Jurassic Quest — Attraction in Spring

We visited in Milwaukee. This event suffered from 🚨False Advertising🚨as it was Nothing like what was advertised on social media. Nothing like the pictures and videos posted online with loads of animatronic dinosaurs and kids freely riding them, petting them, interacting, etc., with cool lighting effects. You should have seen parents’ faces as we rounded the corner into the warehouse. There was one large T-Rex right at the entrance, in the dark with green and red lighting. Once you passed that, the facade was gone. All you see is a massive crowd in a large, bright warehouse… and lines. Lines, lines and more lines. There were only about 5 or so moving dinosaurs, total. And maybe 1000 people crammed in during our “window” of time. These poor kids waited an hour to “ride” a single dinosaur. Again, there were maybe 5 dinosaurs to ride and at least 700+ children. There were 2 large bounce houses (shrug) And 2 inflatable slides (Alligator-themed. Close enough, eh?). There were these green, plastic line-dividers everywhere, separating the few “attractions.” There were a few dinosaurs scattered about as decoration (that did not move) and an additional area for live “shows, ” like at the zoo. A couple times per “window” they brought out these cartoonish velociraptors wearing costumes that would approach the crowd to be pet. We would have taken advantage of those shows more if we wanted to chance getting out of line, which of course we couldn’t do because the lines took about an hour each. We had gotten in line to ride these cute smaller triceratops in a separate area, but had to leave after waiting 30 minutes because our window was ending and I knew we wouldn’t get to the front of the line in time. My son was overall so disappointed with the whole experience. He is only 4 and on the way home he actually told me that he “didn’t have any fun at all.” He is not a difficult child to please and is crazy about dinosaurs. He said “that didn’t look anything like the video you showed me on your phone, mama.” I told him he was absolutely right! It did not. And to spend over $75 for the two of us to wait in lines all afternoon in an overly crowded warehouse, was a huge letdown. This was one of his Christmas presents, and he had really been looking forward to it. A couple more logistical, grown-up issues: it took 40 minutes to get into the park off the street. Even though we had tickets, once inside we waited another 15 minutes in another line to enter. I was told there was a “Coat Check” (when I was paying an additional parking fee). Then, when I got inside, there was a sign that said “coat check, not monitored, at own risk” and it was a cluster of coat racks in a corner… Ummm not a coat-check, guys. It was 10° outside today and leaving jackets in the car was not an option, so we either had to wear them inside or carry them around all day, and loads of families were doing that. I’ll attach an areal photo of the event center for reference. Looks more like a holding warehouse for people waiting out a a natural disaster. :-/ Hopefully this review helps your family save some money and some...

The jurassic Quest that came to the alerus center in grand forks, ND was a HUGE let down! First off, I got tickets months in advance to ensure they didn't sell out, paid almost $300 even with a coupon code for our family! Talk about a expensive! We chose Sunday, and while yes it is the last day, NO they cannot just start packing stuff up and shutting stuff down in the morning. We paid for an experience they refused to give us. The beginning was ok cool, the dinasaurs excited our kids and was a great educational walk through. But once you got to the otherside, terrible. They had taken a lot down because a lot of the area was empty spaces. The novelty booth overpriced everything. $60 for two helium balloons and a reflatable one. $60! They also did not disclose with a single sign that face painting required tickets! So I get in line for face painting only to find out I have to spend even more and get tickets back at the novelty booth! $42 for 2! The workers also didn't seem to care so much about keeping the line moving as they were about socializing with each other. Face painting, took about an hr to get through, and we only had to wait behind 5 kids. I thought face painting was meant to be a min per kid? Also there were 3 other closed stations that could of been opened. The lady there was very sweet though! But I do not think it was fair that she had to do that solo. There were still a lot of people there! Shame on whoever ran and organized this! Half the ride ons were shut down, and boy was it a let down for the ones that were still running. The individual stations were boring. The bounce houses were not set up in a better way. The girl running it did a terrible job at keeping everyone organized. "Apparently" A set of kids were to go in and go around to all 3 for a set time, then come out. ok cool, she had 3 seperate lines! My daughter was let into one, came out, back to the line, and the girl didn't say a word. Didn't tell her to keep going, didn't let her brother in with her either, even though he was right there with her. Turns out she was letting the far lines in first, even though we were there first. My son was pretty heartbroken standing at the front of the line and being ignored by that worker. Raptor training was cool, kids loved it.

All in all, it's getting 1 star because there is no reason to charge what they do for such a low class event. Not at all how the video advertised is. Also, I should be demanding a refund since they shut a lot down before we got there in the late morning. They were open til 7pm! So they did not provide us with the full event we paid for. Very greedy to offer Sunday tickets at the same price as fridays and Saturdays but shut half the event down. The kids enjoyed it all because they were too young to see the bs we over paid for.

Do...

I was very hopeful that this would be a great experience for my kids. I paid almost $225 for NON-REFUNDABLE tickets for my family. It advertised lots of exhibits, animated dinosaurs as well as baby dinosaurs, and activities for the kids, for hours of fun. For an extra $30 you could get an Explorer backpack with vaguely listed items.

This experience was an absolute let down. There was 5 dinosaur exhibits with 2 only having 1 dinosaurs that moved. They had a giant T Rex that was broken exposing the frame underneath. One display with 4 small fossils that you could see underneath microscopes. A "fossil dig" with barely any sand, so the kids basically just pushed a tiny bit on sand around as they could already see the whole fossil. 2 bounce houses that you had to wait over 30 minutes to get into & you had 5 minutes to bounce. the dinosaur ride was an absolute joke as well. wait for almost 45 minutes to have a 30 second ride. the "toddler jeep exhibit" was 3 powered jeep cars that the kids could sit in.... that's right sit in..... if they moved them at all, the staff would put the cars back & tell them not to drive them. You had the option of face painting.... that you had to pay an extra $20 for at the door.. or a family photo was the same scenario. I expected the gift shop to be slightly overpriced but $40 for a tiny dinosaur and $10 for 6 tiny stickers on a sheet absolutely shocked me. This was suppose to be a fun trip for my kids as we have to travel to do any sort of activities. So after spending almost $ 500 in tickets, gas and food for my family to go there, I end up feeling robbed. My son who never cries and is very understanding of situations cried full blown tears as he was upset and disappointed with the experience, complete 180 from the excitement and anticipation for the exhibit as it was his birthday trip for the year. So after saying all of this, i just hope people see this and have a fair warning of what they will experience for that...