Dinosaurs in Santa Clara? Forty five years ago Santa Clara was primarily Plumb & Apricot orchards with a population of 25,000. Today it's over a million with no upgrade in basic infrastructure. It's human chaos at its finest. Then jam San Jose next door with additional million people.. It's called the South Bay in typical Californian fashion this region has no fresh water source & receives the lowest amount of rainfall annually anywhere within the San Francisco bay area. Let's build the two largest cities anywhere in the San Francisco bay area. Yet California's politicians will boast how green our state is. Guess again there is nothing green about California. The entire population of the San Francisco Bay area in 1979 was 2.9 million people. Today it has erupted into a unsustainable 8.8 million people with no increase in water & electric infrastructure.
Any event like this that is like 95% for kids but a parent HAS to be there and supervising, the adult tickets should be very low or zero when being purchased with a child ticket.
That's why I canceled my tickets. A surcharge for both (already expensive, 28 for adult and 38 for a child) tickets when a child HAS to be accompanied by an adult? Jail.
this is random but was very shocked to see my full name making a comment i didn’t remember writing…and then my brain turned on and realized it wasn’t me lmao
Or, better, just allow the kids to go on their own. While I did enjoy going to events with my mom in primary/middle school, going on my own or with other kids was just a completely different brand of fun.
Me and my girlfriend went to a thing like this and not only were the employees super nice, they even told us we could go past the rope and touch the dino animatronics when there were no kids around lmao
Its always better when the employees to decide to randomly trust the older ones at an event and let them touch the animatronic things. That's what your always told to not do
@@choccy_bagel choccy bagel, you've just opened my eyes to the possibility of sweet bagels (I previously was only aware of bagels in a savoury manner)
Amanda is like that cartoon character that made plans with multiple people without them knowing about one another and then tries to show up to every event in the same night
I can totally envision a cameo of Swell walking around with a camera at Jurassic World, reviewing the tours and exhibits and restaurants and hotel suites. that image is very substantial in my brain and it makes me scared, but also safe in the knowledge that the camerawoman never dies
As a parent, I appreciate you not filming the kids. I have no idea the strength of the rage I’d have finding my child on a RUclips video with hundreds of thousands of views.
As someone that works in a science museum as a entertainer for children it's always a mixed bag. There are a lot of kids who may appear mean right now, but some of them grew up in the pandemic and missed two years of social dynamics. I also find kids who have hyper fixations and just want to share with and adult who will listen. Some of them teach me stuff sometimes and that's rad. Thank you for going to this event its been advertised in my area, and I was tempted because I love dinosaurs myself but this isn't for me. It was very amusing seeing you talk about all the exhibits. I hope you get some much deserved rest.
As a Canadian my step sons mother took him and his other siblings to this and they were so bored and she was glad she got the tickets for free because it was lame but all the advertisements were so cool looking. They must be using the American one to advertise to us
Anyone who would shame you for that is weird. We have a giant dinosaur park/museum 2 hours away and I can tell you I have more fun going there now than when I was a kid. Dinosaurs are so cool , you never age out of them.
At the risk of sounding like I'm asking you to dox yourself.... What's the name of the park? I high key am interested in seeing how many of my friends would be willing to road trip in order to go to a dinosaur theme park because that sounds genuinely rad.
You just unlocked a childhood memory of the dinosaur park I lived close to that I begged my parents to take me to. Now I want to see whether they’re still open 😂
@@animekittykitty It’s called the royal tyrrell museum. I don’t know if they have any rides anymore ( they stopped that few they had in the pandemi and I haven’t been in since) but they still have la giant museum and you can go on bone digging trips in the area. Or watch the scientist work on real fossils. They used to have motion rides and stuff. It might be more of a movie thing now. But there are all these giant dinosaurs everywhere and fossils. You can do like science camps there even as an adult. I love that stuff but I am kind of nerdy😅
I went with my whole family, my dad saw it and really wanted to go. He's very old and is extremely knowledgeable about dinosaurs, he was honestly disappointed. The lay out for the event was confusing, we ended up going on the child side and thought that was the whole event. The animatronics and information were very cool though. It was okay for 30 minutes and that's really all.
I think these are the same animatronic dinosaurs that used to tour zoos during the height of the original Jurassic Park movie but someone bought them all and created a traveling dino circus of sorts. Thats just my theory.
My boyfriend and I went to this, not knowing it was solely for kids. 10 minutes in we went back asked if we could get a refund but were denied so we were two adults walking around and watching all the kids have fun and being pissed lol
Nah that is some BS that is such a scam!! They really wasted your time and money, and I’d bet that they’ve robbed plenty of adults of their money and their joy! They should have made their age policy clear to you and your bf BEFORE you bought the tickets and went inside. You wouldn’t have spent your money if you knew you couldn’t do anything. What a disappointment!
I went to one but it was at night and you stayed in your car like a safari, which was great because up close the dinosaurs would have looked shittier. Plus they kind of set the mood and the keepers more immerse into their little escaped dinosaur storyline, my 2 year old niece found it kind of scary.
That's the one that's been by me. There's a huge retired salt mine by me that you can drive through and they get a Jurassic Quest at least once a year, usually twice a year
totally agree about the discrepancy between parents and kids admission. insane that they were the same price!! also i always appreciate seating at big events like this so it sucks that they didn't have more chairs and tables
My friend also went to Jurassic quest with her boyfriend! She’s a 21 year old geology major and was very disappointed to find out how much it was just meant for kids. I also love dinosaurs and I think there should be more dinosaur events targeted for adults!
My husband and I went to this near us last year, but it was a "Dinos in the Dark" so it was lit up with all sorts cool lights. Definitely more kid friendly than we anticipated, but still fun.
Bro I was a local hire at Jurassic Quest when it came to Long Island this year. I was in their activity room. I helped pilot the walking dinosaurs, led the arts and crafts station, and then worked as a “breaker”. Little blue single use tickets were $6. Honestly for everything except the rides and bounces, I let the parents play as long as the kids had wristbands. The “quest” was literally just photo ops on sandwich boards around the event. And there are multiple tours! The ticket situation is indeed very bad, and confusing.
