***Update 2***
I had to really think about my experience tonight after getting home and wanted to add additional thoughts. The failures tonight stem from lack of management, leadership, training, and communication with a dose of individual lack of ownership. Hopefully our experience was isolated, but I'm betting it's not. If management reads this review, please take a hard look at how you work with your staff. Yes, the host helping us had some gaffes, but they did try to address some things. The issues actually started at checkin, which is detailed below. Ultimately, the staff needed management help to address the issues. Management ultimately helped the customer in this situation, but hopefully they understand the misses started from the top and trickled down to every other aspect of the evening. Don't scold your staff, but work with them to make things better. Let the experience be a learning lesson that makes them better people. I can empathize with them from that aspect and I know I'm not perfect either and make mistakes. I've never left this kind of a detailed review, but the experience resonated with me as did the reactions of everyone involved. As such, I can only hope to give this business another chance.
***Update***
Changed this to 2 stars as management listened to the issues and took care of the parents.
***Original post below***
So this is our 2nd time here. 1 star only because the kids love jumping otherwise I'd give zero stars. We won't come unless invited for a party. I am chronicling this in real time since I have nothing else to do, but sit here and wait. This will likely be a long and detailed review.
This time, we did the waiver online and got here at 7 to check in for a 7:30 party. They couldn't find the birthday party though the birthday parents had confirmation emails and everything else. Though most parents had done the waiver online, staff said their computers were having issues and they couldn't find the waivers or ID the party currently. All the parents had to redo the waivers again manually.
It is 7:45 and the party has still not been brought to the reserved area. Shirts and glow necklaces should have been distributed and we were unaware until the birthday party parents asked if we got them. Shirts got distributed, but no necklaces. Through the confusion, staff have let the kids go jump since the party was supposed to start 7:30. All the parents are still waiting...
It is now 8:00 and still have not been brought to the reserved area. Parents are watching their kids jump and hanging out in the general area. No updates from staff or management on what is going on.
It is now 8:15 and we had to go look for the reserved area. Found an employee that said we could not get in the reserved area until the host decorated and it was time, which is supposed to be 8:30. I looked and saw the area was not decorated.
8:20 I see the staff scrambling to get the reserved area decorated. They might make the 8:30 time, who knows?
8:31 Wow we got to go up...check out the bang up job decorating in my picture. Balloons and paper plates! Pizza and pitchers of drinks that the parents are serving.
This is one of the most unorganized businesses I've seen in quite some time. Don't know if this is a norm since this is the 2nd time we've been here and have run into issues. By the way, everyone loves music, but not blasting at a level that can damage their children's hearing (peak 84.1 db measured with permanent hearing damage occurring at 85db) If you turned it down 30% you could converse with your customers better and better resolve issues while protecting everyone's hearing. The employees exposed to this level of sound likely have temporary hearing loss/reduction. Most parents pay a pretty hefty sum to these kind of places to not have to worry about the details and alleviate the stress. Definitely not the case this time.
At the end of the day (evening if I need to be literal), if you want to go to a jump place with your kids with less hassle I can recommend better places in Tampa proper...just ask me! read more