When we got to the Music Hall at about 2pm, I was shocked by the loooong line of people waiting to get in. It went around in circles and extended as far as outside the mall area. I was really ready to call it a day despite the fact that we came all the way from Quezon City. Fortunately, there was a media registration table and we were able to get in without having to line up for hours.I registered my kids for the onstage games. I was asked for their genders and ages, and they were assigned to games that suited them. My son was supposed to play in the relay game sponsored by Guess Kids while my daughter was supposed to play in a Barbie-sponsored game for girls. They were given stickers with a letter and a number that corresponded to the game they registered in. After that, the ushers led my kids to the bleachers at the side and told them to sit and wait to be called.
Well guess what, they were never called. They were sitting there and sweating it out the entire time with other contestants and I was just surprised when the Guess Kids Relay Game came up my son was still sitting in the area he was ushered to. He didn't get to play. Not one to take something sitting down, I immediately complained to the usher and game organizer. They line up my son for the next game instead. I informed them that my daughter's letter and number was coming up in a while and I would not want her to be bypassed. They assured me the game was in the later half of the show and that we would be called. They suggested that we go around and visit the sponsor booths to pass the time, which we did.
We couldn't even go near the sponsor booths since they were all very crowded, we could barely move around. Some minutes later I saw little girls being ushered on stage for the Barbie game my daughter registered for. She was bypassed, as my son was. Again I approached the game people and they told me my daughter would play in the second batch which was around 6pm. I was seething at this point because I was not willing to wait till evening just to get a sheet of stickers or something to that effect -- that is if my daughter isn't bypassed yet again. I wanted my kids to experience playing the unique Fairly OddParents themed games on stage, but despite following their protocol and registering ahead of time my daughter was denied that.
My daughter was complaining about not getting her turn at this point. She did sit in the waiting area from 2:30pm to 4:30pm as instructed with her letter and number stuck to her shirt. I told her that we would just go to another party next time and she'd get to participate in the games there. I got my kids and walked out of the event at about 4:45pm.
Thus ended our unpleasant experience at the Nickelodeon Wishology event. This will probably be the first and last time I will take my kids to a Nickelodeon event.
This incident reminded me of another bad experience we had with Nickelodeon last December 2008. They held a Christmas promo on their website entitled "A Merry Spongy Christmas". What you had to do was upload a photo and they would cartoonize it and then flash it on TV. If you see your photo on TV, you would get a Spongebob gift pack. Well, my kids photos were flashed on TV. We saw it, their classmates saw it, and even our relatives on the other side of town saw it. But were they given prizes? No they were not. Incidentally, my friend's kids also won in that same promo and got their prizes in the mail.Bad bad bad. How could they do that to kids during Christmas? I went as far as to call Nickelodeon's marketing department to inquire about the prizes and a woman told me that there were no prizes for that promo. I said it's shown on your website and I have friends who got prizes from that same promo. She mumbled something incoherent and told me to just call again next time. Whatever. I didn't even bother anymore.
At least Cartoon Network delivers what it promises.
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