Big Apple - Play City — Attraction in Rotherham

We organised a play date at big apple today for our sons 5th birthday. Every family (27 kids, 2 babies and 30+ adults) bought their own tickets individually to meet us there. We adults wanted to sit together, so moved some tables together. As our boy likes mario, we put a thin plastic table cloth on the table, and we ordered pizzas, chips and jugs of juice to share between us all. Individual families also bought their own drinks and snacks from big apple. We arrived at 11am and the lunch menu didn’t open until 11.30am. On previous visits staff have let us order and pay for it in advance but today they were funny about that and made us wait to order/pay. We placed some crisps and a couple of small boxes of chocolate cornflake bites on the table and a staff member told us we could not bring our own food. So we moved those away, as we were not aware, as most people regularly bring snacks for their babies/toddlers into the venue. It felt like we were being singled out. The tone of her voice was not very pleasant but we respected that and put them away. Also she had issues with us wanting to sit together and said we were stopping other paying customers from using the tables. Again, the way she approached us was very rude, and we did not understand what she meant as we were all paying customers who had paid to use the tables and were simply moving them together so we could talk. We used no more tables than we would have if we were sitting in individual families. I pointed this out and she back tracked. Some tables remained unoccupied throughout our visit. Then she mentioned something about fire safety being an issue which also did not make sense as there was plenty of room to move around the tables. We gave out some gift bags to the kids to take home with them, and some opened them whilst they were there. Next issue was telling us at the end of the session that we needed to tidy up our own table and take away our rubbish as their bins couldn’t fit them in. Again the tone was unpleasant. We looked around and our table was mainly consisting of leftover chips, pizza, plates and cups that we had ordered from there. We did use some of our own paper plates to eat their food as they didn’t bring us enough plates to eat our pizza and chips. And had our thin table cloth, the same weight as an empty bin bag! We looked around and saw other tables full of rubbish and again wondered why we were being singled out. Do other customers get told to tidy up after themselves and take their rubbish home? I think not. When my husband collected and squashed the rubbish up, it fit into his hand (the size of a football)! We have been going to big apple for years. We all paid a lot of money individually to be there and use the space. Does big apple not like having big volumes of customers??? Why be so rude to paying customers??? From the moment we arrived staff were out to get us over every little thing. We won’t be going again and that means a lot of lost custom. As our boy has lot of friends and we will be taking our play dates somewhere else in future. Any sensible business would see the value of big groups of customers, and make them feel welcome, to bring in more business in the future. They would not treat them like an inconvenience. Very...

Visited on a weekday morning so it was nice and quiet for the little ones. Usually on previous visits we have had a good experience however on this day I was dissapointed. Firstly the two girls who were working there were just behind the counter on their phones or sat on the counter with their legs up on the side talking with eachother. I understand it was quiet however it doesn't give off a good image to paying customers. Again I wouldn't have usually minded then chatting if the following hadn't have happened. So we ordered food. When I grabbed a high chair and tray table for my little one I felt it was all sticky and dirty. I had to wipe it myself before putting my little one in. In my opinion this should be bare minimum to expect these things clean. I understand they get used a lot but when the two girls were just sat chatting I find it difficult to understand how they couldn't have had a chat while wiping down the high chairs. Also the table where we was sat had blackcurrant spilt under the table and on one of the chairs that had dried. Clearly it hadn't been cleaned from the previous day. When the food arrived I put it on to the tray table for my little one and the front of the tray table collapsed and went all over the floor. I told the girl at the counter and she offered to out another portion of food on which was a good gesture ; however she then came over to clean up the spilt food (pizza,chips and beans) and swept up the food and that was it. Didn't clean the floor or anything. I again had to use my wipes to prevent me from standing in the bean sauce that was under our table. The girl also said to me I wouldn't use that tray table again I'd get another. I had to physically give her the tray table to take away so no one else used it. I'm just really shocked by this. Cleanliness should be a minimum requirement especially with regards to food. I was just really...

This is a truly brilliant play centre for kids.

Slides There are 2 slides in the under 5s area, a large wave slide with 4 partition and an enclosed slide with 1 bend in it and in the toddler area there are 2 slides, a small wave slide and an open twirly slide.

Extras There is a pretty awesome maze area, football area and a dark space themed area. Off to the side there is a sensory room with textured sequin walls and an infinity mirror. In the centre there's a go cart track.

-- There is so much to do, with friendly staff and pretty yummy food, you can't complain.

-- RETURN VISIT We had a blast. Resampling the food, it was delicious but did take its time to arrive, about 45 minutes to exact. I would suggest on a 2 hour session, order straight away to get it for half way through session.

Also, take a reusable straw, the paper straws there fall apart and leave black marks on your kids face as it starts to fall apart.

Still great though. Still a 5 from me.

-- BACK AGAIN !

Cups for kids squash are terrible. Very high chance of them going over, I'm considering on our next visit bringing some plastic cups with us. (Picture included)

Food did come with a little more haste that previous occasions.

The go-kart track seems to have been closed down and its been like that for a couple of visits.

Took my baby boy into the sensory room and he loved it. Certainly a winner for even crawling babies.

The smaller area for toddlers seems to get overrun with bigger children and is not massively safe for babies, so the sensory room is an...