This place is SOOOO not as cool as I thought it would be. My mother in-law won us some passes to try the place out at our preschool auction a few months ago. Dan and I decided to take them to the Family Jump Time tonight. Never again. Thank goodness I didn’t have to pay because I would have been very irritated to have paid $7 per child to deal with what we put up with this evening.
First of all, I understand it is a bouncy house and that will cause kids to get wound up. That is to be expected. However, when you are 9 years old and you are pushing little kids out of your way so you can be even more rowdy, that’s just plain dangerous. They had two employees “monitoring” the bouncy houses, though I think they did more flirting with each other than anything else. Not to mention, they were encouraging the 6 rowdy 9 year olds to run and throw the playground balls over the top of the bouncy houses. Not only did I get hit by one (and no one apologized…rude) but a little kid just walking to another bouncy house, got hit. Not to mention, throwing the ball from the outside of the bouncy house OVER the top and into it causes more running to diving through the openings to get the ball. One of the 9 year olds crashed through the opening as Bella was trying to get out and completely knocked her right over and she started crying because her fingers got bent back.
The biggest joke was when I was leaving and I told the manager that we would not be returning. He, of course, asked us why. After telling him about the horrible experience, he just looked at me like I had three heads and said “OK”. I was floored. I mean I don’t know what I expected him to say…well no that’s not true. I expected him to show a little reaction when finding out that his employees were encouraging things that was causing kids to get hurt.
The whole place, in my opinion, just sucks. They have this really cool slide that you climb up a bunch of stairs to get to. Instead of having an employee at the top sending kids down, they have one at the bottom who just watches kids crash into each other. One poor kid slid down, was trying to get up to get off the thing and another kid (one of the 9 year olds) came flying down it and kicked him right in the back. Do you think the employee said anything? Of course not. She just stared at them.
Here is their waiver that you sign before going in. What a joke. The top part says that you will alert them of any behavior that is or could be causing a problem…did that, they didn’t care. The bottom part basically says that they are not responsible for anything that happens there.
The only way I would go back is during their open jumps that are for specific ages or if it was for a private party. Family night…no way.
Sorry that was a horrible experience! We have a play place nearby and have learned to go during regular school hours with our toddlers, and never evenings or Saturdays. I’d still write a letter and give ideas…more training for the kids working there!
What Pump It Up did you go to? Sounds like a bad experience.
Sounds like Chuck E Cheese – HELL! And you’re right, the employees don’t seem to care. If it’s a franchise, call the corporate number if there is one. Of course if more people parented their kids, those incidents would be reduced, but I won’t get started on that.
I would never take my small child to a family evening pump it up open play. I would think an evening would be older children. Not a place or situation I would put my little one in. as for the employees we had a similar experience at a bday party there & I complained & it was rectified immediately.
Aside from the 6 9 year olds…the other kids were all around the same age.