Rovio’s Angry Birds Video Game should be something familiar to most. The game features multi-coloured birds trying to save their eggs from green-coloured pigs. When it was released in 2009, it took the world by storm. Since then, it grew into a franchise releasing books, toys, animated films and started having its own theme park. The Angry Birds Activity Park in Johor Bahru is to-date the only one in Southeast Asia to feature the game characters.
DL and CL are not really fans of the colourful birds nor the pigs. But as the June school holidays is coming to an end, we brought DL and CL to Angry Bird Activity Park Johor Bahru for some play time before the start of school term next week.
The 26,000 sq.ft (2,415 sq.m) indoor theme park is located at Level 3 of Komtar JBCC shopping mall. Getting there is easy as it is around 5 mins walk from Johor Bahru Customs, Immigration and Quarantine (CIQ) complex.
Admission charge is at RM75 per person while whole family ticket for 4 cost RM280. Discounted rates are available for Malaysians at RM60. All kids below 11 years old have to be supervised by parents or guardians of minimum age of 15 years old.
We thought the admission fees are a bit on the high side considering the size of the theme park is good enough for only 2 to 3 hours of play. In comparison, tickets to the much bigger Legoland Malaysia theme park cost RM156 (adult) and RM124 (child 3-11) if purchase 7+ days in advance. But of course we were also paying for its accessible location.
The opening hours on Monday to Thursday is from 10am to 10pm. But if you decide to visit on Friday to Sunday, public or school holiday, do note that the operation hours of park is divided into 3 sessions. The timings are 10am to 1pm, 2pm to 5pm and 6pm to 10pm.
They were quite strict with the no shoes and no food/drink rules. Bags search were conducted at the entrance. Shoes and water bottles were to be placed at the racks or lockers. Hands were sanitized before the kids were allowed into the play area.
There are 4 themed play zones: namely, Danger Zone, Utopia, Classic and South Beach. Our visit was on a weekday so there wasn’t many visitors to the park. In addition, not all the attractions were open during our visit. Not sure if it’s closure for maintenance or lack of manpower on a weekday.
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Danger Zone
In the Danger Zone, there were 3 attractions; namely, Laser Bird Scoot (skate scooter on sloping track), Space Drop Air Bag (jump from height onto an airbag) and Air Bag Jump. For this zone, only Air Bag Jump was available during our visit.
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South Beach
South Beach had 6 attractions, namely:
1. Angry Birds Video Games,
2. Balance Bike Lagoon,
3. Captain Black Birds Ship (playground structure),
4. CineMine (a little corner for watching Angry Birds cartoon),
5. Red Bird Sona (game of jumping on the number mat at pre-recorded audio instructions) and
6. Hollow Trunk (well, virtually just a structure whereby you go in at one end and come out from the other).
Out of the various attractions, these were the 2 DL and CL enjoyed most: Angry Birds GO! Kart Track at Classic Zone and Piggy Shooting Gallery at Utopia.
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Classic
The Classic Zone featured Angry Birds GO! Kart Track and Bird Nest Climbing Track (elevated platform where the kids could eventually ‘find’ 3 kids’ height eggs).
Both adults and kids can go for Angry Birds GO! Kart Track together. The Acitivity Park had Go! Karts of 2 sizes; one for younger children and one for teens and adults. It was great for family bonding as I tried 2 rounds with the little ones. Each round lasted 3 minutes. Even though there were no one in the queue, the staff kept to the 3-min limit and let us know when it was the last round for us. Good to be so systematic.
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Utopia
Utopia has 7 attractions, the most out of the 4 different zones. They are namely,
1. Giant Leap Foam Pit
2. Air Parkour Track
3. Anti Gravity Trampoline
4. Bird Wire Slack Line (walking on tight rope)
5. Piggy Shooting Gallery
6. Angry Birds Space Mini Stage
7. Laser Maze Space Ship (laser game in darken space)
8. Spinning Time Machine (vertical spinning wheel)
At the Piggy Shooting Gallery, DL and CL tried ‘shooting’ at the piggies with foam ball shooters.
The Anti-Gravity Trampolines were good for burning off calories.
Take a peek at more photos of the attractions in the park from their official website in the link at the end of this post.
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With no queue at the play zones, we easily covered the entire park within a hour at a leisurely pace. Another 1.5 hour was spent repeating the attractions though DL got bored into the 2nd hour. I would think the theme park suits younger kids like CL better. Older (upper primary) kids may get bored quickly, like DL who ended up watching angry bird cartoon in Cinemine.
With not many people in the park, the staff were also having some playtime on the trampoline. That would have been fine if they were not jumping on trampolines meant for the younger children.
Angry Bird Activity Park Johor Bahru is good for just a couple of visits in our humble opinion. The park is clean and well-maintained given that it was opened in October 2014. However, taking into consideration the admission charge and the size of the park, we may be back but not in near future.
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Useful information
Address: Level 3 KOMTAR JBCC, Centre,, 80000 Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia
Telephone: +60 7-221 0260
Operating Hours: 10am to 10pm (Monday to Thursday); 3 sessions – 10am to 1pm, 2pm to 5pm, 6pm to 10pm (Friday to Sunday, Public and School Holidays)
Official Website:: Angry Bird Activity Park Johor Bahru
