KidZania – What’s new?

KidZania in London is an indoor city run by kids. Designed for children aged 4 to 14, KidZania allows kids to try out lots of different real-life activities and really release their imagination.

When children arrive in the city they are given 50 Kidzos which they can use to pay for certain activities. They can also earn more Kidzos by taking part in activities. This really gives them the freedom to choose what they want to do. Both of my girls love saving their money so each time we have been they have earned more and saved it. Last year they opened a Kidzo bank account and they were amazed that their money had been earning interest between our visits.

There were a few new elements to KidZania London since we had been there last. The first was the addition of the Luvabella dolls to the Baby Care centre. I think this was a great idea as they are quite realistic so enables the kids to interact more.

The newest activity was the Nintendo LABO area. This area was very popular and allowed kids to play with the RC Cars before trying out all of the other sets currently available. A great addition for those who have not played with LABO before and who want to have a go although the long session times does mean the queue takes quite a while.

As my girls are now both over 8 I am able to leave them in KidZania unaccompanied and that is exactly what I did. However, I was a little bit concerned about them eating lunch as our visit was from 10am until 2pm (totally recommend the early start due to attendance numbers but be aware the upstairs doesn’t open until 11am). There are water fountains in the toilet areas and you can buy a Gourmet Burger Kitchen burger making experience for £2 which allows the children to make their own burger and eat it for lunch. This was perfect for us so I purchased them before I left, gave them the receipt which they need to do the activity and I headed out into Westfield for a bit of shopping.

As a blogger, it isn’t often that we actually put our money where our mouths are. We spend ages writing about places and telling you how wonderful they are and that is all well and good when we have received free tickets to get in. We have visited KidZania in London a few times over the years and it is the one place my girls always want to go back to. In fact, they love it so much that when we visited a few weeks ago we ended up buying them both Annual Passes which means that they can go as much as they like over the next year. Each annual pass gives me 5 free adult tickets as well so if I want to stay then I can. We have already been back once since we bought the passes and I sat in the Grown Ups shed to catch up on some work whilst they played. We may live in Manchester but we are in London often enough that these are a great investment.

The great thing about having these passes is that it will give us the opportunity to head down to London and take part in one of the new Heart Feel Good Family Sundays, a day where the Grown Ups can join in the fun. This will really appeal to my husband who would hate to just sit by whilst the kids played. As a grown-up, you don’t get to do everything but they have opened up enough activities to us that we can really feel part of the fun and spend time as a family.

If you have yet to go to KidZania I would definitely recommend it and if you have been before you should definitely head back and see how it has changed.