I brought my kids to the new 'Encanto' experience at Camp. It surpassed my expectations and was pretty magical.

• I took my two daughters, 5 and 6, to the new "Encanto" experience at Camp in New York.
• I was surprised at how much attention to detail there was, and my kids loved it.

Even though I knew my kids would have the best time ever, I was more than a little nervous to bring them to the "Encanto" experience at Camp. Though it bills itself as a "family experience company," Camp is mostly a fancy toy store — or so I thought.

In my experience, toy stores generally trigger meltdowns. But since I love the movie almost more than my kids do, I decided to give it a whirl. The experience exceeded all our expectations.

We arrived too early

Tickets for the experience are timed, and Camp requests you arrive 15 minutes before the time you selected. We magically zipped through traffic and arrived 30 minutes early.

After seeing employees sigh when people arrived late for their reservation, I felt good that we had so much spare time. But I soon learned that arriving extra early was a mistake.

The waiting area is the toy store itself, and my girls — 5 and 6 — had plenty of time to examine each and every super cool toy on display. We'd had several conversations about how we were not going to purchase anything, but I feared that was going to go out the window pretty fast.

Luckily, we were saved by a candle. Actually, it was more like the candle, the "Miracle Candle" that blesses the Madrigal family with magic.

A Camp employee handed the girls one flickering candle, and just as they began loudly arguing about who got to hold it, the store's "secret" door swung open, and we, along with a handful of other families, entered the "Encanto" experience.

Even as an adult, walking out of a brightly lit toy store and into the lush, dimly lit Madrigal family home was thrilling. A "townsperson" who wore a lovely "Encanto"-inspired outfit introduced us to the rules of the Casita.

Essentially, we could roam around the rooms as we pleased, discovering surprises along the way. The candle played a sizable role in our visit: In each room, the girls could look for a designated spot to place it, triggering some sort of magical effect.

The kids were so excited that they didn't know where to look first

After walking through a second door — this one was brightly lit — we entered the central hub of the Casita, a lovely "outdoor" courtyard covered in floral vines. The kids were so elated that they truly didn't know where to look first. When they spotted the twisty slide in the middle of the room, they were off and running.

Along the perimeter of the courtyard were several smaller rooms. Isabela's room was covered in flowers, which the townspeople encouraged children to gather and throw in the air. Antonio's room had a jungle theme and featured playground-type equipment with another twisty slide. Luisa's room, which we never saw in the movie, was designed as the "happy place" she dreams of during "Surface Pressure," complete with fluffy clouds, a dance floor, and a donkey with a unicorn horn. Maribel's room is neat and quiet; it was a lovely place of calm amid the kid-fueled energy of the other rooms.

I know we're not supposed to talk about him, but Bruno had the coolest room of all.

A framed portrait swung open to reveal the gently tricky path to Bruno's lair. Kids traveled via balance beam, monkey bars, or foam-block "quicksand" to get there. There was a hallway next door for parents to walk through. Bruno's room had a slide that could be accessed only through another passageway.

That candle really must have been magic, because as my kids ran laughing and squealing from room to room, they passed it back and forth, actually sharing it. I won't spoil all the magic that the candle initiated in each room, but it did activate a fancy-looking Skee-Ball machine in Luisa's room and a whack-a-rat game in Bruno's space.

We heard most of the movie songs at least once

As we were walking around, several townspeople were milling about, engaging the kids with games, dance parties, and conversation. I was impressed that they weren't just humoring the kids — they really got down to their level and played.

Every few minutes they would break into song — with the help of a roving guitar player, of course — and encourage guests to sing along.

The visit lasted about an hour — the experience is coordinated so that you'll hear most of the songs from the movie at least once.

Performances were coordinated by Tom Salamon, who has a ton of experience working with immersive theater. Though all the townspeople were quite good, they really shined while singing as a group. Walking into a room and hearing a group of people start singing "Colombia, Mi Encanto" made me feel like I was walking into a musical.

I did start sweating a bit when the kids bolted in two different directions. I wasn't totally panicked that they would run out of the store — I knew they would want to be in the Casita as long as they could, and I'd had them put on their AirTag necklaces before we entered. However, it was occasionally difficult to corral them into doing the same thing at the same time, and it's hard to search for your child in a sea of kids — many in "Encanto" costumes — running through small, dimly lit rooms.

If I had more than two kids or if my girls were a few years younger, the experience might not have been quite as enjoyable. If they were a few years older, it wouldn't have seemed as magical.

The candle lets you know when it's time to go

After about 45 minutes, the flame on our candle began to flicker. As they'd been instructed, the girls told one of the townspeople that the flame was flickering, and she gave them a special secret word and further instructions.

We entered Pepa's room (which was more of a hallway with weather-related magic), knocked on another door, and whispered our password. We were ushered into a small, ordinary-looking room and exchanged our candle to get our photo taken. We were told that when we picked up the photo on our way out of the experience, we would get to see our "special power" in the photo.

It was tough to get the girls to leave. Though the website says the visit lasts one hour, there wasn't any real reason to leave at a certain time — so the promise of seeing our "power" revealed in the photo was clutch. It motivated them to exit through a room full of toys and "Encanto" clothing, most of which can be personalized with chain stitching. I consider myself extremely lucky that the girls didn't notice this gorgeous twirl skirt because they were so intent on finding out which power we'd been assigned.

Back under the fluorescent lights of the toy store, without our candle, the magical good-behavior spell my girls had seemed to be under for the past hour was broken, and they reverted to wanting every toy in the store.

But we experienced one last miracle. An employee — who I'd assumed would only encourage the kids to beg me for toys — leaned over and said: "Let's have your mommy take a photo of you with this toy so she knows where to find it later. And then you girls can follow me and I'll give you some stickers!"

Just like that, she artfully lured my children away from the Magic Mixies and changed my opinion about Camp being just a toy store.

Overall, we loved spending time in the world of the Madrigals. The experience was essentially a stunningly decorated indoor playground with live music and interactive elements. And of course, the true magic was experiencing it together.