We visited Air Thrill in Catford, which is a big inflatable assult course.
The course is designed for children aged 4-14
We went on a Sunday and the cost for this was £12.95 for 1hr 15 minutes. This is per person, if you do not want to participate then there is a £2.00 ticket you will need to purchase to be able to access the waiting area.
You can buy grip socks but they are not compulsory, they cost £3.00. I have been on Airthrill's website and for the past week anything but large and extra large have been sold out.
They also have sessions for peaceful play and ASN (additional support needs), for these sessions the ticket is £12.95 and includes free entry for a carer who must be over 18.
I will start with the good...
When you book online they send you a waiver form, which you complete before you go there and there is also a health and safety video that you can watch. This sped up the process, and we did not have to wait for very long before we were able to get on with the fun stuff.
Elijah had a good time, it is really big inflatable course it included a slide, things to squeeze through and things to climb over and under, so from his perspective it was perfect.
He is really energetic and so to see him get to exert himself running around the course was really good, and because of the inflatable material it was quite safe and there was not much chance of him getting hurt on any of the equipment.
The bad........
If you do not pay an entry fee of £12.95 to go on the course with your kid, then the seating area where you sit after you have purchased the £2.00 ticket does not allow you to view the course at all. So, you will have no idea what your kid is on or what they are doing. This might be ok for older kids but 4 year olds are allowed access to this and you will not be able to monitor them at all.
There are no lockers, when I attended I came with Elijah, his friend, myself and his friends mum. I had an entry ticket so I could see what the boys were up to, the other adult was in the waiting area and watched our stuff, but I am not sure how this would work if it was just me and Elijah.
When we first arrived it was quite empty and that was ok, however, more and more kids kept arriving (I think there were several birthday parties). The age group is quite wide (4-14). So essentially, any 4 to 7 year olds are going to be on this equipment with loads of potentially older kids unsupervised, because their adults could be in the waiting area having not purchased the £12.95 ticket.
Lastly and this is a big lastly, they had a slush puppie machine. I told the boys they could have a slush puppie when we leave. Apparently the slush puppies are refillable and you are meant to buy a cup at the beginning of the session and refill it throughout. It is quite a small cup and costs £4.95 so the refillable idea works...... If they tell you about it! I saw no signs anywhere indicating that this is the idea of the slush puppie (also for me personally, I had two 5 years with me, I do not want them drinking unlimited amounts of sugar for an hour so a drink at the end was fine for me). At the end of the session I took the boys to the till to buy a cup and a woman working behind the counter refused. She kept insisting that it was the end of the session so I wouldn't be able to refill it. I explained that I did not want to refill it and one drink would be fine, she walked away and refused. Another staff member, a really ncie guy allowed us to buy a cup, but when we took it to the slush puppie machine a third member of staff had put a make shift barrier around the machines and seemed to be guarding them. He outright refused to let me fill the cups even though I had a receipt and two children almost in tears. It was only when another parent and child showed up that he relented and allowed us the forbidden slush puppies!
Overall I think it is a good concept, the inflatable course was fun but there are too many negatives. I can't see me and Elijah returning any time soon, mainly because if we come as a duo I don't know who will watch our stuff!
That staff is very rude if they had put a sign up you would of known it seems like they need customer service training