Big Indoor Playground at Critterland

Just last week Monday (i.e., on 27th September 2010), UCSI University declared the day to be an off-day as a mark of respect for the recent demise of the father of UCSI's founder and president. Mommy didn't go to work that day and made use of the off-day to spend more time with Juan Or. So Mommy brought him to a large indoor playground, known as Critterland at The Heritage, Seri Kembangan (opposite Mines Shopping Centre).

This playground opens at 10am and closes at 6pm on weekdays, and 8pm on weekends. Entrance fee is RM15 per child for non-peak weekdays and RM22 for weekends, public holidays and school holidays, whereas the accompanying parent(s) get(s) to enter and play for FREE! However, Juan Or gets to enter for free because Mommy got 4 pieces of entrance tickets given out as complimentary gifts to participants of a Glen Doman seminar on 'Babies Can Do Anything & Everything' that Mommy attended in March 2010. Yes, Mommy had wanted to blog about this seminar long time ago, but just couldn't do so due to work demands, but will blog about it soon! ^_^


As of this visit, this is Juan Or's third complimentary visit to Critterland. Before entering the playground, Mommy was required to fill in a registration form. Then the Critterland girl dressed in Brownies-like uniform would key in the particulars into the computer to churn up 2 stickers - one for the child and one for the accompanying adult. We were required to put on our socks too, had our hands disinfected and Juan Or's body temperature measured to ensure the child is not sick to enter the playground. As usual, Juan Or is very wary of strangers trying to do something to him, so he fretted and struggled when the Critterland girl tried to stick the sticker to his wrist. So in the end, the sticker was pasted on the back of his T-shirt!


There are many kinds of play items at Critterland - pool of balls, assorted slides, assorted tunnels, bouncy jumping, hanging on the rope, assorted barrier crossing, assorted ball shooters, swing, rocking animals, climbing structures, a volcano replica that shoots balls out and funny mirrors. However, Juan Or only seems to be interested in jumping into the pool of balls, nothing else. It was difficult to coax him to try out the other play items at first, but finally he gave in, but he did it rather half-heartedly. Makes Mommy feel like it's just a waste of money to bring him there if Mommy has to fork out money for the entrance fee!

There is also a twisty slide that lands into the pool of balls but surprisingly, Juan Or was not keen at all to go on the slide. So what you see in the photo here was a result of Mommy's coaxing.

This boy was even so concerned about the balls spilling out of the pool, so he actually did the Critterland girls a favour by helping them to go everywhere to pick up the spilt balls and putting them back into the pool without anyone prompting him to do so! So one of the Critterland girls actually said,"Thank you, Boy!" to Juan Or!

After playing with the pool of balls, finally Mommy managed to coax him to try out other play things, such as.....


......climbing stairs, ......

....going over peaks, ......

....going through two kinds of tunnels, .....

....going over barriers,....

....passing by the punch bolster, ....

....and climbing up the stairs again, but this time insisting on taking along his beloved 'bo-balls'.

Other things captured on video are walking on the net, ....

..... and sliding down the tall slide, to which Juan Or seems to prefer sliding down on his chest rather than on his buttocks!

Here are some more snapshots of him during his very first visit to Critterland on 25th April 2010.

This was taken during his 2nd visit to Critterland (21st May 2010).

Overall, Mommy had a good time there too. Because Mommy had to accompany Juan Or when he went through all those play items and structures, so Mommy got to play too! What Mommy enjoyed most were the twisty-turny and high slides as Mommy never got the chance to experience these when young, at most were the medium-height slides. Yay, it's second childhood time for Mommy! ^_^ The only thing about this playground was that the air-conditioner was not cool or powerful enough. In fact, the air felt warm most of the time. Other than that, the facilities are good - big rest area for parents to wait for their children, free wi-fi (but you have to get the password from the Critterland girls), an area for you to hold birthday parties or children functions, big shoe cabinet to store your shoes (since you have to be on socks only to step in the place) and a small cafe. The place is clean and the structures are bright, colourful and children-friendly.

After we were done with the playground, we went around The Heritage's compound for some sight-seeing because it has quite a fair bit of nice landscape to see.

In all three visits to Critterland, Juan Or always ended up asleep in the car when we set off home. Guess the workout must be really tiring for a little boy like him! ^_^