Thursday, August 21, 2014

Blast from the Past at Walking with the Dinosaurs #DinoOtt

Dinosaur TrexFor the past week, there’s been a lot of stomping, growling, crushing and all around mayhem at our house. No, we’re not making wine or filming a reality show, The Kids have been getting ready to attend their first ever live presentation…

Walking with the Dinosaurs at the Canadian Tire Centre

Considering that the Dinosaurs were life-like (the Brontosaurus is over 35 feet high) and The Kids are only four, I wanted to make sure that they were prepared so of course I told them that Dinosaurs no longer exist. I told you that I Should Lie More to My Kids. Scroll down to the bottom for a giveaway opportunity!

The show is narrated by a Man, a Paleontologist who takes us on a historical journey through the many periods of time when the dinosaurs ruled the Earth. The event showcases ten species that were alive during the 200 million year reign of the dinosaurs. It shows the relationships and interaction between the dinosaurs of the same species while engaging with the audiences imagination. From flowers blooming to volcano’s erupting, this show has it all!

As for The Kids, they spent the first half of the show on our laps with their hands over their ears. To their credit, it was really loud and it was their first event of this kind so I’m sure that it was overwhelming. When we go to our next event, I’ll bring their ear protection so that they can focus more on the show.

Walking with the Dinosaurs Ottawa1

As the first part was ending, the man said that “if we thought the first part was scary, just wait for the second because it was going to be scarier”. Scarier? Apparently, the 6-year old girl beside me thought the same thing because she turned to her Mom and said “it’s okay, we don’t have to stay for the second part”. However, once the lights started to dim for the second half, The Kids took to their seats (where they had yet to sit) and got ready to be scared.

Except it didn’t happen. Even though the second part was definitely scarier and the dinosaurs were bigger and fiercer, The Kids watched in amazement. One part showed a “pterodactyl like bird” (not sure of the exact name) with a 40 foot wing span soaring through the air. The movie visuals projected on the back screen made you feel like you were flying along with it. It felt like an IMAX movie.

The fact that we had great seats might have had something to do with it. They were in the 200 level, third row, just off centre of all the action. Although, I’m sure that there wasn’t a bad seat in the house because there were two full screen monitors (one on either side) catching every snort, puff of smoke and tilt of the head.

Walking with the Dinosaurs Ottawa2

When The Kids weren’t sitting with their mouths open, they were asking questions. A lot of them. They were interested in finding out why the trees caught on fire and where the dinosaurs went and why the T-rex had to eat the other dinosaur. In fact, they kept talking the whole way home. Which was pretty impressive because the event started at 7pm and ended around 8:45pm.

Artemis loved the part where the Mommy and Baby Brontosaurus were snuggling with each other. She turned to me and said “they love each other, just like I love you”. That was my favourite part. As for Max, he loved anything and everything to do with the T-rex. While they knew that the big dinosaurs were pretend, both kids thought that the “Baby T-rex” was real and wouldn’t hear anything to the contrary.

At the end, The Kids were standing up and clapping and spent the entire ride home asking all the questions that they didn’t ask during the show. Overall, it was a great time had by all and we will definitely attend more events like this in the future.

Have You Ever Been Walking with the Dinosaurs?

It was interesting to learn that Walking with the Dinosaurs show has been around since 2007. You can find out more information here.

GIVEAWAY. GIVEAWAY. GIVEAWAY!

Enter to WIN a Family Pack of Tickets to see Walking with the Dinosaurs at the Canadian Tire Centre on August 24 in Ottawa. All you have to do is follow @CdnTireCtr and send them a tweet naming your favourite dinosaur with the hashtag #DINOCTC and you’re entered to WIN. Good Luck! An example might be

My favourite dinosaur is the T-rex! @CdnTireCtr @Dinosalive #DINOCTC

Note that Journeys of The Zoo is not affiliated with this giveaway at all. We just saw it on Twitter and wanted to share with you. You can find the rules here. Giveaway ends Friday August 22 at 10am.

Big Thanks to PR Mom Ottawa for hosting the giveaway that won us the tickets.

The show is around until Sunday August 24. Buy tickets at CaptialTickets.ca

Disclosure: Journeys of The Zoo did not receive any compensation in exchange for writing about our experience.

32 thoughts on “Blast from the Past at Walking with the Dinosaurs #DinoOtt

  1. Rene

    We must have sat directly across from you last night! The first 5 minutes had my kid wondering whether she liked it or not, having a new hatchling eaten up…but it was really impressive overall, and we are both glad we stayed. I agree it was a bit loud and a bit long for the 3-4yr old set, but hearing protection would have been a great idea. I learned a lot and the kids asked a lot of questions too. (also believing that the smaller dinos were ‘real’ because they didn’t have the moving platforms) 🙂
    Thanks for my tickets to the great local blogger at Puzzling Posts!

    Reply
  2. Soozle

    I have HEARD of this show before – and seen video – it looks pretty amazing! I am so impressed with what they are able to do to make such realistic (or so I assume hah) looking dinosaurs!

    Reply
  3. Ali P

    My oldest went and seen this quite a few years ago and absolutely loved it! I think she was 5 or 6 at the time.

    Reply
  4. Jon

    This was so popular in the UK. I guess 4 is a little young but when they get to 5 or 6 it seems they love to be scared (within reason).

    Reply
  5. Elizabeth Matthiesen

    One of my grandsons loves dinosaurs, luckily we have Drumheller nearby which he loves visiting.

    Reply
  6. Kate Hearn

    Too bad I missed knowing about this…my little guy is a dino fanatic. Seriously, you can’t walk through the house without seeing dinos in every room.

    Reply
  7. Tara Gauthier

    My daughter loves dinosaurs and likely would have loved this, although I too would have worried about it being too loud with her hearing aids on!

    Reply
  8. Elva Roberts

    After reading this post : ‘Walking with the Dinosaurs, ‘ I just wanted to ‘walk’ with them as well. Most children are fascinated with dinosaurs -I know my grandchildren were- and who can blame them? Thank you for an informative and descriptive post.

    Reply

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