"Adult Dinosaur Enthusiast" for the shirt idea. As the father of a 6yo we go to stuff like this, there's a handful of them, and I think they rearrange and retheme and rename themselves every so often. During Covid there was one where you just drove through the packing lot of the fairgrounds and visited the different ages of the Dinosaurs. I have way more fun that I should admit. The pricing is completely crazy, and usually has nothing to do with how big or involved the experience is. My guess is they just figure out basic traveling and operating expenses then roll in how ever much money they're laundering and just go for it.
I’d probably go just to see the animatronics. There should be a con just for giant animatronic dinosaurs or animatronics in general, telling you how they work, showing videos or small examples of the insides moving for some of them. And it should be for adults and children. I’d love to see how those ride dinosaurs work.
My sister took her kids to this when it was in our area. She was in line to get my 3 y/o niece on a bounce house that was labeled for kids 4 and under and the employee working it tried to tell my sister that my niece wasn't allowed on because she was older than 4. I get that they probably deal with parents trying to get their obviously-too-old kids on the attractions, but she's very clearly a toddler 😭
As someone who has a kid and lives in an area where not much stuff comes around besides the basic county fair, its nice to have a review of these type of things so that when im looking into buying tickets and traveling myself to go to it i know it isnt going to be a huge waste of time and money and will also save me from the disappointment and resentment my kid will have towards me for dragging him out of the house on a weekend and making him sit in a car for however long and wasting his day
My (childless) wife and I went to Dino Stroll which was a similar idea. It was definitely for kids and kids only (as opposed to something for everyone in the family) I bought a $20 balloon because they were so cute and the prices were not posted anywhere, but gosh darn it! I wanted a brachiosaurus balloon! It was fine for what it was, but I wouldn't go back again.
I actually worked at Jurassic Quest a few years ago in NC as an high schooler and the only thing I remember is that I worked a 12 hour shift and got a crazy amount of money at the end of that weekend; so they definitely pay well. There wasn’t an outside part when I worked, but maybe because it was at a Convention Center, so everything seemed more packed inside and there wasn’t a big space. I remember the crafts, the shop/museum, the bouncy house, and the rides. From my understanding, I think there was also a lack of chairs when I worked, but I mainly worked one game then switched to the Under 5 bouncy house and just remember so many parents getting angry because I wouldn’t let their older kids in because they were trampling the babies; so there’s that. Besides all that I enjoyed watching a video of somewhere I worked for a weekend as a teenager!
I do love parents who let you borrow their kids. I wanted to go see this really cool place that had been remodeled, but it was very much for kids. Got to borrow my future ring bearer and go on a babysitting date with my boyfriend. Another time, borrow a friend's kids and costumes to put them in a picture book for a college assignment. The kids just got to cosplay in the park, and I took pictures and gave them a copy.
I live in CO, and this is advertised CONSTANTLY. I'm so happy you did a video on this, because the advertisements look like crazy fun (walking with animatronic dinosaurs, interacting with them, etc) and it is never advertised just for kids. As a former dinosaur kid and current dinosaur adult, I will be saving my time now lol.
As a professional aunt to a 5 year old niece and 12 year old nephew, this seems like an event I'd take my nephew when he was 6 and then never attend again. Cute to let kids expend their energy, but not enough to keep them engaged. In Chicago, museums have free days for Illinois residents and there are great public parks so really, you only have to plan for the cost of gas and food.
I used to work at a children's museum so all this sounded very familiar. I always appreciate how much you talk to the staff and try to learn about the experience from them!
I went to this event in Jacksonville, FL before Covid and it was super cool! We were there for like 3 hours, my kid fell asleep in my husband's arms after like 45 minutes, the rest of the time was me and my husband walking around looking at stuff. It was also all indoors which was nice. I do have a super cute picture of my toddler in one of the eggs 😊 Side note: everyone will give you crap about getting Botox but in 2 weeks when it kicks in and your skin looks amazing they all start giving you compliments! I'm here for it!
‘Lived my archaeology dreams’ is so funny because a not insignificant amount of archaeologists/biological anthropologists will have seen the Jonsbones video, so I do think you could absolutely do a ‘I tried it so you don’t have to’ on an archaeological dig if you wanted
10:42 The reason you don't see foggers used with lasers at weddings as much as you used to is that a lot of children (and old people) have asthma nowadays. The chemicals used in fog machines, such as glycol and glycerin, can irritate the airways and cause inflammation, leading to coughing, wheezing, and shortness of breath.
So THIS is what it was supposed to look like. They came up to Alaska some years ago and it looked even more sparse than those clips from the other creators at the beginning. Lol.
I'm actually really glad you did this cause there's one in my area and I'm a 27 year old toddler with no kids so obviously I was like DINOSAURS YASSSS but I was wondering if it was too focused on kids for me to get my money's worth. Apparently I was right! Thanks Swell.
I love that regardless of the event (porn convention, ren fair, traveling dinosaur show), Amanda consistenty applies investigative journaist-level info gathering to provide thorough reviews of what attendees can expect at events.
If you're ever in the mood to spend a ton of money, review the L.A. County Fair in Pomona. No one seems to mention the pricing of an average visit there.
I about had a stroke when they told me the cost of those half filled dinosaur balloons 💀 it’s was an okay experience for a high price tag. Definitely not worth the money if your kid is older than like…5
I'm 19 now and my brother is 16 but when he was about 5-8 he was ABSOLUTELY OBSESSED with dinosaurs and so by extension I did a lot of dinosaur activities with him. He also really loved other animals so we were always going to zoos, museums, aquariums, and the likes for him. He would spend his afternoons watching the half hour of Dinosaur Train on PBS Kids and I of course watched with him. All of this is to say that since we're also in California we went to this one place that had dinosaur activities and exploration one time. I vividly remembered it after I saw you pull out the excavation cup thing and the putty with the dinosaur inside. My dinosaur putty was exactly in the same container only it had blue slime and a Pteranadon skeleton in it. The excavation bit also brought back memories. I remember at the place we went you could dig and find a rock and then exchange that for a tiny plastic dinosaur. Good times. I wish there had been more princess things to do around the place, though. I was more of a girly girl so the dinosaur stuff wasn't really my style but we were always going to make my brother happy 😆
I love how absolutely goofy the triceratops is on your shirt, its amazing they used a design thats basically Sera and Ducky from The aland Before Time 😂
Just imagining a Swell van. Next year, Amanda having an excursion van for skipping hotels for California events and just ready to hit the road. Throw in a drone shot here and there like nbd.
