After running out of places to see around LA, we decided to visit Tijuana for a family trip with little kids. There were 3 places we wanted to visit, CECUT, Mini City, and El Topo. We've been to Kidzania in Korea so we were happy to find something similar in driving distance away. We arrived at Plaza Rio little past 11am on Saturday and found a lot of parking. None of the staff spoke English and the way they spoke real fast seems like there aren't that many non-Spanish speakers that visit here. With Google Translate App and my forgotten 2 year of high school Spanish, I communicated the price, that we need to purchase their socks with sticky bottom for trampoline, and write kids name and my name for them to input into the watch which doubles for kids bank account. So as others has stated, like Kidzania, there are 2 types of experience that kids can do. First is work type where they earn money: fire fighter, doctor, supermarket cashier, farmer who milks and sells the milk, reporter, TV anchor, Radio DJ, etc. Each time you complete a task they scan the watch kids wear to pay them salary. With money earned, kids can do the second type of experience: driving a car, slide, zip line, trampoline, etc. Although time we went, I don't think they were deducting money for zip line and trampoline.
So they inputted kids name and took pictures of them for their watch bank account. We went in and there weren't that many people. I think it had something to do with citizens of Mexico working the longest hours in the world which include working Saturdays. It started to get packed around 3pm. We decided to do the work type first to get money. First one that we saw was newspaper reporter. We spoke no Spanish so we used translator to answer some question that were given at the location. But later I saw that they actually went around asking question at different work stations to do reporting. Kids did the dairy farmer next where they fed the cow, milked the cow and went around to cooking school and market to sell the milk. Next was market where they asked whether a kid wants to work or be a customer. Luckily there was another parent who spoke English who told us when we stood there baffled at what the staff was asking. Next was firefighter where kids get to ride on a fire engine and put out a fire on a building. The building didn't have any drawing of fire so I think my kids were confused. Later I saw that there were bit more explanation for kids who spoke Spanish, including going down the fire pole. Kids took a break from all the Spanish and decided to go on the trampoline. My older one decided to make a pizza, which cost about $4-5 for a personal pepperoni or cheese pizza. Staff dressed them up with an apron and a chef's hat while he made a pizza. My younger one played on a climbing structure while my older one did the driving experience. In driving experience, you can be a driver, car washer, or gas station attendant. Rest of the day was just playing. My son went on the zip line twice. Went down the long slide by the entrance numerous times, went back to trampoline, and made slime in the slime lab which cost about 100 peso ($5). By this time, it was getting pretty crowded. We left around 4pm. There were a lot of birthday parties and kids by this time.
Google Translator App came in very handy. I found out that there is no in and out privilege. Once you leave, that's a final exit, which is a shame since there were a lot of nice restaurants in the Plaza. Then again, it only cost about $10 per kids and cheaper for adults. We had breakfast, fed kids pizza that they made and juice. There were snacks and coffees available in Mini City. Kids wanted to stay longer to play but we a long drive back to LA.
It was fun but in comparison to Kidzania in Seoul, it was bit lacking. For example not all stations showed how long the experience is, how much money they'll earn and so forth. Fire experience in Kidzania actually had water gun like in carnival games to shoot fire with picture of fire. Little things to make experience better, but then again it cost much more at Kidzania.
We will be learning Spanish as a family an will return. read more