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| Micky, Renton and Emily at Rebounderz - Sterling |
Well, last Saturday I decided to use them. THANK GOODNESS I called ahead because I had no idea that they typically have a ONE AND A HALF HOUR wait time before you get a spot in one of the bounce areas! How is that even possible? I mean seriously?
Granted, this bounce place is not a child-only place. It is geared toward adults as well (despite the fact that the Specialicious voucher only had kids on the picture). If I were a grownup, maybe I’d wait that long . . . but I doubt it. And at any rate, I can guarantee you that my CHILDREN would not survive a wait time like that. I asked them what Sunday was looking like and they said 1:30 would probably be a reasonable time to come in. So Sunday around 1:30 it was going to be.
Sunday morning, we headed to church, then to Wegman’s ( where I could get some grocery shopping done sans kids thanks to ClubKidz!), a quick lunch at Burger King and off to Rebounderz. As I pulled up to the building, I could already see that there was no parking anywhere near the entrance. Not a good sign. Keeping a hopeful spirit, however, we parked and walked in.
The first thing I noticed (and my kids noticed) was the MULTITUDE of video games! I had no idea that this place was also one of those arcade/Chuck-E-Cheese type of places where you throw all your money away to earn little pieces of paper that allow you to buy horrible Chinese crap, and only after you spend $350 to earn 5,723 of the said little pieces of paper.
This instantly put me on edge because I began to see their whole plan coming together. Of course there is a 1-1/2 hour wait time! They want you to spend all your money on the machines in order to pacify your children while you are waiting. I don’t believe this is a coincidence.
Luckily, our wait time ended up only being 20 minutes. The kids put on their community shoes and helmets (while I tried to stifle gags at the thought of the other kids’ feet and heads in there before mine), and headed over to the trampoline pit.
Here’s where things started to unravel a bit more. As we are standing in line, I’m noticing that there are also very large teenagers, and grownups standing in line with lots of very small children. To my amazement, we all went into an already very crowded arena. And after a few brief instructions from the tattoo-covered- red-dyed-hair- earring-studded-pants-barely-hanging-on-to-his-butt, “referee”, that you could barely hear over the ROAR and “UNTZ! UNTZ! UNTZ! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!” of the techno rap music, everyone was let loose in the place.
Within 30 seconds (I kid you not) a tiny 2 year old girl was CLOBBERED by a teenage boy who had bounced feet first off the top of the trampoline wall and, not looking at all (because let’s face it, he’s a teen and probably didn’t realize the 20 other people were even in there with him) came FULL-FORCE down upon her. Two seconds later he’d bounced away and the mother and little girl just sat there stunned.
I looked around to see the three “referees” (already described), in a social circle checking their phones while holding their hands up in the air, gesturing and mouthing to the music as though they were at a house party (I think that may even have been the name of the song playing at the time) and not at a job that required them to care about the safety of the children (and adults) around them.
Okay, breathe, two, three, four.
It wasn’t all bad. Renton got his knees knocked out from under him when another very large adult bounced into his trampoline square and caught him off guard, but for the most part the kids managed to stay in a corner by the entrance and avoid the careening bodies flying through the air and across the padded dividers.
The kids had fun. There’s no doubt about that. But it was almost a stress-induced, fight-for-your-life, duck-and-bob, sort of fun. When they seemed to be getting totally exhausted, I looked up at the time we had left and realized we still had 50 minutes remaining! 90 minutes was clearly too much for us. I asked the kids if they wanted to leave in 10 minutes, they said yes, bounced around the place a few more times, then happily left.
So here’s my overall rating: C
* Caveat (this is a MOMMY rating. I’m rating this based on my experience as a mom with small kids. If you were an adult or teen, you might very well give it an A or A+. I don’t know)
* Caveat (this is a MOMMY rating. I’m rating this based on my experience as a mom with small kids. If you were an adult or teen, you might very well give it an A or A+. I don’t know)
Pros:
1. Tires out the kids
2. Fun (when you're not fending for your life)
Cons:
1. Expensive – IMHO (pricelist)
2. Arcade games – unless you don’t mind your kids playing them
3. Public shoes and helmets are required – yuck but unavoidable
4. No segregation based on size or age – dangerous plain and simple
5. Inattentive staff - dangerous
6. Loud, explicit rap music – not child appropriate
Suggestions:
1. Call ahead (you DEFINITELY want to know if there is going to be a wait time)
2. Save it for a birthday party when you can be certain there will be a smaller number in the pit with you and your kids will all be about the same age and size
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