Stop by The Crayola Experience in Chandler during your kids spring break! + GIVEAWAY!

Many schools around Arizona are about to be out for spring break, so what is there to do to keep the kids entertained while still social distancing? Aside from spending some time in the great outdoors there are several options around the valley that will allow you to stay safe while still having fun. One of those options is the Crayola Experience which is located inside of Chandler Fashion Center. Due to covid they had to close down for a little while, however they recently celebrated their grand re-opening on March 3rd and have several safety protocols in place to keep their guests safe. Tickets are $17.99 online or $19.99 if purchased at the gate, they also offer annual passes for guest who would like to visit several times through out the year.

What are they doing to keep everyone safe during these interesting times? First they are limiting the amount of guests allowed in the building at one time, and they are doing temperature checks at the front desk which are being done by a trained EMT. Activity stations have been limited as well, some of them have had a spot or two shut down for the time being to keep families separated. Masks are required and at this time they are asking that you only bring in see through bags (you can ask for one if needed). While there we also noticed several staff members wiping down all the machines, and helping keep everyone six feet away from one another. During our visit there are a few other families, but we never felt like we were too close to another family or being over crowded, it was a delightful and quiet experience. 

The Crayola Experience can be a lot of fun for children of all ages and even adults! Let's go over some of the fun activities they have to offer you during your visit. Once you get through the ticket station you will be handed a clear plastic bag that has tokens, a pack of crayons and two chalk sticks. Normally they have art supplies out for you to use, but to prevent cross contamination they have given you a set of your own to use and keep. We've found tokens vary from bag to bag, some of ours have two while others had three, if you want to purchase more than that they have a coin exchange machine, each token costs $0.50. When you first enter the building you will be greeted by two big round machines, each machine has four stations where you can create your own crayon label. 

To use the label maker you will select a color you'd like, this time around the only options were green, pink and orange. Standing in front of the color you want you will insert one of the coins found in your bag you were given at the entrance, then it will ask you to select a symbol you'd like on your label. They have a nice selection to choose from, I went with a star as you can see above. It will also let you name the crayon, I named mine after my blog! Hit "Print" when you are happy with how your label looks and it will spit out your label along with a naked crayon. Next stop at the station next to these where you place the label and crayon, then pull downwards on the handle and it will apply the label to the crayon. Tada! Look at how cute the crayon turned out. 

The only other station that takes the coins is a vending machine that has a variety of model magic baggies. They have a few tables set up where you can sit and play with the model magic, however we decided to just put ours in our bags and safe it for when we arrived home. We bought a few extra coins so the kids could each get four colors. My son had a blast playing with the model magic when we arrived home. From here you can explore the rest of the facility. Directly next to the vending machines is a small area with three tablets spaced six feet apart that kids can play with. Across from the tablets you'll find two areas where "Be A Star", this spot is a lot of fun. 

Why is this spot such a fun stop? You get to create your own coloring pages where you are the star of the show. Who wouldn't want to get a printed page of themselves as a coloring page? You will get to select which background you'd like, strike a pose and get your photo taken. There is a printer directly next to this station so you don't need to go anywhere to pick up your print. Take a family photo or let the kids take a few snap shots on their own to color in when they get home. 

You will also find two crayon melting stations. The first station an attendant will have you select two different colored crayons and instruct you on how to use the machine, each crayon will be added in one at a time. As the crayon is melting there is a spinning paper directly under it where the wax will land, you can use a control to adjust how fast or how slow it will spin giving you a different splatter pattern each time. The attendant suggested I do one that looked like my hair, so I happily agreed and think it turned out great. 

The second station is right next to the spinner and you'll have your choice of one crayon color. It will be inserted into a different machine that will melt it, dripping it into a car shaped mold. Depending on the color of crayon the person before you used, you might end up with a multicolored crayon like I did above. It is a exciting experience getting to see the crayon made right before your eyes. 

If that wasn't enough excitement they also have a area where you can color in a magical create, scan it to a computer and have it come to life on the screen or you can see a fashion show featuring a outfit you colored in yourself. If fashion shows aren't your thing, you can also see a race featuring a car you designed yourself. 

