When in Manila, you should find a nice place where you could give your sweet tooth a treat. The Wonka Imaginarium at Shangri-la Plaza was that kind of place I needed to feed my sweet tooth cravings! It’s not always that you get bewildered by so many sweets with a taste of magic.
I felt so lucky to get a hold of the Golden Ticket — the ticket to the exciting world of Wonka, famous for wrapping dreams and magic with their unique and colorful packaging.
Me and my friends arrived a little bit early. My friends were from a different universities and it’s really nice to get our schedules to match. We were really excited. We are huge fans of the movie Charlie and the Chocolate Factory so how amazing it is to personally experience a bit of the movie’s magic!
The set-up was splendid! The fountain at the center and the cute decors hanging at the mall added to the magical feel of the event.
My friends played with the chocolates on the table while waiting for the program to start. I left them at the table (let them be kids for a while I thought, I’ll join them later ha ha!) and went around the place.
Gasp! Candies! Candies! Candies! Chocolaaaates! Sweets all around! Seriously, there’s Wonka candies anywhere you go and anywhere you look at. This is the Chocolate factory, for real.
And now for the real show!
The entrance to the Wonka Imaginarium
The walk at the magical forest of bugs, crawlies, huge ants, and of course, Wonka candies!
Into the Closet of Lost Dreams. It’s actually dark inside!
Next to the Closet of Lost Dreams is the Space Tunnel where the 3D Installation can be found
Last trip: the Witches’ Lair
The kids really had fun trying to cast magic spells with their Wonka magic wands in front of the magic mirror. No worries kids, the good witch is there to help!
We had a mini activity at the Witches’ Lair. We were asked to get a small piece of paper of our fave color and write on it anything we wish.
We stuck our papers on the Rainbow. Not only did the Wonka Imaginarium provide a joyful experience to the young and to the young-at-heart but also an inspiring value — wishes are free so we should not hesitate to hope for the best because after going through the rainy days in our lives, there would a rainbow waiting for us to get our pot of gold.
After the tour inside the Imaginarium, Willy Wonka himself gave his words to the kids (and that includes us, of course).
More than the bag tag, a bag of sweets, and two souvenir pictures Wonka gave us, it’s the exciting ride which made us feel like kids once again, very much young and away from the stress brought by academic life, that we are really grateful to Wonka. As Ricky Andres, president of Candy Corner Philippines that brought you Wonka candies, puts it, Wonka is all about fun.
If you’ve missed this one-of-a-kind event of magical forest, spellbinding closet, and enchanted mirror that is Wonka Imaginarium, don’t worry because you can still experience the magic by buying yourself Wonka candies when you’re in Manila.
