5 Reasons You Will Want To Check Out Dinosaurs UNLEASHED

When we heard Dinosaurs UNLEASHED was roaring into town, we couldn’t pass up the opportunity to check it out! Our family visited on opening day, right as the doors opened at 2pm—in complete excitement! We were ready to explore the mystery of prehistoric life—not knowing exactly what to expect.

Let me just tell you now—we were blown away! I thought the event might be too much like an amusement park, but I was proved wrong the minute we stepped in the door and were handed the scavenger hunt activity sheet. I’ll share more about that below, but for now I want to start by sharing with you 5 Reasons You Will Want to Check Out Dinosaurs UNLEASHED!

1. Life-Size Dinosaurs!

They aren’t kidding when they say you’ll travel through the Mesozoic Era and learn all about your favorite dinosaurs. As you walk through the triassic, jurassic and cretaceous period not only will you learn about the different dinosaurs, but you will see them moving and roaring too.

One of the best things about this exhibit is that you also get to touch, feel and ride the dinosaurs—even ride a moving dinosaur!

Before attending Dinosaurs UNLEASHED, I had an assumption that it would be more amusement-based. I changed my mind after our visit! As we entered the room, everyone received a scavenger hunt activity sheet with fill in the blanks. If you have younger children, this doesn’t mean much to you, but if you have a child that can read—this was huge!

My seven-year-old leapt at the idea of finding out all the detailed information about the dinosaurs and writing in the answers on his Jr. Paleontologist Adventure! It ended up being more of an educational experience than I thought it would be!

2. Hands On Activities

Your kids can participate in everything from a dino dig, to a fossil find, to fossil etching and cretaceous crafts. They will also have the opportunity to apply a temporary tattoo, and receive a special jr. paleontologist bracelet.

Our kids fell in love with the crafts! I am pretty sure we spent at least half an hour at the craft table, making dinosaurs out of paper plates, coloring sheets and creating paperbag puppets. Even my husband impressed me with his artistic skills—who knew!?

3. Gift Shop

The gift shop was packed full of amazing dinosaur items. Everything from backpacks, to toys, to building sets, to stuffed animals, games, memorabilia, t-shirts and more! I can’t imagine a more enticing place to shop for Christmas or birthday gifts for any dinosaur loving child—everything dinosaur you can imagine in one place!

4. Themed Inflatables & Rides

Kids ages 2-12 can jump and play on a variety of inflatables. Please remember to wear socks (or you can buy them for $1). There are two large inflatable slides, a bounce house, Mesozoic Mini Golf, and Dino Raceway.

5. Photo Opportunities

There is a plethora of awesome photo opportunities throughout Dinosaurs UNLEASHED. It is rather dark in the dinosaur area, so take your good camera and use your flash!

There were multiple mini dinosaurs you could sit on for your picture, which made it nice—because there was hardly ever a long line since there were so many of them. And of course at each hands-on station as well as in the kids adventure zone, you’ll want a photo at pretty much every activity.

There are also some paid options for extra special photo opportunities, like the green-screen photo and the face painting part of the adventure. (Both part of the TRex package, but not general admission.)

Where to See Dinosaurs UNLEASHED

Dinosaurs UNLEASHED will be at the Farm Show Complex in Harrisburg this weekend, Saturday, April 8 and Sunday, April 9 from 9am to 7pm. You can purchase your tickets online in advance (which I highly recommend doing—you skip a huge entry line if you do this).

Discounted tickets are available to active and retired military, seniors, and groups of ten or more. You can see the details for those tickets online.