The Bouncing Nets at Jewel's Canopy Park is great fun for both kids and adults but we'll probably only revisit much later in the future because of the Singapore school holiday crowd.
After visiting Canopy Park at Jewel a few days ago and seeing photos of queues at hotels and attractions, I guess people are out and about this school holiday, probably in part fueled by the SingapoRediscovers Vouchers (SRV). Well, it's good that everyone is supporting the local attractions and Singapore economy but not so good for those who have to wait in line.
We booked tickets on Klook to visit the Bouncing Nets (the tickets come with entry to Canopy Park) on a weekday of the December school holiday with our SRV. We've always wanted to visit the Bouncing Nets but have been put off by the cost, so what better way than to use our SRV, right?
Apparently everyone must have thought the same. When we arrived at Canopy Park on Monday at 1pm, there was barely a queue to enter the Park and it definitely does not look crowded on our way in. Turned out we were too optimistic a little too earlier on because when we reached the Bouncing Nets area, there was a really long queue! Along the queue were markers with the estimated waiting time for the attraction, and at the end of the queue was the 2-hour marker!
My face fell when I saw that. I'm someone who would never deliberately go queue up for food or attractions no matter how much people rave about them. I hate wasting time like that. But this time we didn't have a choice. We had already used our tickets for entry into Canopy Park, so the only thing we could do then was to join the queue. Well, more like hubby queued while I took the kids to the other Park attractions to kill time.
The non-paying attractions in Canopy Park that children like are really the Discovery Slides and Foggy Bowls. So we made a beeline for the slides, which had a queue of about 15 or so in front of us. We queued for about ten minutes before we were admitted to the slides. But once we slid down one of the two slides that were operating, we had to return to queue for another ten minutes just to have a go at one slide. The kids went for another two rounds and they had enough for queuing. And the Discovery Slides queue has definitely gotten longer after that two rounds!
We didn't go to Foggy Bowls as it looked rather crowded, but headed to the pond to see the Mandarin Ducks.
Luckily the two ducks captivated my kids for a good half hour. That was when hubby called to say we were next to enter Bouncing Nets. At least it was a one-hour wait in the queue, and not two hours!
All the annoyance and queuing frustration were forgotten once we entered the Bouncing Nets. Because we all really had a bouncing good time! The kids had been to Airzone at City Square Mall but it was hubby and my first time on something like that and wow, we felt like kids again climbing, running and bouncing with our girls.
There's also a really fast slide in there. Just remember when going down the slides, keep your legs and arms tight. My shoe got caught at the netting and I almost went upside down.
It was also fun just sitting or lying down and feeling the bounce when others ran or jumped on it. There is quite a lot of space (or nets?) to explore and with capacity limited at 40 at the attraction, there was enough room for all.
I asked the kids if they prefer this or Airzone at City Square Mall. They said the latter was more fun as there are more stuff to play with and the net is bouncier. Well, I did enjoy the Bouncing Nets very much, and the hubby too (you can tell from the pics I'm sure!). But we all concur that this is so much more fun than the Walking Nets!
Each session at the Bouncing Nets is 45 minutes, which is quite sufficient as the kids were spent at the end of it. You can't bring your water bottles in so they were really dying to go out for water after 45 minutes.
We had loads of fun at the Bouncing Nets but we're probably unlikely to return again soon, at least not during this school holiday. One friend told me it's worse during weekends while another parent told me she couldn't bear waiting in the queue and exchanged her tickets for the Walking Nets. I guess the queues and waiting can't be avoided given the confluence of factors like people going for local attractions as they can't go for vacations/people wanting to use their SRV/limited capacity at attractions.
Jewel used to take bookings by one-hour timeslots for the Bouncing Nets. Maybe it's something harder to implement when people are booking though other platforms with the SRV. But booking by timeslots would have definitely helped to save us all some time on queuing.
When we left Canopy Park at around 3pm, the place has definitely become more crowded. The queues are even longer at the Bouncing Nets and Discovery Slides compared to when we arrived. The afternoons are the peak periods for Canopy Park, so if you want to make a trip there this holiday, I'm guessing mornings would be a safer bet to avoid the crowds.
Bonus tips for your trip:
- Bouncing Nets tickets on Klook which include entry to Canopy Park cost S$19.80 for adults and youths 13-17 years old, and $14.40 for children 3-12 years old.
- You can use your SRV for this. Just remember to minus off the child subsidies from your total cost when choosing how much of your SRV to redeem. E.g. Tickets for our family of 2 adults and 2 children cost $68.40. After adding the tickets to our Klook cart, we chose to pay by SRV and were directed to login with our Singpass at a STB website, then to fill in our kids' birthcert numbers (if you haven't already done so previously). From there we chose to redeem $40 of our SRV. We are then given a code to paste onto the Klook cart. The $20 child subsidies are automatically reflected and we paid $8.40 in total.
- There is a height limit of at least 110cm to enter the Bouncing and Walking Nets and Discovery Slides. Children aged 3-12 must be accompanied by a paying adult.
- Book your tickets at least a few days in advance for the Bouncing Nets as it is very popular! You're required to choose your date of visit when booking but I noticed the tickets from Klook are open-dated and valid till June 2021. I don't believe Jewel staff will stop you from entering if you go on a different date (the ticket does not state the date you chose) but the dates probably make for easier crowd control for the venue.
- Before entry to the Bouncing Nets, you'll need to store your bags in lockers (they are free-of-charge) but phones are allowed.
- Wear flat covered shoes. If not, you can loan the shoes there.
- You're required to wear masks at all times in the Bouncing Nets but it's not uncommon to see some of the kids removing their masks as they may be too tired from the running.
- Younger ones do get excited running around the nets. Little E had a race with her sister and she ended up flat on her face with slight abrasion on her cheek. So I'd advise wearing long pants so they don't scrape their skin on the net when they fall.
I think for now I'm removing Jewel and Universal Studios from our places to use our SRV this school holiday. If you have other fun options that does not involve crowds like our Singapore Flyer ride, do let me know!
Disclaimer: We paid for our tickets, and my opinions and reviews here are strictly my and my family’s own.
©Vivian Teo. All content and photos are copyrighted to Vivian Teo unless otherwise specified.