First of all, let me say that this place is a FANTASTIC concept, and generally, lots of fun. That being said, we had our daughter's birthday party here yesterday, and it is absolutely THE WORST PLACE to attempt to have a party/anything resembling an organized activity. First of all, it is located in THE MOST OBSCURE location, and many people in my party, even with their fancy smart phones and GPS devices and NAV systems, were calling and texting because they were completely lost. Even still, 90% of my group arrived by 3:40 p.m. (Our jump time was scheduled 4-5 p.m., with the check in being 3:30 - 4.) MANY people in my party completed the waivers online, and specifically mentioned that they CHOSE the "SkyZone Everett" location in the dropdown menu but the desk staff couldn't find many of these waivers in the computer system - hence, additional time wasted on completing paper waivers. Some of my guests printed paper waivers and brought them only to be told that they were the wrong waivers because they said SkyZone Boston (rather than Everett). From what I could see, except for that difference, the waivers were the EXACT SAME, so not sure why someone couldn't just cross out Boston, write in Everett and call it a day. Side note regarding small children - there is a counter at the entrance that kids need to reach in order to jump in the regular area; if they are below the counter, they are designated to the toddler area. I was told in an e-mail "under 40 inches", on the phone "40 inches AND under", which are two entirely different measures; I was also told at one point on the phone that there was not a strict limit to the number of toddlers, that 5 were allowed on the court at a time but that since no one toddler would jump for 60 minutes straight, we could rotate them/have them take turns as long as there were no more than 5 or 6...or 7...on the court at one time - sounded reasonable. Once we arrived, I was reprimanded for having more than 5 toddler sized kids in my party.
The girl at the desk appeared extremely anxious, there was a long line waiting in addition to our party check in. However, there were a number of staff members standing around looking pretty useless and doing not much, so I'm not sure why this poor girl had to handle both our check in and the regular line...and she kept jumping back and forth from us to the regular line, slowing down the process for everyone. Once everyone was checked in and had their special shoes, it was only a couple of minutes past 4. We stood around and waited until 4:15, because NO ONE TOLD US WHAT TO DO OR WHERE TO GO. I was under the impression that we were to wait for staff to direct us since I had told them we'd never been here before and had no idea of where to go or what to do. Apparently the desk staff thought I meant we paid an exorbitant amount of $ for this party to stand around and clog up their waiting area. No one offered help or gave us any direction. I asked several times what we should do since everyone was ready, and was told repeatedly "hold on a minute".
Once we were directed into the court area, a sketchy (to me, and scary to a number of the kids) teen attempted to wrangle the kids to explain the rules...then, just walked off. Didn't tell the kids where to go or the adults where to bring them, nothing. I approached another staff to ask and was told they can go in any court they want as long as they aren't toddlers...o.k. So, my kids didn't start jumping until almost 4:30 because of this disorganized, unprofessional group of staff.
A member of my party with 4 children arrived at 4:20 due to getting lost, had completed waivers online but now the "internet was down", and the waivers couldn't be located. She was required to fill out paper waivers for her 4 kids, between filling them out and waiting for the staff (who asked for the last name of the kids about 10 times), 20 MINUTES. By the time her kids got out to the court, there was 10 minutes left. I complained because I didn't want to pay for them, and basically had to deal with a know it all, bitchy manager who was rude to me, rude to my husband, and for some untold reason was under the impression that she was far more important than a manager at a kids jumpy place. The staff who ran the "party room" after our jump time was over were kids themselves; they were very sweet and friendly and tried to be helpful, but were pretty useless and just got in the way.
All this complaining aside - the kids DID have a lot of fun. Would I return to Skyzone Everett for anything, ever? Definitely not. Would I take my kid on a walk in playdate with another kid or small group to Skyzone Boston (much closer to me but no availability for the party)? Probably. But DON'T do a party here, ever. WAY too disorganized and not at ALL worth the INFLATED pricetag. read more