Funland Indoor Playground — Attraction in Markham

This place has a lot of potential: the play structure is fun and challenging enough for children of all ages, there's a decent "toddler play area" and there is even a separate area that could be used for indoor basketball. But none of that matters because the place is poorly managed.

I visited this playground on a statutory holiday in the middle of winter. Going in, I told my children and myself to be mentally prepared to be met with a super busy space. But the poor management part really kicked in and made even my lowish expectations seem sky-high.

Just as expected, it was busy with the holiday crowd trying to avoid the cold. But inexplicably, there was also a birthday party being hosted on a high-volume day. This is not at all the fault of the birthday group, but when the party group entered the play space, it completely overwhelmed the already crowded play structure. From the other reviews here, it seems that it's quite normal for them to run simultaneous birthday parties while remaining open to the public. This seems like a money grab and a potential safety issue.

And because it was extremely busy, one would expect more active staff presence. Instead, they seemed to be rather understaffed, and those working were either overwhelmed or just apathetic. For example, when I first entered and explained it was our first time, they asked us to sign a waiver (no problem) but did not give us any sort of quick rundown of basic rules or what to expect. Just poor customer service. Sometimes I'd glance over to see staff staring at their phones if there were no customers at the front desk. And as I left, and mentioned my concerns (politely, yet firmly) about them letting a huge group of party-goers join an already jam packed play space, I got blank stares, a mumbled "ok" and them going back to their phones. I am not surprised they had "hiring" signs on their doors, as I'm guessing their staff turnaround is high. There appeared to be zero motivation to care to be there from them.

In general, the staff did nothing to manage the guests and ensure safety at all. While there are signs posted everywhere about the rules of conduct (i.e. "Parents must supervise children in play structure at all times" and "Do not run up the slide in reverse" or "Balls are not to be taken out of the ball pit") nothing was being done by staff to enforce the rules. Surprise: Children were running up the slides and taking the balls out of the pit to other areas. The majority of parents/guardians were not paying attention to their children and were sitting and staring at their phones. While poor parenting choices aren't the management's job to fix, it is however their job to ensure that their own rules are followed/enforced. In our 1.5 hours there, I came across hurt or lost, crying children on two separate occasions and had to help them find their parents.

Overall, this place seems like it's run by money-grubbing folks rather than those interested in fostering a safe and enjoyable play space. As an example, there's one separated area that was clearly formerly a space for indoor basketball (the hoops are still hung up, and rules of conduct for using them are still posted). But when I asked if there was a basketball that we could please use, they said they didn't have any because there are coin-operated arcade games in the same space now. The staff sheepishly laughed, "We really should take those hoops down" when I asked them. So essentially, they're eliminating what once was a part of their all-in paid feature of the playground, into a coin-operated extra-fee-required area. And the amount of dust I saw coated on those arcade games was telling.

That same level of care definitely spread to other areas. The bathrooms were disgusting or out of order. If any of their staff took a moment to detach themselves from their phones to do a quick run-through of the state of their bathrooms, I'm sure it would have helped.

I do not recommend this place unless new...

Pretty disappointed in the service/lack there of, during my sons birthday party this weekend. I have hosted several parties for my children at different play places, and have never felt such a disconnect with the establishment. When we first arrived, there was no one to greet us as the host and direct me to the room, instead I was told to just sign in on the side and was let threw the gates to find my own way. Shortly after we arrived, a staff member came in and handed me the boxes of pizza and walked out, she literally did not say a word to me, handed me the pizza and was gone. There was no announcement for my party to come and eat, so we were out trying to find all our guests (and if you’ve ever had a party with a bunch of 3-6 year olds, you know what a nightmare that can be!). Every other party I have hosted at other facilities they have made the announcement for us. The next visit from a staff member was when she came to drop off the utensils to cut the cake. Again, we were not asked if we needed anything or if everything was ok. I mentioned to an employee that I was surprised with the lack of service and she said “well if you need something you have to come and ask.” Maybe my expectation are too high from other places, but for almost $700 I would expect someone to check in with us. During our party we also had 2 separate people brought INTO our party room to view the space for future parties, it was strange, and frankly, awkward for my adult guests. We had to stop our conversation because it felt weird talking with a stranger right in front of us.

There was also a really not so pleasant interaction with an employee about 3 foil balloons I had attached to the wall. When I called to confirm the party, I was told no tape could be used on the walls. I completely understand so I asked if “sticky tack” would be fine and was told yes because it is non-marking. I hung up the 3 balloons, and a staff member that walked by quickly came over to pretty rudely tell me to take them down. I told her they were with sticky tack and I was told it was ok. She checked with the manager and returned to tell me that it’s not allowed and if I keep them up and they mark the walls I would be charged $100. No problem, my concern is not them not wanting tape on the walls, it’s clear there has been many years of damage due to this, but the employee was just rude.

This is had been a really long way of saying, I will not be hosting another party here. There are a lot of options out there, with much better service.

Update: Follow up from company’s reply to my review. Thank you for following up on this post. Unfortunately as any reader can see, it has been almost 5 months since our party, and the idea that your staff would remember the specific events from that day are frankly, silly. No need to go back and forth with you here, your reply is defensive and just shows potential hosts what to expect if something goes wrong at their party. You have taken no accountability for our poor experience during our event and that’s unfortunate. Our room WAS in fact shown to other potential guests more than once throughout our party (leaving many of our guest confused), but seeing as you said it’s a rule for that not to happen, I wouldn’t expect an employee to admit to making that mistake. Again, I don’t feel it’s necessary to go back and forth, but potential party hosts can use this review to help form a decision whether to host with you or not (clearly I will not, and a defensive, unaccountable response makes that even more...

Recently had my son's 5th birthday party at Funland. We have been to the facility before but this was our first time purchasing a birthday package. It was fantastic!

The booking process has to be done over the phone and it was easy. Every time I called, it was answered. The staff were more than willing to answer questions and followed up appropriately when answer wasn't available immediately. On the day of the party, the room was nicely decorated, clean, and set up to the description in the purchased package. There were 2 staff working, and both were very friendly. They had a check-in system in place along with wristbands to differentiate guests arriving for the party versus regular patrons. This was very helpful when settling the bill at the end of the day because each package had a capacity of guests. Don't worry if you go over, because they have an option to pay per guests over the limit. I can't praise them enough as it added to the experience. Although we went over our allotted time during clean up, they did not rush us or make us feel uncomfortable.

The food included in the package is acceptable. It would be just enough or lacking but you have the option of bringing your own food which made up for the quantity. Funland was more than accommodating of any dietary restrictions and made exceptions for those with special dietary needs. We brought some decorations but we honestly didn't need them because they decorated the room so well!

There is one thing that I wish was different. All the birthday packages are for 2 hours. Prior to booking, I was worried that this would not be enough time for kids to enjoy the facility and to have a birthday party. Evidently, it was true because 2 hours was not enough time for the whole event start to end.

We had kids of all ages up to 8 years old, and they all had a blast. I highly recommend Funland for your next kids' birthday...