Crayola Experience Plano — Attraction in Plano

We decided to check out the “CRAYOLA Experience” in Plano Texas recently, so this review is based on January 2020.

Similarly to “LEGO Land” at Grapevine Mills Mall, The Crayola Experience is a brand experience anchored onto the side of a mall. Crayola Experience is in Plano at “The Parks at Willow Bend” Mall, off the Dallas North Tollway just north of George Bush Turnpike.

Admission is $23.99 per person for the day ages 3 and up, and free for 2 and below. If you buy tickets online you can get a discounted rate of $20.99, and it is possible to buy tickets online while you stand in the lobby of Crayola Experience on your phone.

Our family of 4 which included one infant was approximately $65 with tax to get in for the day.

The facility is very large, approximately the size of a warehouse, and has been colorfully painted in Crayola style. Everything was extremely spaced out, as if the place was designed to accommodate more than 1000 people simultaneously. It felt somewhat awkward then, that there were less than 100 people in the place on the day that we visited, making the vest facility seem sort of barren and empty.

When you enter there are machines where you can create your own personalized crayon, a very nice touch, you use a token that they provide you with admission to put into the machine color of your choice and print out a custom label that you can put your name or whatever you’d like on. A nearby station allows you to apply the label to the crayon and this is one of the keepsakes that you can take back with you. If you want to buy additional tokens to make more custom crayons they are $.50 each.

Many other activities in the experience are unique, like melting down crayons to make artwork, or to melt down crayons to form different shapes in a mold. The most notable was the live show which they present to every hour which actually shows the creation of a crayon from scratch from the mold process to the packaging which was actually very fascinating.

Many other activities though are lackluster. Simple things like playing apps on what are essentially heavy duty iPads, or applying Snapchat filters to your face, are unremarkable experiences that could easily be duplicated at home. Much of the experience hinges on you actually coloring on pieces of paper and then scanning them into some sort of apparatus, novel but on your fifth coloring sheet you begin to wonder why you paid more than $20 to come into a room to color.

In the middle of the experience is a large multi level tube style playground which was the highlight of the trip. This is arguably a value in and of itself because the facility is indoor and climate controlled, important for people here in North Texas. Still, there is nothing really Crayola about this other than the decorations, this was just a indoor playground.

The facility is filled with upsell opportunities, like a candy shop, ice cream shop, a snack bar and restaurant.

Most of the included experiences were pretty simple, some of them were manned by staff, but most of them were self guided experiences. After approximately three hours we were ready to go, and of course our daughter wanted to play games, eat ice cream, get souvenirs or spend more money which we had to convince her otherwise.

Coming out I didn’t feel like this was an incredible value or an outstanding experience I would necessarily recommend to others. They asked me several times if I was an annual passholder, and looking back now the notion of going to this place several times a year seems especially funny to me. Three hours was certainly enough.

The value of a giant indoor experience center might be better for someone who lives in the immediate vicinity was looking for a summertime activity, but as for us having a 35 minute commute from Rockwall I don’t think it’s a place that we will be visiting...

I would give it no stars if I could.

We spent over $150 to bring our daughters here for our youngest’s birthday, and I cannot express enough how much of a complete waste of money this was. Disappointed doesn’t even begin to cover it.

Let’s start with the first rip-off—why are parents, who are only there to supervise, forced to pay full admission? That’s absurd and nothing more than a greedy money grab. But fine, we paid, expecting a worthwhile experience for our kids. Instead, we got a series of broken, poorly maintained attractions that felt like an afterthought.

The crayon-making machines? A joke. The screens barely worked, scrolling was glitchy, designs were outdated, and the ink smudged so badly on the labels that some were completely unreadable. The label wrappers were in such poor condition that they either didn’t stick properly or tore apart, often breaking the crayons in the process. It was beyond frustrating to watch our daughters get excited to make their own crayons, only to have the entire process fail them at every step.

Then there was the Meltdown picture area—another major disappointment. The display showed beautiful, multicolored designs, yet all we were given were four or five dull color choices. Worse, those limited colors had to be shared among multiple visitors, making it nearly impossible to create anything even remotely close to what was advertised. False advertising at its finest.

And just when we thought it couldn’t get worse, it did. At the end of our visit, we went to redeem the scribble scrubbie vouchers, only to find that they were out of stock. There wasn’t even a sign warning guests—just an empty counter. After searching for a staff member (because of course, no one was there), we were casually told to “hold onto the vouchers.” When I explained that we are not local and would not be returning, we were given a pathetic excuse of a replacement—two measly tokens per child. That was it. No real alternative, no refund, no effort to make up for the missing experience.

This place took our money, made empty promises, and delivered nothing but frustration, disappointment, and a ruined birthday for our child. If key attractions are broken, out of stock, or falsely advertised, there should be refunds or at least equivalent replacements. Instead, we left feeling cheated, our daughters left heartbroken, and we will never be coming back. Shame on you for charging so much for such a poorly run, disorganized, and utterly...

We saw this attraction with mixed reviews and wondered how Crayola could be anything but awesome. After visiting we unfortunately came to the conclusion that the Crayola Experience was not worth the (expensive) price of entry, especially for what's offered. Children 3 and under are free, so for two adults and a child it cost us $60. THE ACTIVITIES INCLUDE: Crayon coloring station with 8 colors of crayons and 4 different pages to color. Water coloring station with a blank piece of manilla paper you can paint on and then dry in a conveyor belt dryer. Marker station (six colors) where you can color a paper beard that you can then cut out and glue a strap to the back so you can wear it. Coloring station to color one of 3 characters you can then scan onto a tablet, pick a background for the character then h email it to yourself. Selfie station where you can pick different face options then take a selfie and email yourself the picture. A picture station where you can take your own picture, choose a background for it, then print it out and color it Medium sized indoor playground for kids. Small indoor playground for toddlers, a coloring station where you can color A station where you can choose between 3 colors of melted crayons to draw on a blank index card with. Think of a hot glue gun with a crayon instead of glue. Crayon melting station Chalk station where you can draw on walls or a small decorative car. Small theater to watch a short film Other activities.

Each 'activity' station has room for roughly 2-6 families at a time, so you can move from one to the other as space becomes available. There is also a Cafe to eat meals at, and vending machines that accept quarters (or tokens) to get a personalized crayon, or a colored piece of modeling clay.

Ultimately my family and I would not visit this attraction again in the future. The cost for a single visit was far too expensive for what was offered in activities and attractions, especially since adults cost the most and adults aren't the ones participating in the experience. There is a one year annual pass option, but even then, if I lived in the area I wouldn't see the...