Kids Empire Villa Park — Attraction in Addison Township

I have been to kids empire many times, and have never had a bad experience. After today, however, I will never be going back or recommending it to others. It appears they care more about watching their cameras to catch kids eating snacks not purchased there, than watching cameras for the safety of our children. This in itself is frightening. As a group, my friends and I spent around $300 for all admission costs, game cards, etc. Upon my arrival, the lady behind the counter noticed that I had crackers in my bag, and told me they couldn’t be taken in, as outside food isn’t allowed. I said, “ok they won’t be eaten.” She literally made me physically take them back to my car before I was allowed to enter. Later, one of my friends children grabbed a snack out of her moms bag, and ate some popcorn. The lady came right away and told them to put it away. As her mom was wrapping it up, the lady came back and told her she would need to leave or police would be called. Simultaneously, this employee was telling another family that they were being kicked out as well. The other family had children with major food sensitivities, and were given no warning, or compassion- they were just being told to leave. Their big offense… eating a muffin. Me being me, I said we weren’t leaving. We paid a lot of money as a group, so that our children could have a great day…let them call the police, we had done nothing wrong. The sad reality is that the cops had to waste their time on a non-issue, when they could have been preventing real crimes from happening. The officers were on our side, and mentioned to us that this was fairly typical behavior for this company. The police advised us to call our credit card companies and cancel our transactions due to the unfairness of the situation. The only option was that our entire group stay if they allowed, or we would all leave together. Despite the phone call that happened between the officers who stuck up for us, and “corporate,” we were still told that certain members of our group would need to leave. So we left together, knowing we did the best we could for our children, got some great pictures with the kiddos in the squad cars, were given police stickers, and ate our lunch in our cars. Kids empire didn’t ruin our day…they ruined themselves and their own image. Guess they won’t have much of an “empire” anymore, and it’s well deserved on their part. *the attached picture was taken today with the police officers who handled the call. Kudos to them for handling the situation in a non-threatening manner, and giving our children such a neat experience after we left. Lots of love to this awesome bunch of friends for not allowing the...

Not the best play place in the area by a long shot. My 5 year old loves KE so we will take her there on special occasions, but we usually opt for other play places and never take our toddler for several reasons.

1. Safety. They have ceiling to floor slides that kids and adults hurt themselves on constantly. I tried the slide once by myself and literally cracked my tailbone (got X-rays). My daughter twisted her arm badly when another kid bumped into her when they jumped down the slide right after she did. There’s also a tower of nets that bigger kids will throw themselves down, crushing smaller kids trying to climb through.

2. Food and Drinks. They will not allow you to bring in your own food and drinks at the entrance. They will ask you and your kids to wait outside if you have a coffee, or throw it away to enter. Most other play places allow you to bring in coffee and snacks or they at least have a cafe to purchase decent quality coffee and snacks. KE has what equates to an overpriced vending machine counter.

3. Age ranges. There are two designated areas for play. The first is for kids in diapers. When I had an crawler and a 3 year old, my 3 year old was kicked out of the baby area by staff because she no longer wore diapers. They wanted her to play on the big kid area that I deemed as not safe for her age. I also wanted to be able to watch both kids closely at the same time, which I couldn’t do if she was playing in the big kid area.

4. Remote working. If you’re looking for a safe place for your kids to play while you work remotely, this isn’t the place for you. There are very few seating areas close to outlets, and they are often taken up with birthday parties. I’d also advise keeping a closer eye on your kids if they are under the age or 7 or 8 due to the safety of the play area.

5. Admission doesn’t include games. You have to buy a separate card for you child to play any games. Just make sure to factor in that expense beforehand if your kid wants to ride the cars, play air hockey, or use any of the claw machines.

There are a lot of indoor play places in the Chicagoland area. Places that are safe for mixed ages and allow parents to telecommute with coffee. Now, if you have a bigger kid that likes climbing mazes, it might be...

The staff are terrible. Starting from Maya's manager, and continuing to others, even new working girl learned the manner of rude behavior with customers and guests. I had my son's birthday. It was on a weekday morning. Our time started at 10.30, but all children could come only at 11.00. Our time was already running for 30 minutes. I came at 10.50 by myself because I wanted to prepare decorations for the table, and everyone else was on the way. Previously, I filled out a waiver at home. That is, I should have entered right away, but no, they kept me at the reception for another 20 minutes, delaying all my guests, explaining that they were looking for a wristband, then looking for my phone number. The pizza was supposed to arrive at 11:30, it was at 1:00 p.m., despite the fact that our time ended at 1:30 p.m. Starting at 12.30, I approached them several times asking, they answered: it was still on its way. And when the pizza arrived, they took it back, and talked among themselves, delaying the serving time in order to disturb me, what I was also a witness to this, because I was already waiting near them. Seeing me, they smiled when I offered to help them. And then I begged to give me at least 2 pizzas out of 8 to serve to starving children. It was a terrible experience for me. I have not yet told about the rude attitude with my guests. The main thing is that there was no one in the place except us, because it was a weekday in the morning. It is so sad and not acceptable that such unprofessionals , and most importantly, heartless people work in a children's place. I give one star for the idea of ​​a good place for...