Real Mom Review: Crayola Experience

By Melissa Goduti & Sandy DeJesus, CertifiKID Subscribers
Posted Sep 05, 2019 Real Mom Reviews Things to Do

Crayola Experience is a one-of-a-kind indoor family attraction packed with hands-on, creative activities all inspired by Crayola's latest and greatest products. Crayola Experience has five locations around the country in Chandler, Arizona; Easton, Pennsylvania; Mall of America, Minnesota; Orlando, Florida; and Plano, Texas. 

We sent two of our MOM Squad ambassadors and their families to experience a day of family fun at Crayola Experience's Easton, Pennsylvania location. They received free admission in exchange for providing an honest review.

Save up to 43% off admission to Crayola Experience plus a FREE Scribble Scrubbie with this CertifiKID Deal (excludes Chandler, AZ location).

Melissa: Crayola Experience is a family attraction featuring activities and exhibits to showcase Crayola products. Our family of four (two young girls aged 4 and 2) met up with some friends (two girls aged 3) for some end of summer fun.

Sandy: Crayola Experience has three floors. The first floor was the cafe. We did not eat here but we checked inside; it was very clean and smelled delicious. The second floor had a big area where you can make your own personal crayon label.

Melissa: In Meltdown, we drew with melted crayons (be careful with young kids, the meltdown pens are essentially fat hot glue guns and get quite warm). 

In Drip Art, we created melted wax spin art by loading a crayon into a machine that melted it and adjusted the speed of the spinning paper. 

In Melt and Mold, we put crayons into machines and they were melted and remolded into either a ring or a shark.

Sandy: There is a station where you can take a picture and print it out as a coloring book. The modeling clay area has clay accessories to help you create what's in your imagination.  

Melissa: There was a Color Magic room combining coloring with augmented reality technology - color an image with crayons, scan it in, and the image "comes to life" on screen. This was a definite hit with all our kids, and making our dragon breathe fire on us set both the girls giggling.

Sandy: After we walked through the hallway of slime (don't worry, it's not real slime) and created our own silly wall characters, the kids unwound at Toddler Town and the Color Playground. My 12-year old even enjoyed the Color Playground.

Melissa: The best feature of the toddler play area was the giant LiteBrite on the walls.

The lines in the Water Works water play room were so long that we skipped this, though it looked fun.

There is a room set up for Model Magic (use a token to get a small bag of Model Magic from a vending machine) and Scribble Scrubbies (take the voucher you receive as part of your admission to the Scribble Scrubbie desk). Tools were supplied on each table for cutting and shaping Model Magic, and washable markers were also provided for drawing on the Model Magic as well as on the Scribble Scrubbies, little "pets" that you can draw on and then wash in the sinks with soap and water. 

In the Colossal Caddy room, we could color at the giant table in the center of the room and "Be a Star" (make your own coloring pages from your picture).

There was also a technology-focused room with tablets around to take silly selfies and design fashion models that are projected on walls, a stomp and play interactive floor with a series of games, and more.

With our kids a bit exhausted from 4+ hours of play and crowds, we headed home, with plans to actually see the Crayola Factory Show and some other exhibits next time. They were proud to have a full bag of crafts to take home and show off to family members. 

Time Recommended to Enjoy Experience

Melissa: On a very crowded day, we were worn out after 4 hours, but hadn't experienced everything - we probably would have needed another 2 hours.

Sandy: We spent 2.5 hours and definitely did not complete all they had to offer. I would recommend around 4 hours at minimum. Next time I plan to stop for lunch and return to continue exploring.

Recommended Age Range

Melissa: Our children are ages 4 and 2, and we went with two other 3-year olds. I think this would be better for ages 6-11.

Sandy: My children ages are 1, 3, 11, and 12-years old.

Tips for Families

Melissa: I'm not sure if we had just exceptionally poor timing choosing to visit on a holiday weekend, but it was overwhelmingly crowded and noisy, to the point where it was hard to keep track of our young preschoolers and toddlers. I was extremely relieved that we had one adult per child; it would have been much harder to manage otherwise.  

While outside food and drinks are not permitted in the facility, reentry is permitted, so leave a cooler in the car. We had to directly ask to get our hand stamped for reentry - there are no signs saying that hand stamps are necessary or what the reentry policy might be. There also is a Cafe Crayola inside where they sell Crayola-inspired foods and perform live shows on the Cafe Stage.

While strollers are allowed, they are not allowed in all the areas - there were stroller parking zones outside several of the rooms. There was at least one nursing room available, but since they didn't make facility maps available, we just happened to stumble across it on the second floor. They do have lockers available for a fee at the front entrance - bags can be searched (but weren't searched when we attended). 

Teachers and first responders can get free tickets, and ages 2 and younger are free. 

Sandy: If you are visiting from far, just be prepared for the many fun aspects of this facility. You may need a break in between to cover it all.

Would Your Family Visit Again?

Sandy: Yes, we plan to visit again soon and complete the areas we missed. It was a great experience.

Melissa: We would like to visit again on a non-holiday-weekend day that would hopefully not be so crowded, and when the youngest is a little older. I think a 3-year old and 5-year old would have a totally different experience than a 2-year old and 4-year old. There were many attractions we were a little too young to fully engage with, and others that we just didn't get to see because of the crowds, but the kids had a wonderful time and have said they want to go back with more friends.

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