My daughter (5 years old) really enjoyed the winter camp. She loved the staff (Laura and Joseph) and was super excited about all the crafts and the winter performance each day. They taught her singing, dancing, and even yoga! She made a lot of friends and some of the older kids helped her with her crafts, read books to her, etc. We were hesitant about the older reviews and being that it would be our first time sending our child there, we decided to check out the camp during Thanksgiving break, before sending our daughter to winter camp. We learned they are under new management and all of the staff members have been trained to properly watch kids. We felt very assured that it would be a safe and fun place for our daughter, and we certainly were not disappointed at the end of the winter camp session. Overall, this place was a hidden gem for us. We checked out many other camps in the neighborhood but it did not compare to Encore. I felt compelled to leave a review to counter the negative ones because we saw firsthand the staff work very hard to keep the kids entertained and make camp fun and educational for them. Bonus points for working parents: the hours were very convenient (we paid for the extra after hours so it ran from 8:30-5:15) and the parking was very easy. We hope to be back! read more

Really bad organization I called 4 times and sent also an email asking to cancel summer camp for my daughter due to covid 19 exposure our family had to quarentine, talk to a lady first dis not solve a thing , said shw was going ro call back for a refund, never called, second call no answer third call, talked to a Guy called Leo, repeat my history asked for help, he said was going to find a solution and called me back, nothing, sent an email requesting same thing, no answer, fourth call and no answer too, $345.00 and they dont even call me back, bad bad bad organization terrible customer service skills, not to mentioned that on july 5th many parents were waiting eith their kids for summer camp and nobody showed up, so seems like the forgot to communicate with some other parents too. Dont waste your time in this place! read more

PLEASE DO NOT TAKE YOUR KIDS HERE!!!!!!! Claire is definitely a scam artist! She knew that the Brochure was a COMPLETE LIE and already had a bunch of excuses for why my son must be lying to me about what's going on there. in my conversation with her she complete cut me off in every sentence and talked over me just telling me that my son is wrong. They were supposed to create a Pokémon together AND its evolutions, and when my son asked the teacher she just looked at him confused as if it wasn't in the brochure. My son said that multiple kids were complaining about it and wanted to do Pokemon things and the "teacher" (which couldn't have been older then 16) said she wanted to do a comic book instead. I waited till the last day of class to ask about it (in case they ended up doing it ) and she just said well he can do one if he wants to......its the last day, lady. How do you expect him to create a Pokémon it's moves and all its evolutions all in one day. And if they are just letting him do whatever he wants with no direction he might as well be home drawing from YouTube videos. he was so disappointed he didn't even want to go the last day. Claire definitely had no empathy and was completely rude to me the whole time i tried to bring up my issues. Since she's the one in charge I guess there's nothing else i can do except take the $300 loss, apologize to my son and leave this review. it sucks getting scammed. Hopefully I save someone from having this experience also..... PLEASE DO NOT TAKE YOUR KIDS HERE!!!! THE ANIME CLASS TAUGHT HIM NOTHING AND THEY DIDNT EVEN LET HIM USE MARKERS OR EVEN COLORED PENCILS IN AN ART CLASS. WASTE OF $300 read more

If you care about your children, STAY AWAY FROM THIS PLACE. We enrolled our 5yo son in the Minnow Summer Camp Program offered by the Encore Creative Arts Camp. During the first week of the program, myself and my wife witnessed attitudes and behaviors from some of the members of the staff which are not in accordance with what we, as parents, expect regarding the care of our son and children in general, including emotional support which is expected in any organization working with kids (either regular schools or summer camps). For example, one of the members of their staff treated kids using very rude manners and inadmissible language, something that we witnessed in two opportunities during the first week. We were perplexed and asked for explanation from the staff - they just did not seem to care. We also found deficiencies regarding the facility, including easy access to the adjacent parking lot and, consequently, to the street. One of the days I picked up my son, many kids from all ages where in one single room watching a movie without any staff supervision. Indeed, our son reported that they have spent significant amount of time per day watching movies; even two movies one day with the justification that they were used for the arts & crafts class. We are not against the idea of having some movie time during the week - but every day and up to two movies in one single day it is not something we have paid for. We sent a cancellation email to the Encore Creative Arts Camp and we got a vague response from the program manager (Leo Kats) not assuming any responsibility regarding our concerns. read more

