The thing about being parents to young children is that... you really go around shopping centres chasing childhood idols. *laughs*
In the past, I would be chasing Jay Chou, going to his concerts and all.. and now, I am part of the mama gang who would bring their kids to their favourite Hi-5 and Barney. Just a week ago when I blogged, I didn't think Dylan and Alexis were fans of Barney? I mean.. they never spoke to me about Barney and they never asked me for any Barney merchandises.
Yet when we went to City Square Mall for the Barney Beach Party Performance, oh my god, they were sooooo into it, I was so amused watching Dylan singing along with the purple dinosaur!
A small tip though, if you are going for the 7pm show like us, be there early to get a seat! Even though we were there on a Tuesday evening, the atrium was completely filled even before 7pm. Looks like there are a lot of Barney fans out there.
The show lasts about 20 minutes and afterwhich would be the meet-and-greet session. There will be 50 passes to be redeemed an hour before the show, all you need to do is to spend $50 at City Square Mall.
Another tip, the meet-and-greet, even though there are 50 people in the queue, it gets over and done with really quickly. We waited for a mere 5 to 10 minutes at most? Thinking that it was going to take a while, Nian brought Dylan and Alexis outside the City Green to play and they couldn't rush back in time for a picture with their idol. (Hence it is just K and I!)
The Barney Beach Party live show is on from now until 19 June. Tuesdays to Fridays are at 2pm and 7pm while weekends are at 1pm, 4pm and 7pm.
Summer Splash Carnival
Talking about the City Green, the entire area is converted to a beach by a shopping center! You would be greeted by this huge sand structure, along with many different beach games available for play.
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| Sand pit for the children to indulge in - bring your gears! |
In short, the Summer Splash Carnival is a beach brought to the city. We brought the kids early, before the Barney singalong session, to take a look at it and also to check out the prices of these activities.
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| Inflatable rock climbing, 3 tickets for 5 minutes, minimum height of 1m is required |
Tickets are available for sale right outside the Level 1 entrance of City Square Mall and are going for $2 per ticket, or $10 for 6 tickets (buy 5 get 1 free). Generally, each station requires about 2 to 3 tickets per child, which works out to about $4 to $6 per activity.
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| Surfing |
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| Beach Bowling |
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| Bum Boats |
To experience all the stations, you would probably need about 15 tickets? That would mean setting aside about $25 per child.
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| Alexis enjoying her ride and promptly missed her photoshoot session with Barney, haha |
Other fun stuff
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| Choo-choo trains! |
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| Having a fun game of see-saw! |
Personally, I think the playground at City Square Mall supercedes a lot of other playgrounds we have been to at other shopping centers. Granted that it is outdoors and therefore play can be affected by weather, I like how spacious the playground is and they are filled with our olden play stations, albeit with a modern twist!
You can expect swings, which I really don't see much of it anymore everywhere else. And not only that, the swings come with a safety barrier so that the kids don't come flying out when they play. There is also a merry-go-round that made Nian and I very giddy, much to the delight of the kids. And of course, slides are a must, and the see-saw simply completes the playground that we all love.
I wouldn't let my kids miss the playground if the weather permits.
In addition, you may want to explore the two resident indoor playgrounds - Petite Park and Fun N Laughter too.
The train rides are at $6, eco-playground is free of charge.
New Stores
Another of our objective to visit City Square Mall is also to check out some of their latest stores:
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| Decathlon Singapore opens new outlet! |
Most importantly, their prices are very friendly. You can expect to pay less than $20 for work-out clothes, which is pretty good deal.
We also had our dinner at the newly opened Din Tai Fung at City Square Mall. The food is very good as usual, but do note that they no longer serve tea in individual glasses. Instead, you would be required to order your own pot of tea. Other than that, we are still pretty much impressed by the service quality and the standard of the food served at DTF.
Beach Survival Set For Grabs
If you spend $200 at City Square Mall, you can use your receipts to redeem the Beach Survival Set that consists of a foldable mat with an inflatable pillow and a really huge cooler bag that can store 12 cans of drinks. I thought this would be really useful for our next picnic outing too, not necessarily for the beach. You'd only need to spend $180 if you use DBS/POSB credit/debit card. (not inclusive of supermarket receipts)
Also, you can use the same receipts to redeem a $5 City Square Mall voucher if you use NETS/Debit Card payment.
So this holidays, if you haven't planned to go anywhere with your kids, City Square Mall would be a nice place to spend a day.
{Disclosure: Our family has been provided with Barney's meet-and-greet passes, along with tickets for Summer Splash Carnival and beach survival sets for the purpose of this review.}