Parents in Los Angeles face unique pressures when it comes to planning their children’s birthday parties. Unlike parents living in smaller towns or rural areas, those who call LA home are constantly bombarded with the most expensive, elaborate and heavily hyped ideas for celebration. There are countless vendors, restaurants, activities, and themes to choose from. Which means, in reality, more choices and, therefore, more options to spend. Parents are then tasked with poring over reviews to figure out where to host their event, plotting out the geography of each potential site to maximize the reach of their guest list and considering how far they are willing to send drivers to ferry kids from the Valley to the location of the soiree and debating whether a hour-and-a-half trek for a small event is even worth it — or whether a decent parking situation for Saturday afternoon will be possible. It’s a mountain of work that underscores the real unease beneath it all: Will the children actually have fun?
For those who have taken the time to Google the best children’s birthday venues in Los Angeles, you will quickly start to notice that the most popular listings never actually help to solve the core problem of the day, and instead just give a tantalising insight into the theme of a perfectly run event. Rather than concern themselves with whether the venue is the coolest or the prettiest, parents would do well to wonder “will it actually work on the birthday day itself and regardless of the imponderables that inevitably trip us up?”, ie. will it withstand the passing of time, the inevitable squabbles between toddlers over who has got the best table etc. – and of course, the inevitable tardiness of the cake.
The answer? An indoor play place — and one that can help take the stress out of care, which is pretty much what parents get up in the morning for these days. Fun Play World is an indoor play facility in Los Angeles with a reputation that has drawn across a broad spectrum of opinions from numerous on-line forums and review sites and in many ways says far more about what parents are looking for than any advertising slogan ever could.
Why Indoor Play Venues Have Taken Over Birthday Planning in LA
The home party – rented tables in the backyard, a supermarket cake and pin the tail on the donkey – is not dead, but it is largely a preserve of very small affairs. For something like a classroom party of 30 children, the home just isn’t usually an option. Parents realise that the weeks of scrubbing floors and windows, and the weeks of deep cleaning required to restore a house to its former condition, are not really worth it. They also understand that, even with the best precautions, there’s a decent chance a child will fall and injure themselves, which is far less of an issue at a hired venue than in your own home. Perhaps most important of all, someone else deals with the nightmarish logistics of having a bunch of unrelated children loose in a contained space.
What sets apart a good play area from a bad play area, what sets apart an okay indoor play center from a truly memorable one, is really whether they follow through on their promises. Sadly the promise of “handling everything” is one that a lot of indoor play centers really fall short on. They’ll take your money for the booking and then leave you to wonder what is going to be done with the cake you brought, how the children will be transitioned from playing to eating and who will be dealing with the birthday child having a tantrum twenty minutes prior to the end of the party. Staff who actually deal with all of these issues without ever involving the parents of the birthday child are what really make for a memorable experience.
Two Locations, One Consistent Standard
Two Fun Play World locations are now open in the Los Angeles area: 10672 West Pico Blvd in Los Angeles, in a location on the westside that’s within walking distance of Culver City, Century City and neighborhoods in between. Opening a second location at 828 Pico Blvd in Santa Monica gives families on the westside coast access to a great play facility without having to make a crosstown trip.
Both locations are run under the same philosophy. Weekdays are open play and Fridays stay open until 8pm. Weekends open at 9am on Saturdays. We also do private birthday parties at both locations. The consistency in our two locations is very important. A family would be hard pressed to find a trampoline park in their current location and then have to uproot when they move to a new house. Our concept and experience will transfer to a new location with ease and little adjustment.
The one theme that keeps popping up in the reviews for both playgrounds is cleanliness. I’m talking about real mentions of cleanliness, not just “clean and fun”, which is a pretty standard indoor playland review. The mention of cleanliness is found in both short and long reviews, and as a secondary mention as well as the main mention. One reviewer listed the playground as “by far the cleanest, well-kept indoor playground” she’d ever been to. Another mentioned bringing her toddler here to play and that she loved it here, “mainly because the floors and play equipment always seem clean (as opposed to just wiped down to look clean) and I feel comfortable bringing my stroller and small child here.” Cleaning the floors and play structures of a busy indoor playground like this isn’t an easy task, so the number of reviews mentioning cleanliness as an important aspect of their visit to an indoor playground suggests that it’s not a one-off occurrence.