I am going to agree with the review posted by Marcy V. The website oversells the programs. We were very disappointed. There is such a huge need for summer programs especially this year after so many months of being at home not not physically engaging with other children. However, this is an events site, and the staff are events people - not really camp counselors. So what you get are kids in banquet rooms with a few arts supplies, crayons and glue. I'm sad, because this has such potential. Hire some high school and college kids and you will see your programs improve 1000%. read more

This place is a joke. Poor staffing, poor communication with staffing. I thought, I would get my money's worth with having placed my kids at this camp. However, false advertisement, website page is a lie, and not worth paying hundreds of dollars for. read more

Love, love, love this place. My daughter was in this camp over the summer. She was in the musical theater and culinary. What a great experience for her especially with everything going on. The staff is super friendly. Highly recommend for next summer. read more

very disappointing $350+ spent on a week of what was supposed to be experienced artists teaching my 9-year old how to draw anime and cartoons. The camp was led by two or three 15 year olds who were not skilled and did not know how to lead a group. On of them actually called my son an "imbecile" in front of the whole group of kids. I will not be signing up for any of these camps again and we were thoroughly disappointed when we found out at the end of the week that the camp was taught by a few young teenagers but was advertised as experienced artists. read more

After reading the other reviews, I actually upgraded mine to two-star, as our experience wasn't as bad. But yes, it's a relatively expensive camp (unless you find their Groupon, which we didn't, as it's so rare that a camp goes up on Groupon, but guess now I know why), and the quality doesn't live up to the cost. The oddest thing we encountered is that the owner complained to us twice that our kid was "too affectionate" and "hugged too much." We asked if any kids complained and were told no, it's the counselors he hugs too much. We asked why the counselors would have a problem with it, and they said in this day and age, male counselors hugging is an issue, and they have to be careful of it. What? Our kid is younger than grade school, we're supposed to tell him to stop giving hugs? We won't be returning to this camp ever. read more

I have never written a negative yelp review before. However, I am compelled to write one now. This business is awful. My child has been going to summer camps in San Diego for 7 years (with exception of last year because of Covid). I have never been treated so rudely by an employee of any camp or other paid activity/class which my chid has attended. This camp boasted on their website that they were cautious about health and safety, particularly Covid. I registered my daughter in May, for a camp in August, based on their apparent attention to health concerns and the fact that Covid seemed to be well under control at that time. In May, the Delta variant was not prevalent in this area, and the state and county were on the verge of lifting indoor mask requirements. This was a huge mistake!!! I paid in full at that time. As we all know, children under the age of 12 are still not eligible for vaccination. This camp is open to 7-13 year old children. On July 28 2021 the CDC as well as State of CA and County of San Diego reinstituted a CLEAR recommedation for indoor mask wearing for all vaccinated and unvaccinated people. This is even specifically recommended for child care and camp settings by the CDC. My daughter went to the 1st day of camp, which was indoor for her chosen program, and masks were still considered optional for all children and adults (the teachers/counselors). The 2 teachers (in the indoor classroom) were not wearing masks, nor were most children in the class. When I called and expressed my concern to a manager, Leo, about their mask-wearing policy not being consistent with the latest health recommendations, he was dismissive and uninterested in hearing my concerns. He acted as though I was overly concerned about precautions and didn't seem familiar with current health advisories. The next day I spoke with Claire, the Program administrator, regarding my concerns. She repeatedly did not let me finish my sentences, she seemed to refute factual information about the all health authorities' current mask wearing recommendations, and she repeatedly scolded me for not having called sooner with questions. I am sorry, but I am a parent with valid concerns about my UNvaccinated child. I don't need to be scolded. I gavee this place the benefit of the doubt that perhaps their website wasn't updated very frequently, and was hoping they would have reinstituted appropriate mask wearing policies based on the changes 1 week ago. Unfortunately, Claire didn't seem to care whatsoever about anything other than telling me I should have basically figured this out on my own. Umm, what? This pandemic is ever-changing and nobody could have predicted exactly what the current environment/safety precautions would be several months in advance. Furthermore, I don't see why it would matter if I called on July 28 or any time after I registered in mid-May, as they already had my money. Their policy was reasonable in May. It is not reasonable now. It didn't change between then and now. They will not consider refunding me anything. There was a mention of a credit during my first conversation with Leo. However, I would rather lose the money than send my child back to such an ignorant, uncaring, unprofessional facility with horrendous customer service. For what it's worth, my daughter attended another indoor camp 2 wks. ago in San Diego and everyone was required to wear a mask. Numerous other indoor camps are adhering to this as well. read more

