Penny-pinching should never impact the safety of small children. Anytime safety is a low priority in a children's play area, it's an automatic one star review. It's like a restaurant tolerating roaches or rats, or a mechanic's shop content with sloshed technicians. This is business management 101 stuff, and it's on the proprietors of this place that the situation was allowed to exist in the first place.
I guess no one can accuse me of burying the lede.
Mind you, I'm not dinging this business over a single visit. Equipment subject to the rigors of small children is going to experience wear and tear. Rather, after reading the reviews here and elsewhere and seeing the management make empty promises over issues that clearly date back months, it seems only fair to highlight many of these glaring issues continue to exist.
We visited yesterday because we had been gifted Groupon vouchers for this "establishment", and I hesitate to use those words after what I saw. The lady at the front desk might have been a manager or not. I'd never know. She was in street clothes without a name tag. Makes sense. One thing you definitely want in a kid's play center is a muddled employee dress code. That way someone can approach a random small child and tell them mommy is outside with ice cream, and march them right out the exit doors you don't have any kind of gatekeeper system for.
You're presented with two pricing options. One gets you into the "ninja course" and the other into the playground. I'll spare you the pricing analysis: you're overpaying no matter which option you select. See how easy I made that?
Walk past the non-functional cafe' and you'll find the play area. It looks vaguely like a subway station and a storage warehouse decked out with kids' play equipment and arcade games in various states of disrepair and neglect. The ninja course is on your right. A shorted-out TV above it displays the map of the course, I think. It's here you might begin to notice the soundtrack to the day's activities, and will probably echo what other reviewers have said--that English has to be a second language for the staff and management. That's the only way I could explain "Clint Eastwood" by the Gorillaz playing at full volume.
See? Kid's Paradise is fun *and* educational!
In any event you unleash the children into the playground itself. Walking around you quickly discover more signs of neglect. Ratted-out play equipment with non-functional lights and frayed edges. Some of the choices were questionable as well, such as the spinning Christmas Tree of Paralysis. The toddler area is in pretty good shape, minus a few worn-out blocks. Some of the padded benches in the area are free-floating, and not padded on all sides, so you can easily move them around yourself, or find them dumping you on the floor. This is the second experience available in Kid's Paradise, which I shall dub Orthopaedist's Paradise from this point forward. Or perhaps Orthopaedist's Punishing Paradise.
You down with OPP?
Anyway, if you go running around with the kids you'll see more problems. Nothing looks like it has ever been cleaned. The staff assures us on other review sites the play area is cleaned regularly. I don't believe for a second same the same people taking a nonchalant approach to things like exposed metal bolts in the multi-level play maze would be concerning themselves with cleanliness.
I mean, my God. What a disaster.
There's so much more I saw that I could go on about. Outside food and drink isn't allowed? Fine. Where do we get anything since your cafe is closed? I have other questions, too. Why go through the trouble of plugging in the kid keyboard that plays Chinese songs if the keys don't work anyway? What call was so important that one of your staffers was on her phone the entire time? Why do you choose to wheel out arcade games (I assume you were replacing, which is a good idea) through the main thoroughfare people are entering? Are the massage chairs degreased on a regular basis since everything else doesn't look like it ever gets cleaned? Do you really think a waiver is going to save you in court if some poor kid gets paralyzed or shatters a knee cap in this place? (Hint: Even if you survive the obvious negligence charges in civil court, the costs alone defending your business are going to bankrupt you).
I guess I should conclude this review with the obvious: We won't be back. Not exactly the stunning conclusion to this saga, I know. But hopefully you've read this, and hopefully you won't take your kids here. It's not worth the risk to their safety. read more