The Castle here has been around for a long time, and throughout it's years there have been tons of fun to be had. However, that age certainly shows in their equipment. As I've read in many other reviews, much of their equipment like the baseballs at the batting cages are old and worn to the point you can't fully enjoy it. Such as the mini golf course with patches of the turf ripped up that interfere with the games, which may not be that major of a problem for the smaller kids, but for the rather high cost of everything, it's a bit ridiculous.
Then, simply walking around the arcade there were probably about 7 or 8 broken machines just lying in disrepair, with several of them still lit up ready to take your money and not even work. Even the Dance Dance Revolution machine had three broken buttons on the right side making it impossible to play with, but still had yet to be repaired or at least turned off in the span of a month. Perhaps the scariest thought about the arcade was that one such broken machine had a hole in it low enough to the ground for a little kid to stick their hand into the wires and seriously hurt themselves or worse.
We still tried having a nice time and went to the little restaurant they had there. It was $15 for a cheese pizza or $2.50 for a slice, which wasn't too bad, except it turned out the slices were about the fourth the size of a normal pizza anywhere else, and one of the slices was uncooked and raw. Nor did they have any of the cleanliness you'd hope to see in both a child-friendly area and somewhere they serve food. There were used napkins stuffed along the seat cushions and the table was sticky until we had to wipe it down ourselves because the employees sure weren't going to do it.
Just as the other reviews have said (and which is to be expected), most of the employees were teenagers probably ranging from 16 to 21, which wasn't too much of a problem except for how disrespectful some of them could be. There were several very nice employees, I have to admit, who got their work done quickly and kindly, and I wouldn't give a single complaint about. However, I was met with several dirty looks by the younger employees and I wasn't too sure why. Maybe I was overreacting? Hours later, as I went up the stairs to get a refill on my drink, I was met with more dirty looks, this time from THE MANAGER as well! I looked back at him and he asked "Is there a problem?" to which I stated "No, thank you" and walked back downstairs. I turned around and sure enough he's walking towards me. He told me an absolutely ridiculous statement that one of his employees "Joe" had told him I was harassing him and I had to leave. As I held my temper and walked out, he told me my whole family with me had to leave too.
Maybe you can overlook some worn equipment, a few safety hazards, the overpriced activities and even the low standard of cleanliness; but in a center where parents take their young children to have fun in a clean and safe environment, not being able to control your employees is absolutely inappropriate, let alone from the manager of the place. We were paying customers and probably would've spent even more money in this place had we not been thankfully kicked out. Until The Castle can clean up it's act and learn to adapt not only the equipment and safety standards but the behavior of the employees as well to the 21st century, it's lost my family and friends alike as customers. read more