There is also a large chalk wall, a giant light up peg board, a interactive wall that makes it look like you are walking through melted crayons, arcade games that give tickets you can trade for prizes, a gem mining station and more. Due to the safety protocols in place the crowd was much smaller than the last time we visited, we could actually walk around and enjoy the experience more with the smaller lines. We thought they did a fantastic job keeping everything clean and safe for everyone visiting, the staff were friendly, helpful and seemed to be in high spirits while interacting with everyone. We didn't experience any issues while on this trip, and I honestly can't think of anything but great things about our trip.

Before you leave they will ask if you want an arm band so you can come back later in the day if you are just heading out for lunch. The exit leads into their retail store located next door, you'll find dozens of colorful gifts and souvenirs available for purchase, and you'll be greeted by a giant wall of crayons. 

They have a number of tins and buckets available for purchase that you can fill up with any crayons or markers you can fit inside of it for a set price. We were able to fit quite a bit in the tin we had, we filled it mostly with crayons, but we also had enough room for a handful of markers. They have a lovely selection of colors including metallics, glitters and neon choices. The tin shown above cost $18.99 which might seem like a lot but you get the tin and everything you can fit inside. We ended up with ten markers and 103 crayons, plus the tin itself, so I would say that is a pretty good deal. 

On our way out we also spotted a display of candy bars that had crayon wrappers. It was early morning, and the bars were a little more than I typically pay for a candy bar coming in at $3.49 a bar (the size of a regular Hersheys bar), however they had some pretty intriguing flavors so we let the kids pick out a bar and we each grabbed one as well. My daughter went with the milk chocolate caramel, my son selected the S'mores, and my husband and I went with dark chocolate sea salt. They are delicious! 

Above you can see some of the goodies we brought back from our trip. The eight pack of crayons was in your entry bag, the two crayons by themselves and the model magic are what can be purchase with the tokens. The spin art and car crayon are from the melting stations, the tin full of crayons and the crayon shaped piggy bank can be found in the retail store and the tickets in the middle are being used for a Giveaway for my readers!

Now that you know all of the excitement the Chandler Crayola Experience has to offer you it is time for me to give away some tickets so you can go check it out for yourself.  The tickets do not have an expiration date so you are able to go when ever you'd like! I will be mailing these out to the winners. 

Prize Alert: Five lucky winners are each going to receive FOUR tickets to take their family to enjoy a day out.

This is open to Arizona Residents! Please remember if you DO NOT leave a comment on this blog post as your mandatory entry into the giveaway then all of your entries will be void. Doing the Daily entries will increase your chance of winning. Winners have 72 hours to respond to the notification email! 

This giveaway ends on 03/16/2021

Giveaway entry question: Leave a comment telling me which activity mentioned above you think your family would enjoy the most.

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Disclaimer-  The Crayola Experience provided me with four tickets for our entry, a tin to fill with crayons, a piggy bank and a gift card for lunch for the review + twenty tickets to use as a prize for a giveaway free of charge no other compensation was provided. However, no product compensation will influence the outcome of any review. My honest opinions are used in all reviews, they are solely my own & they may vary from others. My reviews are posted for readers in order to provide an informed decision before purchase. 

Bodies Revealed is at OdySea in the Desert!

**This was not a paid post. My husband and I were invited to a media preview night to check this exhibit out before it opened to the public we attended free of charge provided by Bridges Media PR. however my honest opinions were used. The opinions expressed below are solely my own & they may vary from others.**

Have you heard of Bodies Revealed? No? well you are about to learn what it is and what it is about. Bodies Revealed is a traveling exhibit that goes from state to state to show the public a interesting and in depth look at how the body works and what is inside of us. Bodies Revealed is currently set up on the second story of OdySea in the Desert near the OdySea Aquarium, they opened on May 12th and will be here until Next May.

 I wanted to note this review won't have as many photos as my reviews normally do, this exhibit does not allow photography inside of the exhibit and yes that included those who were there for the media night so the image above I pulled from the stock of Bodies Revealed photos on google.

Everything you see at Bodies Revealed is real, every last body, organ, heart, etc is real. It takes the team behind Bodies Revealed one week to one year to get each specimen ready for show. They have so many different things to see it was unbelievable some of the ways they were able to display the specimens to show how everything lays in the body. There were a few things that might make a few people feel a little uneasy otherwise everything is pretty fascinating seeing exactly how many different working and moving parts you have inside of you.

