K-Days is here and so we thought we would put together a guide for parents bringing their kids to K-Days that can help to plan their trip, because let’s face it – it can all be a little overwhelming. Use this guide to help plan your visit to K-Days with kids, and make sure the day goes as smoothly as possible.
What to Know Before You Go
Make a Plan | Download the Northlands App and browse through the new food to see what you’re going to want to eat while you’re there. Using the app, you can access the maps and schedules that will help to find the kid friendly performances and things to do while you’re at K-Days.
Bring Cash | Skip the expensive ATM fees and bring cash with you. Many of the food vendors are cash only, so keep that in mind. How much cash should you bring with you? As a family, we skip the games because they’re not something essential to our experience. For the evening, we brought $100 to spend on fair food and entertainment, and it was enough for our family of four, including the jumping experience inside of Tech Town ($12/child).
Bring a Stroller | 99% of the area where you’re going to be exploring is stroller friendly. Bring it with you. It’s going to be a great place to stash those extra bottles of water, and it’s going to allow you to have somewhere for the younger kids to rest while you’re walking – there is a lot of walking.
Ride All Day Passes | Ride all day passes are a bit of a splurge for the family at $62/67 (adults/children) but for most of the Kiddieland rides, children can go together unaccompanied by an adult as long as they meet the minimum height requirements (36/42″). If you’re an adult uninterested in going on the rides, skipping ride passes for the adults can be a great way to save a bit of money on the experience. If you haven’t this year, you’re going to want to buy the ride all day passes in advance because you save $20 ($47). At $1/ticket, the ride all day passes are worth it.
Bring Water & Snacks | Bring bottles of water, and maybe something healthy to snack on like cut up fruit. There’s a lot of food to eat at the midway, but if you’re bringing toddlers – the food can be hard on their digestive systems (Okay, ours too). Though it’s fun to indulge in the fair food, it’s all about balance, and you’re going to want to pace yourself to avoid the fair-food-hangover that comes with wanting to try everything new this year!
Go more than Once | With admission deals, you can easily go more than once through the 10 day period that K-days is in town. Planning ahead and buying tickets (very limited amounts, so act quick) for these times, helps to get you through sanity intact, as you’re less rushed to see everything the first time around. With plenty of free things to do with the kids at K-days, it’s also an easier way to see everything.
Where to Rest | The best place to get out of the sun is in the camp Northlands Pavillion. There are Adirondack chairs, to sit in, fake grass for babies to crawl around on and S’mores. There’s even a faux outdoor movie – and it’s the best place to cool off and rest, and the crowds are thin!
Free Kids Activities at K-Days
The Farm | At The Farm people of all ages will have fun learning in an entertaining, educational and interactive environment, where their food comes from and how it gets to their plate. Kids will love the food lab, supermarket, cow milking, milk and cookies station, live animal experiences and more. Daily sessions in the food lab will teach kids how to make hummus, and happen at 1:30, 5:15 and 6:30.
Kids Town | Kids town is a village created for children to explore and learn about community: the hospital, music shop, LEGO land, library and career center will do just that, in addition to the kids entertainment stage where kids can have meet and greets with their favourite characters, or meet a skunk or tarantula.
Camp Northlands | With Camp Northlands, camping is closer than ever! Here, the young ones can enjoy a variety of outdoorsy and camp-like experiences including a S’mores shack. This one was our favourite indoor exhibit for kids, and the kids loved exploring the giant teepee.
Tech Life | In the Tech Life exhibit there are some fun things to do with the kids, including a bounce-castle Zipline that goes pretty quickly, even if there’s a line. Brace yourself, the kids are going to want to play it more than once. There are also game demonstrations, and paid experiences like the Thrill Masters sling shot, where kids are attached to a bungee on the trampoline ($12/five minutes), so brace yourself to skip that if you are trying to cut costs for extra attractions.
Kid-Friendly Eats at K-Days
Birthday Cake Shaved Ice ($6) | We’ve had this twice. It was that good. Not only is it a great size to share between a couple of kids, but the delicious birthday-cake flavour was actually really, really yummy. While you’re at the Hula Hut, you can also try the Pickle flavoured shaved ice – they’ve got a bunch of different flavours.
Corn Dogs ($6) | You can’t go wrong with a corn dog and there is no shortage of different styles and types to choose from when you’re at K-Days. We went for a regular style of corn dog, without any cheese or jalapenos (but you can find those there too).
Mac and Cheese ($10) | While you’re exploring inside the Expo Centre, hit up the mac and cheese stand. For ten bucks, you get an impressive amount of mac and cheese, and you can choose from a protein added in (chicken, sausage, bacon bits) and two toppings (doritos, jalepenos, onions, tomatos, etc.). The kids devoured this, and had more to take-home.
Must-Do Kid-Friendly Rides
The rides in Kiddieland start at 36-42″ to ride with an adult, or alone. The majority of the rides in Kiddieland don’t have lines that are too long, and are priced at 4 tickets each.
Pony Rides | The pony rides are one of those staples to the experience, but are separate from the Ride All Day passes. It’s $6 for a ride, that lasts a few minutes and it’s one of those last ride of the day stops, close to the exit near the LRT and parking that we like to use to get the kids out the door, when we’ve finished.
The Slide | One of the classic, kid-friendly rides, the slide is one of the attractions that our kids go on over and over again. It’s a nice chance for parents to have a break from the walking, so grab some food before you head over to the slide. The lines go quickly, and you can have a chance to sample some of the food without having to navigate through the crowds.
Dizzy Dragon | Similar to the strawberries, this is a ride where the kids are going to be able to control the spinning, and it’s a great introductory ride for little kids, new to the midway.
Undersea Adventure | This ride was a new one to us. Kids must be 36″ to ride with an adult and 42″ to ride alone, but it’s a fantastic adventure that’s a bit more of a thrill for kids – ours went on this ride four times while we visited K-Days and are still talking about it as their favourite ride of the night.
There you have it – some of our favourite rides, things to eat, and tips to get you through the visit to K-days, sanity in tact, with the kids. What are some of your hacks for bringing the kids?
This post has been sponsored by Northlands.