Since the Malaysian Government’s investment arm, Khazanah Nasional Berhad, set up Themed Attractions and Resorts (TAR) in 2009, it’s fulfilled its promise to bring international theme parks and attractions to the region. In the last four years, it’s opened KidZania in Kuala Lumpur, Legoland Malaysia in Johor and is overseeing the set up of KidZania Singapore. In December 2012, it opened a family attraction called Puteri Harbour Family Theme Park.

Puteri Harbour is located in Nusajaya Johor, four hours drive from Kuala Lumpur, 20 minutes from the Malaysia-Singapore Second Link and 10 minutes from Legoland Malaysia. Puteri Harbour Family Theme Park is a four-level building in a purpose-built harbour front development, which is only part-way opened. When finished, the harbour will include shops, waterside restaurants and bars, a Traders Hotel and a marina. The harbour’s being developed by Destination Resorts & Hotels, also part of Khazanah Nasional Berhad. (See AM Q1 12 for interviews with Steve Peet, COO of TAR, and Darrell Metzger, chair of Destination Resorts & Hotels.)

Puteri Harbour Family Theme Park has three attractions, based on popular children’s characters. Sanrio Hello Kitty Town is the first of its kind outside Japan and features the Japanese-owned Sanrio character Hello Kitty and her friend Dear Daniel. The Little Big Club is a world first and features the HIT Entertainment characters, Bob the Builder, Barney, Angelina Ballerina, Pingu and Thomas & Friends. Animated themed restaurant Lat’s place, based on a Malaysian comic strip hero called Kampung Boy, also debuts in Malaysia.

Tickets for the theme park are RM110 (US$35, E27, £23) or RM85 (US$27, E21, £18) for Malaysian residents for entry to the four-level building that houses Sanrio Hello Kitty Town and The Little Big Club. Single park tickets can be purchased for RM65 (US$21, E16, £14) per person or RM50 (US$16, E12, £10) for Malaysian residents. Lat’s Place is a separate entrance fee and is located next door in a different building.

Until now, the target audience for TAR’s projects has been children and families, with an emphasis on children aged from about eight upwards. Puteri Harbour Family Theme Park is still very much a family attraction, but is specifically aimed at younger children between three and nine. Like its other attractions, Puteri Harbour Family Theme Park is an immersive learning and play experience and aims to engage children through role play and hands-on activities.

Hello Kitty Town
At Sanrio Hello Kitty Town, children can experience a number of walk-through attractions, interactive activities and rides which follow the Hello Kitty theme. Throughout the day, there are a number of special events, such as meet and greets with Kitty and Daniel, photo opportunities and mini shows on the Purrfect Stage. One of the highlights is the Happy Carnival Parade. Hello Kitty characters and brightly-coloured dancers thread through the main walkway, singing and dancing and end up in a circle, holding hands with the children for simple movement and songs.

There’s lots to enjoy here. In the Wishful Studio, children create their own Sanrio branded jewellery (although strangely, none of the charms feature Kitty), paint and decorate their nails and dress up in Kitty costumes for a photograph. This part of the attraction, along with the Cookie Studio where kids decorate Hello Kitty shaped biscuits, is partly guided. The rest of the attraction, including the Tea Cup rides and Friendship Land, which has a soft playground and ball machines, is unguided.

There are two entertainment zones in Hello Kitty Town that are disappointing. In Kitty’s House, the furniture and soft furnishings look dirty, frayed and below standard. The walkthrough attraction Black Wonder – where parents help kids save the kidnapped Hello Kitty and Daniel – is frightening and far too complicated for children. Overall, however, this highly-themed iconic attraction is a great way to spend a couple of hours.

Little Big Club
On the second and third floor of the building is The Little Big Club, where children interact with their favourite characters. There’s a good mix of entertainment – girls will love Angelina Ballerina, boys will adore Thomas the Tank Engine and Bob the Builder and both will get enjoyment from Barney and Pingu. There are six themed interactive play zones in this attraction. On the third floor, which is dedicated to Thomas & Friends, the zones are mainly made up of rides featuring well-loved characters, such as Harold’s Helitours Ride and Colin Crane Drop Ride. There’s also a Bertie The Bus Hop On Ride, a Knapford Station Thomas Train Ride and a popular dodgem-style Bumping Buffers Steamies & Diesels Ride.

On floor two, Barney takes centre stage in his own sing-a-long show, which children are encouraged to join in with. The female lead and the male entertainers who work with the children to get them singing along with Barney are excellent and really know how to work a crowd of awe-struck little people. There’s also a Barney’s playhouse in this zone, recreated to look like the set in the television series. There’s not a lot to do in it, but it’s well-themed.

Also on this floor is the Angelina Ballerina play zone. Here, children can dress up in tutus and pink mouse ears, grab a wand and have a ballet lesson with Angelina up on a blue-lit stage with star struck ballet mirrors. The actor playing Angelina goes above and beyond the call of duty, hugging toddlers and babies as many times as they want to (and they want to, many times). While delightful for girls and would-be boy ballerinas, any child not interested in Angelina would need to stay with parents until the lesson is over, which could give rise to boredom. This could be easily fixed by making the entrance and exit to The Little Big Club a turnstile to keep little ones in the attraction safely. That way, it would be possible to let children play on their own in other zones and not worry about them leaving the attraction without their parents.

Bob the Builder and Pingu may not be as popular as they once were, but children will enjoy the adorable zones they feature in, even if they’re not familiar with them. In Bob’s interactive Build It Zone, they can join Bob’s Can-do Crew and help Bob by getting involved in all aspects of building a house. Sadly, the PVC building blocks in this section are looking a bit tired and worn, which is tragic when you consider they’re only five-months-old. However, children won’t notice these things and the rides, based on Bob’s machines Scrambler and Scoop, are very well done.

The theming in Pingu’s igloo is superb and Pingu will appeal to most children. But positioning this innocent and sweet exhibit next to the slot machine games isn’t an example of good planning.

Small changes
There’s enough to do in The Little Big Club to last you a couple of hours, which means, in total, the two park pass will offer half a day’s entertainment.

It definitely has room for improvement. The toilets (like the majority in Malaysia) are filthy and need to be height appropriate so children can reach the taps and basins. Similarly, in the nail painting studio, the nail dryers need to be lower so small children can reach them. In the Cookie Studio, the plates are just wiped down with a damp cloth between each guest eating off them, which fails basic hygiene standards. In the jewellery making studio, the guides were far too quick to make children choose their charms – little girls should never be rushed when making a decision as life-changing as picking a charm for a necklace.

My experience
Overall however, both Hello Kitty Town and The Little Big Club offer a delightful family day out, which is well executed and brilliantly themed. Greater attention is needed to the upkeep of the equipment and there aren’t any food options for families looking for healthy snacks (as is the case with KidZania). But the cafes have cute designs and if you don’t mind feeding your kids sugar and fat, they have plenty of good value meal options. The staff does a great job and the shop on the way out is well stocked with reasonably-priced themed character merchandise.

Summary
Would you travel four hours from Kuala Lumpur (KL) to visit it? Probably not. The ideal option would be to stay overnight and combine it with a visit to Legoland, although this would work out to be quite pricey. This style of family entertainment centre concept would, however, lend itself perfectly to one of KL’s many shopping malls and there would be a big market for a city-based attraction like this, so hopefully it’s a concept TAR will consider replicating closer to Malaysia’s capital in time.