This is a great place for kids to make friends, release energy and get hurt.
A room full of excited kids running around screaming and bumping into each other is the best way to start a Saturday.. :)
If you've never been this is the breakdown.
1. Sign waiver
2. Take child's shoes
3. Release child into a room full of inflatables and
4. Hope for no major injuries
With that said I must point out free play and weekend birthday parties are very different.
For free play I feel staff pays more attention.
For the birthday party I attended it seemed very unorganized.
For all birthday parties there is a 2 room experience. You start in 1 room full of inflatables for about 30min, then the push the herd into another room full of inflatables for 30min.
After the jumping is over the hand out hand sanitizer wipes and cram you into the eating area.
Now here's where it gets crazy
The host (who works for pump it up) tells a gang of 30+ 5-9 yo to take a seat and put on their party hats. After all us parents hustle to get our kids seated with hat on head she then asks the children to get up and gather for a photo..what the..? (If you've ever thrown a party or work with children you can easily visualize the problem with that).
So after the confusion and the kids are finally seated again and groaning in hunger the host has disappeared. So us parents (which was a lot..1-2 parents per child..yikes) got up and did her job. We served the pizza and poured the drinks. She did return in time to do refills and cake but geesh when your paying over 300 for a 2 hr slot there's needs to be better service.
In the end kids had fun and parents were ready for a nap.
I like free play here better. Just an FYI it's cheaper to have party at park or home and rent your own bounce house.