Can I give negative stars? I really want to give negative 10 stars. I am deeply disappointed with the creative arts camp held at Encore Event Center. My children were in culinary camp for 2 days before I took them out. That's 6 hours each day - 12 hours total and they only prepared two items. The two items included glorified rice krispie treats and spaghetti sauce, from a can with a few spices added. When I called to politely ask about this, I was told that there weren't enough ingredients to make what was planned because there were more kids in camp than was anticipated. What the hell kind of answer is that???? How do you not know how many kids are registered when YOU are the one RUNNING THE CAMP?!?!? Anyone with a brain stem knows that is just total BS. She then acted as if she had no idea what the website promised as part of the camp, which makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. She works there, shouldn't she know what's on the freakin' website? This camp costs $465 PER CHILD and genuinely utilized Maybe $55 worth of ingredients for the ENTIRE class for both days!! The kids spend most of the day sitting outside, with the time inside spent drawing and around 30 min preparing food. This camp is pathetic and I am being nice when I say that. The website is a bold faced and flat out lie. The website also fails to mention that the staff members will bring their toddlers with them to camp/work and that the kids whose parents paid for camp will be more attentive to the toddlers than the actual parents/staff members. $465 for this camp is a bait and switch, snake oil salesman SCAM. Absolute scam. Honestly, this place should be shutdown and has no business working with kids. I could get a hot plate and a can of spaghetti-os and run a "camp" in my backyard and it would be the equivalent to the camp this place is running. What on earth is being done with all the money being charged? It definitely is NOT being invested in putting on a camp for kids. Shady. As. Hell. Based on all the negative reviews, I cannot even believe this place is still up and running. I genuinely feel for any bride that actually decided to have their wedding at Encore. But then again, I bet these scam artists pulled the old bait and switch on them too. In closing, stay as far away from this camp as you can. And if you don't believe me, read the other Yelp reviews - you will see more of the same. Too bad I didn't check there before booking this crap show, don't make the same mistake I did and just stay away from this place. read more

Rounding my 3.5 star review up. I had positive interactions with the staff in person and via email. My kids had no issues at Encore camp and they are mature and responsible. Drop off and pick up both easy as can be. Large facility grounds. Cooking camp had them making some good dishes though no intensive cooking. Arts and crafts camp did not have them doing enough projects, mostly coloring, painting and drawing. I was envisioning craft projects every day. My kids were given the chance to switch camps due to low enrollment in the other 2 camps and I would have taken the offer but my son wanted to stay in the art camp due to some mew friendships he formed. I hope my kids bring home at least 1 craft project on the last day because so far, they only brought home 1 craft project that was done 1 day. I am writing this review to let people know that although the camp descriptions were over embellished for marketing, they do run a decent operation and they do pay attention to the children. Most of the children do not wear masks since it is optional. The kids eat outdoors. There is a play ground area. I had to write this review to counter balance the very negative reviews. The only things I would suggest for improvement would be to make the activities more consistent with the website descriptions and perhaps do temperature checks and recommend masking for all participants due to the highly contagious delta variant. read more