Why You Need To Get Creative With Crayola!
So when you get to Orlando, Florida and you’ve had your fun at Disney and Universal. Take a break and head over to the Crayola Experience.
Ok so is the Crayola Experience just crayons?
It is crayons, but it’s so much more than crayons. Its a 2 floor creative haven for kids of all ages, even the adults will be picking up and having a go at some point of the day. They have in total 26 different attractions. They even have a show for you to watch.
It’s also in a really great location at the Florida Mall, and as this will only take up a few hours of your day, there is plenty to do afterwards, and also plenty of places to eat.
You can watch our video here.
Arriving at Crayola!
So you’ve got your directions and now you are trawling around a giant mall car park looking for this place. If you can't see it just keep driving as you seriously can not miss this place. Its so colourful, just like a pack of crayons. They literally just exploded over the building. We were outside for 15 minutes before we even entered looking at the cool figures and seeing the different things decorated on the wall.
How long do I really need there?
We were there 3 hours, our kids really enjoy colouring and all things creative, so it was so great for them. There are so many attractions and we didn't manage to do them all as we arrived later but they were closing early for a special event. But definitely fit this day in around going to the mall and of course M&M World.
So what can I really do here?
When you first arrive and you get your tickets, the kids can have a play in front of the big screens, where they can have their very own dancing crayon mimic their moves. This is great to entertain the kids in long queues. In fact ours were having so much fun we couldn't drag them away to actually go into the attraction.
Upon arrival after getting your tickets, you are given two tokens each. They explained to us the different places we could use the tokens, which included making a personalised crayon all for yourself. You can also purchase, modelling clay, packs of crayons and markers. If you would like more you can purchase extra tokens.
We all used one of our tokens to get our names printed on a label. You can select an array of colours from the colour sections and you get the matching sticker with your name on it. Obviously we went for our own JellyBeanTV names which you can see for yourselves.
Our favourite part of the experience was melting the crayons and making spin art. You get to select two crayons, then melt them down and choose how fast the wheel spins so you can make your design. If your kids are like mine then they will be putting the spin onto fast straight away.
You can make your own crayons at the station next door. You can choose from a selection of shapes that you will melt down your crayon into. We got a shark and a seahorse, but they also have other ones to choose from.
If you love colouring pictures, then you can take your pictures to the next level and bring them to life. Get the picture of a Dragon, fairy or a knight, colour them in and then bring your drawing to life on the Colour Magic machine. We had some pretty cool looking fairies and dragons. You even get to select the background, take a picture and email it to yourself.
They have so many different interaction zones like this where you can bring drawings to life, they have something for everyone. Even a giant scribble wall so you can leave your mark (yes JBMum may have had a go). They had a really awesome Light Box where you could write your name, of course we wrote ours.
Is there anything else?
Yes if you like interactive shows, then make sure you don't miss the Crayon show. It’s so much fun, we really enjoyed seeing how crayons were made. As we were also visiting at a quiet time we were the only ones in there, so got an extra special one on one show. We saw how they were formed and even got to touch some warm wax out of the pot. This was a real highlight to our day and something we didn't realise they even had. They even had a ticking counter on the wall so you can see how many crayons have been made at the Crayola factory. Don't forget to get your free crayon on the way out of the show, freshly made that day.
If you want a break then they have a pretty cool play area for the kids in the middle, so you can take 30 mins and grab a coffee from the snack bar, (be warned they have a large candy section).
On the way out if you missed it at the beginning you can get some funny family photos taken at the booth, that will turn you all into a drawing. We had so much fun here making crazy pictures as a family.
So if you are in then area and are looking for something different to do, then Crayola is definitely for you. You may end up even enjoying it more than the kids. If you need a gift or something for the little ones to take home they have a great store on site too.
