It has been almost 4 years since Legoland Malaysia opened its door to the many fortunate kids/adults (those who grew up playing LEGO) in this part of the world. From then on, they have added their themed hotel in 2013 and Water Park in 2014 so that there is always something new for the returning guests and for the new guests, there is so much to do and play that 1 day visit is hardly enough. 

My first maiden visit with the kids was in 2014 and I only managed to cover the Legoland Theme park and hotel, and totally ignoring the water park as it was just a 2d1n stay but  it was one of my best theme park trips ever – a total wholesome LEGO experience from the hotel to the park. I promised the kids that we will return for another trip to cover the Water Park. 

And before we can tick our own personal check list that we have conquered the Water Park, Legoland is launching  a brand new 4D indoor ride which totally changes the way we view typical indoor ride (which I will go into details in a bit) in November. This ride will be housed in a brand new section of the Park called NINJAGO™ World. This is the largest additional investment since the opening of the Park in 2012. Estimated at more than RM 40 million, the latest attraction promises to be a real game-changer to theme parks around the world. 

Imagine this…with just hand motions, kids and adults experiencing the NINJAGO™ The Ride will be able to throw lightning bolts, move shockwaves, send ice soaring and emit fire balls through the use of cutting-edge technology.

Based on the popular LEGO® series NINJAGO™, which is brought to life by The LEGO® Group through a line of construction toys and a TV series on Cartoon Network, guests will enjoy interactive elements and this new ride where guests harness the power of four elements and use teamwork to battle the Great Devourer. 

The NINJAGO series tells the story of four young ninja heroes – Kai, Jay, Cole and Zane – who train under the watchful eye of Master Wu to master an ancient martial art – Spinjitzu. Guests play as Ninja warriors in training under the guidance of NINJAGO™ character Master Wu to vanquish a legion of enemies from snake tribes, ghosts and skeletons to the Great Devourer. NINJAGO™ The Ride enables guests to demonstrate their ninja skills without the use of a hand held device and instead, they simply use their hand gestures. Guests  collect points for their training and battle efforts throughout the ride and scores are displayed when their quest is completed. 4D effects such as heat, smoke and wind are also incorporated throughout the adventure, giving guests the ultimate interactive experience.

Guests less than 48”/122cm tall must ride with an adult. Due to the high intensity of the ride, we recommend the ride is best suited for guests age 4 and older. For now, there is the NINJAGO™ Live Show: The Realm of Shadows where guests will enter the world of NINJAGO™ and join the courageous Ninjas – Kai, Nya and friends – on a mission to protect Bandit, a YinYang Dragon who will one day fully grow into a powerful Light Dragon. The evil Clouse and his Shadow Minions want to steal it and plunge Ninjago into the Realm of Shadows.

My family is all set to pay another visit to Legoland for its Water Park which we missed out and be Ninja warriors at the all new NINJAGO™ The Ride!

I have organised many children birthday parties since my eldest’s 1st birthday party in 2010 with many themes  and many different venues but oddly, I have always skipped play gym as an option. The most common venue for me  is the condo’s function room purely out of convenience and cost. Especially for full month celebrations, it is easy to run up and down if its my own’s condo function room. Besides that,  the closest I did to a play gym birthday party was a full fledged restaurant in East Coast Park which has a play gym for its diners (which has since closed down). But that said, I have been to many birthday parties held at play gyms and knew how much fun the birthday kid and his friends will have and the host do not have to think too hard how to kids the kids entertained.

The mother of all play gym birthday parties would be Fidgets at the Grandstand with many party rooms and a huge play area. I do not fancy big parties as I feel awful for not being able to host and talk to each party guests. And I am very paranoid for losing my younger kids in the huge maze and structure when I do not have sight of them especially when I need to host and couldn’t pay full attention on my kids.

Normally, I keep my parties very small for my own sanity, 15 to 20 kids the max so that we can have a cosy and intimate party.  On the record, this is the first time ever in my party hosting and planning years, I am doing a joint birthday bash for my youngest 2 boys whose birthdays are 4 days apart and my first at a playgym.

Its normally a very busy first half of the year for me as all kids birthdays are all in the beginning of half of the year starting from Feb, then April and now finally June. Every 2 months in the first half of the year, there is a party I need to plan. I like to be able to plan and DIY (as much as I can but nowadays I tend to be lazy as I can get cheap customised party decor from Taobao) the kids party and give my kids a small , cosy and yet memorable party with their siblings and their friends.

