Curly Whirleezs located just off Bury Road (A58), on Boundary Industrial Estate and is easily accessible by both car and Bus and is open 7 days a week.
Curly Whirleez is the largest indoor play centre in the area and comprises of a multi-level soft play, a Cafe, Gymnastics Room, Sports Lounge, Sports Court, Fitness for Kids, Yoga and has party rooms.
It only opened around May 2008 so is lovely and new and all equipment is in good working order and looks and feels 'new'.
The main part consists of a sports area (basket ball hoops, goalie nets and balls) a multi level large soft play gym and a baby/toddler soft play area.
The staff on the door when we visited appeared young and under trained with limited to nil customer service skills. Basically having been assured by their website and banners on the building when passing that it was open 7 days a week we took our two small and very excited children on a two bus journey to get there only to be turned away as we'd missed a handwritten and unprofessional sign taped to the door. The place appeared open and vibrant yet not packed and yet people were simply being turned away, most of which looked disgruntled, miffed and startled yet remained too polite to actually question what was going on. I however wasn't so easily fobbed off and immediately began to question their reasoning and their ethics relating to their actions. The two teenage boys couldn't answer any of my questions besides mumbling about most of the staff being in a meeting. Unimpressed I demanded to speak to someone more senior, a lovely yet harrassed looking woman appeared from the cafe and explained that ALL the problem was that most of the staff were in a meeting and there wasn't enough staff to clear the empty tables to allow new customers in. She let us in straight away.
My young son (4yrs) absolutely adored the place and had an absolute riot there. My daughter (2yrs) however is a little timid in new surroundings and would only explore with an adult in tow. The younger area was a bit too limited to her and didn't hold her interest at all and yet the older bigger part was of limited use to her as she's too young to explore on her own and being small she couldn't make the climb up anyway and I was uncomfortable enough with boisterous older kids harassing my 4 year old without putting my two year old in there too. the rules are a little ambiguous as they state that anyone over a certain height cannot use the equipment yet there were clearly some parents (rightly so!) accompanying their younger children on the equipment to help them gain enjoyment and confidence yet none of the staff clarified as to whether it was actually 'allowed'.
Although the kids loved it i do feel it could have had something 'extra' like sensory play or trampolines.
Due to the nature of the building, being an industrial unit, it was unbearably hot when we were there, so much so that my son over heated and puked and we had to strip our daughter off to just her vest and nappy! I'm hoping this will be remedied and also hoping that it doesn't mean it will be excruciatingly cold in Winter!
The cafe there sells hot and cold food and hot and cold drinks and is reasonably priced.
I did e-mail the place regarding their staff and asking clarification regarding adults accompanying children on the equipment but unfortunately received no response which again just speaks volumes of poor customer service.
All in all a good fun and reasonably priced activity for the kiddies but could be better. read more