Thanks to Crayola Experience Orlando for hosting our visit. As always, all thoughts and opinions are my own.
When you think of Orlando, you most likely think of one or two different big theme parks, as those are attractions that draw people in, not just from all over the country, but from all over the world. But the metropolitan area has quite a few other hidden gems that many tourists to the area never even see, and I hope to help change your mind about that today and encourage you to find the time to visit Crayola Experience Orlando.
This attraction is located within a mall, but don’t let that fact fool you into thinking that it is small and therefore, possibly not worth your time. It’s quite huge, actually, and can take anywhere from 3 hours to a full day to experience, just depending on your kids and their particular interests. We spent 5 hours there and only left because the parents, not the kids, were exhausted. 🙂
To have an absolutely amazing time at Crayola Experience, I have some key tips for you.
#1. Arrive Before Opening
Get to Crayola Experience 5-10 minutes before the doors are supposed to open. The outside area has some great sculptures and your kids will want to get to inspect them thoroughly. And then you’ll be one of the first in line when the doors actually do open, and that gives you a huge advantage because you can knock out a few of the activity stations that tend to form lines rather quickly first.
#2. Do These Activities First
If you’ve never been to Crayola Experience before, how are you supposed to know which activities to do first? Well, I’ll let you in on that little secret! Go ahead and check out this map to get more familiar with the lay of the land. After you get your tickets and walk up the stairs into the large main room, the very first activity you should do is Wrap It Up. This is where you get to select a crayon color from a kiosk (each kiosk is associated with a particular color) and custom make a label for it. As the day progresses, lines form at these kiosks, so take care of this first thing! We decided on our general colors and crayon names on the car ride over to save even more time.
After your crayons are made, head toward the back of the building to Drip Art, which is another activity that forms a line once the crowd size grows. It’s so much fun, though, as your kids will have super fun art projects to show for it. Right next to this activity is Melt & Mold and I suggest you go ahead and do this one, too! We were able to get all 3 of these popular activities done within the first 45 minutes of the place being open, which was so great!
#3. Take a Seat and Grab a Crayon
While the kids are playing at various activity centers throughout the day, be sure to sit down with them and grab some crayons (they are VERY easy to find!) and color, too. I saw lots and lots of adults coloring. It’s definitely encouraged, not to mention, really fun.
#4. Don’t Rush
You probably can technically do everything at Crayola Experience in 2-3 hours, but I really don’t know why you would want to rush through it at all. I want to encourage you to let your children engage in creativity. You might be surprised by just how long they want to spend doing things like coloring a dog (30 uninterrupted minutes!) or coloring different characters and then bringing them to life on the computer (another 30 uninterrupted minutes!).
There is so much to do and see at Crayola Experience, and it’s all best done if you just take your time and opt to be present and be co-creators with your kids. Two of our favorite activities came toward the end of our time there, when we discovered the Meltdown activity center, with vat after vat of melted crayon wax that could be used to make art. Every member of my family spent a lot of time working on pieces that we gifted to each other once we were finished. It was such an unusual way to get to use crayons!
We also got to have some great quality time together at Modeling Madness, as we sat around the table together and played with the modeling clay. We got to talk about some of our favorite activities of the day and things we were looking forward to doing during the rest of our vacation.
Crayola Experience Orlando was a fantastic way to spend a good chunk of our Saturday. We made great memories and got some fun new ideas for art projects back at home. I very highly recommend this as a place to go for half a day (or more!) while you are visiting the city. Your children will love it, and so will you!
And if you are looking for educational opportunities for your kids and are local, Crayola Experience does have offerings for homeschool groups (15 or more) as well as for school groups. As a homeschooling mom, I counted our day here as a field trip school day because of all the creating and learning the kids did throughout the day. I also took a look at some of the teacher resources that the Crayola corporate website makes available to anyone with interest. Definitely take a look!
Discount Offer!
I’m so pleased to be able to offer my readers a discount on the price of admission! Simply head to tickets.crayolaexperience.com and use promo code SPN and you’ll be able to snag a general admission ticket for $16.99 ($22.99 is the regular price, so score!).
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