I actually have two things related to this! I have a Friend from high school who graduated with a musical theatre degree and her first touring contract was with Jurassic Quest! I haven’t talked to her about it necessarily but she seemed to love it! She went back and forth between being the puppeteer and the announcer. The other thing was I went during the pandemic with my mom, sister and niece and at the time they made it into a drive through event where you would drive through all the Dino’s and they were animatronics that worked and stuff so it was great for my niece who was like 3 and loved dinosaurs at the time. I think during that they made a lot of money on the plushies they ended the line with haha
I feel you here! I have kids that are bigger now, but having a small child as an co-entry to such venues is a must! I REALLY feel FOMO at not having access to the local brick adventure venue.
Dinosaurs are awesome and I would totally drive five hours to go to a kids dinosaur exhibit- luckily I live less than 3 minutes away from a museum all about Dino’s :3 Thank you Swell for feeding the dino nerds in your community.
HAH i think this place actually came to a city near my sister. She spent the money drove out and, since she's like 5'4'', got to ride one of the dinos. (She's mid 20's also.) She was making eye contact with all the employees trying to suss out who would actually be cool with letting her ride one lmao she was SO excited and lucked out. The pictures are great hahahaha
Where I used to live, we had Jurassic Quest every year. Thankfully my husband worked at the coliseum/convention center it was held at so I got to look around while they were setting up the event and see the dinos without paying 😎. I definitely know some childless adults who have gone just for the dinos and seemed to enjoy it. Definitely should not be charging parents at all.
Swell Ive been watching you for a long minute and appreciate your reviews on events, it saves us money on trainwreck events! Ive been going to Anime Expo since 2012 and its gotten so much worse, I stopped attending in 2019 and recently its back in action! I was wondering if you can review anime expo? Theres many better smaller anime cons but the largest one is in July! I would love to hear your opinion on this convention! Much love from your subscriber, Alvie
Jurassic Quest was in my city not too long ago. There were no animatronics, they were all just rubber coated statues. Lots of them, especially the ones place outside, had so much damage on them. There's also far more than two distinct groups traveling around: visiting their website shows lots of shows happening simultaneously, there have to be at least five groups traveling around at once in Canada alone. Likely more in the US
HOLY SHIT THANK YOU for mentioning about how hard it is to get around California. Specifically anything north of the Angeles Mountains it's a *nightmare*. Once you go through any pass, your main highway is the PCH, the 5 or the 99 and you're basically SOL. As someone who works with kids: they can be SO MEAN. But I do love the littles who still have a suspense of disbelief for things like this. It's *magical*.
I live in a small city/town in Sweden, and we have a couple of smaller suburbs. I once took a right in the wrong place and ended up in Smedby, a bit west of Kalmar. And what I encountered on this small road was a huge dinosaur sculpture outside an enormous barn. Apparently, this is Sweden's biggest dinosaur museum, kept by one pretty strange man. It's called "a world of dinosaurs" and it's so crazy it's worth looking up. I haven't dared go inside. He definitely wants this to be a legitimate thing and not a theme park for kids, but they do have animatronics. Edit: sorry, apparently it's EUROPE's biggest dinosaur museum. In Smedby, population 3500...
Reminds me of those plasticized bodies that toured museums. Multiple exhibit collections of varied quality and maybe knock-offs of the original Body Worlds.
This is bringing back memories of the actual official Jurrasic World "expo" that was advertised as a museum-type thing showing off props and facts, but in reality was a 20 minute run through a handful of animatronic 'events,' such a waste of time, money, and license. I was there with my girlfriend, both of us in our late 20s, and we weren't the only childless people. I would say our group had about 20 people, and only 3 or 4 were children, so about half of our group weren't parents. It was 100% aimed at kids but none of the advertisements or anything on the website made it seem that way.
I'm really glad you went to this and explained how it worked. My husband and I LOVE dinosaurs but every time I saw the ads for this, it always looked like it was for children. I don't know why these types of traveling shows don't have thing for adults, with or without kids. The organizers HAVE to know that adults want to see dinosaurs .
I went to the Jurassic world live show and I think I might have genuinely have been the only childless adult (alone). It was awesome and the staff were incredibly friendly. I got some weird looks but it was worth it- the dinosaur puppets/animatronics were amazing.
The lack of fog is probably to do with breathability - engineered fog can irritate people with asthma and other lung conditions. It's one of those things where you either risk it or just don't bother; like flashing lights. It could trigger/irritate someone with medical conditions, so it's safest just not to do it, even though it makes stuff a little blander. (But what do I know, I'm just some dude on the internet - it may well have been "don't lose kids in the fog" hahaha!)
I think this or something similar came to our city a while ago. But it was a drive thru exhibit in the mall parking lot. The Dinosaurs were somewhat moving and my brother’s kids seemed to enjoy it. I just kept think wow this was a waste of money.
I went to Jurassic quest a few years ago lol as a kid I was entertained so can't be mad, the baby dinosaur animatronics were absolutely adorable but it was basically a big dino museum exhibit
I actually know of Jurassic Quest because I know someone who was helping with the logistics and transportation part of it. There are indeed (at least) 2 shows going around, as there was a JQ show here in my town at the same time the guy I know had flown to elsewhere in the country to assist with a different show. I don't really have any juicy insider stories or anything. What I can tell you that after a show finishes at a location, they quickly pack everything up and throw them into trailers, and then they rent out a "nearby" field where they store all of these trailers - sitting for anywhere between a few hours to 2 days - waiting for contracted OTR truck drivers to pick them up and bring them to whatever location is next. Some of these fields are just bumf*** middle of nowhere places, where a bunch of locked up trailers are just sitting, waiting to be moved. The guy I know was pulled away from his day job (in an office) to do this. All he had to do was sit in this field with all these trailers, essentially just to make sure the drivers actually showed up and took them. And again, some of these trailers are waiting 2 days for their driver to show up, so he had to sit in that field and wait too (although he was able to leave at some points to stay in a hotel room).
