At the beginning of the summer, I bought something called a Pogo Pass. Basically, you buy the pass and then you get 1 or 2 admission tickets to a bunch of different places over the course of the next year. (If you’re interested, I think I have an affiliate link that I can email to you that lets you get the pass for $39.98) Has it been worth it? Hmm… I actually just totaled up what we’ve used so far and I’d say it will PROBABLY end up being worth it. For sure, it encouraged us to get out and try new places we wouldn’t have gone to otherwise so in that sense it was absolutely worth it. And I imagine we will hit up 1 or 2 more places before our passes expire which will make it worth the sticker price. That said, we didn’t take advantage of a lot of the places on the pass either because they are in Waco (I’m not driving 2 hours to take my kid roller skating) or the just weren’t things I could do with the babies (looking at you Hawaiian Falls.) But, if you had only older kids I think it would definitely be worth it.
Which brings us to today! I was looking through the Pogo Pass trying to decide on something fun to do over Winter Break, and saw Wonder World. Um, yes please! I am addicted to cheesy roadside attractions and I have wanted to go to this place ever since I went back to school at Texas State to get my teaching certification. Was it fun? Yes. Was it insane with 2 preschoolers? Yes! Am I disproportionately disappointed that they didn’t sell souvenir patches? Yes. lol.
Luckily Kate’s BFF’s mom is super duper awesome and she always agrees to come along on my crazy adventures. The Pogo Pass got us into 3 of the 4 attractions and I decided that was enough for my crew, we just missed out on the Wildlife Train ride. My friend found a Groupon that included all 4 attractions, so we did the Cave, Observation Tower and Anti-Gravity House, then had a little picnic and left before they got on the train.
The Cave was fun, but to say that it wasn’t very accessible would be like saying the Sahara is a little bit dry. I wish I had brought my wrap so I could have worn Mia, but I ended up just carrying her for large chunks of the tour while abandoning my friend to deal with Xander. Did I mention she’s awesome? lol. Still, I think this is a good starter cave for kids because they can actually touch all of the walls which makes it less stressful. That said, there were some tight spots so I wouldn’t recommend it for someone who was claustrophobic.
Kate loved the observation deck and even with my deep fear of heights I can agree that the view was lovely. But the Anti-Gravity House? Oh lord. You could not pay me enough to reenter that place. It’s designed to be disorienting, and it straight up made me fall over. Luckily, I was near a helpfully placed bench, but yikes. I’m still dizzy just thinking about it. Kate, on the other hand, would have happily spent 3 hours in there. Even I’ll admit that they had some pretty cool optical illusions with balls and water appearing to roll uphill.
Bottom line, am I glad we went? Yes! We had a blast and it wore the babies out enough that they are both currently napping in their cribs which is my major litmus test for if an activity was worth it. Would we go again? Um, probably not. It’s kind of a one time is enough sort of experience.
As for the Pogo Pass? I have enjoyed having “free” activities to do with the kids, but I don’t think we will be buying one again this summer. Maybe when the babies are old enough to really take advantage of more of the activities it will make more sense, but for now I think we’re better off looking for the occasional Groupon.