Bellaboo's Play and Discovery Center — Attraction in Calumet Township

I was very impressed when my husband and I first took our 1.5 year old here for the first time a few months ago. He played for almost 3 hours and loved it! We even decided to buy the annual pass, although a bit pricey. I do not mind spending a little more if the value is worth it. However, each subsequent visit, I have been less and less impressed.

Here are my top reasons why:

My son loved the tube in the ball pit that sucks up the balls and sends them around and back down. The only time it worked was on our first visit. I reported it to a staff member each time and they either couldn’t fix it or nobody even tried. If you can’t provide a feature that works consistently get rid of it.

The bathrooms and play areas are frequently out of paper towels and toilet paper. Very annoying. Also, art and craft supplies are lacking for those areas. One piece of broken chalk is not enough for a table full of chalk boards.

Some of the rooms need updating or a rotation of toys, especially if you want people to visit frequently. The toddler room could especially use this. I also don’t understand why there are not balls in the room to fit the tubes. If a feature can’t be used, remove it. There is also a lot of wasted wall space that could have some more interactive features. The reading room would also be much better if there were comfortable places to sit. There really isn’t much floor room either. You could even advertise for donations or look for used items to help budget some of this.

There is a lot of potential here, so my guess is mismanagement and lack of motivated staff. I’d still recommend coming here twice a year, just don’t spend the money on the...

I have loved Bellaboos in the past and I think it will be good again but I urge you to call before you go to see what rooms and activities are open. I went today 7/14/21 and had an awful experience. We came for a play date or I probably would’ve left as soon as I walked in. We arrived to a sign that said cafe closed and no guided activities! Paid the eleven dollars each and went inside for our play date. First they are understaffed. Which is probably why there are no guided activities. This was a bummer because my daughter was really looking forward to working in the art room. No art supplies were even out for kids to work independently. (I thought maybe you would place used items in a bucket for cleaning.) The face paint and food creation area is closed(I was hoping it would have been repurposed with COVID). In addition the indoor water play was closed. So with that we headed outside to the new pirate area which is suppose to be really neat but it too was broke! No water so instead they stuck a yard sprinkler out in the middle of the water play area which of course now has a hose on the ground that tripped a few of the smaller clients. Then my kids wanted to race outside on the peddle bikes but the bikes were missing peddles or had flat tires yet another disappointment! They should have just been closed today until they could get it together, or only charge 1/2 price because only half the activities are open/working. I will end on a positive note. It was clean one person just kept going from room to room disinfecting but of course then you had more room closures which would not be bad if the other...

This place sadly has declined. Paying almost $50 for 2 kids and adults and the cafe has been closed unexpectedly the last several times, they have unexpectedly just not done the Children’s cooking classes, story times or any daily things anymore. Toys are broken, bikes are missing pedals, art and painting supplies are empty, rooms are stacked with dust and dirt. They were doing the classes throughout Covid and my kids are excited for them then we come and they say they’re just not sure if they’re doing them that day or not and don’t.. They start closing rooms over an hour before closing even with posted times. And days the cafe is open they close it over an hour early without warning. If your kids are hungry you have to make them leave and miss out on paid play time to go feed them, as they don’t advertise it will be closed and you can’t bring food in anyway. They used to be alot more effort into classes, story time and themed additions but now they’re just not doing them on days they don’t feel like it and closing things extra early to get out of there even if we’ve paid for the full time the kids are missing out on fun. There are alot of great areas and interactive things but it’s sadly gone downhill. There are a lot of workers walking around so I hope they can figure out how to run the programs again, staff the kitchen all the time and do some fun updates. Photographed are all the areas closed earlier than posted or closed entirely now and some broken dirty items that are common...