The exhibit was significantly larger than I thought it was going to be, it seemed to go on for quite some time and they had everything spaced out well so you aren't running into people while trying to take in everything. They also have several organs and even brains that show cancer and other health related issues. I don't want to give away too much of the exhibit so I will leave it off here and tell you to go see what it is all about. Tickets are $19.95 per adult and $14.95 per child or you can buy combo tickets that include one of the other attractions located inside of OdySea in the Desert.

Zedtown Event Review!

**This was not a paid post. My honest opinions are used (both good and bad), they are solely my own & they may vary from others. I received four passes to the event for promotional purposes. It was provided by Zedtown for the review free of charge.**

It's no secret that zombies have become increasingly popular over the last several years, from video games to TV shows it seems like almost everyone loves something that has to do with zombies. Now you can add a live action zombie hunting game to the list of zombie themed fun. Zedtown is a mixture of tag using Nerf guns, the color run/ a live action Call of Duty game and LARPing, the whole thing was a blast and a half and was an experience unlike anything I've ever done before.

 

Zedtown originated in Australia but has been hitting various cities across the US for one to two days per stop, when they came through Arizona they set up shop at Rawhide which is a old western themed attraction we have here that has plenty of open space for a game like this. They have two ticket options for purchase, which are survivor tickets and Alpha zombie tickets. The event lasts for four hours from start to finish and there are several easy to follow rules in place to keep everyone safe such as only allowing certain Nerf gun ammo, being asked not to shoot anyone directly in the face and more. In total there were about 550 people at the event on the Saturday we attended (including staff), only 16 of them started off as Zombies!

Survivors need to bring Nerf guns or rolled up socks (used like bombs/grenades) to use to defeat the zombies who will be running around, when you arrive to the event you meet up with your faction color and download the Zedtown app which sends you missions and information during the event. Not only do the survivors have to fend off zombies but they also have to face each other! There are three factions in total, Red, Gold and Blue all of which have their own leader and will do different missions such as collecting gas to fuel their generators. Before heading to Zedtown you have the option to dress up based off of the suggestions given for the faction, for example the Red faction can dress like Mad Max or Borderlands characters while the gold faction can dress like Hunger games characters. If you do decide to dress up there is a costume contest at the end.

For those who purchase Alpha Zombie tickets, you arrive early and get treated to a seat in the makeup chair while a makeup artist transforms you into a zombie! Our group was split on how we wanted to start out, my husband and I started off as Zombies and the rest of our group went as survivors. Since we saw they were having a costume contest my husband wanted to dress up as a charger which is a character from the video game Left For Dead, we've done the costume in the past before but this time we ramped it up and fixed a few things on it making it better than before. I decided I would get my makeup done at the event instead of doing it at home so that I could see what their process was like.

My Thoughts;

I was honestly a little worried about the event at first, I am a big baby and sometimes my anxiety gets the best of me so I was worried about being split off from the rest of my group. However once everything got started I was perfectly fine and had a wonderful time. When we first arrived we made sure to get there early so I could get my makeup done. It was neat arrive early because several of the people who had arrived at the same time we did were checking out my husbands costume and asking for photos. They had several security measures in place to keep everything fun and safe, We went through a decent check in process where they used the metal detector wands, did bag checks, nerf gun checks and more. After getting through the checks my husband and I were directed to the zombie area where all the zombies would stay out of site until the event started.

The makeup process was fun although I wish they were doing it in a better lit room as the poor lighting made it hard to see and photograph in the room. Makeup wise I was quite happy with my makeup, the process was longer than I had expected it to be which is nice since Alpha Zombie tickets cost more than survivor tickets. Prior to the event I had thought there would be more zombies starting off so I figured it out be a five minute makeup process but it ended up being closer to a half hour. Once all the zombies were transformed we had to wait until the start of the game before wandering out so no one would see us, during the waiting time they ran down the rules and how to turn survivors into zombies. Like the survivors the zombies also had someone leading us and helping us along the way, they were both known as the Boss Zombies and were unable to be "killed" in the game.

They had gathered all the survivors into the middle of the western town so the mayor could make an announcement and tell everyone the rules of the game, towards the end of the instructions they opened up a gate which is when all of us dressed as zombies ran out. As soon as you started running out a adrenaline rush hit, all of the survivors started screaming and running to get away from the zombies and head to their faction head quarters. During the initial zombie release several people had dropped their nerf gums, ammo and more trying to run away and many others ended up falling and tripping trying to get away it was a bit chaotic but a lot of fun and resulted in several good laughs.

