One of the worst experiences with your younger children - do not bring them for the Family Funday experience. I called ahead of booking because tickets are non-refundable. I explained in detail who would be in our party (4 parents, two 5 year olds, and two 18 month olds) to celebrate my 5 year olds birthday. I was told over the phone by an associate that was fine, they said I only needed to buy tickets for the individuals who were painting which I did. We got to the studio with the exact party described, they checked us in, we got our station and had a fine time. While there, 40 minutes into our session, we were approached by one of the associates and asked to take out children outside because they thought they were crying. They said they had other customers so they can't have children being loud. They were not crying - they two five year olds were laughing with each other. The supervisor then approached us and said we signed off on all people being over 6 years old (which we did not). I told her I called to confirm before booking and her front desk staff checked us in and allowed for us to participate.. She responded "no one in her staff would say that."
At this point, I asked her to be mindful of my son in ear shot as it was his birthday we were celebrating so I wasn't trying to ruin it for him. We stated we'd leave immediately to which the manager responded "we didn't have to leave but we just can't have our kids cry." At this point, the entire experience was ruined for the entire party.
Upon checking out, I asked to speak to the manager again as I checked the ticket confirmation and it stated that each child under 5 had to be accompanied by an adult at a 1:1 ratio (which we were) - screenshot attached for all to view. I showed her as well and she essentially responded with "yeah, sorry."
At this point my son had cried because we told him we had to leave early. I was not happy that I was told I could bring my 18 month old, we were asked to leave because they heard a child cry, and my son's birthday experience was cut short and ended in him being upset. I asked for a partial refund because the experience was cut short and we were told we had to leave if our kids were too loud after being told we were ok to bring them and their staff proceeded to check us in. The manager just said "looks like he had a fun time, you're welcome to leave a bad Google review" and pointed us to the door to leave.
If you are considering the Family Funday experience at all, make sure your young kids do not have any outbursts of excitement or bring children below the age of 12.
Horrible experience - period. Absolutely appalled at how we were treated during the experience and dismissed when we raised our concerns and showed them what their tickets stated.
Edit in response to the business response:
While I appreciate you taking the time to respond here, my issue is not that there are age minimum. My issue here is I did my due diligence in reaching out to the studio prior to booking given the website and ticket options were unclear. I did so because I saw it was a non-refundable ticket. I very clearly stated who would be coming with me and was never told that under 2 would not be permitted or that children needed to keep all noise to a minimum. Had I known that, I obviously would not have booked a non-refundable ticket. I would've looked to another art studio to have celebrated my child's birthday.
As we told the supervisor during the interaction - we are decent and reasonable people - if they are coming to tell us that my party is causing any type of disruption/distraction for other patrons, of course we will leave the studio as to not ruin other customers time and money.
The request to a partial refund during the interaction was because we were asked to take the children outside ahead of our session ending because they can't have them being too loud. Additionally, the lack of accountability by any of the team members who told us we were ok to book the tickets knowing all of the ages of the people who were coming, those that checked all of us in without any issue, and the supervisor saying the studio isn't taking responsibility even after showing her what is stated in the ticket confirmations was absurd.
At this point, I'm not expecting accountability from the studio, but I STRONGLY recommend adding language to your website if the age minimum requirements (not a "suggested" age), calling out that those under 2 years old are not permitted in the studio, and properly training your staff to relay correct information when customers call in before booking so other parents do not waste their money.
Additionally, I'd recommend a proper customer service training for the supervisor of this location as well as the associate that approached us originally. The way we were spoken to was unacceptable given the role that multiple staff members played in this service failure. read more