with egg in my sweater which made for quite a delicious lunch. It’s not that I can’t afford to pay 30 ringgit for a flimsy lunch but it’s a matter of principle. Nothing piss me off more than being ripped off, especially at theme parks and tourist traps.
Pricey food aside, Hana had a really good time during her first visit to Kidzania. She tried about a dozen activities there and she said she liked being a policeman, fire fighter, paramedic, dentist, windows cleaner and a crew at McDonald’s most. We stayed until near the closing time at 5:00PM. After spending a hundred bucks on this I’m sure as hell is going to stay till the end. Hana made over a hundred Kidzos “working” there that day and since they don’t really accept those fake money to buy real food she only get to spend it at this one departmental store. Even then she could only swap a hundred Kidzos for one little lousy spinning toy. On the way out we had to walk through the souvenir shop and this is where most parents be forced to buy some toys or souvenir for their kicking and screaming kids or unless you’re filthy rich, you’d buy some anyway. As for me, it took some expert negotiating with Hana not to spend another dime at the way overpriced souvenir shop. I mean the cheapest thing you could buy there is a bloody key chain for 13 ringgit. And Hana wanted a silly fridge magnet for 16. Said I’d rather buy her a Happy Meal set downstairs than waste 16 ringgit on a stupid fridge magnet that she wouldn’t even play with.
I suppose you can sense a bit of negativity during my visit this time. To be fair, the experience was great for my kid but not so much for me. I didn’t get to do anything in there other than stand around and watch my kid play. And don’t get me started on the cutthroat food and souvenirs. Will we come again? Not if I can help it. I’d rather we explore other
attractions first.