The Crayola Factory, Easton, Pennsylvania
The Crayola Factory website allows you to pre-purchase your admission tickets online. Make sure you take advantage of this option! The Factory can be crowded, especially on school vacation weeks and in the summer. If too many people are there, you will not be admitted – unless you have pre-purchased your tickets online. The other perk to pre-purchase is that you don’t have to wait in line to buy tickets. Pre-purchasers get to go in a different line, which is much shorter and faster.
Each person in your party will be given a sticker to wear that proves you paid to get in. You will also be given three “gold coins” for each member of your party. Hang on to those coins, you can cash them in at different locations throughout the factory and get samples of Crayola products. You will also get a map of the four floor building.
You will get all of your information on the first floor, but the Crayola Factory acutally occupies the second floor of the Twin Rivers Landing Building. You can wait for the elevator but if it’s busy, you are better off taking the stairs.
The factory is set up to flow every well, if you start from the first exhibit and just keep moving in a clockwise direction, you will hit all of the exhibits without backtracking. The first room when you walk in has vending machines where you can cash in those coins for samples of crayons and markers. Thre are bags availble to collect all your goodies and projects for easy carrying through out the factory.
Be sure to catch the show on how the Crayons are made. It’s informative and fun. Smaller children may not enjoy it as much, though. The coolest part is getting to keep a crayon that was just made right in front of your eyes!
After the show, you will go through a series of rooms with different projects. The projects change monthly or quarterly and they are a lot of fun. There are also other cool things to see. There’s a giant wall that kids can sign their names on. There’s a music room where kids can dance and see themselves up on the big screen in funny colors. It’s amusing and entertaing! Another room is like a giant chalk board – kids can color with chalk all over pretend streets!
Try out all of the project stations. Some of them have new products from Crayola that you can try out. Don’t miss anyting!
In the last room of the Factory, you can play with Crayola’s modeling clay call Model Magic. You have to cash in one of your coins to get some of the dough but then you can sit down at a table and cut, roll, mold and even color on your dough. Off to one side of the Model Magic room are some more “Extra” projects that you can participate in but they are not included in the cost of admission. Whether or not they are worth the money is your call. There is plenty to do without doing the extra projects.
All in all, it’s an excellent place to take your kids. The Crayola Factory is really geared towards the four to eight year old crowd but children as young as three can do most of the projects. Children under three may not enjoy it as much but if they are tagging along with older siblings, they won’t be bored. There is a toddler room with toys and games for the little ones to play while big sister is painting a project. Parental supervision is required so parents will need to split up.
When you complete your self-guided tour of the Crayola Factory, you can either leave, or head up to the third and fourth floors to visit the canal museum. The canal museum is definitely geared towards older kids and preschoolers won’t really “get it”. The fourth floor does have a play area, though, with several different types of building block stations. It’s more fun for younger kids than the thrid floor. Learning how canals work is interesting but three year olds don’t care!
Check out the Crayola Factory Gift Shop when you are done. You’ll have to go outside and go around to the entrance of the gift shop but it’s worth the walk! Buying crayons there may seem cool (fresh from the sourse!) but the crayons are over-priced. They do have some good bargains: crayon puzzles, birthday candles, crayon sharpeners, key chains and more were reasonably priced and make great mementos of your visit!
