Bouncy Castles

[grommit]

Has anyone hired a bouncy castle? I was thinking of getting one for dd's 3rd birthday, only problem is that her bd is in December - am I mad to try this??? She is a bc fanatic

I know someone who had one inside their loft apartment for their son's 2nd birthday. it was good fun - BUT when the fan was switched on to maintain the air pressure inside it, it made so much noise that talking at a normal level for kids/adults alike was virtually impossible. fabulous idea though

I hired a bc for my dd's 8th birthday (which is in early May) - it ended up raining on the day and despite the bc having a sort of roof, the surface still got very slippery and frankly dangerous from the children getting on with wet feet! They all thoroughly enjoyed it though and no-one was injured. Why don't you call around a few bc hire companies and ask them if they do covered castles suitable for winter use? I'm sure they will be happy to advise. Good luck!

PS ages and ages ago my dd was invited to someone's birthday party that was held in a local sports centre hall, and they had a bc inflated in there. Perhaps you could hire a largeish hall and a bc to put inside? Just a thought ...

We had one outside on a rainy August day, and spacemonkey is right, although it had a raincover, it gets slippy, each time a child went in we sent them in with a towel to do a bit of mopping up.

But have been to parties in village halls and sports hall where they've managed to put one inside.

I'm with Ems, just need to find inside hall measurements.. plus loads of other advantages like plenty of toilets, and loads of car parking and its warmer and drier, plus lighter (dec it will be dark at 4pm)

I hired one last month for ds's 4th birthday in a local hall. I agree it is noisy but with 20 children there the noise was drowned out anyway! It was a great success. It's worth shopping around too. I paid £40 for a 12ft x 12ft but a friend paid £60 for the same size from a different company.

grommit - just a note of caution. Please if you do hire one, ensure the company provide crash mats for around the edges (especially for indoors) and that they are insured. My db owned a bouncy castle business and saw many accidents, even with close supervision of the kids. Nothing serious (not trying to put you off) but could have been a lot worse without crash mats.

Oh go for it, I think they're great! ds had one for his 4th and 5th birthdays (5th was recently) and I didn't need to bother with games at all bar a couple of pass the parcels to let their birthday tea go down enough so they weren't puking all over it.

I've hired from 2 different companies and they bring them, inflate them and take them away again at the end. Usually there's a button you can press to deflate it when you want the kids to eat - check they're all off it though - and another button to re-inflate. I'd thoroughly recommend one for a party. Definitely. Hoping he'll still be interested next year but he may have grown out of them by then.

I paid £40 last year and £35 this so shop around. Both times mine were in a hall so it was indoors. We supervised a bit but there were no accidents just great fun and extensive wearing out! When you phone check how many are allowed on at a time (although have to admit I ignored that, probably shouldn't but..) and how high it is and the room/hall is. Some allow adults on too so ask if you think you'll want to and will get a look in.

I'd second WWW's last comment. Our road at home has an annual all-day BBQ in the summer, with bouncy castle. When the grubs are all in bed it's time for the adults, most of whom have been inbibing wine since noon, to play. No BC accidents yet but one chap broke his leg playing rounders last year. He was so tanked up he didn't even notice until next mornng, despite several people hearing it go "CRACK"!!!!

Thanks for all your replies - I will probably give it a go - if only for the adults :-)