Family Things to do in MB with 12 year old

Hi. My husband, 12 year old son and I will be visiting MB from Friday until Tuesday of this upcoming weekend. I%26#39;m looking for activities to do in the MB area that a 12 year old would enjoy. I%26#39;ve looked at the main attractions and took note of MagiQuest, The Aquarium and a few of the amusement parks. Which amusement park is considered the best one? Also, I noticed Le Cirque is at The Palace Theater. Has anyone seen it? Hit or miss? Lastly, we need some restaurant suggestions.

We will be staying at The Wyndham (formerly The Fairfield) in MB.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

Family Things to do in MB with 12 year old

LeGrande Cirque is awesome! Don%26#39;t forget the miniature golf courses. Also the Nascar go carts are real popular. There%26#39;s only one amusement park now with the Pavilion closed and torn down so it%26#39;s Family Kingdom for now! Parasailing is also very fun!

As far as restaurants do a search in this forum for restaurants and you%26#39;ll get all kinds of lists. Check out my info by clicking on the blue link to the left and click on contributions to forum and you%26#39;ll see all of my suggestions and reviews for restaurants that we%26#39;ve been to.

Have a great time!

Ron

Family Things to do in MB with 12 year old

Dont forget its Bike Week so its going to be a little crowed where ever you go

I don%26#39;t think Family Kingdom is open this time of year. They have a website though. We are going to the Alligator Farm. We have been there before and boys seem to love it.

We haven%26#39;t been to MagiQuest...I know that it lists all age groups but I always thought it was more for little kids. (??) The aquarium is a pretty good choice. Another more off the beaten path place is Waccatee Zoo.

The first thing my kids always wanted to do at the beach was ride go-karts. Nascar Speedpark has lots of things like this.

Mini golf is always fun. There are a lot of elaborate ones to choose from...pirate themed...dragon themed...safari themed...on and on.

Something my teenage son always enjoyed was fishing from the pier. All of the piers rent fishing poles and sell bait. My husband and son went fishing off the Surfside Pier in August and caught a hammerhead shark.

There are so many restaurants to chose from, it%26#39;s hard to really make specific recommendations not knowing exactly what you had in mind. But I always recommend everyone try Margaritaville. It%26#39;s a really cool looking restaurant and such a fun place. They have people walking around on stilts and making balloons sculptures for the kids (AND adults!). They love it.

I gotta believe that a 12 year old boy would LOVE Alligator Adventure in North Myrtle Beach by Barefoot Landing.

You didn%26#39;t mention what kind of money you would prefer to pay for your dining out pleasure. Myself, I do not usually frequent the real high end type of places, I prefer the more casual type places.

For a FANTASTIC steak, try Angelo%26#39;s, it is awesome.

For wings, try Wild Wing Cafe and Overtime sportsbar.

If you are into just a sandwich place, try Oscar%26#39;s, plus they have some interesting decor ideas. Have a great trip!

We like the River City Cafe, We have only been to the original but it is very unique and I thought it was good.

Hello Labbydog (from a fellow New Englander). I have a 12 year old girl, but she is a tomboy extraordinaire. My eight year old daughter taunts her by calling her a girl :) Here are the things they (specifically the 12 year old) loved while we were down there in August (and things I rather enjoyed doing with them as a parent).

MagiQuest was definitely her favorite thing of the whole trip. I think 12 is almost the perfect age for this; my eight year old needed some assistance from us to complete tasks, find things in order, etc. There were adults running around doing this thing. My husband was kinda bummed he didn%26#39;t get a wand for himself instead of just helping our daughter (but then again he is a big kid...we%26#39;re both the kind of parents that really get involved with whatever fun thing we%26#39;re doing with our kids). There is also one of these in Williamsburg at the Black Wolf Lodge (we had to visit (at 12 yr olds request) that one on our way home - we have family in that area anyway) but it doesn%26#39;t even compare to the one in M.B.

Next on the 12 yr olds list would probably be Alligator Adventure near Barefoot Landing. We%26#39;re zoo/aquarium type people and hit them at every location we go to, but I think we all loved this place. You really get to get up close with the animals. We all pet a baby alligator and my husband, 12 year old, and I all got to hold one - we took tons of pix of course. The staff was so patient and made sure everyone got to touch and hold him. You have to stop in on a Wed or Sat. and see them feed the largest alligator in the world (well North America at least). We were also up close and personal for this experience...this 20 ft alligator came up out of the water knowing feeding time was coming and came right up to the fence near where we were sitting (my daughter is convinced it was the hot dog that her little sister didn%26#39;t finish sitting next to the fence with us). It was about a 100 degrees that day, so of course he had his mouth wide open showing all of his grimy teeth...with only a fence between his mouth and my daughter - she loved it ! I don%26#39;t want to give anyone the idea that it wasn%26#39;t safe because we felt completely safe at all times, but it is wonderful when you get to be that close to the animals.