What the Space Actually Looks Like
I love walking into the inside of the playgrounds. You know right away just how large the play structures are. These are not like the indoor play areas with some foam mats, a few slides and a little climbing wall. The buildings for climbing here take real work and real brain power to climb. The tunnels that connect the various levels make it hard for kids to tell where they are going in and coming out. They love that these little pathways lead to fun discoveries at the other end. The trampolines right in the middle of the room always grab my rambunctious middle age kids. Around the corner from the main entrance is a soft play area and a wonderful ball pit to keep the toddlers contained while they can climb, play and be independent.
Space design does something important that not all indoor spaces do – it disperses children of different ages and energy levels to different areas of the space, as opposed to trying to contain them all in one place. Thus, a party that includes a two-year-old who is being harassed by a ten-year-old cousin can be managed without constant adult supervision – at least during the time when the kids are in the space designed for their age and energy level. (Parents who have brought mixed-age groups of kids to the house for playdates have also made this same comment many times.)
Our tables and adult seating are along the perimeter and allow for an excellent view of our play area. Wi-Fi is also available. Outdoor food and drinks are welcome in the party area and one main rule: we are a NUT-FREE ZONE!
The Birthday Packages and What They Actually Cover
This is really where Fun Play World differentiates itself from other facilities that rent a room and call it a package. Our birthday packages are about the real event – food, staff, organization and more.
The Fun Play Basic (starting price $1,800) covers everything for a private party. The Adventure (starting price $2,300 for up to 20 children/30 adults) includes 5 large pizzas, organic juice boxes for children, soda and water for adults, non-slip socks for all, and 2 event staff. The Ultimate Adventure (starting price $2,700) extends the party to 3 hours, is for up to 25 children/35 adults, has 3 event staff, 7 large pizzas, and has unlimited juice/soda for all.
The $5,700 VIP option is where parents really hand over the reins. It includes a two-tier custom themed cake for up to 45 guests, catering for up to 35 guests from 12 menu options, 3 dessert styles with 45 total pieces, a themed balloon setup with name cut out, cake stands and food table design, and a goodie bag for every child. And of course, all staff included in other options are still included. One parent mentioned that they requested a classic car theme and that the team “completely handled it all and we really didn’t have to lift a finger.”
This price reflects an 18% service charge on all events. The venue requires a 40% deposit to secure a private event date. Final payment is due 5 days prior to the event. This is the typical deposit and payment terms for this type of venue. They need to start planning the event for you from a long time before the date.
What Parents Actually Say
Other than the location being here, which we gathered from Google, Yelp and Facebook reviews, there didn’t seem to be a whole lot of variance across the numerous reviews of this playground. Interestingly enough, the phrase “clean facility” was ubiquitous throughout all of these reviews. Staff attitude was another common thread with more than one review mentioning that not only were staff members present, but also interacting appropriately with both young and old patrons. One mom had an infant in tow while another had her 5-year-old and reported that there was something for all ages to do at this playground.
One of the many wonderful comments from a parent was about her shy daughter who never really socializes – but came home one day talking about the children she’d made friends with at the playground. Another said that the party we held in the play area was truly “stress-free”, a phrase any parent of children who have had to organize a party will know how much that means. She also loved the way the play area was designed to be “not too large to lose children”. I think that’s really important. We are all too often encouraged to think that bigger is better but when it comes to providing a safe space for young children, an area that’s easily supervised from a seat is much more helpful than one that means you have to do a lot of walking around to make sure your child is safe.
The Practical Argument for Booking Early
We all know LA has plenty of awesome options to take our kids to for an indoor day of play. While there are plenty of choices, those with exceptional experiences and proper staffing often fill up quickly for private events – and even more so than we realize or plan for. Weekends and periods around school breaks such as the weeks between Christmas and New Year’s or the days surrounding Thanksgiving or Spring Break, are prime examples and are often booked long in advance. Businesses often fill these dates so far in advance because they have worked hard to build a strong reputation at their venue.
We highly recommend booking a birthday party instead of visiting on a day of open play, as spots fill up quickly! A minimum of 30 days’ notice is suggested for the best options and times. Our 30-day cancellation and reschedule policy for private events may seem lengthy, but booking a party with us means very little work for you, so we take time to organize and set things in motion so it all seems effortless to you.
Open play does not require a reservation. Just walk in during our business hours and play at the location of your choice! $35 for the 1st child, $25 for the 2nd sibling, $20 for the 3rd and unlimited additional siblings! 2 adults admitted with the 1st child.
If you’re still undecided about whether our location or your current one is best for you, or if you’d like to see the space before booking a birthday, then an open play visit is a great way to get started. The best way to experience the space is during an open play visit, and usually one visit will confirm whether it’s right for your children.
For more information on both locations and birthday packages, visit funplayworld.com.
