Following its closure during the pandemic in 2020, KidZania Singapore has finally reopened on 16 May 2024!
I asked Meta AI for a description of KidZania:
KidZania is an interactive indoor theme park designed for kids aged 1-16, where they can role-play various professions and activities in a miniature city. The concept is to educate and entertain children through hands-on experiences, allowing them to learn about different careers, develop skills, and build confidence in a fun and immersive environment. Kids can become mini-doctors, pilots, chefs, scientists, and more, while parents can relax and watch their little ones explore and learn. With over 30 locations worldwide, KidZania has become a popular destination for family outings and school field trips.
KidZania is pretty popular. The day was fully booked, partially owing to the day being the first school closure for some kids (due to PTCs) and also because there was a 50% off promotion. You can see this from the queue that already started forming at least 30 minutes before opening.
When you first enter, kids are given 50 KidZos, or what is known as the currency to be used by the kids. Kids can earn KidZos by taking part in certain activities, and I think you can earn up to 10 KidZos per activity, depending on how much time you needed to invest in it. Kids get to spend KidZos at certain activities that teach you something, e.g. robotics or learning how to use the camera. They can also use it to buy something at the Kids Department Store later.
The place felt like a mini amusement park, something like a mini USS or mini Disneyland. Here you can see a pretty long queue forming up, and this is for the SCDF activity, one of the more popular ones. I believe the other popular ones is the aviation one which we failed to get a ticket.
For the SCDF Firefighter activity, kids will start by getting dressed with the helmet and jacket with a quick phototaking, before watching a video brief and then boarding the firetruck. On the way to fight a fire, there will be a cheering led by the staff along the way. Thereafter they will use the firehose to fight the fire and then return.
The activity takes 20 minutes so the queue can be quite intense, especially they can take up to 10-ish (officially is 8) if the kids are smaller in build and can squeeze into the firetruck. While there are signs saying that parents cannot queue, most of the parents do queue anyways, because I think its quite hard to expect younger kids to stay in line.
One of the other popular activities is the Shopee one where kids are dressed as package delivery people and they run all over the place delivering packages. It has a very long queue so be sure to visit this early! I think it takes time because kids must be able to find the other places they are supposed to go to! Another activity that does something similar is the Bank Vault but I think its more interesting to be dressed as a delivery person hence the greater interest in the Shopee activity!
Here are the other sights and sounds of the place! There is always something happening! Be it Shopee delivery kids, singing and cheering (parades), vehicles (ambulance, firetruck) moving around! For those who are not interested in these activities, there is still a “ball pit” kind of area, well not exactly a ball pit but rather a place with balls and cannons where you can shoot those balls. There is also an infant/toddler room for younger kids to play.
For slightly older kids, there is the soccer activity. The queue can be rather long though. Each session takes up to 10 kids, and takes about 40 mins, 10-15 minutes of briefing/prep, 15 minutes of warmup, 10 minutes of actual match.
Food wise, there are 2 choices (that were opened), 1 was Kith with their spaghetti and finger food (oh the chocolate cake was good!), and the other was a pizza shop (which doubles up as an activity too!). Do note that Kith has a second storey for sitting! Noting here because I saw some kids waiting for our ground floor seats and we told them to go upstairs to check as well!
The queue for the pizza shop is very long because you need to wait for the kids to make the pizza before heating it up! Drinks-wise, if Kith is a bit pricey, you can go for Kopifellas!
That leaves us to the question whether it is possible to exit KidZania, and head to a nearby restaurant at Beach Station. While the website has no information on this, the staff at the exit told me it was possible to re-enter before 5pm (note closure time was 6pm). I think there is probably no need to stamp since entry/exit was done via facial recognition (yes so high tech!) which we had to register online before first entry.
If of course you are tired and your kids are older, you can take a rest at the Parents Lounge, which is situated at the second floor near the School of Robotics / The Lab activities. It is decently sized and there is a sign that says “Strictly no kids allowed” so that parents can have the rest they deserved!
Remember the KidZo currency? Once you are done, you can head to the Kids Department Store to exchange the KidZos for items. If you are here for the first time, your kid will only probably have time to earn up to at most 100+ KidZo, which isn’t a lot to exchange for items. Probably a country eraser or so? You probably might need to have multiple re-visits to actually exchange for the 2500 KidZo items!
At the end, once you are done with the visit, head to the shop that sells souvenirs (yes the one that sells stuff at real SGD) to find the exit.
Overall I thought it was a good experience for kids. I think the best age to come is probably around 5-7 ish, because it might be a bit less exciting for older kids (although they can appreciate advanced activities better too!). Till next post! :)
New Tayo Station at Downtown East