So this week my sister and I headed off to Melbourne (with Pluto) to visit the Dinosaur Adventures travelling show as well as a few other things. You can find my review below exactly as I posted on Facebook. I'll add some pictures shortly as soon as they finish uploading to my computer
*****
My sister and I went, so this is a review from two adults perspective. We got there nice and early, about half an hour before the main event so we were well at the front of the queue. Shortly before opening time we were ushered into a waiting room area with some wonderful metal sculptures and life sized skulls. Unfortunately the room was quickly overcrowded and we abandoned the idea of taking pictures and instead waited near the door. Once the main event opened we were in quickly but if you came late you would have had quite a wait to get in.
Fred and Barney were out doing a meet and greet so we grabbed a quick snap before going on a tour of the animatronic dinosaurs. As a dinosaur aficionado I have to say that my robotic dinosaur 'Pleo' was far more exciting. The models were great, and I didn't see too many scientific inaccuracies, but the movements were a bit sketchy, I don't think some were working properly. The T-Rex looked a bit like he was having a seizure. However the Triceratops looked far more animated so I'm guessing that it was a technical problem. It was nice to be able to touch some of the models and get so close to them. After an hour of walking around and taking photos the crowds were getting thicker and we were getting bored. There was pretty much nothing to engage adults, the information panels weren't that informative and I would have loved something showing how the dinosaurs were made, or some more fossils or pretty much anything for adults really. Some interactive screens would have been gratefully enjoyed.
The sound and lighting was impressive at first but became obnoxious after ten minutes. They needed individual lighting on the information panels as they were hard to read and indeed for some I resorted to shining my torch on them. The roars of the dinosaurs were quickly lost in the roar of the crowd.
The whole event was very, very much geared towards the eight and under crowd. Very disappointed by the lack of carnival games with a dino theme. It kind of broke the immersion, not that I would waste my money on those things anyway but it seemed an oversight. I have to say the gift shop was reasonably priced although the toys are cheap and won't last long in a child's hands. For the purposes of this review and one on the BobthePleo forum I purchased one show bag, two toys and a hand puppet. The show bag contained a dinosaur air ring toss toy, dinosaur paddle ball, dinosaur bubble blower, a colouring picture that was not a dinosaur, a crappy dinosaur keyring, a few cheap dinosaur 'farm animals' and a table tennis sort of set, all cheap and nasty. The hand puppet seemed sturdy, although still cheap, I gave mine a bit of abuse and could not get it to break. The two toys have very poor stitching and will not stand up to much rough play in the hands of a toddler. My advice would be avoid the show bags and cheap toys and instead go for the T-rex hand puppet thing, it'll last a lot longer and seemed the most durable. However it was $20. The show bag is $15 and the toys are $8.
The food stands seemed to have pretty average prices, we grabbed half a dozen donuts in the city before we headed out so we did not purchase any food. From what I saw others eating it looked pretty standard for carnival fare. $6 or thereabouts for a cup of chips. The eating area was adequate and could seat a decent number of people.
There was quite a good fossil shop for adults which was nice, I saw several things that I would have liked to take home had my budget permitted, but fortunately they have a physical store and an online one that I can visit at my leisure. There were some good quality trilobites, various poorer quality but still interesting fossils of things like ammonites, small fish and shark teeth, as well as some more spectacular but higher priced fossils of various kinds including some exceptional trilobites of the rarer varieties, large fossils and sculptures.
We managed to drag our visit out to an hour and a half but by that point even myself had had enough of them and we headed out. We were glad to find that the exit was the same as the entrance and we now had the sculptures and life sized skulls to ourselves and happily snapped away. The skull was big enough for my five foot self to climb into and of course we took the obligatory 'dinosaur biting us on the head' snaps
All in all we'd say it was worth the entry price, but just barely. We wouldn't go again and would struggle to recommend it to all but young dino fans. There just wasn't enough for the older crowd. I know the show is expensive to put on but there seemed to be a lack of maintenance for the star attractions (some weren't working at all) and there absolutely needed to be a discount for concessions and children since so much within the event costs additional funds.
*****