We have an exhibit in one of my local malls that looks exactly the same, but its called Dino Safari. It wouldn't surprise me if this was a traveling version of this
I went to something like this when I was little and then later read the NG article about the mammoth in the tar pit, and somehow, my brain decided that we brought back actual dinosaurs using the same DNA thing
Can confirm you are never too old for dinosaurs. Or to ride on the animatronic T-Rex, tho in the attendant's defense we basically bullied him into letting us on. JQ sits in a weird middle ground between your local natural history museum and the JP ride at Universal, lol. The one we went to (Nowhere, Middle Of, North Carolina) didn't have inflatable dinos, but we did make note of the fact that the fiberglass ones they did have had definitely seen better days and had oddly visible buttholes. Also there were a few designed to be playground compatible and that was pretty awesome.
About 5-7 years ago, my wife and I were riding in our car and heard a radio commercial for Jurassic Quest and their entire commercial consisted of them bashing a rival dinosaur show. They went on and on about how their was better and why the other one was inferior. We looked at each other and laughed.
I went to Jurassic Quest in 2017. It was myself, my husband, and our friend's 3 year old daughter. I wanted to go because I love dinosaurs but we thought she would enjoy it being that it was a kid centered event. She was terrified! 😂 Ours was like yours with the more realistic animatronics and not the other version. This was in Savannah, GA, USA. I enjoyed it but definitely agree the price is crazy for adults considering all you can really do is look around.
You're probably right about a lot of the dinosaurs being animatronics that didn't work anymore. Despite the wax the latex and foams on an animatronic melt away with time, dinosaurs always seem to have surprising shelflives. There was a pretty big chunk of time after Jurassic Park came out where smaller regional theme parks, big fairs, and standalone tourist attractions were all buying these things, sometimes by the dozen. The smarter owners likely flipped the skeletons to refurbishers instead of letting them rot.
I went with my little sister and dad, few years back in Canada, I was almost 18 at the time, I admit I felt a bit out of place, but the displayed dinosaurs and fossil section was my favourite. I would be a walking Siri spitting facts about each dinosaur to my sis. I agree though that for the money it did feel a bit underwhelming, and definitely more aimed towards kids lol
as someone who would drive between san francisco and sf valley a lot (sometimes back and forth in one day), i’m surprised you were able to do that drive and a convention with a shit load of kids. Hats off to you
I went to one of these during covid when they converted it to a drive through experience, where you had to pay per car and play a guided audio on SoundCloud during the drive thru. Was kind of only fun cause there was a kid in the car with us and the price included a photo.. but the picture was taken on an iPad in direct sunlight so most of our faces were super washed out. Was a weird time lol
![Seungmin "그렇게, 천천히, 우리(As we are)" | [Stray Kids : SKZ-PLAYER]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/kAzmhLHePqU/mqdefault.jpg)
Go to www.world.holzkern.com and use code “donateswell” for 10% off and to donate 5% of your order!
"...but then I thought it would be super embarrasing for a 25 year old women to get stuck inside the egg... at Jurassic Quest". Fair enough.
Really funny story to tell your future children about how you met their hot firefighter parent tho 👀😅
@@maddiedoesntknooh lord😂
NO THAT'S QUITTER TALK
Seems more like a “will I fit?” scenario.
"Challenge accepted"
You're never too old for dinosaurs.
...the dinosaurs are older than us 😜
If it's cartoonish dinosaurs.... You're too old.
@@dontrelldurant3450 And you're never too old to be wrong
I'm working on getting married at a local Dino park at my young age of 33yo.
Dinosaurs in Santa Clara?
Forty five years ago Santa Clara was primarily Plumb & Apricot orchards with a population of 25,000.
Today it's over a million with no upgrade in basic infrastructure. It's human chaos at its finest.
Then jam San Jose next door with additional million people..
It's called the South Bay in typical Californian fashion this region has no fresh water source & receives the lowest amount of rainfall annually anywhere within the San Francisco bay area. Let's build the two largest cities anywhere in the San Francisco bay area. Yet California's politicians will boast how green our state is.
Guess again there is nothing green about California.
The entire population of the San Francisco Bay area in 1979 was 2.9 million people.
Today it has erupted into a unsustainable 8.8 million people with no increase in water & electric infrastructure.
Any event like this that is like 95% for kids but a parent HAS to be there and supervising, the adult tickets should be very low or zero when being purchased with a child ticket.
But the greedy capitalist says since the parents HAS to be there that's the ticket that will cost a ton.
That's why I canceled my tickets. A surcharge for both (already expensive, 28 for adult and 38 for a child) tickets when a child HAS to be accompanied by an adult? Jail.
especially if the adults arent aloud to do anything/do anything thats there! Everything 10 and under but adult has to be there? crazy.
this is random but was very shocked to see my full name making a comment i didn’t remember writing…and then my brain turned on and realized it wasn’t me lmao
Or, better, just allow the kids to go on their own. While I did enjoy going to events with my mom in primary/middle school, going on my own or with other kids was just a completely different brand of fun.
your ability to confidently navigate strange spaces by yourself is so impressive honestly
I'd love to this, but where I live there isn't many theme parks or attractions.
Me and my girlfriend went to a thing like this and not only were the employees super nice, they even told us we could go past the rope and touch the dino animatronics when there were no kids around lmao
That would be my dream come TRUE
@@choccy_bagel thank you for your support choccy bagel
Its always better when the employees to decide to randomly trust the older ones at an event and let them touch the animatronic things.
