Jungle Madness — Attraction in North West Leicestershire

The Jungle Madness Facebook page advertises birthday parties “with a difference” and as a regular visitor at Jungle Madness we thought this would be the perfect location for our sons 1st birthday party. Unfortunately it turned out that the “difference” they advertise is not a positive one!

We left extremely disappointed and made an effort after the party to discuss our feedback with management in hope and expectation that they would listen to our views and then be in a position to implement constructive changes based on our feedback so that parents who choose Jungle Madness for their child’s party in the future don’t have to endure the same levels of disappointment that we have done. Despite leaving a number of messages with management requesting a phone call we are yet to receive one almost two months following the party.

Jungle Madness advertise various benefits about their Children’s Parties ;

Choice of party theme - This amounts to a scabby, faded, worn table cloth.

Table display of balloons - Don’t have high or even realistic expectations with the balloons either. Expect two or three basic, dull and uninviting balloons thrown on one table that were not congruent with a child’s first birthday party nor the theme.

Dedicated party host - The host in our case was a child who had zero interest in engaging with the children, struggled to make eye contact and ultimately was the critical failure of the party. (I would suggest the host between 16 and 17 years old - this of course wouldn’t be an issue if she had a suitable personality for the role and was engaging / comfortable with toddlers or young children). In fairness, the host was also responsible for cleaning, tidying up, sweeping up, emptying the bins and serving the food / breakfast buffet to 17 children. Even a ‘world class’ party host would struggle to deliver a fantastic customer experience with such a high and unrealistic workload.

Separate party room - Not entirely accurate. Expect a flimsy partition about 5 foot in height across the main room. I would encourage management to check out the dictionary definition of a ‘room’ as this is currently misleading.

Mini disco - Where do I start? This amounted to the disinterested party host playing her personal music off her personal mobile phone via a Bluetooth speaker. There was no music that was suitable for a one year olds child’s party. The music was all ‘dance / club tracks’ including one song which contained totally inappropriate and risqué lyrics.

Party games - Consisted of a five minute session of musical statues delivered by the disinterested party host thru her mobile phone music.

Visit from Jungle Character - Allow 90 seconds for the character to come into the room, randomly wave at the children and then promptly disappear again.

If you want a dull, boring, uninspiring party for your child, delivered by a party host who is lacking in any real charisma then go ahead and book Jungle Madness.

We used to visit Jungle Madness on a weekly basis, however we won’t be...

The positives -

Lovely play area for kids aged 3 years plus in my opinion, good size and range of steps / balls / slide and good viewing angle of the tables for parents.

Food spot on - I had the carvery and my friends and our kids had fish fingers and chips - all lovely

Premises including toilets clean and the young lads waiting on the tables and behind the bar super friendly and helpful

The negatives -

I arrived with my kids and as there were no signs on the doors, the website advised of opening hours which I was within, and having phoned before and been told no need to book a table, I let my toddler into the play area (which again had no sign on the wide open doors) and started to find a table for myself and my friends who were on their way to meet us.

As I couldn't leave my toddler and new born alone, I decided to sit and wait at the table for my friends and thought that once they arrived, one of us could go to the bar and order food and drink, and pay whatever the play area cost. Next thing a member of staff came over and in an absolutely accusatory and not empathetic tone at all, asked me what I was doing as this was a private party (I reiterate no sign on the wide open doors), I apologised explaining I didn't realise and asked what time until, transpired for another one and a half hours, I then said I would go outside and eat whilst I waited, before I could finish she told me again in an accusatory tone that I needed 'to get my kids out now' she then told me that had I have gone to the bar to pay I would have been advised it was a private party, implying I wasn't going to pay (where does it tell you to go to the bar to pay and I was going to anyway of course!).

I walked out only to find my friend outside as she had been stopped from entering the private party and when she said she didn't know it was one, she was told she should have looked on Facebook ! I'm not on Facebook and why should we check when they have private parties if their website and lack of signage don't state that !?

We sat down instead and ordered food, some of what we asked for on the menu we were given was not available on Sundays but again, the menu did not state that so we had to re choose alternatives.

We ordered some additional sides which never arrived and when we queried it we were told that 'they couldn't find the table to recall who ordered it so would have to refund us'

Blonde lady in black and white polka dot top lovely, as were the young lads, but the small lady who spoke to me (NOT the one in glasses) made me feel very uncomfortable and I do not think is creating a welcoming environment at all. More staff needed, more manners...

Very disheartened about the team and establishment of jungle mayhem/madness not taking ownership for how customers were treated, I don’t ever usually leave reviews and not want to be negative about any businesses, however after them posting on their own Facebook page about customers lying and trying to ruin their reputation regarding the customers own experiences, I then left a comment under their post in which many people also liked this comment and then it was suddenly removed as I imagine they do not want anyone to see actual experiences of how the business is run.

I visited yesterday and while we understand they were busy, we had to ask several times to different staff members for a plate of chips we ordered, after an hour of waiting and the response was shocking. Only one staff member begrudgingly bothered to let us know what was going on, which was still false information and the attitude of the majority of the staff members was disgusting. Very rude and uninviting.

Accountability is everything and the way things are dealt with really makes a difference. We paid over £100 into this place so rightfully just like many other customers who were refunded their carvery’s yesterday because of how bad the food was and it had been left out all day, (easily over 5 hours for all the carvery food) we decided to instead switch the food for something else. I can confirm the majority of these reviews are not false information which is how the team and management mentioned in their face book post ( now removed) and they said they like to take the reviews seriously, to me this is the opposite and accusing customers of lying to cover up the correct information.

No business likes a bad review but it is a reflection on our time yesterday! It is a shame as the facilities were brilliant for the kids and we travelled over an hour to visit

Unfortunately I don’t believe anything will change as numerous people have said the same thing however I would never eat again or visit due to this experience. Like I said the outdoor area was really good for kids especially on a hot day, there was an indoor play area which was okay but very dirty and no checks from staff were done to maintain safety. A real shame as it could be a great place if they treated customers respectably...