Dopamine Land

 

The second experience for Random London Adventure No.2 was Dopamine Land. 

We randomly came across this one when perusing the Fever app for fun things to do and as it is directly next door to AWA, it was yet another case of 'meh, why not?'. We have both been in dire need of the happy rush lately as work has been draining beyond belief, so when fate strikes it makes sense to play along.

This interactive experience is marketed to promote the happy endorphins in your brain which gives you that emotion, did it?

 Uhhh, yeah for a moment or two we'd say it did. 

Dopamine Land consists of several rooms, some timed, some not, which enable you to get that happy feeling. Photos are encouraged, as is getting weird. but the only thing that let this down was other people.

Blimey, we've never been part of such a miserable group! We entered with a large family (which we had left behind as they were fairly rude), another couple, and a group of three. The other couple were honestly the most Poe faced people we've come across and it made for quite an awkward experience. They were clearly not enjoying themselves and regretted coming, and they raced through nearly as fast as we did, but for very different reasons.

The first room we entered was just with this couple, it was a timed room that was full of string lights and mirrors allowing for a bright selfie based experience for 2 minutes or so. Jamie and I took full advantage of such time and took as many videos and selfies as we could in the different lighting, but from a glance this couple mainly stood there and watched us taking our photos. It was a small room, it was awkward, but it wasn't like we were acting out or anything, we were considerate of them, but they just stood there bored as there wasn't anything to do other than take pictures of yourself. I can see their logic, but the point was to let your inner kid out.

Next up was a room we did not get to go in as it was packed out with little ones and we were not ready for the crowding. This was a room where you could draw on the walls, but there was barely room to draw on each other so we scurried past. Clearly so did our group mates as the other couple followed us instead after peaking in.

We entered a light stepping room which then let into another room. This was one we walked through as again it wasn't a bit of us and I'll be honest I cant even remember what it was. After following Jamie, jumping from lit up tile to tile as if the floor was lava, we then entered a small dark lit room enabling us to practise our shadow puppetry.

This was a great few minutes spent as we had a laugh much to the disgust of certain other guests... and it was a little disheartening as several people entered the room, but no one else participated in the theme. They watched us, they swished their own hands through the light and then walked out. They the 5 other people all were then told the same thing as us 'take your time in the other room unless you want to skip the ball pit'. No one wanted to skip the ball pit, so they all trotted back into the shadow room and stood silently waiting instead of having fun. This was the downer on the whole happy thing.

Next up was the ball pit. This was the last of the timed rooms, luckily. We fell in, pulled each other under, flicked the balls at each other, and then sat in complete silence as we realised that the 5 other people in the pit with us had all gotten in and just sat deadly still watching each other at the other end very awkwardly. They were all placed at the end of the exit ready to run out, whereas we had gone down the other end ready to have fun. This was 5 minutes or so, and most of it was then silent. There was no fun. Everyone then got up and left to put their shoes on and we never saw any of them again.

The next room was the fire lantern room and encouraged guests to make sounds and take photos and rest a moment or even take a nap. Fake candles were placed around the space as were big pillows and beanbags. The ceiling was plastered with these lanterns and it made for a calming space as jungle sounds filled the room. The other guests all filtered out but we stayed a good 10 minutes just relaxing and chatting and snuggling.

Once the spell of relaxation was broken we went down the stairs and through into another calming room filled with lights and forestry. We sat on some tree stumps a moment and wanted to relax a bit more but soon left as it became quite crowded.

The final room which we thoroughly enjoyed was the pillow fight room. We fought, we laid, we made a fort, and bundled. This was the best room of the whole experience. Thunderstorms played in the background with moody lighting and it was lush. We tired ourselves out and had a good laugh before heading to the fun photos ops just before the exit.

#accidentallywesanderson vibes from this one much?

This is a great family friendly hour or so, a little boring at times and massively overcrowded, but we think in timed groups that are properly staggered this could have been a better experience. But we had fun! And each room was quite diverse.

DISCLAIMER: Now for the official bit. This blog does not receive any paid promotions from the places mentioned above. We have not been approached to promote or act as spokespersons for any attraction mentioned within this post and this is simply a post intended to act as a day in the life of a couple on a cute date. All photos included are taken by ourselves and as such the rights for these images our ours, no links, brands, or companies mentioned otherwise belong or are associated with Phantom Adventures UK. We are responsible only for this blog. Opinions are our own and not influenced by any third party source.. 

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