Activate Scarborough — Attraction in Toronto

For reference, my family that plays ranges from ages 17-54.

My family and I have been to the Burlington location a few times, so that is where my comparison is coming from. This location is smaller but there are a greater variety of types of games. When there wasn't a glitch in the game, it was very enjoyable.

When we arrived, there were a few issues with our wristbands. It was solved eventually by the supervisor but it would've been nice to not have to ask several different staff to troubleshoot only to wait for the supervisor. I will give the benefit of the doubt that it was all their first day but staff should try to learn about the different issues that may arise for the future; help each other out and only depend on the supervisor when absolutely necessary. All the staff were very nice and polite despite the fact.

We went on opening day - there were glitches with a few of the games, specifically Mega Grid. The staff would fix the game immediately when brought to their attention but there were still bugs here and there. Control was not operating. Hide's door wasn't unlocking. Pipes had one level for Odd One Out and there wasn't an odd one to find. The photobooth is very hard to center yourself and despite taking 6 photos together, we were only sent 2, one of which was completely blurry. I also did not appreciate that it took 5 mins of paid playing time just to take these photos and not even receive them all.

All-in-all I would return back to the Scarborough location, with hopes that service will be smoother and games will be fully operational with as few glitches and the photo booth not requiring paid playing time.

Update

Activate responded to this review but when I reached out to them via email as they suggested, I never heard back from them. It's been 10 since I've emailed them. This lack of response has caused me to drop my rating.

Last Update

Activate-Scarborough was able to finally respond to me and made up for the previous experience with a discount to go to any Activate location. My family and I decided to give Scarborough a second chance to see if they had fixed the glitches we encountered before.

It was a much better experience all around. Everyone in my family had moved up to rank 3 so we all had our own wristbands and the check in went much smoother. Our time was not deducted until we started playing games and all the games were working very well for the most part (some glitches here and there but not significant enough to discourage us from playing again or need to complain). The photobooth has been fixed and did not require active paid time to get the photos. All the photos were emailed immediately and the quality was excellent.

The bathroom (specifically women's) was not the cleanest (colored residue across the floor) and according to a member of my group, one of the toilets was not fixed from last time (not sure if staff had been told about this, I don't know which toilet had problems). This is probably the only concerning issue we had with this experience.

Whether this would have been our first experience at the Scarborough location or not, I would still only give a review of 4/5 stars. Firstly, no one gets perfect when a redo is necessary. Secondly, as great as the customer service post-problems was, it wasn't a perfect experience and improvements could still be made. Lastly, I believe that there should have been a trial run (free for customers willing to test the games) or more testing/quality assurance before opening day to have prevented the first experience altogether.

Thank you Activate-Scarborough for getting in contact with me and seriously considering my review. We...

Loved this place! It was $28 for 1.5 hours of game time, and ~$13 for extra 30 mins. Try booking your slot before noon, I noticed after 1 pm the gaming rooms got really busy and you couldn't enjoy the games to their fullest capacity.

One thing to keep in mind, the profile you create will be used for future games because you're encouraged to collect points and redeem Activate-branded gifts.

They also have HUGE lockers to keep your bags, coats, phones, etc., in there as you play and you can unlock the lockers using your wristbands.

I went with a group of 5 which was the right/maximum amount of people that can be in a room for each game. Not too sure what happens if you go with more than 5 people.

Each game is categorized based on the activity of the room (ex: Hoops, Lasers, Climbing), and each room has a sub-group of games that has multiple levels (ex: main category: hoops, and has ~4-5 games within it, each with their levels). You also have the option to play cooperatively or competitively (verse each other). So there are an endless amount of games and time you could potentially spend here.

It's best to adhere to the Activate dress-wear (ex: wearing running shoes), but it wouldn't be a bad idea to wear Activewear (gym clothes) for flexibility and agility. For example, in one of the games you'll be running, jumping, and crawling and that's all in one game (room: lasers). It does get humid in the rooms too.

You have to log in to each room using the wristbands they provide, and while logging in, you can see your stats (I.e., level, and points), and you can see how much time is remaining. You can tell a room is free when the pentagon is glowing green. The pentagon screen also shows you how to play each game and includes visual instructions too.

Customer service is amazing and friendly!

Overall, it's amazing. Bring your water bottles (they have a fountain to drink from too) and be prepared to...

You know how you watch a trailer for a movie and think, "Gosh, that's neat, hopefully it's ACTUALLY good." That's exactly the thought I had when watching ads on Instagram, but luckily this place delivers! The games are so fun, super interactive, and is actually somewhat COVID friendly.

How It Works You split up into groups of 3-5, meaning you get to play with your friends and do a switcheroo if you have a larger group. There are at least 8 different game rooms with different scenarios and difficulty levels. For 75 minutes, you can play as many rooms as you would like, and each game lasts around 1-2 minutes. Everyone is given a wrist band where you tap to play each room, and scores are tallied throughout your session so that rewards are aptly provided at the end. Secret: Most people get a water bottle after their first time. It's a super neat idea, because you can keep coming back for more, kind of like Laser Quest. These rooms will challenge your agility, coordination, and ability to memorize patterns. One downfall is for those who may be colour-blind.

Service and Facility Given that we are all recovering from COVID isolation requirements, cleanliness is key. I'm happy that they provided hand sanitizers throughout the center, which is honestly a must with all the touching lol. Our group had masks on the entire time, and yes, sometimes we took it off to breathe LOL. One downer was that the facility's washroom was broken so we had to walk all the way to McDonalds. Also, one of the rooms wasn't working and your time continues to get deducted when something like this happens. Luckily, the staff gave us a 10% discount card for the inconvenience.

For $25+tax/person, this is an amazing place to go to, especially during these times. I definitely would...