Family Outing to Hello Kitty Town and Little Big Club

We were supposed to go on a planned family trip to Bangkok in end Feb to celebrate Steffi's birthday.  We had booked the air tickets many months ago and were so looking forward to mango sticky rice, street pad thai and Thai massage and perhaps a Tiger Temple tour for the kids.  But unfortunately we had to cancel the trip in consideration of the recent unrest in Bangkok and the advanced pregnancy of my wife.  Thank goodness we were granted a full refund based on my wife's "medical condition"!  Not to disappoint the kids, we went on a coach trip to Malaysia on 28 Mar instead and Stacci benefited as she got to travel for free this time round.

We booked our coach tickets and the park tickets to Hello Kitty Town and Little Big Club online through WTS Travel, which was really quite a breeze.  On the day of travel, we just had to show up at the agency which is located at the Singapore Flyer, present our booking reference and relax in the coach while being whisked to Puteri Harbour.  Most Singaporean and Malaysians who want to visit the 2 indoor theme parks would have done so by now, and being a weekday, there were also hardly any crowd at all, making the experience really enjoyable for us.

The first thing that made the kids go "Yay!!!" was the Hello Kitty house where everything is so "cartoonized" and "princessy"!  They just couldn't keep their hands off all the Hello Kitties everywhere!

They also did not hesitate taking off their shoes and trying out the over-sized bathtub!  The only thing missing would be real H2O!

The kids were thrilled to get close and personal with the various cartoon characters such as Hello Kitty, Daniel, Batz Maru, Bob the Builder and purple dinosaur, Barney as well!  There were not much people and we actually felt pity for the staff in costume as there hardly any interactions from kids. 

We conquered both parks by following the Meet-and-Greet and show schedules and I must say that it's really quite tiring if we want to see and take part in everything.

 
There were also various activities for the kids such as making of Hello Kitty badge, decorating of cookie, and the making of Hello Kitty design with plastic beads.  The placement of the beads really takes a lot of time and effort and I ended up having to help the kids.  Just look at our faces!

And how can we not take a family photo all dressed up in Sanrio characters?  The staff took all but 2 photos for us despite my explaining on how to operate my simple camera.  Nevertheless, this is the best shot out of the two.

There are food joint in the parks but you may wish to get out of the parks during meal times as there are restaurants within the same building too.  Do note that you are allowed to re-enter only once though.  For us, we chose not to miss out on any actions and we had our simple sandwiches and hot dog buns within the parks, which is kind of expensive if you ask

In conclusion, it is wonderful to see the kids enjoy themselves thoroughly and that is what makes the effort to bring them there totally worth it.  I have my wife to thank too, as she still so enthusiastic in bringing the 3 kids there despite being in her third trimester!  The 2 parks are not really that big and although they do have some very nice playgrounds, the real draw factor are the cartoon characters themselves.

We paid $268 (all inclusive) for 4 persons for the 1-day trip which started at 8.30am, and we are back in time for dinner at around 8pm in Singapore.  I must say that it is reasonably affordable for the first experience and the photo-taking sessions with the characters.  But if it's for the second time, or if the kids are going there for the playgrounds, then I must say that our various local indoor playgrounds such eXplorer kids, Fidgets and Polliwogs should suffice, less the hassle of overseas travel.