I was hesitating whether to give it one or two stars, then decided on two, because while the…read moreproblems don't seem to disappear there are some benefits. Monkey Mania in Top Ryde doesn't seem too bad of a place at first sight: There are climbing structures, a soft ball shooting range, wobbly bridges, a tunnel, slides, even a jumping castle and an under-5s area. But the equipment is not well maintained, not updated and all of that also comes at a price (i.e. bad value).
The toilets had some problems too, with broken doors and cockroaches coming in for some business. Somebody please check the kitchen!
There's members pricing, which during school days is $10 and $13 on weekends and holidays, while adults pay $4.50 each and get a lousy coffee included. So, given you're there on a rainy weekend with your two you end up paying $35 if you committed to a year's membership, planning to return to make it worthwhile. If you just came to have a look as a non-member you'd be paying $12 on school days, $15 on weekend and holidays and $4.50 for each adult and still get the same lousy coffee. If you can't be bothered playing with your kids that's $26.50/child for a "Drop 'n' Shop": Drop your kids off, while you have a better latte somewhere else. And if you stay there and prefer to look at your phone then you better have enough data left, because there's no Wi-fi for adults.
So what do you get there (apart from lousy coffee and the standard battered and fried fare)? There are structures on two levels, with the ground level mostly taken up by a soft ball target area, with those vacs (or blowers, whichever way you see it) that suck in the ball and move it to the air gun area. There's also a dark 'n' dingy ground area behind the slides that look forgotten or overlooked in planning.
The upper ground has access to slides, the pneumatic gun shooters, bridges, a tunnel, a tunnel slide and a jumping castle. The latter one is probably the highlight. If a jumping castle (air trapped by polyethylene fabric to make the same bouncy) is the highlight then that's a poor outcome for a play centre. You can almost hire them for cheaper than the entrance price for members.
There's also a mini race track for "sort of" dodgem cars, but the track is just a circle and most of the time 80% of the cars are broken, plus you have to pay extra for a 5 minute ride: $3.
On top of all this, and this is probably my main gripe with Monkey Mania in Top Ryde, is the cleanliness. I understand that kids are not the super clean type and neither am I, but there's always food somewhere on the ground and layers upon layers of dust on the structures. How hard would it be to vac that out once every 6 months. The owners probably think that once these are setup there's no more maintenance necessary. Wrong! Lollipopland BTW is much better maintained, though while adults don't have to pay it's also costs a bit more for the kids. Mentioning maintenance: in all the time that we've been going there (yes, there's unfortunately not much else in the vicinity in terms of indoor play) the layout hasn't been updated. Other play centres add new gear or at least change the layout. The kids got bored quickly and it's time to venture further out.
