This place had potential. Our $250 bought two hours of use, theoretically (more on that later), so the value seemed to be there compared to other local venues. This rented the party space for up to 15 kids from 2PM to 4PM. There was ample space for that number, but there were only two employees on hand. In another industry, this may have been sufficient, but this business is running refereed nerf games and that takes half of the workforce just to ref.
The limited staff might not have been so problematic but for the venue's strictly enforced rule of the kids not reloading the nerf guns which used magazines, a rule allegedly enacted to reduce instances of jamming. And when I say strictly enforced, I mean to say that the lady who was running the place has absolutely no place running a hospitality venue for children. She started out surly and got worse. I had to step in when I heard her yelling at one of the party attendees to stop reloading his own gun and chastising him for "having brought a jammed gun three times", at which point I reminded her that it's a birthday party and she seemed to be dampening the spirit of fun. Her reply was a wordy insistence that she was right to "enforce the rules", with absolutely no reference to how gruffly she did so to a room full of children. The children were later discussing how belligerent she was. As for the nerf guns themselves, there was a decent variety to choose from, with the top 5 or 6 being an auto-feeding gun which has a bad problem with jamming anyway. This meant that the kids spent a lot of time standing by while the employees worked on guns and reloaded magazines. There were not enough people to perform all of these functions, and our group only had seven children. If there had been 15 children, it would have been unmanageable (not to mention, some of the kids would have been stuck with single-shot nerf guns). We had last year's party at Spunky Sports in Hewitt (closed this year because of mold in the building), and it was faaaaaar better executed as far as the nerf activities go.
It's set in a karate dojo of a different name and is fairly "off-the-beaten-path", so it would be a good idea to increase the signage visible from the road if you're trying to tell a number of other parents where to bring their children. We had to keep someone on constant watch for arrivals as the parking lot was completely empty aside from our one vehicle and one might overlook it as a closed business. If you decide on this venue, I might recommend bringing signs and balloons to affix to a car in the parking lot somewhere near the business.
The air conditioning wasn't set low enough in a Texas September, which meant 96 degrees outside and lots of sweaty kiddos inside.
The inflatable equipment was a nice touch and, toward the end of our two hours, one of the two workers brought out some oversized boxing gloves for the kids to use in the inflatable bounce house, which they loved.
The young man, who served as the referee for the nerf battles and the boxing, seemed to do a good job with the kids throughout the party.
The lady was very concerned with "getting home to her own family". This was apparent even well before it was explicitly stated, as she shut down the nerf activities at 3:15 with 45 minutes left in the venue, citing that "people usually take thirty minutes to eat cake". After the cake and gifts, the kids returned to play on the foosball table, air hockey, ping pong, mini-soccer court, and the aforementioned bouncy-house boxing. The bouncy house she shut down at about 3:43 according to the clock on her wall, the rest followed at 3:50 according to their clock. The same clock read 3:55 when she ushered everyone into the heat of the parking lot (though admittedly, the clock on my phone at that time read 3:58). This might have made more sense to me if there was some cleanup to be done of the mess that we had made, but we did the cleaning ourselves, leaving the venue in the exact same condition it had been in upon our arrival. She closed the business and drove away from the empty parking lot as we stood by outside waiting for parents to pick up kids. In any event, we paid for two hours, it would certainly seem to be in the best interests of a small business dependent on word of mouth advertising to prioritize customer satisfaction over strict enforcement of non-safety-related nerfgun rules and getting home 2-5 minutes earlier.
The padding on the floor worked nicely, the bounce-house was fun, the games were nice to have (though the air-hockey, foosball, and ping pong tables were all in various states of disrepair), there was plenty of table space set up, and we had the entire place to ourselves. Those are the only reasons I give two stars instead of one. The place was hot, the staff was insufficient, and the unaccommodating lady's demeanor was unacceptable for a hospitality venue aimed at children.
I'll find a different place. read more