So as I have 2 birthday boys aged 1 and 3,  I need a venue which is not- too-big play area which are suitable for them and also their friends up to ages 10 (ie not too kiddish). After my extensive research for a playgym venue , I found a pretty new centrally located play gym Fun N Laughter at City Square Mall. I personally has not patronise the gym before , but my kids had with their daddy before and told me its was fun. Ok, truth to be told all play gyms are fun , big or small. The kids all do have a great time, its only the parents who are the ones distinguishing a good one from a not so good one I guess.

Based on what I gather from the internet, some special features ONLY found at Fun N Laughter are a huge snack and ladder floor game, projection room, a Tayo bus ride-on. The rest will be a  typical play gym with ball pits, air blasters, slides. Frankly, as a parent I get overwhelmed with big gyms where sometimes  I had a hard time locating my kids in the play structure. So sometimes a reasonably sized play structure is all that I asked for especially for my younger ones like the 3 year old. He can actually play and climb and slide unsupervised but I won’t do that if the play structure its too huge or too tall ( I had a lost kid once at Kids Amaze Toa Payoh when I left small J to play on his own and  I didn’t have sight because the structure was too huge and massive)

And its probably one of the few play gyms who has a toy shop at the front for some last minutes gift shopping or for me, I actually bought my cake topper from them the night before the party. They stock a great selections of Tayo and Pororo toys. I was in a hunt for Pororo toys  to be used as the cake topper as small J is in love with the penguin (wanted to incorporate it into the cake some how) and besides the toy store at Pororo Park, I think Fun n Laughter is the only other brick and mortar shop which carries Pororo toys.

I got the pororo toy plane from Fun N Laughter the day before my party! how convenient

There are some pictures of the play gym when I arrived at opening hours before the weekend crowd and my party guests arrive.  They even have a diaper changing facilities within the gym so that guests do not need to walk out the mall’s baby room.

The entrance of the gym

Pororo and Tayo toys

other baby related products that is on retail

the play area

the super popular motorised Tayo ride on

This room has a projector whereby there are interactive games. The room also has toys for toddlers and babies,  I wish they could stock it up with toys for the babies and toddler

They were so kind let me come in the night before for 1 hour plus to setup the room so that I have pretty much done most of the decor before the actual day itself. It took a whole load of stress out of me.

They only have 1 party room which can catered to 15 to 25 kids.

They have kids tables and chairs good enough for 25 kids

they allowed for any outside caterer (warmers allowed too) which I got from Neo Garden, the spread was placed over the shelves top . just nice without taking up unnecessary space in the room

When I was setting up my decor, the only problem I had was that the wall paper around the room was too loud for my party theme. If you have a underwater theme, this is perfect but I had an aviation theme birthday party and already purchased a banner. So what I did was to overlap a huge white background before hanging my birthday banner. Alternatively, you can easily have huge customised party backdrop of 120mx 120m/150m to cover the existing underwater backdrop.

my diy dessert table setup with decor and goodies from Taobao and Oriental Trading (US)

All set for my boys’ combined bash, and at the end of the party, every kid including the 1 year old boy had so much fun, coming back to the point , to all kids all play gyms are fun irregardless of size! Of course, I have some basic requirements which are easily met – slides, ball pits, air blasters! Sharing from pictures from the parties:

the baby spend more of the time at the ball pit and the “projector” room where there are some toys for him

giant snack and ladder when the kids get tired of the climbing and sliding

I must say Fun N Laughter has one of the most reasonably priced party packages and its centrally located (trust me,  I have done my research and comparison while searching for the perfect venue for my cosy and intimate party). It is not the size of Fidgets or Polliwogs but sometimes I get very overwhelmed when the venue has many party rooms to accommodate many parties and quantity of kids from the different parties and also the walk in guests especially on weekends, so Fun N Laughter is just the perfect size for me.

And I have forgotten to add that this is probably the only play gym which allows for a 2.5 hours exclusive usage of the party rooms. Typically its only a 2 hours usage, which i feel its rather rush and hush, so an additional half hour really makes a difference. We never felt hurried to leave the party room as most of kids “refuse” to leave the play gym. I actually stayed beyond 2.5 hours as I believe there were no party after my slot. My kids were very entertained and had such a good time with their friends and celebrated their birthday in the presence of closed friends and family, what else can I ask for! Having the party at a play gym is save me a lot of unnecessary hassle and the kids are wildly entertained without a need of a party host or entertainer! This shall not be the last time I am hosting at a play gym after my relatively stress free experience hosting at the gym.

