The Sponge Bob and Patrick meet and greet was held last August 20 (Saturday) at the 2nd Floor event center of the SM Center Las Pinas. The turn out of kids plus their parents or guardians was surprisingly good. It figures that Sponge Bob has quite a large number of fans in the Las Pinas area.
Anyway, I preregistered my son 3 days ahead of the event hoping that it entails certain privileges. It turns out that the 1st 200 to preregister would get a free 3R copy of their photo with te 2 mascots. I only learned about this on the day of the event. Another thing I learned was that to be able to get a photo with the 2 characters, one has to present a proof of purchase of any Nickelodeon item worth P300. This was contrary to what the information personnel told me when asked the time I preregistered. Anyway, I still went on and purchased 2 Sponge Bob shirts just so we could push through with what we came there for. The crowd was awfully thick by the time I got through with my purchase and registration and all seats were already taken by that time. I managed to locate ourselves near the stage right in front of where I figured the mascots would be coming out from. My son was already irritable at that time and I too was getting a little uneasy and tired. There were regular parlor games to get the ball rolling but only a few kids were able to participate. Then finally the host announced the cue for Sponge Bob and Patrick to come up the stage. It was actually a very short presentation, barely a minute of dancing the Sponge Bob Square pants tune. Then came the calling of names to line up for the picture taking. The kids names were called according to the number they had registered. There were likely around 300 kids who registered for that photo op with the 2 Nickolodeon characters. I voiced out a little of my irritation to the SM Center events and the Nickelodeon staff for the lack of organization with regards to the entire event. Then my son and I went on and had our picture taken. The moment was short and not memorable but it was an experience. To fill in what was lacking, I treated my son to some Twisted potatoes and Zagu. We lounged around the area awhile just relaxing as we watched other families make the most of the stage.
