Pioneer Winter Wonderland Review! (+ Giveaway)

 

This year there is a brand-new Christmas destination! If you are in Arizona & are looking for fun holiday events to take your family to, you should hop in the car and drive out to visit Pioneer Winter Wonderland. It is located in North Phoenix along the I17 just before Anthem. Their address is 3901 W. Pioneer Rd Phoenix, AZ 85086. The Arizona Pioneer Living History Museum has turned into a winter wonderland to celebrate the holiday season & it has a ton to offer families! 

There are two different ticket options for this event, you can purchase general admission which is $25 per adult & $20 per child or if you are planning on buying food + drinks at the event anyways then it may be a better option to try for the VIP option which is $125 per person & I will go over everything included in both packaged. Parking is included with either ticket option, plus they have a fresh Christmas tree lot in the yard if you want to buy a tree after your adventure. 

Even if you were to enter the park with just the general admission there is still a lot to do in the park. If you arrive before 6PM there is a small parade down the main street which is their opening ceremony. It was fun seeing all of the characters go by, but hands down the Grinch had the best ride into town. Following that general admission also includes a photo with Santa, story time with Mrs. Clause where children ten and under will get a free hot chocolate and cookie), you can write a letter to Santa, roll around in a human sized ornament ball, see a cowboy performance, watch one of the live acts they have each night, there are holiday lights along the paths & trees to look at, a "selfie with an Elfie" area that has several different photo opportunities set up. Along with all of that you can pan for gold, visit Santa's workshop, visit the Grinch for photos and check out their pioneer buildings decorated for the holidays. 

There are also other areas that are not included with general admission & will cost a little extra. You can hop on a holiday train to be taken through a light show, the light show was set up & sponsored by World of Illumination. It is set up just like one of their holiday drive throughs that you can visit in your car except you are on a train & along the way you'll make a pit stop where an elf will hand out candy canes. A little further back from the train you'll find a horse drawn carriage ride which will take you on a trek through a patch of desert where you'll see a small lighted forest of trees, see a gingerbread house and if you are lucky see a Yeti! Both rides are $10 per person, the train does have a family pack where you can get five people on for the price of four. Across from the train is a small winter carnival which has carnival games & a few rides, the prices vary. I am unsure how much the carnival games were as we didn't play any, however I do know that my husband paid $9 for one of the carnival rides so it was $3 for both our children & himself to get on. 

One of their partners this year is Funbox which is a giant bounce house, so they have a bounce house location set up on the property. It is $10 per child to explore & jump. This is more of a bounce city than a bounce house, it is huge. One of our favorite spots was located right up front, they have a small Christmas escape room set up that is $5 per person. It is a short escape room set inside of a living room decorated for the holidays, you will need to solve puzzles to open several different chests to get pieces to use to escape the room. After exiting the room, you will enter a secondary room that has forty decorated Christmas trees, you will be given a scavenger hunt sheet to find six hidden ornaments among the trees. Food + drink wise, there are food trucks in the back, a cowboy BBQ area, and a few pop-up spots with things for purchase. 

So now that we've gone over what is included in the general admission & what cost extra let's talk about the VIP tickets. They will include everything that the general admission does plus you will receive a light up engraved VIP lanyard, a light up bracelet, your choice of either the train or carriage ride, a coupon for 30% off the gift shop plus access to the VIP lounge area where you will be able to select one of three dinner options & you have a drink voucher you can use at either the lounge or out front for a hot chocolate. The VIP lounge also has some yard games set up to play while you wait for your dinner. I also loved how they decorated it, it felt like an ice den. 

I really enjoyed the selfie area, it was fun having the different statues & cut outs to take photos with. There is plenty of space around each one to take a group photo, or just photos of the kids. Ever since I was a kid, I loved seeing Christmas light displays, so I loved seeing all of the trees & buildings they decorated. The letters to Santa area was adorable & is always fun to do even if you are older. There was a decent amount of people at the event however it wasn't overly packed so the only spot we really had to wait in line for was the train ride. While waiting in line some characters may come by to keep everyone entertained, while we were in line a contortionist put on a performance & when we walked by a little later in the day a trio of singers was singing Christmas carols. If this sounds like an experience you & your children would enjoy, I suggest checking it out. 

GIVEAWAY ALERT! Head over to my Instagram page ( <-- Clickable Link) to enter to win a family four pack of general admission tickets to Pioneer Winter Wonderland. 

🌵 If you live in Arizona check out the "Things to do in Arizona" section of my blog to find entertainment, restaurants, vacation spots & more. (Click on the name or locate it on the right-hand side of my page).

