WonderWorks – Orlando, FL

Disclosure: My family was provided admission to WonderWorks in exchange for this post.

A visit to Orlando can not be complete with out a trip down International Drive. And on International drive you simply can not miss the upside down building- WonderWorks.WonderWorks challenges the mind, sparks the imagination and leads the way as the top interactive attraction. Through innovation, entertainment and affordability, WonderWorks turns fun upside down and inspires lasting memories for guests of all ages.

Inside you will find more than 100 hands on exhibits and interactive displays. The exhibits are broken up into six zones: Natural Disasters, Physical Challenge, Light & Sound, Space Discovery, Imagination Lab and Far Out Art Gallery.

You start your journey in the Natural Disaster zone where you can become a human lightning rod, relive the Quake of ’89 and feel the power behind a magnitude of 5.3 on the Richter scale, experience category 1 hurricane force winds of 71 mph and see how long you can tolerate your hand in water as cold as when the Titanic sank! Our favorite zone was the Physical Challenge zone. Inside you can lay on a bed of nails…Create a 3-Dimensional image of your body on a gigantic pin wall…Explore the amazing bubble lab…

Try out MindBall to see who has a stronger mind. Use the virtual sports machine to pitch to a Major League Baseball player or throw a touchdown pass 50 yards to an NFL player. And learn all about how pulleys work. We were literally in this zone for three hours. We had that much fun.My younger kids really enjoyed the giant piano in the light and sound zone and the large lite brite in the Imagination Lab. We spent a good thirty minutes stomping aliens at the Alien Stomper exhibit. What is an Alien Stomper you ask? Well its an interactive game that is projected on the floor. It’s like a wack a mole, but digital!In the Space Discovery zone my kids were able to explore a life-size replica of an EVA suit that astronauts wear, climb into a replica of one of the launched capsules and experience what it’s like to lay inside this one-man vehicle and train to be an astronaut in the 2-person gyroscope ride.

After you’ve explored all the exhibits, you can venture up to the basement where you’ll find the Indoor Ropes Course, the Laser-Tag arena and the 4D XD Motion Theater! I was pretty shocked to smell basement, even though I knew we were technically on the third floor. Big kudos to the developer for this play on senses. We forgot to wear closed toed shoes so did not get to experience the Rope Course. The Laser-Tag was amazing. It was not super busy, so it was just our family inside. Even Caleb (16 months) was able to explore the arena, but he did not wear a vest or carry a gun.

In a building with 100+ things to do there has to be a few negatives. For us the 4D XD Motion Theater was just meh. When I think 4D, I expect to see, smell, hear, and feel the show. The only extra thing the theater had besides the moving seats was wind and lights. We didn’t smell anything or feel water, even though on the screen we splashed into water a few times. All of the games on the first two levels are set on free play, my kids loved that. However, when we entered the basement all the games required tokens. This wouldnt normally be a big deal, but we had no cash on us which lead to a huge kid melt down. They did not understand why the ones downstairs did not require money and these ones did. Honestly I didn’t quite understand it either. Our final complaint about WonderWorks was all the down exhibits. The Mission To Mars seat was broken, the Wonder Coaster had technicians working on it the entire time we were there, Land The Shuttle was none responsive, Speed of Light was turned off, the air hokey table was broken and the Simon Says machine had a broken button.

As you can see, the positives way out weigh the negatives at Wonderworks. Overall, we had a blast at Wonderworks and would for sure return to play again and recommend it as a great place to spend a rainy or hot day! WonderWorks is located at 9067 International Drive in Orlando, FL. It is open 365 days a year from 9:00AM-Midnight.  Paid parking is available at the Pointe Orlando parking garage with a maximum fee of $9.00. Tickets start at $26.99 for an adult and $20.99 for a child.

Below is a video of the amazing bubble lab!