During the course of the game survivors were given tasks which took them through the other factions territories and of course near the zombies so they had to watch their backs constantly. It was a lot of fun being a zombie because you were able to hide and chase after people to "tag" them as a zombie, once you tagged someone they gave you their Zedtown dogtags (given to them at the start of the game) for you to scan and turn them into a zombie on the Zedtown app. After being turned into a zombie they were instructed to go to the zombie hub to thrown on some zombie makeup and re-enter the game as a zombie. Remember how I said at the start that we started out with 16 zombies (18 if you include the two boss zombies) and almost 500 survivors? Only about sixty people made it out alive as survivors by the end, some of the aplha zombies were pretty fast and racked up a lot of "kills".

As a zombie if you were shot and killed you had to return to the zombie hub and wait to re-spawn in the game. They had a small station set up that had a count down and music that would play, once the time and music stopped you re-entered the western town to hunt for more survivors. To keep track of who was who they gave everyone colored headbands, green meant you were a zombie. We were required to wear the headbands during the entire event and if we were shot we had to lower the headband to let the survivors know we were out and needed to re-spawn.

This event was one of the best events I've been to, everything was well thought out and executed. If you didn't bring a bag to carry your Nerf guns in after you were turned into a zombie they had a bag check area where you could store your guns, they also had paramedics on hand, water coolers out for everyone and marshals walking around to help anyone with questions or problems. The only thing we had a boo moment with was my husband was a bit disappointed zombies weren't included in the costume contest, but I can see why they wouldn't because most who are arriving as zombies don't do their own makeup. I am a bit jealous of the people who get to work with and travel with Zedtown it seems like a fun place to work. There is a ton of information that goes with this event but not enough space to write about it all! If you want more information on this event or to see if it is coming to a town near you (or you can request that they do) check out their website and facebook for photos, information and more. 

Ripley's Believe It or Not Hollywood, CA Review!

**This was not a paid post. My honest opinions were used, they are solely my own & they may vary from others. The products mentioned below have been provided by Ripley's Believe It or Not Hollywood, CA for the review free of charge.**

Ever since I was a kid I've always loved Ripley's Believe It or Not! I used to watch the shows and every year when my school held it's book fair the first book I'd be sure to pick up was the newest Ripleys book. Although I have been to Hollywood once and in California several times I've never been able to visit the Hollywood Ripley's Odditorium or any of their other locations and it is something I have always wanted to do. I am happy to say I was finally able to visit their Odditorium! I've worked with Ripley on several occasions reviewing their newest books but this time I was offered a chance to visit their attraction in person while I was on my honeymoon.



We took off early in the morning from our home and drove to California straight for Ripleys, it was a pleasant drive and Ripley's was easy to find. For those going to visit it should be noted Ripley's is located on Hollywood Boulevard and does not have a parking lot/structure of it's own so you will need to pay one of the parking lots to park for the day but it wasn't too bad and we got there early enough there was still plenty of parking. When we arrived there were only a few other people there which was nice because it pretty much gave us the place to ourselves. 

 

I knew that Ripley's was set up like a typical museum where they have different rooms with a variety of interesting, creepy and fascinating things on display but what I didn't realize was that it was packed full of interactive spots. They had things you could open, buttons you could push, a shooting gallery where you could shot at real movie props and once you hit them they would do different things, they had dance screens and more! Even the bathrooms had interactions but I won't spoil the surprise and tell you what is in them. 

 

                 

The Ripley's Hollywood Odditorium is two stories and is set up so you can easily navigate everything, you start off in a small room on the first floor then descend down a flight of stairs to explore downstairs before being lead back up the other side of the stairs to explore the other rooms upstairs. The stairs themselves are interactive as well, each step is a piano key so it makes all kinds of sounds as you are going up and down. The whole thing took about an hour without many people around so we were able to stop and look at each thing we wanted, we had a lot of fun at the Odditorium and I am very happy I was finally able to visit. If you are in the area and want to check out other attractions they also have a wax museum across the street, you can buy a ticket just for Ripleys or buy a VIP pass for $36 which gets you into both attractions.