Kidland Penang — Attraction in George Town

We visited Kidzania in KL last year with our 5 year old, and having been very impressed with the dynamism of their staff and the culture of learning created there, I was very pleased to hear that the franchise is coming to the UK, where we live, next year. In the meantime, as we were visiting Penang this year, we thought it would be good to try Kidland there. I am conscious that Kidzania costs rather more @ RM75 compared to the RM45 I was charged for Kidland on a Saturday. Kidland prices drop to RM30 for non peak times, whilst Kidzania prices seem to be the same at all times.

Maybe I'd have been more impressed with Kidland if I hadn't seen already how well this concept can be done. I would suggest though that Kidland represents poor value even at the lower prices. The place is physically much smaller, and the range of learning opportunities correspondingly very limited in comparison. This wouldn't have mattered if the staff had been engaged and enthusiastic, but sadly they seemed largely disinterested and appeared to be going through the motions. As an example of this, each activity had a sign outside displaying the activity duration - and the first we chose (Batik making) was supposed to last 20 minutes; my daughter emerged less than 5 minutes later clutching a tiny scrap of cloth , with a "batik" picture (about 2 x 2 cm) printed on it. A similar story with the other activities.I had some difficulties communicating with some of the staff in English - perhaps not surprising given the pretty poor standard of English on the website.

Having arrived late morning, we made for the "Kido Cafe". The food on offer is pretty unhealthy and barely adequate, consisting largely of deep fried and microwaved meals - but given the strictures on only eating food purchased on the premises, you will have no choice. I ordered food, and some arrived, but my daughter's didn't. After two enquiries as to the whereabouts of her food, dismissed out of hand by what appeared to be poorly trained, stressed and disorganised staff, I produced my receipt to demonstrate that I had been waiting over an hour, and demanded my money back - given with no apology and ill-grace. The delay meant that my daughter missed the next opportunity to learn a skill - required to gain credits to bank - so had nothing to do (having run out of credits) for half an hour. In order to ensure she got something to eat, I made my way to the exit, explained the situation, and asked if I could get her something to eat and return. The answer was a resolute no. Needless to say, I elected to leave.

I have no idea who the owners are, but it appears that they have spotted a business opportunity and have geared the whole experience up to maximising return on investment. The passion evident at Kidzania is almost entirely absent here, for providing either a fun or a learning environment. Interesting to see from postings elsewhere that many other parents also seem to have also had a poor experience.

In conclusion, I would suggest that you really don't bother, unless you go in with very low expectations, and can't find anything...

It’s a wonderful place and i find it quite reasonable especially when your kids actually play to the fullest. I would be as if they are in heaven. Lol! The price is separate for first floor and second floor, fyi.

Anyway, 2 downsides. There is this place, it’s the right side of the groundfloor play area once you enter, where it’s a column with layered nets and it’s very high. I think it has some safety concerns and for younger kids once they go down the layered nets, they might not be able to come up again since it’s the ONLY way out.

We had to ask the kids not to go that side to avoid this. We also witness a kid having issues to come back up. The management needs to do something. We will of course supervise the kids but since some places are narrow (of course cuz it’s for kids), we can’t really follow them all the way to stop them from going down the column that i mentioned(i wish i have taken a picture to give better idea!)

Hopefully they look into this as i believe there are better ways to build it.

Another one would be the fact that it’s part of the rules and regulation is that the people in charge will just ask customers to leave if they have any disagreement (or they have the right to do so? idk i dont exactly remember)We did not have any issue, everyone was just having fun and everyone was lovely! but it’s just quite funny when i think about it cuz there are some situations that the staff NEED to intervene and solve the issue. I feel like it’s just an easy way out for them to have that rule as they do not have staffs to supervise either (at least i did not see anyone supervising).

Yeah, just a few issues to look into. But other than that,...

Kidland was something unique to us being from the United States. We have been to many children's museums and theme parks. We paid 45rm for our son, plus 10 for the 2 adults and found it a good value overall. Something like this in the United States would easily be 4 times this price.

The staff at the front said "everything is open" but what was not clear is that some activities are at certain times only. Because of that, there were a few things we couldn't do in the time we were there.. my son really wanted to go to the police academy but it was not going to start for about 6 hours! We were still there around 3 hours.

I advise you to walk around, and see the signs for each activity that say the times so that you can plan accordingly. We did 2 of the organized activities, the cooking and the fire station. We also did the car driving, train ride, 4d movie and baby land.

Tuesday afternoon seemed to be a good time to go, just a few small school groups and us were in the place.

Some of the staff seemed really bored/on phones and not wanting us to come in their activity. I think maybe the grocery store was open, but the girl running it made it seem like it was closed. However the cooking instructor and 2 staff running the cars were engaging.

Overall I think my son had fun and I would...