UPDATE: Dinosaur Kingdom has moved to Johor Bahru! Check their Facebook page for updates! Do read this article though for an idea on what to expect!
As our boy is crazy over dinosaurs, we decided to visit the new, temporary Dinosaur Kingdom at Setia Ecohill.
After purchasing our entrance tickets and tokens, we got our first glimpse of the park. It is all out in the open and first thought that came to my mind was: hot, hot, hot! It didn’t stop nor bother our boy though, as he went ahead of us as he couldn’t wait to check the park out. After seeing at all the activities available, my first impression was that it was going to be a great day for our 9-year-old.
Unfortunately some of the activities were not operating yet, but we started with the boat ride.
There is very little shade and half an hour in we were already burning so sought shelter and drinks at the F&B area. They only had sugary items like doughnuts and ice-cream for sale. They don’t allow outside food into the park and with no proper lunch food available you better eat a meal before heading there. Do check their Facebook page for updates on food vendors.
We managed to catch the live show that was entertaining enough with lots of action between actors and dinosaurs, and lasted forty minutes. Our boy certainly enjoyed it but the marquee it was held in was stuffy, apparently because of the hot weather. We took pictures with some of the cast and got a free printed copy, which was a nice touch.
The skies turned slightly overcast and gave us a relief from the heat. Our boy then had a go on the drift carts, which he loved! He went a couple of laps on them as he had the circuit almost to himself. Personally, I would’ve felt more at ease if the riders, especially children, were given helmets as the circuit is open to both adults and kids, and the carts can get up to quite a speed. If there was a crowd, I’d probably hesitate to let our boy on it.
Out of all the attractions, our boy simply loved the Raptor’s Maze. I was a bit unsure about a child having to flick switches to open the exit gate but he certainly had fun.
Ice Fossils was also great as it’s under shelter and you get to take home a little souvenir after chipping away the ice.
There were many animatronic dinosaurs, so plenty of photo opportunities. There were also a few igloo style domes which served as educational pods about dinosaurs. On a sunny day the heat wafting out of them was enough to drive us away, which was a shame as our dino mad boy would have read every bit of information.
The carnival stalls have the usual games like ring toss and pop the balloons. As we’ve never been lucky at these games, we kept our distance. There is also an Education Hub but unfortunately we just missed the education talk – do ask for the timings if this is something you want to catch. We also wanted to try out the 5D cinema but that too was not running yet.
Our boy went on every attraction (that was operational) and definitely had a great time despite the the blazing heat and the fact that the park wasn’t quite ready. Shas, the organiser, did come by to apologise to us personally, so kudos to him. I really do hope they’ve sorted all their teething problems as the whole park is really quite well laid out, fun and entertaining. Just go in the late evening or night when the sun’s not out in full force and it’ll be enjoyable! Don’t forget hats and sunscreen!
Tickets are RM30 for entrance and RM50 for entrance and tokens. I say go with the RM50 package as every activity is token chargeable, except for the show. Even with the package, you’d need to top up the tokens if you opt to go on every attraction. On average each attraction cost two tokens and there are about 18 activities.
*there’s also an app where you can supposedly download for extra tokens, schedule and map. Unfortunately it was not up and running when we visited and even the ticket attendants had no idea what we were referring to. Perhaps it’s ready now – search for Themepaktu.
Check other activities for kids in Malaysia here.