The aquarium was nice but small - I actually posted a review of this just a couple of days ago. Worth a visit though...especially for the tunnel if that%26#39;s brand new to you. The other RIpley%26#39;s attractions weren%26#39;t really worth it in our opinion. The motion ride probably would have been good for people who don%26#39;t get to do that thing regularly at amusement parks or something, but I hate those things so we skipped it.

If you%26#39;ve got enough money to burn (which we didn%26#39;t for this particular thing on this trip), there is an animal experience (advertised in all those coupon books that are everywhere down there). I can%26#39;t remember if it is at Barefoot Landing or Broadway at the Beach (I think it is Broadway). You can get your picture taken holding baby monkeys or tiger cubs (not both together of course) for about $40/pp. They can also bring you out to their wildlife reserve where these animals live (they also have full grown animals on display where there are taking these pictures) and you get an up close and personal experience with the animals - holding them, see exactly what the trainers do and helping out in some instances, etc. I think that cost about $175/pp but would be a once in a lifetime thing. We paid much less than that but the same idea for a penguin experience at Mystic Aquarium and I know all of us will never forget it (and we%26#39;ve got the whole thing on tape to show the grandkids even).

They have a carnival type amusement park thing at Broadway. My kids are amusement park junkies (Six Flags multiple times a year) so carnival type rides just don%26#39;t do it for them any more but I know some kids love that sort of thing.

The Nascar racing park did look fun. I%26#39;ve never seen so many types of go karts before. We did an indoor mini golf that glowed in black lights, a tiki golf (just before we got into N M.B. where we stayed) which partnered with a Jamaican themed course down 1/2 hr in M.B. My twelve year old isn%26#39;t big on mini golf (8 yr old loves it and so do I) but you can%26#39;t help but have fun with some of these elaborate courses.

My 12 yr old also loved the Medeival Times dinner theatre. Everyone in our group did actually. That%26#39;s definitely more our speed than Dixie Stampede or those type shows (not big country music fans at all).

Fishing off the pier was a hit with the 8 year old (don%26#39;t remember what the 12 yr old was doing then). They did get to catch (or the people next to them) baby sharks (to pet and then let go) and fish they wouldn%26#39;t get to catch or see up north.

As for restaurants, we went to Original Benjamins which we thought was a very good buffet (I know some people can%26#39;t stand buffets though). A California Pizza place (at Barefoot landing I believe) and the Medeival Times I mentioned above. Any of the places at Barefoot landing or Broadway on the Beach are going to be kid friendly cool and not your run of the mill restaurants. I know there was a Hard Rock Cafe that my sister%26#39;s family visited, Margaritaville, house of blues, etc.

Sorry...I wrote a book. Please let me know if you have any questions...looks like you are leaving soon - have a great time. We certainly did.

do you remember how expensive magicquest was?

Hello walker_sam,

I was about to check my debit card register to see how much it was but thought I check the attraction reviews first to see if it was in there. Indeed it was - here is what I copied from a review: '; It is $24.95 to initially play the first 90 minutes. That includes your wand. The website and brochures show these fancy toppers that (SHOCK!) you find out when you get there are an extra $10';.

I do remember that we as parents had to pay to go in with our children as well. I want to say this was anywhere from 6.95 for each of us to 9.95. Once you already have your wand though, you can go back and buy something like a two hour increment for $20. This does include a couple duels at their dueling station in the gift shop. However, there must have been some kind of glitch with both of my children%26#39;s wands and the two other children in my party because they got to do about a dozen duels each. We also received a discount at the register (we had a nice princess check us out I guess) and were only charged for one adult going in and given these little cards with stamps where if we came back again the adults would have been free. I wouldn%26#39;t count on such behavior again of course, but it%26#39;s amazing how that makes you remember an attraction and feel a sense of loyalty to it :)

These duels then give gold to your wand (if you win) just like all the activites and gold you collect while in Magiquest. You can then turn this gold in for candy (smaller amounts), more dueling time at the dueling stations, or things in the gift shop (higher gold amounts).

I%26#39;m realizing I should really put all this into a review for Magiquest - I%26#39;ll have to do that soon :)