Summit Adventure Park Charleston — Attraction in Charleston

Went for the first time with a newly turned 4 year old and 13 year old.

First impression was ok at first. Open area with different stations to keep kids with short attention spans busy. But after being there for a while had some concerns.....

Other than the foam pit and trampoline area there really wasn't much else the little one could do or reach.

Ball pit - disappointing. The balls were a very low end product. It didn't take much to crush them. It had a plywood style slanted platform for entry that had really no padding at the bottom. My little one hurt her "hiney." Coming back up there was nothing to hang onto to get back up. Difficult for me as an adult, and trying to get kids back out was a bit challenging. While there one of the walls was plexiglass..... not a safe material for a children's play area. Sure enough by hour 2 it was broken by a kid who accidentally bumped into it. It had a sharp point that really could have hurt someone badly. Management was notified - the fix was duct tape. I had suggested closing that area instead .... but I didn't see that happen at the time.

Spider Tree - Not for little ones without some assistance. They climb through bungee type stretchy material on several levels. Fun but not all kids could do it without help and big people don't fit quite as easily... something to consider if you're not planning to actively be involved.

Airbag - fun but seemed deflated which then exposed corners that had metal clips holding it together.

Interactive wall - not for little ones really which was a bummer. You just have to jump ti each the lights that light up. Fun idea but the smallest of kids can't reach it. They could have placed some lights a bit lower so they get a little goin in too. The older kids didn't seem as interested.

Main court - ok but I can't imagine on a busy day. Kids run across your area without any thought but there was noone on the platform to monitor their doing. Today was not busy so not as concerning but if I had gone at a busy time I would have gotten aggravated a bit more. You can't jump without causing someone to fall or falling yourself when you're mid air and someone jumps onto your trampoline.

Dodgeball....it was fine. The balls were super soft. Great for kids who might not want to play for fear of getting hurt by the ball. Some of the trampoline parts that should start under the mats kept pulling out.. eventually someone's going ti get hurt by that. a theme in this place*

Battle beam looked fun but really really dangerous. We were battling a couple of times and I almost fell on smaller kids who were in the foam pit. Those should be two separate spaces- a foam pit for play and a pit solely designated to the battling. You can't battle and watch the pit for kids. Bad planning on their behalf.

Basketball - ok. No net, guessing for safety. Two heights. Nothing for the smaller ones in that regard.

Ninja course - yeah.... not for short adults let alone kids? Unimpressed. There were metal poles clearly RUSTED .... flakes all over the padded area underneath them. Why were they even rusted this place is indoors? Hope you have had a TB shot ;) Otherwise ok just very simple. It's got 4 parts.

High perfomance - different material to jump on. Nice but small - 4 spots. There was a sign up that indicated she 10 and up. It was completely unmonitored and lots of little kids jumped there. Why? Because they weren't getting run over in the main area.

Soccer was not bad but the ball was a super soft material....a little challenging for kicking but fine for fun.

Wipe out arm - I was actually excited to do this. About 45 seconds in not as much anymore. When that bar hit me I didn't feel as though I got hit by a padded bar I felt like I got hit by metal. Ouch. I was NOT prepared. I can't imagine a child getting hit by this! There are things that one can do cheaply.... please not this.

Kids court? What is that? I'm not sure...

The only reason i’m giving 1 star is because my children did have fun. They are kids of course they would love it. Otherwise i would leave ZERO. I DO NOT recommend spending over $400 for a birthday party here. To anyone! I promise i’m not some “ karen” just bitching. I had almost zero help from the so called “party helper” they provide. She couldn’t answer any questions. She wouldn’t talk loud enough where we could actually hear her. She kept disappearing. While i had to do everything she was either gone or on her phone. I couldn’t even enjoy my child’s birthday because of this. Trying to watch a 2 year old , 5 year old and give the birthday child attention all while having to do everything else was nearly impossible and beyond stressful. They had nothing but young teens working there. I counted maybe 6 teens on the floor and none of them were doing anything but walking around with each other and talking to each other ther. There’s no little kids zone. It’s mixed in with everything else and they do not enforce the age limit. Hell they don’t enforce a damn thing! I had to yell at one of the workers to do his damn job because he was SLEEPING on the top of the tube slide and my son couldn’t push himself down. Each kid we’re pushing each other down which is a huge safety hazar for one! Kids kept taking the tubes and not sharing to the next child in line and then guess what???? Sleeping dude LEFT!!!! Then there was nobody at the slide watching these kids. No wonder they want you to sign a damn waiver. It was beyond ridiculous and i honestly was shocked. Shocked that management would even allow such a thing. Lawsuit waiting to happen. Don’t even get me started on the food and drinks. You’ll be dying of thirst and starvation before you get anything and what you do get is not worth what you pay. Advertisement online is a bunch of bull at the moment. I honestly feel like money was stolen from me seeing how i did everything and absolutely nothing was as advertised Def not worth over $400!!!!!! Never again.

And management save your reply of “ you must be a fake person we can’t find your name” do you know how ridiculous you look? Super unprofessional but doesn’t surprise me AT ALL. but for the record i was there today for lillies birthday , figure it out! Unless you are going to offer me half my money back then nothing will make this right in my book 🤷🏻‍♀️ I really wish i had read these reviews first. Im hoping i can save some families the trouble by...

Summit used to be our go-to spot! We have had a membership for almost 2 years now & have done 2 birthday parties in a row here! The major issue I have observed over the past year is a serious lack of staffing. Even having memberships, checking in is almost always a brutal process because they almost always have only 1 staff person handling everything at the front desk. I have also seen the cleanliness of the facility take a total nose dive…which I have assumed is related to the lack of adequate staffing.

We visited Velocity/Flight Adventure recently and the difference was astounding…they had extremely professional and engaging staff covering every area of the park-which just made you feel like if you lost track of where your kid ran off to, there were staff in place ensuring that overall kids were following rules & jumping safely. It was also abundantly clear that the place was regularly cleaned and well kept.

Being at Summit today for 2 hours, I observed a MAX of 1-2 employees on the floor at any given time (majority of time there was only 1 staff). There were kids swinging off of a rope and sliding down on tubes with zero staff supervision. Eeek. And the place was just filthy-a deep clean/total reset is 100% in order. I cringe at the thought of being in a place like this during cold/flu season.

Anyways, I have kept waiting for Summit to get back to 5 stars as the potential is there and the kids have a great time when they come! But the last few times and especially after today’s experience, I just feel like there is zero indication that staffing/standards are improving and I don’t feel like it’s worth it to continue with a membership.

UPDATE Unless there is another ‘Jen Walker’ in your system that you contacted then I would have to conclude that this response from ‘management’ is false. At the very least I would assume 2 different ‘Jen Walker’ profiles would come up in your system and so you would attempt to contact both? 2 Jen Walker’s on the same day? Wow, you can’t make this stuff up! But I digress. My review is not false and this unprofessional response from management is enraging, and only further confirms my previously stated concerns of lacking...