Disclaimer-  Pioneer Winter Wonderland provided this experience to us for the review + 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.

Game Show Battle Rooms - Scottsdale!

Game Show Battle Rooms now has a second location in Arizona located over in Scottsdale near the 101 & Frank Lloyd Wright Blvd. The new location is located at 15040 N. Northsight Blvd Suite 102 Scottsdale,AZ 85260. You'll experience a brand new location, but the same games you know and love. If you love game shows & have thought to yourself "I wonder what it's like to be on a game show" or "Wow! I'd really love to be on a game show one day", then this is the spot for you! Game Show Battle room puts you into the action and makes you feel like you are on a live game show minus a bunch of cameras in your face or studio audience. You can of course be filming your own session here if you want to have every moment captured! I know we always catch some great moments to remember when we are here. 

The last time we visited the Chandler location we did the Classic Show down challenge, so this time around we decided to go with the Prime Time Show down.   The Prime Time Show down features survey battles, match up wars & Time rush games. The Survey Battles is just like on Family Feud, you'll be presented with a question & will need to guess the top four answers. You can work together as a team to determine what might be on the board & I can tell you that the answers aren't always what you think they will be. There was a question or two that left everyone a bit stumped just because there were so many things that could fill in the blank. 

During Match up wars, one person from each team will go up & sit in chairs in the middle of the room. They will be given a word or phrase which contains a blank spot they will need to fill in, they will do so by writing their answer down on a white board. While they are writing their own answers down, the rest of their teams will be writing down what they think that person will put. Then after the answers are revealed each team will win a point for everyone who matched the answer. This spot is great for a adventure with just the adults or if can be kid friendly as well! Every game played will have different quiz answers and puzzles so it is easy to ask for a more child friendly game vs some of the more adult themed questions. Every parent has a different level of comfort so whether you ask for that or not is completely up to you! My kids are eleven and fifteen, they've both heard cursing plenty of times so we don't mind them hearing them. Our game show hosts did ask before hand if it was alright to have questions that could get naughty, for example one of the questions was "Holy ___" which depending on who was up could have been Holy Cow, Holy Moley, and even Holy Shit which of course was what everyone put aside from our friend who put "Holy Diver" after the Dio song. Each time a team wins a round of Match up wars you get to place either a "X" or "O" on a giant Tic-Tac-Toe board & the team who completes three in a row first wins. 

Last but not least you'll compete in the Time Rush Games. If you've ever watched Minute to Win It, the games played during this are similar & based of skills rather than knowing the answer to a question. There will be games such as tossing bean bags, shooting darts, or flipping buckets to gain points and take your team to victory. We stayed on the same teams we had the first time around so that we could keep the rivalry going, this time around team X Force won! The Iron Maidens came in a close second though. 

Each game show slot last for one hour & is $39.95 per person. Before you start your show time, there are non-alcoholic and alcoholic drinks available for purchase at the front. As soon as your game show session is over, you'll be ready to come back for another! It is a complete blast, you'll be sure to laugh so hard you might cry, and your group will be talking about it for weeks afterward. Our game show hosts have been amazing at both locations, I think they all do a fantastic job at making sure you & your group are not only comfortable, but having a great time as well. 

If you pop over to my Instagram page, you can find a reel with some footage from our game together! 

🌵 If you live in Arizona check out the "Things to do in Arizona" section of my blog to find entertainment, restaurants, vacation spots & more. (Click on the name or locate it on the right-hand side of my page).

Disclaimer-  Game Show Battle Rooms provided this experience to us for the review 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.

BicBugs Review & Giveaway!

 

If you have someone on your holiday list this year that loves gemstones & framed insects, then BicBugs has got you covered! BicBugs has such an extensive collection of framed specimens and gemstones to choose from including harder to find pieces. I've always loved seeing framed butterfly collections in movies & TV shows growing up and I always wanted one of my own, so I've very slowly been building up a collection. Knowing the prices of a lot of pieces I can say that BicBugs has some of the best prices in the business & I love the quality of the pieces they offer. 

I worked with BicBugs once in the past & I am delighted to be able to work with them again this holiday season on a new review & giveaway. This time around I will be talking about two wonderful, framed specimens I received for review, plus I have three gorgeous gemstones to giveaway to one lucky winner. The blue/grey stone in particular is so stunning and really shimmers in the light. 

I was very excited opening up my PR package to see what they had selected & let out a squee when I spotted the luna moth. A luna moth has been at the top of my "want" list for quite some time alongside a hawkmoth so I am very pleased to finally have one in my collection. It is a stunning specimen; the light greens are so pretty, and I love looking at the delicate fluffy little antenna on it. The specific species of luna moth I received is the Actias Luna green Saturn moth which originates from the United States. They have other luna moths as well if you are looking for a rarer specimen. 

