The beautiful installations at Otah & Friends: Camp Stardust at Centrepoint Singapore make for a fun and immersive escape room experience for children.
We were at Orchard Road for a staycation this June school holiday and other than go-karting at Scape, we also visited Otah & Friends' Camp Stardust at Centrepoint Singapore as part of activities for our kids during the staycay!
This is our second Otah & Friends experience - the first was late last year at Suntec City's Grocery Run. After having great fun at the latter, we wanted to try out Camp Stardust which recently opened at Centrepoint. Its pop-up outlet was previously at the National Museum which has since finished its run in March 2022. So if you want to take your kids to Camp Stardust, it would now be at an even bigger venue at Centrepoint!
Here's our review of and 10 things to know if you're taking your kid to Otah & Friends' Camp Stardust at Centrepoint Singapore!
1) What is Otah & Friends?
Otah & friends is an immersive escape room experience suitable for families with children 12 years and younger. There are different themes, storylines and missions which feature original characters including a cute Otter, wild boar and hornbill. Each story runs for a limited period at various locations in Singapore.
Other than Camp Stardust, we had also been to Grocery Run at Suntec City which ended its run in January 2022. In Camp Stardust, participants have to find four courage badges to help a fallen star grow and glow, while in Grocery Run, we had to gather specific grocery items for an occasion!
So you see, the themes and stories are very suitable for children and their multi-room settings are interactive, very well designed and are extremely gorgeous!
2) What's at Camp Stardust?
In Camp Stardust, participants have to earn four courage badges to help a fallen star grow and glow. We started off with a story-telling session by a staff that acquainted us with the Camp Stardust story and a map of the places we'll be visiting.
Then we were off to find our badges! There are four rooms you have to visit and you'll need to complete activities in them to 'earn' each room's badge. First off, we went searching in a maze that also had us discovering a secret room!
Next up, we crawled through vines and solved a puzzle to get our next badge!
Then a game that called for quick hands to earn our third badge.
And in the final room, we did some counting to unlock a code to claim our final badge!
With our four badges in place, the final door opened and we had a campfire with Otah and friends!
Here's a video of the entire process!
3) What age group is it suitable for?
I would say Otah & Friends is suitable for families with children up to 12 years old. However, tweens might find the activities a bit too simple for them. Camp Stardust's set-up and activities are probably even simpler and I feel would be more suitable for those age 5-9 years old.
My girls - who are 9 and 11 years old - thought Grocery Run was more fun than Camp Stardust because the former's activities were slightly more challenging. So I feel certain Otah & Friends' storylines and set-ups may appeal to or be more suitable for certain age groups but overall, I'd say my kids had fun at both Camp Stardust and Grocery Run. We may have completed the activities way earlier than the allotted time, but my kids still enjoyed going back to the rooms to take photos and retry the activities.
I haven't come across many escape room experiences in Singapore that are suitable for young children - when I say suitable for young children I mean not too hard and scary for kids. So if you want to introduce escape rooms or just have an immersive story-telling session and fun activity for your kid to enjoy, Otah & Friends would be a great choice!
4) How long is the experience?
Each session is 55 minutes. It's roughly divided into a 15-minute pre-show, 25-minute gameplay inside the set and a 15-minute post-show where you can take pictures outside the set.
We probably finished the gameplay at Camp Stardust within 10 minutes and Grocery Run within 15 minutes. I'd advise you not go rushing out of the set when you're done with the gameplay (you can monitor through a timer at the set). At Grocery Run, we went out of the set thinking we'd be allowed back in to take some photos after finishing the gameplay earlier. Nope, we weren't allowed back.
At Camp Stardust, as we still had about 15 minutes left in the gameplay, the staff said we could still hang around inside the set to take photos. So don't go rushing out if you have finished your gameplay earlier than the allotted time - hang around and take some pics, it's really lovely in there!
5) Do children need to be accompanied by adults?
Children 12 years and below will need to be accompanied by a paying adult. It is not a drop-off session!
6) How much does it cost?
Tickets which you can purchase from the Otah & Friends website are at $24 per pax or you can form a group of five and pay $19 per pax. For the June school holidays, there is a 33% discount if you purchase five tickets.
We snagged a 10% discount with my IG friend Jason Ng's promo code of 'JASON10'. Unsure of its expiry date but you can try!
7) Do you need to pre-book?
Walk-ins are allowed but it'd be better to pre-book online at the Otah & Friends' website to secure your preferred day and timing as each session currently only takes a maximum of five.
We pre-booked about half an hour before our slot started as I wasn't expecting it to be crowded due to it being a weekday and indeed when we arrived ahead of our scheduled slot, the staff allowed us to start earlier as we were the only ones there.
8) Do you have to form a group to play?
Each session currently takes a maximum of five participants. I actually preferred to play with our own family and friends (so we won't see other people revealing the clues and we could have the whole place to ourselves for pictures!). It is why I waited till the last minute to book Camp Stardust as I wanted to get a session with just the three of us. If you have a group of 3, a group of 2 can still join your session.
So if you want to keep the session to just you and your family/friends, you can either try booking at the last minute like I did or form a group of 5 with your friends!
9) What do you need to bring?
You'll need to remove your shoes and have socks on at the venue. So remember to bring your socks!
10) Where is it located and till when would it be there?
Otah & Friends: Camp Stardust is located The Centrepoint, 176 Orchard Rd, #03-26A,
S238843 till 19 March 2023. It is open on weekdays, 11am-8pm and weekends, 10am-8pm.
There are other Otah & Friends experience that we'd love to try like Blast Off! and Hide-and-Seek. Their run is over for now but hopefully they would bring them back in the future!
I really feel that a lot of thought and effort were put into the Otah and Friends' activities and installations to make them fun for children. Though my kids seem a little overaged for it, we (including myself) still enjoyed the immersive experience. I would highly recommend this for families with children in the pre-school to lower primary school age (5-9 years old) and if Grocery Run returns, I'd recommend that for tweens too!
Well, the June school holidays is coming to an end but I hope you've had a good one with your kids! Tell us in the comment box below what fun places you've been to this school holiday?
Disclaimer: We paid for our tickets, 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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