That's what your always told to not do
@@choccy_bagel choccy bagel, you've just opened my eyes to the possibility of sweet bagels (I previously was only aware of bagels in a savoury manner)
@Ville who are you
Amanda is like that cartoon character that made plans with multiple people without them knowing about one another and then tries to show up to every event in the same night
”Off-key Jurassic Park theme” is one of humanitys biggest cultural treasures. Equaling if not outshining the original theme.
Also the lyrics 💜
Now I'm imagining Amanda reviewing Jurassic Park. Not the reviewing the movies, reviewing the park and explaining how she narrowly escaped.
I can totally envision a cameo of Swell walking around with a camera at Jurassic World, reviewing the tours and exhibits and restaurants and hotel suites.
that image is very substantial in my brain and it makes me scared, but also safe in the knowledge that the camerawoman never dies
This feels like a company bought every dinosaur animatronic no longer being used by museums and theme parks and just called it a traveling show.
As a parent, I appreciate you not filming the kids. I have no idea the strength of the rage I’d have finding my child on a RUclips video with hundreds of thousands of views.
Every time I hear about your travels, I think, "Where in the World is Carmen Swelldiego" 😂
Please make this a official swell thing lol
@freshfromthecoven13 At minimum it'd be a great Halloween costume for Amanda, she could pull off an oversized hat and trenchcoat.
That’s good 👏 👏👏
we need to bump this so she sees it!!
Get our girl a red trench coat and hat immediately
As someone that works in a science museum as a entertainer for children it's always a mixed bag. There are a lot of kids who may appear mean right now, but some of them grew up in the pandemic and missed two years of social dynamics. I also find kids who have hyper fixations and just want to share with and adult who will listen. Some of them teach me stuff sometimes and that's rad.
Thank you for going to this event its been advertised in my area, and I was tempted because I love dinosaurs myself but this isn't for me. It was very amusing seeing you talk about all the exhibits. I hope you get some much deserved rest.
As a Canadian my step sons mother took him and his other siblings to this and they were so bored and she was glad she got the tickets for free because it was lame but all the advertisements were so cool looking. They must be using the American one to advertise to us
Definitely possible! Your kids might also just be too old for the show.
The Canadians always get shafted with this kinda stuff haha 😭 lame how we always get the shitty version of everything lmao
Anyone who would shame you for that is weird. We have a giant dinosaur park/museum 2 hours away and I can tell you I have more fun going there now than when I was a kid. Dinosaurs are so cool , you never age out of them.
At the risk of sounding like I'm asking you to dox yourself....
What's the name of the park? I high key am interested in seeing how many of my friends would be willing to road trip in order to go to a dinosaur theme park because that sounds genuinely rad.
You just unlocked a childhood memory of the dinosaur park I lived close to that I begged my parents to take me to. Now I want to see whether they’re still open 😂
@@animekittykitty It’s called the royal tyrrell museum. I don’t know if they have any rides anymore ( they stopped that few they had in the pandemi and I haven’t been in since) but they still have la giant museum and you can go on bone digging trips in the area. Or watch the scientist work on real fossils. They used to have motion rides and stuff. It might be more of a movie thing now. But there are all these giant dinosaurs everywhere and fossils. You can do like science camps there even as an adult. I love that stuff but I am kind of nerdy😅
As an Edmontonian I immediately thought of the Royal Tyrrell when reading this comment, but didn't actually expect it to be al Albertan comment :D
Dinosaurs are like dragons but REAL, they were REAL!! what's not to love!
I went with my whole family, my dad saw it and really wanted to go. He's very old and is extremely knowledgeable about dinosaurs, he was honestly disappointed. The lay out for the event was confusing, we ended up going on the child side and thought that was the whole event. The animatronics and information were very cool though. It was okay for 30 minutes and that's really all.
I think these are the same animatronic dinosaurs that used to tour zoos during the height of the original Jurassic Park movie but someone bought them all and created a traveling dino circus of sorts. Thats just my theory.
I bet they are! I was a young child when Jurassic Park released and I remember seeing similar looking animatronics from my memory.
My boyfriend and I went to this, not knowing it was solely for kids. 10 minutes in we went back asked if we could get a refund but were denied so we were two adults walking around and watching all the kids have fun and being pissed lol
Nah that is some BS that is such a scam!! They really wasted your time and money, and I’d bet that they’ve robbed plenty of adults of their money and their joy! They should have made their age policy clear to you and your bf BEFORE you bought the tickets and went inside. You wouldn’t have spent your money if you knew you couldn’t do anything. What a disappointment!
I went to one but it was at night and you stayed in your car like a safari, which was great because up close the dinosaurs would have looked shittier. Plus they kind of set the mood and the keepers more immerse into their little escaped dinosaur storyline, my 2 year old niece found it kind of scary.
That's the one that's been by me. There's a huge retired salt mine by me that you can drive through and they get a Jurassic Quest at least once a year, usually twice a year
I wish they had that near me. I can’t go to any because of health concerns and no masks. But I want to go.
totally agree about the discrepancy between parents and kids admission. insane that they were the same price!! also i always appreciate seating at big events like this so it sucks that they didn't have more chairs and tables
My friend also went to Jurassic quest with her boyfriend! She’s a 21 year old geology major and was very disappointed to find out how much it was just meant for kids. I also love dinosaurs and I think there should be more dinosaur events targeted for adults!
My husband and I went to this near us last year, but it was a "Dinos in the Dark" so it was lit up with all sorts cool lights. Definitely more kid friendly than we anticipated, but still fun.
Bro I was a local hire at Jurassic Quest when it came to Long Island this year. I was in their activity room. I helped pilot the walking dinosaurs, led the arts and crafts station, and then worked as a “breaker”.
Little blue single use tickets were $6. Honestly for everything except the rides and bounces, I let the parents play as long as the kids had wristbands. The “quest” was literally just photo ops on sandwich boards around the event. And there are multiple tours! The ticket situation is indeed very bad, and confusing.
Who's gunna tell Amanda about the dinosaur themed love hotel in Japan?
