At Kiztopia, every kid is sure to find something they love at the largest shopping mall-based indoor playground in Singapore with its 18 unique play areas.
If you're a parent with young children, you must have heard of Kiztopia given all the hype surrounding it prior to its opening on 15 June 2019. The hype is rightly so given that the attraction spans an impressive 18,000 square feet at Marina Square mall, and is considered the largest shopping mall-based indoor playground in Singapore.
We made a visit to Kiztopia during the June holidays and I have to say, it’s indeed huge and gorgeous! In fact, after removing our shoes after entering the premise, our first thoughts were "Er, so where do we start?"
Well, if you're still wondering if Kiztopia is really all it's hyped up to be, read on. In fact, I'll do you one better with a beginner’s guide to Kiztopia Singapore.
1) Where is it?
Kiztopia is located at Marina Square at the Raffles Link and Raffles Avenue junction. If you're driving, you'll want to follow signs in the Marina Square car park to park closer to the Marina Mandarin side. If you're coming by public transport, drop off at the Marina Square Raffles Avenue drop-off point or exit at Exit C of Esplanade MRT station.
2) Expect peak hour ticketing queue
You know how Singaporeans love queuing so as to be the first to try out a fancy new restaurant or just-launched well-reviewed attraction? So given that Kiztopia is newly-opened, expect a ticketing queue during peak hours. We arrived at Kiztopia at 1015am on a weekday during the June school holidays and already there were at least 20 people at queues that had formed at its ticketing counter.
If you’re thinking "but I’ve already purchased online tickets during the ticketing promotion period!", nope, you’ll still need to queue to be checked in. We thought we could skip the queue with pre-purchased tickets but still we ended up queuing for at least 15 minutes before we were admitted. Given the newness of and hype over the place, I’d expect there’d still be queues during peak periods like weekend mornings. So until the buzz dies down, just keep calm and queue.
2) What tickets to get?
Kiztopia has three types of single entrance tickets – 1 hour, 3 hours and unlimited priced at $28, $38 and $48 respectively. Each ticket includes entry for one kid and one adult, subsequent adult pays $8.
We think 1 hour would be a buzzkill for your kid when you have to go, it’s really not enough time given the things you can play there. The three-hour ticket was just right for our kids. The time they had to play was just sufficient and they wouldn't have gone on longer - they thought the play areas felt repetitive after a while but I think it stems from having too many choices such that they couldn’t decide on hanging out at one attraction for long! But I’m sure those with boundless energy wouldn’t mind unlimited play!
Until 30 June, Kiztopia is still having a promotion for discounted tickets if you purchase your tickets online. The single entrance tickets is valid till 30 September. Multiple admission cards and annual passes are available as well. See Kiztopia’s website for details.
Also, you'll need socks at the venue. If you didn't bring them, you can purchase at the ticketing counter.
3) Where to go first for the big kids?
As much as Kiztopia is huge and has 18 different play areas, your kid might not be interested in all of them as some are meant for very young children. Like for Big E, eight, and Little E, six, they mainly hung around the playground area with the ball pit, slides, ninja obstacle course and trampolines. They weren't keen on the other areas as they found them ‘baby-ish’, which is good if you have toddlers and younger pre-schoolers because that meant the older rowdier crowd won’t be jostling with your younger bubs in the pretend play areas.
Big E and Little E highly recommend the following for older kids like older pre-schoolers and primary school kids - these were also obviously the most popular for the older kid group judging by the crowd. This area more suited for older kids is located to the extreme right of the venue when you enter it.
Ninja Warrior - obstacle course
Ninja Warrior is really novel for kids as you don’t see such obstacle courses in many indoor playgrounds. You can cross bridges, climb walls, balance on beams, basically pretend you’re on the Ninja Warrior TV show.
The good thing about this is everybody moves quickly in this area – you’re supposed to be ninjas right? – so there’s no hogging of equipment. In fact the girls had so much fun here, they complained of aching arms when they got home. Hur hur.
Mojo Zone - ball pit playground
This playground comes complete with a ball pit, banana boats and an interactive screen that lets you play games by throwing balls at it. The fun lies in wading in and sliding into the ball pit, and getting mum and dad to push you on the banana boat over the balls.