The second specimen I received was a male Antherina suraka pink bullseye Saturn moth from Madagasgar. This moth makes a great addition to my collection, I love the soft oranges, browns and pinks in the patterns of this moth. One of the things I appreciate about their framed specimens is that they aren't completely smashed under the glass in the frame, I have one specimen from another seller that was a bit smashed & over time the body of it looks a little funky. I also like that the frames are light weight & very easy to hang up on the wall. They look quite lovely with the rest of my collection! The large blue morhpo butterfly in my collection is also a BicBugs piece. 

Don't be fooled, butterflies & moths aren't the only specimens BicBugs sells. They also have a wide selection of different bugs including praying mantis, beetles & more plus they even had bats and wet specimens. Want to frame some butterflies yourself? They sell them unframed so you can frame them however you want. They also sell framing supplies, jewelry, clothing, gemstones and more. 

🤩 GIVEAWAY 🤩

One lucky winner is going to receive the two beautiful stones & necklace shown above! The purple stone is a Rhodonite palm stone pink black manganese inosilicate mineral Madagascar, the blue/grey stone is a Labradorite palm stone green blue gemstone mineral Madagascar and the necklace is a sodalite gemstone. Total value: $32

This is open US Residents only! 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 12/06/24

Giveaway entry question: Leave me a blog comment letting me know another product from their website that you would love. (Link is the purple)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Disclaimer- The products mentioned above were provided by BicBugs for the review & 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.

Let's Review the board game "What's on the Menu?"

 

We recently added a new game to our board game collection that is quickly climbing up the ladder to join the rest of our go-to favorites when we have a game night. Our new game is called What's On The Menu & it is a culinary themed game. It is created & sold by Boiling Point Games. The rulebook is very straight forward with plenty of diagrams showing exactly what needs to be done, and it is very simple and quick to learn. The goal of the game is to compete with one another to become the newest head chef of a restaurant. This game can be played with two to six players ages 12+ & each game will take anywhere from 25-60 minutes. 

Every player is given a menu which will be laid out in front of them & over the course of the game, you'll be collecting menu cards and curating a menu of your choice to have the best food & the most stars. But, watch out! Your fellow competitors will have chances along the way to steal your food ideas, cause you a loss of stars or even force you to ditch a dish. Every dish has a star rating from 0-3 & some of the cards have bonus for pairing certain foods together. You will of course want to aim for having all three star food dishes on your menu, but the luck of the cards and how competitive the other players are might prevent you from that. 

The game lasts for fifteen rounds which each consist of two phases. The first is the Prep stage which is where you will collect the menu cards along with action cards which are used to gain perks for yourself or sabotage others. The second stage is the plating phase, which of course is when you will add items to your menu. At the end of the fifteenth round, everyone will tally up how many points they've collected to determine the winner. 

The art work on the cards are fun to look at & see what might come up next. Some of the dishes are delicious traditional dishes like chicken fried steak or cannolis, while others are nasty one star dishes like hot dog pie. It also comes with two well made wooden markers which will show where you are on the round tracker & who has the first player marker, plus there is an actual chefs hat for the winner to wear. 

We've been playing this with four to five players and sometimes it takes everyone a moment to think about how they want to lay out their menu or sabotage others so our games have been lasting closer to the one hour mark or slightly longer if we are joking around. However, it doesn't feel like that much times passes because you will be having too much fun to pay attention to the clock. Whether you are just starting into a board game collection journey, or are a pro already this is a fun game to check out either way. You can pick this game up on their shopify page for $39.99. 

⭐ Does this sound like a game you would enjoy playing?

If you want to find more great board games like What's On The Menu? head over to check out my Board Game Reviews section.

Disclaimer- The products mentioned above were provided by Boiling Point Games for the review 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.

World of Illumination Tempe is now Open!

 

The last few years we've made it a yearly tradition to visit at least one of the two World of Illumination locations here in Arizona & this year is no different. We were able to head over to the Tempe World of Illumination location for a media night to check out the lights this year. They host this event at the Tempe Diablo Stadium located at 2200 W. Alameda Dr. Tempe, AZ 85282 which is easily accessed from the I10. Tickets are available per card, you do not need to pay per person. During the week it is $39.99 per car and on the weekends it is $49.99 per car, there is no difference in the show on a weekday vs during the weekend so it is completely up to you when you decide to visit. 