The rooms have dinosaurs you can ride.
Ride or "ride"? 🤭
@@moviesquad73 probably both..
I don't want to know this
"Adult Dinosaur Enthusiast" for the shirt idea. As the father of a 6yo we go to stuff like this, there's a handful of them, and I think they rearrange and retheme and rename themselves every so often. During Covid there was one where you just drove through the packing lot of the fairgrounds and visited the different ages of the Dinosaurs. I have way more fun that I should admit. The pricing is completely crazy, and usually has nothing to do with how big or involved the experience is. My guess is they just figure out basic traveling and operating expenses then roll in how ever much money they're laundering and just go for it.
I’d probably go just to see the animatronics. There should be a con just for giant animatronic dinosaurs or animatronics in general, telling you how they work, showing videos or small examples of the insides moving for some of them. And it should be for adults and children. I’d love to see how those ride dinosaurs work.
I wonder if there is one! Have you tried Google or Facebook events or Instagram?
@@sarahkp729 no not yet, but that’s a great idea
There might be a company somewhere in the US that offers tours
At this point we are all just vicariously living through swell
My sister took her kids to this when it was in our area. She was in line to get my 3 y/o niece on a bounce house that was labeled for kids 4 and under and the employee working it tried to tell my sister that my niece wasn't allowed on because she was older than 4. I get that they probably deal with parents trying to get their obviously-too-old kids on the attractions, but she's very clearly a toddler 😭
As someone who has a kid and lives in an area where not much stuff comes around besides the basic county fair, its nice to have a review of these type of things so that when im looking into buying tickets and traveling myself to go to it i know it isnt going to be a huge waste of time and money and will also save me from the disappointment and resentment my kid will have towards me for dragging him out of the house on a weekend and making him sit in a car for however long and wasting his day
My (childless) wife and I went to Dino Stroll which was a similar idea. It was definitely for kids and kids only (as opposed to something for everyone in the family) I bought a $20 balloon because they were so cute and the prices were not posted anywhere, but gosh darn it! I wanted a brachiosaurus balloon! It was fine for what it was, but I wouldn't go back again.
I actually worked at Jurassic Quest a few years ago in NC as an high schooler and the only thing I remember is that I worked a 12 hour shift and got a crazy amount of money at the end of that weekend; so they definitely pay well. There wasn’t an outside part when I worked, but maybe because it was at a Convention Center, so everything seemed more packed inside and there wasn’t a big space. I remember the crafts, the shop/museum, the bouncy house, and the rides. From my understanding, I think there was also a lack of chairs when I worked, but I mainly worked one game then switched to the Under 5 bouncy house and just remember so many parents getting angry because I wouldn’t let their older kids in because they were trampling the babies; so there’s that. Besides all that I enjoyed watching a video of somewhere I worked for a weekend as a teenager!
@Ville_x you cared enough to scroll through comments and reply i just told my experience 😹
I do love parents who let you borrow their kids. I wanted to go see this really cool place that had been remodeled, but it was very much for kids. Got to borrow my future ring bearer and go on a babysitting date with my boyfriend. Another time, borrow a friend's kids and costumes to put them in a picture book for a college assignment. The kids just got to cosplay in the park, and I took pictures and gave them a copy.
Just know that you will always be the COOLEST PERSON EVER to that kid 😊
I live in CO, and this is advertised CONSTANTLY. I'm so happy you did a video on this, because the advertisements look like crazy fun (walking with animatronic dinosaurs, interacting with them, etc) and it is never advertised just for kids. As a former dinosaur kid and current dinosaur adult, I will be saving my time now lol.
"I am and English degree." is one of the most relatable sentences I have ever heard, thank you
The inflatable dinosaur in the thumbnail is so funny to me 😂
"I think I just witnessed a drug deal"
I really thought you meant at the dinosaur thing.
As a professional aunt to a 5 year old niece and 12 year old nephew, this seems like an event I'd take my nephew when he was 6 and then never attend again. Cute to let kids expend their energy, but not enough to keep them engaged. In Chicago, museums have free days for Illinois residents and there are great public parks so really, you only have to plan for the cost of gas and food.
"tell your parents to spend more money" took me oUT
I used to work at a children's museum so all this sounded very familiar. I always appreciate how much you talk to the staff and try to learn about the experience from them!
I went to this event in Jacksonville, FL before Covid and it was super cool! We were there for like 3 hours, my kid fell asleep in my husband's arms after like 45 minutes, the rest of the time was me and my husband walking around looking at stuff. It was also all indoors which was nice. I do have a super cute picture of my toddler in one of the eggs 😊 Side note: everyone will give you crap about getting Botox but in 2 weeks when it kicks in and your skin looks amazing they all start giving you compliments! I'm here for it!
‘Lived my archaeology dreams’ is so funny because a not insignificant amount of archaeologists/biological anthropologists will have seen the Jonsbones video, so I do think you could absolutely do a ‘I tried it so you don’t have to’ on an archaeological dig if you wanted
if i turned up to this as an 11 year old not knowing about the 10 and under rule, I would have had a Joker moment right there on the warehouse floor
at that point i would lie. im not 11 i am 10, what are they going to do tell you your not?
10:42 The reason you don't see foggers used with lasers at weddings as much as you used to is that a lot of children (and old people) have asthma nowadays. The chemicals used in fog machines, such as glycol and glycerin, can irritate the airways and cause inflammation, leading to coughing, wheezing, and shortness of breath.
So THIS is what it was supposed to look like. They came up to Alaska some years ago and it looked even more sparse than those clips from the other creators at the beginning. Lol.
I'm actually really glad you did this cause there's one in my area and I'm a 27 year old toddler with no kids so obviously I was like DINOSAURS YASSSS but I was wondering if it was too focused on kids for me to get my money's worth. Apparently I was right! Thanks Swell.
I love that regardless of the event (porn convention, ren fair, traveling dinosaur show), Amanda consistenty applies investigative journaist-level info gathering to provide thorough reviews of what attendees can expect at events.