Here are the admission rates for entry

and party packages rates

FUN N LAUGHTER (CITY SQUARE MALL)

Address: City Square Mall #B2-32, 180 Kitchener Road, Singapore 208539

Opening Hours: 10.30am to 9.30pm daily

Telephone no : 65099766

Websites: Facebook Page

Thanks to the kind folks at Fun N Laughter, they will be giving 2 winners of 1 pair of passes each applicable for non peak and peak periods too!

1. Liked mypreciouzkids.com on Facebook

2. Followed mypreciouzkids on Instagram and regram the Fun N Laughter’s photo using hashtag  #mypreciouzkidsgiveaway

3. Followed mypreciouzkids on Twitter (no worries if you don’t have Twitter account)

4. Liked Fun N Laughter on Facebook

5. Liked, shared and tag 5 friends who are new to mypreciouzkids or interested  to visit Fun N Laughter or are planning a birthday party by using this Facebook post. Pls comment “Done, Twitter: ?? , IG:??” on the same post for my easy tracking. Do set your post to PUBLIC so that I can verify your entry. Entries that are not shared publicly on your timeline will be disqualified. Giveaway ends 10th July 2016 (Sunday) 2359.

Disclosure: I was sponsored a classic kids party package for 15 kids. No monetary compensation was received, and all opinions are my own. I paid for the additional kids and also for the super cute Pororo cake topper/toy.

Truth to be told, I personally had been on iFly Singapore on a rare date with hubby 2 years ago. Speaking from personal experience, it was so surreal to be able to fly even for short instances in the wind tunnel, a very highly recommended once in a lifetime experience!  Actually, one of my bucket list is to do skydiving! I guess this is as close to meeting my bucket list.

i looked pretty cool

And thanks to my experience on my maiden flight with iFly Singapore, I came to know that the minimum age for iFly Singapore was 7 years of age (ie not the year they turn 7 but after their 7th birthday). So since 2 years back, I already set my mind to bring my eldest boy for his turn once he turned 7. When he turned 7 this year, I conveniently forgotten the little wish I had for my eldest , blame it all the Term2 school review etc. It was a busy April and May for me and I was just so looking forward towards the long 1 month school holidays where I do not need to worry about homework and reviews (for those who does not have kids in primary school, reviews just simply mean tests or exam just in a nicer way)

When it was time to plan for his 4 week long holidays ,as we are going for family trip for the second half of the holidays, yay!, so technically I only need to plan for 2 weeks. As I already signed him up for 1 week of Design Innovation camp with The Keys for the first week of the holidays, so I only have the second week of the holidays left to plan.

As we had a hectic first week, I decided to scale it down for week 2 as mummy needs a break too! Suddenly, I remembered by the little wish I had 2 years back now that he has turned 7, to bring my eldest for iFly Singapore and what better timing that the school holidays! Thanks to the kind folks at iFly Singapore, my 2 year old wish came true! J actually is well aware of iFly Singapore as he has seen my picture from my and his daddy’s maiden flight. So when I told him that I will be bringing him for iFly Singapore he was so excited that he was practically counting down the days.

Finally, the most awaited day has come….

It was very very hot day, so entering iFly Singapore was a much welcome change from the outside. It was so so hot outside that J can bearly keep his eyes open and if the heat in Sentosa was too hot to bear, one of the best places to visit in Sentosa is iFly Singapore!

As J’s session has been pre-booked by his dearest mummy, all I had to do was to sign an indemnity form on his behalf and for J to prove that he is 7 years of age (so MUST REMEMBER to bring your child’s bus card/student card). Everyone is required to bring their identification card for verification purposes regardless of age. 

Booking online for your session with iFly Singapore is a pretty straightforward process as you can select the session and pay online here. Paying online allows you to check on the availability and its cheaper too if booked two days in advance. If you were to purchase onsite, there will be a risk that the sessions are already fully taken up as there is a limit of 16 flyers, I guess purchasing at venue is more for the tourists visiting Sentosa.

Just note that you have to be onsite 1 hour before the pre-booked session for the pre-flight video, training and safety regulations. So like for J’s session which was the 5.30pm slot, we needed to arrive at 4.30pm.

