Experiencing Bubble Planet

Have you seen those pictures where someone looks like they are buried in bubbles? Whether someone uses a picture like this as a profile picture on social media or for something else, I've always wondered where these pictures came from. Was it some kind of camera trick? The answer is no!

They were likely at Bubble Planet. When I looked up what I wanted to do before visiting American Dream Mall in New Jersey for the first time, I noticed a store experience called Bubble Planet and knew I had to check it out. Read on for the pros and cons.

View of the Bubble Planet Experience store as we walked in.

The Pros

1. I now have pictures of myself buried in bubbles. Their bubbles are actually small light balls, the kind that are in ball pits at Ikea that I got in as a kid. I didn't have to buy a picture either (though we did). You could also take pictures with your phone.

2. We went a day during the week when it wasn't crowded and were able to walk through the experience to different rooms, taking our time to experience each room.

3. There were interesting rooms, like an LED room (all kinds of cool light reflections on the floor), a Bubble Ocean room (big balloons that covered the floor and were up past my knees to wade through), a Bubble Bath room (the ball pit area), a couple areas specifically for good pictures (like a chair with balloons at the top and a bathtub filled with rubber duckies), an Infinity room (lines all over that cause an illusion), and a virtual reality area (you sit on bubble-shaped chairs and wear a headset that takes you through bubble landscapes). As an adult, my favorite was the VR experience.

The LED room pictured above.

4. I loved the picture we got. They took our picture when we came in and then when we finished going through the rooms, we could pick the bubble background we wanted for it. It was hard to decide between a few of them!

The Cons

1. The pricing really adds up here. It's about $27 per adult plus the virtual reality and photo were additional costs. For a child, the cost is about $19 for general entry. For an experience that is around an hour, not cheap!

2. I went with another adult and I think this experience is more suited to kids. I know when I was a kid, I really enjoyed going in ball pits but of course, it's not going to be quite as enjoyable as an adult as when you are a kid. I can see kids under 10 having a really good time here and kids under 5 just really being delighted by the experience.

3. I found the Bubble Ocean room (with big balloons all around) to be interesting but slightly nerve wracking as those balloons can (and do as we saw) pop. As an adult, I was fine and wading through was a doable challenge but if you bring a small child in this room, be prepared to carry them.

I had a nice time at Bubble Planet and would recommend the virtual reality and checking out all of the rooms. I would mostly recommend this experience to those who are able to bring kids with them, so they can experience all the "bubbles" with awe and you can enjoy seeing their faces and being a kid again. I went to the NJ one but there are also Bubble Planet Experience locations in many major U.S. cities and abroad.