If you're ever in the mood to spend a ton of money, review the L.A. County Fair in Pomona. No one seems to mention the pricing of an average visit there.
I about had a stroke when they told me the cost of those half filled dinosaur balloons 💀 it’s was an okay experience for a high price tag. Definitely not worth the money if your kid is older than like…5
Amanda: “I’ll join a cult, but…”
My brain: Expecting her next video to be “I joined a cult so you don’t have to….”
"I'm an English degree" is truly one of the Swell quotes of all time
I'm 19 now and my brother is 16 but when he was about 5-8 he was ABSOLUTELY OBSESSED with dinosaurs and so by extension I did a lot of dinosaur activities with him. He also really loved other animals so we were always going to zoos, museums, aquariums, and the likes for him. He would spend his afternoons watching the half hour of Dinosaur Train on PBS Kids and I of course watched with him. All of this is to say that since we're also in California we went to this one place that had dinosaur activities and exploration one time. I vividly remembered it after I saw you pull out the excavation cup thing and the putty with the dinosaur inside. My dinosaur putty was exactly in the same container only it had blue slime and a Pteranadon skeleton in it. The excavation bit also brought back memories. I remember at the place we went you could dig and find a rock and then exchange that for a tiny plastic dinosaur. Good times. I wish there had been more princess things to do around the place, though. I was more of a girly girl so the dinosaur stuff wasn't really my style but we were always going to make my brother happy 😆
I love how absolutely goofy the triceratops is on your shirt, its amazing they used a design thats basically Sera and Ducky from The aland Before Time 😂
Just imagining a Swell van. Next year, Amanda having an excursion van for skipping hotels for California events and just ready to hit the road. Throw in a drone shot here and there like nbd.
I actually have two things related to this! I have a Friend from high school who graduated with a musical theatre degree and her first touring contract was with Jurassic Quest! I haven’t talked to her about it necessarily but she seemed to love it! She went back and forth between being the puppeteer and the announcer. The other thing was I went during the pandemic with my mom, sister and niece and at the time they made it into a drive through event where you would drive through all the Dino’s and they were animatronics that worked and stuff so it was great for my niece who was like 3 and loved dinosaurs at the time. I think during that they made a lot of money on the plushies they ended the line with haha
I feel you here! I have kids that are bigger now, but having a small child as an co-entry to such venues is a must! I REALLY feel FOMO at not having access to the local brick adventure venue.
“Me being ancient” and “I’m 25” being spoken within like 1 minute of each other is kind of sad.
Dinosaurs are awesome and I would totally drive five hours to go to a kids dinosaur exhibit- luckily I live less than 3 minutes away from a museum all about Dino’s :3 Thank you Swell for feeding the dino nerds in your community.
HAH i think this place actually came to a city near my sister. She spent the money drove out and, since she's like 5'4'', got to ride one of the dinos. (She's mid 20's also.) She was making eye contact with all the employees trying to suss out who would actually be cool with letting her ride one lmao she was SO excited and lucked out. The pictures are great hahahaha
Where I used to live, we had Jurassic Quest every year. Thankfully my husband worked at the coliseum/convention center it was held at so I got to look around while they were setting up the event and see the dinos without paying 😎. I definitely know some childless adults who have gone just for the dinos and seemed to enjoy it. Definitely should not be charging parents at all.
24:30 "it's a lil tyrannosaurus rex 🥺" = "is that a chicken???"
Merch that says "lil tyrannosaurus rex" with an image of a triceratops
Swell Ive been watching you for a long minute and appreciate your reviews on events, it saves us money on trainwreck events! Ive been going to Anime Expo since 2012 and its gotten so much worse, I stopped attending in 2019 and recently its back in action! I was wondering if you can review anime expo? Theres many better smaller anime cons but the largest one is in July! I would love to hear your opinion on this convention! Much love from your subscriber, Alvie
Signs that Swell is a great RUclipsr:
1: Willing to drive 5hrs for a children's event, with no children
But great review, dinos are great 🥰
Jurassic Quest was in my city not too long ago. There were no animatronics, they were all just rubber coated statues. Lots of them, especially the ones place outside, had so much damage on them. There's also far more than two distinct groups traveling around: visiting their website shows lots of shows happening simultaneously, there have to be at least five groups traveling around at once in Canada alone. Likely more in the US
Side note, your outfits have been super cute recently Amanda
@Ville_xClearly me
HOLY SHIT THANK YOU for mentioning about how hard it is to get around California. Specifically anything north of the Angeles Mountains it's a *nightmare*. Once you go through any pass, your main highway is the PCH, the 5 or the 99 and you're basically SOL.
As someone who works with kids: they can be SO MEAN. But I do love the littles who still have a suspense of disbelief for things like this. It's *magical*.
I live in a small city/town in Sweden, and we have a couple of smaller suburbs. I once took a right in the wrong place and ended up in Smedby, a bit west of Kalmar. And what I encountered on this small road was a huge dinosaur sculpture outside an enormous barn. Apparently, this is Sweden's biggest dinosaur museum, kept by one pretty strange man. It's called "a world of dinosaurs" and it's so crazy it's worth looking up. I haven't dared go inside. He definitely wants this to be a legitimate thing and not a theme park for kids, but they do have animatronics.
Edit: sorry, apparently it's EUROPE's biggest dinosaur museum. In Smedby, population 3500...
Reminds me of those plasticized bodies that toured museums. Multiple exhibit collections of varied quality and maybe knock-offs of the original Body Worlds.
Amanda renting a child from a family member 😂😂😂😂
I’d love to see you do a LaBrea Tar Pit museum review! Somewhere I’ve always wanted to check out but never gotten to.
i am forever obsessed with swell going to places
The little dino plushie you got was the best thing out of this entire experience
amanda going "im an english degree" KILLED ME💀💀💀THANK YOU for the laugh amanda
19:47 I love that it appears that the dinosaur had to be restrained by a worker
This is bringing back memories of the actual official Jurrasic World "expo" that was advertised as a museum-type thing showing off props and facts, but in reality was a 20 minute run through a handful of animatronic 'events,' such a waste of time, money, and license. I was there with my girlfriend, both of us in our late 20s, and we weren't the only childless people. I would say our group had about 20 people, and only 3 or 4 were children, so about half of our group weren't parents. It was 100% aimed at kids but none of the advertisements or anything on the website made it seem that way.
