What do you do when you have a ~2-year old toddler who is a little stir crazy in a rental condo and…read moreneeds to burn off pre-nap energy? This place. Kudos to my mom (a retired phys-ed teacher and former local) who found Pocolandia - kids need to move in a place without screens or video games, and this place fit the bill perfectly. My wife, mom and I took my daughter to Pocolandia to burn off some pre-nap energy and it was great.
Initially, we were the only ones there, and I have to admit I was a little skeptical from the website if this would be a good fit for us. The owner was very apologetic about a slightly delayed opening (we thought they might have been closed or out of business when we first arrived, so I am glad we called!) and kindly comped us half of the hour we were there, which we truly appreciated. Our daughter test-drove some of the toddler things... tiny sliding board, little playhouse, and of course the balloons - she loved those! Then, some more kiddos came and that just amped up the energy. All of the sudden, our little one saw the "big kids" jumping on the bounce houses and climbing and wanted to get involved! Her highlight was the big inflatable bouncy slide in the back. Super-successful way to get out toddler zoomies. The smiles were 100% worth it.
This is clearly a passion project small business and the very kind owner (whose name I missed - apologies!) was such a joy to work with. I wish a place like this was close to us in VA, so that we could do a birthday party there.
I would describe it as if someone doubled the size of one of those play places I grew up with at McDonalds, and re-assembled it in a store in the mall. Then, compliment it with a 4 or 5 huge bouncy things: castle, slide, obstacle course, etc. Throughout, there's repurposed diner booth seats, chairs, and little kid toys for the toddler crowd (like one of those Step2 roller coasters you saw but never bought because it doesn't fit in your house, but you know you want your kid to try). Oh, and balloons... there's balloons everywhere! There's high-energy music playing and the other parents were a nice crowd. Probably trying to do what we were - get the energy out in a safe place on a cold day. It's not as big as a D-Z Discovery Zone if you remember those, but for the price it's a terrific value. The owner doesn't charge for adults since they aren't allowed on the equipment, but that was perfect as we really wanted to encourage our little one to be brave and explore her boundaries. While we were there the owner was installing some new equipment - clearly she is invested in creating a great experience for her guests.
If you are looking for a super-polished corporate-type facility, this isn't it. The equipment has seen some love, but the owner was fastidious about checking and fixing everything. While we were there, I observed her re-padding some of the safety bars around the climbing structure and installing new flooring while triple-checking the bouncy castles. I love the idea of a small business like this and wish her and the team there nothing but success. It looks like for parties, they have all kinds of connections with other small local businesses to make your kids' day. Please consider dropping by - you might find it's more fun then you expected!