Wanna do Wannado?

Did you ever wish when you were a kid that you could exist within your own city, playing the ultimate game of make believe, pretending to be everything from a firefighter to a professional shopper. Not only could you be whoever, but you can do whatever—without your parents nagging you.  As parents of toddlers, we can’t relate to our little people abandoning us yet. One day it will happen.

Wannado City where kids can do what they want to do, according to its own theme song. Yes, it does stick in your head. Last year my husband and I took our daughter Jordan down to Fort Lauderdale, Florida to visit

relatives and we happened upon Wannado City. Our daughter was only two at the time and she was not quite old enough to navigate an entire kid-size city with “big kids” and sans parents. But we made a note that this was a place we needed to come back to very soon.

We just returned from our annual vacation and instead of doing Disney, we spent three visits at Wannado City. We purchased a summer pass, which is 5 day-long passes for fifty dollars. Adults go in for free with their children. When you arrive, you are given a check worth $150 Wongas, which is the currency inside Wannado City. For $10 more, you and your child are outfitted with a GPS bracelet. Inside there are kiosks that allow you to see where your child is at all times because their bracelet is connected to yours. For older children, parents sit in the lounge and let them run around and do what they want. So it’s a good feeling to know that you can still keep track of them, while letting them do their own thing. Also, your child cannot leave Wannado City unless they are accompanied by a member of their party. The exit employees ask not only their name, but their age as well.

Once inside, your first stop is the bank because you need to cash the $150 check, so that you have some real hard Wonga currency to play with. It looks like Monopoly money that is bigger and thicker in texture. 

After we had the cash, we set our sights on waiting on lines with her for the various activities. Her first job was at the dentist office where she cleaned, flossed and examined inside a puppet child named Bobby. She earned $20 Wongas.

Over the course of our vacation, she would experience a lot more than we could ever imagine. We never realized how brave she was to put herself in situations with kids four times her age. Mostly the kids were nice to her. Over the course of our three visits, we watched her try her hand at being a dentist, a nurse, a surgeon (not that we are pushing), a Crime Scene Investigator, a candy maker, a baker, and a firefighter. Seeing her in everything from scrubs to a pint-size firefighter jacket was as enjoyable for us as it was for her.

Inside there is a lot for all kids of all ages. There’s a club room, they can go to clown school, star in a Broadway show, be an archeologist, and be a lab technician inside a Motorola M lab. Kids need to be at least 8-10 for the M lab.

What city would run without the press? Not to worry, Wannado addresses both print and television by having a faux Miami Herald newsroom and a CNN newsroom, where kids can try their hand out at being the next Tom Brokaw. While waiting outside of Jordan’s bakery experience, a ten year old girl stood tentatively outside next to me with a pad in hand. I could not resist giving some journalism tips and told her to go in and get her 5w’s, ask the kids their names and what they are doing and so forth and so on. I think her newfound journalistic skills landed her some space in the next Herald layout.

It does not have to be all work because inside there are carnival games and rides for kids of all ages from the slow train that goes 1 mile an hour around a loop track and one of those boat things that swings back and forth. When your kid just wants to kick their feet up and be a little pampered, there’s a nail and hair salon where they can get a manicure and an updo. To coordinate with that new look, you can also head over to the jewelry store and make a new bracelet. These activities require you to use the Wongas.

The hardest part for us was to let her go and do these tasks on her own as we stared through a glass, or off to the side. Whenever she did meet a kid who was a little rough, we swooped in to save the day. Of course, as she gets older, she’ll need less of us doing that. We did envy the older kids parents who were chilling in a lounge munching on funnel cake.

All in all Jordan was a good earner, she had $475 Wongas on an ATM card to be used next year, when we make our next trek to Florida. 

For more information check out www.wannadocity.com  

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