to refuse to pay £24 for a visit to an indoor play place?

[mclazy]

visiting friends in milton keynes at the weekend. They are recently married and no kids yet. It was freezing and plans for all the lovely parks nearby had to be changed as too icy.

So we found an indoor play frame place and were really looking forward to coffee and catch up while ds 2.5 had fun wearing himself out.

i was that they charged £3.95 for each adult. So i suggested that friends didnt need to stay and that we would meet them for dinner later.

was then even more when they added another £5 registration fee without which we couldnt go in.
i told them this was ridiculous and walked out with screaming toddler under my arm.

is this an English thing? here in ni there is never a charge for adults or even small babies in most of these places

Where we are it's only the children who pay - YANBU. And as for registration fees - .

Its not an English thing. In all of the play places near us its £4 per child, but all adults and children under 1 are free.

Gambado by any chance?

I am in NI too mclazy and have never heard anything like this before. why would adults have to pay? surely they would be buying coffe/cakes etc? and why do the dcs have to register?

I've never known soft play places to charge for adults or have a registration fee

no, that is utterly absurd!

That's crazy, I've been to about 5 local ones, all around £5 per child, adults free. No registration fee.

Outrageous! I get annoyed with one of our local play areas for charging £1 per adult. I think that's bad enough! The one we use frequently charges £7 for over fives and adults don't pay. No registration fee either.

Madness. Everyone that I have come across charges no more than £4 per child and nothing for adults.
I did look at one when I visited family in London where you had to pay a registration fee. We didn't bother.

Echoing pippibluestocking, it must be Gambado's - only place I know that charges such ridiculous fees (which is why we only ever went with birthday parties)

360 in Knowl Hill?

I was there last week, you are right it's a disgusting rip off.

There is a playcentre at Lakeside Shopping Centre, Essex that has similar charges, or at least it did the last time we went. There's a £5 registration fee, and you pay for adults as well as children. Food and drink are extortionately priced too.

Actually, 360 is £2.95 per adult, but still a disgusting rip off.

That is outrageous!

Our local one only charges £1 for toddlers in the mornings and is actually pretty good.

YANBU. I have never come across registration fees or having to pay for adult entry before. Really quite shocked by this tbh.

mrsdmitri that sounds like the one 360 playdays or something

there was another one just round the corner which we were heading for but it was closed ? shut down.

maybe with no competition they felt they could charge what they liked.

we went the next day to another one further away which charged £1 per adult which compared to the first place seemed reasonable!

All my local ones are different. 1 charges £7 for child and £1 adult. 2 just charge for children and its £4/6. 1 charges £5.50 for child and £1 for adult who get a 'free' coffee. . I go to the coffee one most often. .

That's crazy. Adults are charged £1 here, but then you get £1 off whatever you buy in the cafe.

oops sorry it was bigbarnfarm guessed right and maybe it was £2.95 to be honest i was so shocked to see any charge at all for adults, at home i usually have my dad and sister with me for company and we all have coffee and cake etc but i think i would have to go on my own if these were the prices

360 is lovely but a big fat rip off too!

mclazy, yes that's the place. Activityland is cheaper but is being refurbished atm which is how we ended up in 360.

I always feel right royally ripped off if I go there - charging me 3 quid to supervise their child and have access to their overpriced food!

The upstairs in there is pretty cool though - they have a series of play shops, vets, pizza parlour with dressing up clothes and stuff. There is also a carousel which you can go on as often as you like so we always go on there about 20 times to get our money back!

I completely agree with you being pissed off though.

supervise my child even!

360.....is it near what was kids play??

Bonkers, I have never come across a play centre that charges for adults, although was v p'eed off at having to pay £1 for DS when he was a few weeks old and didn't even get out of his pram.

Yeah it's on Knowlhill - if you come from Loughton it's the first turning into Knowlhill on the left.