WHEN:
Visited during the summer holidays, which was when most local kids are back in school. Therefore, there were only around five to 10 children with their tourist/expatriate families, so there was no queue at most stations. Imagine this newly reopened attraction will be more crowded during school holidays and weekends. Not sure if the lull period/lack of staff was the cause, but it seemed some stations e.g. Straits Times (adios, print media) were closed.
HITS:
- some brands and jobs were "uniquely Singapore" and not just makes this KidZania more unique compared to those in other countries, but also more relevant to the kids
e.g. suubalm (the station guide was so gentle and patient while teaching), the Intan Museum which introduces Peranakan culture, Airtumtec which teaches about microbial bacteria on surfaces, Sustenir's urban hydroponic farming, etc.
- some staff were really professional and fun e.g. the two staff at fashion academy taught and hosted a cool fashion show at the H&M theatre, the radio presenter guide told many jokes and totally perked the kids up, the Canadian Pizza and the milk tea stations helped the kids learn about the ingredients and efforts of making delicious pizzas and milk tea - which they get to enjoy!
MISSES:
- while there were professional station guides/ staff, there were also some less professional ones
e.g. some chided our younger kid who didn't understand certain instructions
e.g. some staff were simply not at the stations they were responsible for and there were many "open-for-business-but-unmanned stations" - often having to hunt down the station guides by asking the neighboring stations' guides... only to find them chatting elsewhere and not manning their own stations.
- After a growingly wearisome day of constantly having to hunt down AWOL station guides in a ghost town, the last straw was when we asked a station guide politely to please run her station as there was enough time for one last play. We were rebuffed, rather dismissively, twice, as the guide prioritized tagging along tantrum-throwing foreign kids who were at a store, literally being placated by numerous helicoptering staff and snowplow guardians.
So the final yet unforgettable, dreadful life lesson our kids learnt from Kidzania Singapore was - that the entitled are the ones who get priority service in the real world, while the polite locals will just... be snubbed at by deserters of their posts.
Alas, reality.