Enjoying Wonderworks and Canyon Climb at Destiny USA

The new Wonderworks attraction has opened at the Destiny USA Mall in Syracuse, NY, and I had the chance to visit with my family!  It is a great place to go for hours of family fun.  It is actually in the Mall, and integrated quite well with it.  The Canyon Cavern Ropes course goes out over the Mall, and is hard to miss. When my family and I first walked in to the Mall we were a little unnerved to see people on ropes high above our heads!  We headed upstairs and found the entrance to Wonderworks, an upside down house that seems to have landed right in the middle of the Mall.

After you go in and get your tickets you have to go through an inversion tunnel to “reorient” yourself for the experience.  This is amazing, and really makes you feel like you are going to fall over, since the lights moving fast all around you give the sensation of motion.  It is a great start to the exhibits, many of which are about optical illusions and virtual reality.

After the tunnel you reach the exhibit area and see things like the Hurricane Shack and Human Lightning Bolt.  I was anxious to try Mindball, in which you use your mind to move a ball across a table, and the person who is calmest wins.  I played with my 16 year old and won almost instantly.  So we had to play again, and she did better, but I still triumphed the second time too!  This game doesn’t really lend itself to pictures, because you are just sitting in a chair with your eyes closed, but it is fun to play.  It is also neat to see the EEG with the brain activity that is displayed while you play.

Everything is very interactive, which makes it exciting.  We played baseball and pitched to major leaguers, and measured how high we could jump.  My husband and son also spent quite a while playing virtual air hockey, where you control the puck just by moving your hands.  The amount of unusual virtual reality technology that the exhibits have is fascinating.  We tried out the Rollercoaster simulator, which was fun because you could pick out which kind of rollercoaster you wanted to ride.  My kids naturally picked the most extreme one available, which I passed on. There is also a 4-D movie, which was one of our favorite things. The seats move and shake as you watch the movie, so it felt like we really were traveling on a bumpy track through an old deserted mine!

Some other highlights were the Astronaut Simulator Training ride (I passed on this one too!)

And of course we tried out the Bed of Nails, which sounds scary but just feels a little strange.

Many of the activities really encourage family interaction, which was nice to see.  We played this light board that test reflexes a number of times, but I always lost this game, as you can see in the video.

But our absolute favorite thing was the Canyon Climb Ropes Course.  This is an awe-inspiring three story ropes course that sends you out over the Mall.  My teens loved this, and spent a good forty-five minutes climbing all over and exploring.  My husband and I both went out too, although we didn’t stay on it as long or do some of the more scary climbs!  You are so high up it is frightening, even with the safety harness.

If my kids reaction to this course is any indication I think this is going to be very popular with local teens.  It is great place to go for youth groups and scout troops.  There was tons of staff on the ropes, and they were keeping close track of everyone and double checking safety harnesses to make sure everything was okay.

We had a great time, and I would highly recommend this as an enjoyable family outing.  I like that it is in the Mall, and we left to go get a snack at the food court and then came back to have more fun.  You can all the details you need to plan a visit at the WonderWorks website, or learn more on their Facebook page.

Disclosure: I received complimentary tickets to attend.  All opinions are my own.