I'm really glad you went to this and explained how it worked. My husband and I LOVE dinosaurs but every time I saw the ads for this, it always looked like it was for children. I don't know why these types of traveling shows don't have thing for adults, with or without kids. The organizers HAVE to know that adults want to see dinosaurs .
I went to the Jurassic world live show and I think I might have genuinely have been the only childless adult (alone). It was awesome and the staff were incredibly friendly. I got some weird looks but it was worth it- the dinosaur puppets/animatronics were amazing.
Thanks for this Swell dinosaur review!
The coolest dinosaur loving nerds are the adults finding and discovering new species and new fossils and artists interpreting those dinosaurs! :D
The lack of fog is probably to do with breathability - engineered fog can irritate people with asthma and other lung conditions. It's one of those things where you either risk it or just don't bother; like flashing lights. It could trigger/irritate someone with medical conditions, so it's safest just not to do it, even though it makes stuff a little blander. (But what do I know, I'm just some dude on the internet - it may well have been "don't lose kids in the fog" hahaha!)
I think this or something similar came to our city a while ago. But it was a drive thru exhibit in the mall parking lot. The Dinosaurs were somewhat moving and my brother’s kids seemed to enjoy it. I just kept think wow this was a waste of money.
I went to Jurassic quest a few years ago lol as a kid I was entertained so can't be mad, the baby dinosaur animatronics were absolutely adorable but it was basically a big dino museum exhibit
I actually know of Jurassic Quest because I know someone who was helping with the logistics and transportation part of it.
There are indeed (at least) 2 shows going around, as there was a JQ show here in my town at the same time the guy I know had flown to elsewhere in the country to assist with a different show.
I don't really have any juicy insider stories or anything. What I can tell you that after a show finishes at a location, they quickly pack everything up and throw them into trailers, and then they rent out a "nearby" field where they store all of these trailers - sitting for anywhere between a few hours to 2 days - waiting for contracted OTR truck drivers to pick them up and bring them to whatever location is next. Some of these fields are just bumf*** middle of nowhere places, where a bunch of locked up trailers are just sitting, waiting to be moved.
The guy I know was pulled away from his day job (in an office) to do this. All he had to do was sit in this field with all these trailers, essentially just to make sure the drivers actually showed up and took them. And again, some of these trailers are waiting 2 days for their driver to show up, so he had to sit in that field and wait too (although he was able to leave at some points to stay in a hotel room).
We have an exhibit in one of my local malls that looks exactly the same, but its called Dino Safari. It wouldn't surprise me if this was a traveling version of this
I went to something like this when I was little and then later read the NG article about the mammoth in the tar pit, and somehow, my brain decided that we brought back actual dinosaurs using the same DNA thing
21:40 to 21:44 absolutely killed me. You arent wrong lmfao
What in the tumblr dashcon is this lol 2:44
The best way to shut down negativity around facial procedures, nice!
Can confirm you are never too old for dinosaurs. Or to ride on the animatronic T-Rex, tho in the attendant's defense we basically bullied him into letting us on.
JQ sits in a weird middle ground between your local natural history museum and the JP ride at Universal, lol. The one we went to (Nowhere, Middle Of, North Carolina) didn't have inflatable dinos, but we did make note of the fact that the fiberglass ones they did have had definitely seen better days and had oddly visible buttholes. Also there were a few designed to be playground compatible and that was pretty awesome.
I feel like I would prefer to go to the crappier bit; the funky-looking dinos look hilarious!
7:18 “tell your parents to spend more money” flex on them kids😂😂💀💀💀💀💀💀
You're the reason I get on youtube. Cause LOLLLL this commentary "all the rides, 10 and under" *zooms in* 15years too late. Wait- lolll
About 5-7 years ago, my wife and I were riding in our car and heard a radio commercial for Jurassic Quest and their entire commercial consisted of them bashing a rival dinosaur show. They went on and on about how their was better and why the other one was inferior. We looked at each other and laughed.
Please please please come to the CA state fair this year. It's in Sac and it's pretty fun
That RAWR was the goat! big fan. Great video love your content
that dinosaur riding would be so awesome as a kid, that's a photo to keep
I went to Jurassic Quest in 2017. It was myself, my husband, and our friend's 3 year old daughter. I wanted to go because I love dinosaurs but we thought she would enjoy it being that it was a kid centered event. She was terrified! 😂 Ours was like yours with the more realistic animatronics and not the other version. This was in Savannah, GA, USA. I enjoyed it but definitely agree the price is crazy for adults considering all you can really do is look around.
You're probably right about a lot of the dinosaurs being animatronics that didn't work anymore. Despite the wax the latex and foams on an animatronic melt away with time, dinosaurs always seem to have surprising shelflives.
There was a pretty big chunk of time after Jurassic Park came out where smaller regional theme parks, big fairs, and standalone tourist attractions were all buying these things, sometimes by the dozen.
The smarter owners likely flipped the skeletons to refurbishers instead of letting them rot.
I went with my little sister and dad, few years back in Canada, I was almost 18 at the time, I admit I felt a bit out of place, but the displayed dinosaurs and fossil section was my favourite. I would be a walking Siri spitting facts about each dinosaur to my sis. I agree though that for the money it did feel a bit underwhelming, and definitely more aimed towards kids lol
as someone who would drive between san francisco and sf valley a lot (sometimes back and forth in one day), i’m surprised you were able to do that drive and a convention with a shit load of kids. Hats off to you
I went to one of these during covid when they converted it to a drive through experience, where you had to pay per car and play a guided audio on SoundCloud during the drive thru. Was kind of only fun cause there was a kid in the car with us and the price included a photo.. but the picture was taken on an iPad in direct sunlight so most of our faces were super washed out. Was a weird time lol