The theme for the shows changes each year, this years theme for the Tempe location is Enchanted Safari. You'll spot a number of cute safari animals along the way, and you'll also find a few other themes mixed in like the space/UFO themed section and one that has Dinosaurs. If you've never been to one of the World of Illumination drive thru light events, then I am sure you have some questions. So let's break down some of the questions I am sure a lot of people have about the event. 

This event takes place in the parking lot of the stadium, you'll follow along a set path which has several turns. This event was made with normal sized cars in mind, so to prevent any damage to their displays they do not allow over sized vehicles such as buses, RV's, Limos or over-sized vans. You will be asked to keep your speed between 3-5 miles per hour. Depending on how many people are at the event it may take you between 15-25 minutes to get through this event. If the line moves smoothly it will be closer to the 15 mark however sometimes things get a little jammed up if people stop. Since no one is able to get out of the vehicles to walk around this is a pet friendly event, so if you wanted to bring your pet along for the ride, you are allowed to! 

The event is family friendly. I feel like smaller children would enjoy this event quite a bit more than a teenager would, however it can still be fun for the older kids too. My kids are eleven & fifteen and they have both enjoyed going to this event the last few years. We also like to stop before hand to grab some hot chocolates & a snack to enjoy during the show. The event also offers a fun assortment of classic Christmas songs & fun remixes on their holiday station that the lights are synced to. 

🌵 If you live in Arizona check out the "Things to do in Arizona" (Click or locate it on the right-hand side of my page) section of my blog to find entertainment, restaurants, vacation spots & more. 

Disclaimer- World Of Illumination provided a pass for the event for this review 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.

Let's review Aquatica from Arcane Wonders!

 

I love a good board game that is not only visually pleasing but something we can play together as a family when we want to. So, when I was offered the chance to receive a review copy of the game Aquatica from publisher Arcane Wonders, I couldn't say no! This ocean themed game can be played solo, or up to four players at once with games taking place between 30-60 minutes. The recommended age for this game is 14+ however, that is just a suggestion & as I usually say, younger children should be able to play just fine especially if they are already part of a gaming family. My eleven year old son plays this game without any issues. 

During this game you will play as one of eight Sea-Kings competing to explore the ocean depths in search of resources for your clan. Along the way you'll be earning money, new characters for your deck, location cards and victory points of course. When you are brand new to the board game it suggests in the rule book that you play with Sea-kings numbered 1-4 when playing with a group of four people. I honestly would skip out on Sea-King number one and move onto Sea-king five instead. Why? He has a slight disadvantage that the player who receives him might not enjoy, but as you learn how to play the game you could come back to him without any issues. Out of the first four Sea-Kings, the first Sea-king doesn't really do as much as the others & the card requires you to discard him after using his power while the other three Sea-kings numbered 2-4 are allowed to stay in the other players decks to be re-used again. As you learn the game & are comfortable with the rules you can randomly assign Sea-Kings or let players chose who they'd like to play as. There are other sea-kings who are discarded after using their power, however most have a decent power to use. 

The playing cards in this game are beautifully detailed, I love the location cards & looking at all the small details that went into each card. I also love the little manta ray playing chips! They are so cute. During the course of the game each player will get their own playing deck which matches one of the four player symbols along with a set of manta rays that also match that symbol. Everyone starts off with the same characters in their deck of cards & the same perks on the manta rays backs so that it is an even playing field. The only difference at the start of the game will be the power/ability on your Sea-king card as each has their own set of abilities they are able to do. Along the way you will be able to add additional crew to your deck which will in turn help you collect location cards. 

There are also special goal bonuses you can aim for that will give you extra victory points at the end. For example one of the goals could be collect & place three location cards onto your mat, then the first player to reach that would place their manta ray in the goal area & collect the first victory point slot. The other players will also receive a chance to complete the same goal, however the end game victory points they earn will decrease as the completed player count increases. Meaning, the first to complete it would get ten victory points, while the fourth player to complete it may only receive four victory points so it helps to be the first! The rule book will let you know what requirements need to be met to trigger the end of the game & how to calculate victory points to find out who the winner is. Once you get the hang of the game & the luck of the location cards placed out during the first round games can go by rather quickly. Setting up the board game & then putting it away again at the end is also quite simple. This board game can be purchased on the Arcane Wonders website for $49.99 plus you'll find dozens of other fantastic board games worthy of adding to any board game collection. 

✴ What do you think of the ocean theme of this board game? 

If you want to find more great board games like Aquatica head over to check out my Board Game Reviews section.

Disclaimer- The products mentioned above were provided by Arcane Wonders for the review 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.