Once it’s your turn, there will be an announcement where you are ushered through the departure gate. The flyers will enter sophiscated-looking dark chamber to view the video introducing iFly Singapore and outlining the entire experience. Through the video, I also found out that iFly Singapore is Southeast Asia’s largest wind tunnel.

One of the introduction videos shown in that chamber can be seen below

Thereafter, the door will open where the flyers will be escorted to a small theatre to meet their instructor for their session. For J’s session, he had instructor Jery. Jery will let every flyer try their flying posture on the bench and explain to them basic hand signal (the flyers are required to wear ear plugs during flight, provided by iFly Singapore).  J was lucky that the session had many children, and only 2 adults so that he don’t feel so intimated. I must say many of the boys in J’s session were very enthusistic in asking questions after questions . Then said I must pay Jery compliment for being about the control the constant barrage of questions from the very raring to go boys! He was also very observant that one of the flyers was a tourist from China and quickly helped her to do simple translation as all the videos and instructions given were all in English! All in all, I can tell that Jery was a very experienced instructor and I have confidence that J will be in very good hands for his first maiden flight. Finally, Jery did a quick check of their footwear to make sure it won’t dropped off during flight. If you don’t come in proper shoes, you can always rent it with them. And for ladies and girls, no dresses or skirts as it is difficult to wear the flight suit later. 

Finally, its time for the real thing. They are all escorted upstair to the flying chamber area. They can see the on-going flight as well, but now its time to get suited up. Next to the flying chamber, this is the area where they get the flight suits, goggles , earplugs and helmets.

J told me he couldn’t smile coz the goggles are blocking his cheeks!

in flight chamber

I am amazed by the turnaround of all the flight sessions. True enough with all the on-going: – video, training, changing of attire, once its 5.30pm, the prior session would have finish their session and it’s time for the current session. Everything running like a clockwork, ie no delays what-so-ever.  The most basic package, “The First Timer Challenge” package consists of 2 skydives. 

Finally, its master J’s turn!

After each of the flyers has had their 2 flights, if there are more time, the instructor can offer additional flight for SGD 40 which is a steal as compared to the initial price. And the bonus part, the instructor will bring the flyer together as high up in the tunnel! J “begged” me to let him do the extra flight , I was abit hesitant as it would mean spending SGD 40  but with the benefit of hindsight, I am glad to have let him do the extra flight as he will enjoyed another level of experience where he will fly high above with the instructor.

This is not J , but just to show the height the first timers are “brought up” by the experienced instructor during the extra flight.

And this is J on his extra flight,

I shall not leave you with many photos but many videos as I personally think that only videos will the do the flight and experience justice!  Not words nor photos.

Each flyer is given their own flight certificate at the end of the session. Besides being commemorative in nature, the certificate can be used to skip the initial video and instructor session (pre-flight session) if you were to return for future flights with iFly Singapore. 

For parents whose kids are turning 7 in the second half of 2016, and if you are cracking your brains what to get as a birthday present for your child, think no further, book a flight with iFly Singapore. And if you as the parent has not tried it before yourself, experience it together for an unforgettable family bonding experience! I did not do the flight with J as I have done it before and I wanted to stay by the side to take photos of my son’s first experience. Do note that non flyers only have restricted view of the flying chambers. Flyers can purchase video and photos at level 1 after their session (see first picture of J’s mummy flying, that was purchased from iFly Singapore after my maiden session)

For others who are thinking how to fill the June holidays or end it with an unforgettable experience, I would strongly recommend an iFly Singapore experience for your child (so long they have past their 7th birthday). Now I have a small problem, all other experiences that he will encounter in future will be paled in comparison to this!

WEBSITE/FACEBOOK

Address: iFly Singapore, 43 Siloso Beach Walk #01-01 Singapore 099010

We are beside the Beach Station, down at Siloso Beachfront in Sentosa, Singapore. The Beach Station is a focal point for all transports including Sentosa buses, trams, trains and taxis. Should you wish to drive, there are over 600 parking lots located at the basement of the station. 

Its just a short walk from the beach station to iFly Singapore. It is the first building after exiting Beach Station on the right. 

For skydiving rate, please see here.

Opening Hours

Disclaimer: This is a sponsored review. No monetary compensation was received, and all opinions are my own. We paid for an extra flight which J begged me for it which I will be deducting from his savings (just joking).