Alley Oop Mark - basketball AR
This is also another novel area that kids will like - playing basketball with an AR screen. You shoot hoops by aiming real balls at hoops appearing on the screen and this can be played against another player. My girls really liked this one as they ran, aimed and went against two boys.
But a word of caution. The room is small, so if you have more kids coming in or you have some really aggressive kids playing, there’s a risk of collisions or being hit by the balls. So come here when it’s not crowded.
Trampio - trampolines
The trampoline area is not huge, just three trampolines actually. So if you have lots of kids going for them all at the same time, it takes the…er… bounce away? The good thing is nobody hogs the equipment as well, most just bounce a couple of times and off they go to the next attraction.
Cosmic Space - playground opposite the ball pit
This is another playground right opposite the ball pit. The play structure is not very big and kids used to the huge play structures at indoor playgrounds like Kidz Amaze or Kidzland may find it a little boring – at least that was what my girls said. But given that there are many more things to play with, your kids will probably be zipping from this attraction to the next and next and next...
Bouncy Tiger - bouncy castle
There’s a bouncy castle here as well. But like the above, it couldn’t hold my kids' attention for long. It’s just bounce bounce a few times and off they go again. It wasn't as crowded as the playgrounds and does add to variety at the venue.
Hero Square - AR game screen
It’s easy to overlook the AR screen at Hero Square given that it’s not in the playground area and is located close to the entrance. The three games on it are really fun where children can draw lines, move pipes and gardening items to direct water in the games. Little E spent quite a bit of time here and this is one of her favourites.
4) Where to go for the little kids?
The above in 3) are suitable for little kids too, especially the ball pit, playgrounds, and bouncy castle. But you’ll need to keep an eye on them as you know how 'in the moment' older kids can be at indoor playgrounds. However judging from where the younger crowd were at, the other play areas more specific for little ones are more popular with young bubs.
Bell’s Cuisine
This is a cute pretend play room where kiddos can pretend to make and dine on cakes and pastries. It looks so charming even I was tempted to go in for a cuppa tea.
Baby’s Mart
Right next to Bell's Cuisine is a little supermarket. It’s so cute seeing the small ones pretend to go grocery shopping and pay at the cashier. Absolutely adorable!
Baby Pit
This one’s closer to the playgrounds where little ones can play with ‘sand’ - which is really brown plastic granules - without worrying about getting sandy feet and butt. Some of the older kids were also seen playing here.
Tina’s Snips
Here’s where little girls and boys can play dress up with princess, mermaid and superhero costumes for them to choose from. Saw quite a few mummies dressing up their kids for photo ops around the venue. Really sweet.
Chug Eli
This train ride close to the playgrounds is strictly for little ones as there is a height limit. It also operates at certain timings as well.
Pio Drift
This is also another one for little kids because the big ones with long legs would find it quite uncomfortable to push themselves along on the small cars! Little ones can scoot around and 'refill' petrol for their ride at a pump station.
5) Look out for your kids – the place is huge
The venue is huge, so you might have a hard time keeping an eye on your kids as they dart from attraction to attraction. We lost sight of our girls a few times. If you have younger ones who would panic if they don’t see you nearby, you might want to tell them you’ll wait at a certain spot for them where they can see you as they climb the play structures. When we were there, many parents hung around outside the ball pit playground, presumably the area where their kids were.
For those with older kids, you can wait at the spacious dining area at Bell’s Pantry. The café wasn’t operating yet when we were there but we expect it wouldn't be long when you can sip on coffee and have some munchies while your kiddos go wild at the playgrounds.
Find Kidztopia at Marina Square, 6 Raffles Boulevard, Level 1, #01-09, Singapore 039594. Opening hours are at 10am-9pm from Sunday till Thursday and at 10am-10pm on Friday and Saturday.
Disclaimer: We paid for our visit, and my opinions and reviews here are strictly my and my family’s own.
©Vivian Teo. All content and photos are copyrighted to Vivian Teo unless otherwise specified.
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