At first glance from inside The Florida Mall you may think The Crayola Experience is just a store selling Crayola goods. However, this would be a huge mistake if you have children under the age of 12! They would be missing out on one of the most creative and fun days Florida has to offer! I say that after my four, soon to be five year old daughter’s comments and constant requests to return and even have her birthday party there!
The fun begins while you queue to buy your ticket. Three giant interactive Crayola crayons are projected onto the wall and copy the dances and jumps that your little one performs while standing on the foot markings in front of the screen. The whole family is issued with a plastic bag big enough to carry all your creations – so you can ‘make and take’!! Each bag has two tokens for the only two exhibits that require an additional payment – this allows your little one to personalise their own crayon wrapper with their name and choice of picture, print it then wrap their own crayon. They can use the other token in the Model Magic dispenser then sit and create their own model, with the help of tools and designs provided. This means there is no additional cost once inside unless of course you get pestered to purchase additional tokens for crayons to wrap or extra model magic. However, tokens are not expensive and if you chose not to there is so much more they will be distracted by!
In the next experience you can all star in your very own colouring page! Pick a design on the computer, strike a pose then print out the black and white colouring sheet to either colour there, take home or even get printed onto a t-shirt in the shop downstairs! (Understandably there is a charge for the t-shirt!). Even the grown ups were finding this fun! Pull as many faces and print as many pages as you like – although if a queue starts to develop it is good to consider the kiddies waiting behind!
They get to melt crayons in a special machine that then drips the wax onto a paper plate on a turntable which spins at the control your child, so that their creation is absolutely unique to them. In a similar station, they get to chose a shape to melt a crayon of their choice into – to create a seahorse, shark, ring or car crayon to take home with them.
There is a lovely area where they can chalk on walls, play hop scotch and even colour a play house and car – I think the rebel in our daughter loved this area and our own car now has a ‘decorated’ seat belt so make sure you let them know this is allowed a Crayola Experience only!
With 25 hands-on attractions in all you could easily spend a day here. We packed it all into three hours but we did have to drag our little angle out of the ‘Toddler Town’ play area, and she would happily have returned to each area again and again!
Welcome Homes USA thoroughly recommends adding this unique experience to your vacation as a welcome, air conditioned break from the heat or shelter from our infamous afternoon downpours here in Florida! It is also an opportunity to take a seat, rest your feet after the miles they have trekked at the parks and let the creative side of your children run wild. They can even take their creations into school when they are back home to show their teachers how educational their trip away has been!