Freedom Playground — Attraction in DeLand

I take my grandson to this playground all the time. He loves it. My only grievance is that there is very little shade which makes it almost impossible to enjoy in the summer. The metal becomes dangerously hot. The smoking adults also make the environment less enjoyable. I detest cigarette smoke. There should be signs. You would think people would not smoke around kids but too often people just don’t care. Then today I took my grandson to the park and I had a very bad experience. There was a group of older boys at the park entrance playing with toy guns and climbing all over the entrance which is kind of high and in my opinion could lead to an injury. I asked the kid with the toy gun where his parents were. He let me know that he was 14 years old and didn’t need an adult. I asked the kid if the gun had a projectile. He said no and showed me. I said that he probably shouldn’t have a gun at a public park. At that point I had an adult male tell me to mind my own business. He got in my face and attempted to intimidate me. I let him know that as an adult I have every right to direct kids. I’m an ex veteran, dental hygienist and retired HS teacher. He continued to be aggressive but I wasn’t going to be intimidated. I let him know that he just let these kids know that they didn’t have to listen to adults, especially old ladies and that bullying women is ok. That taking guns to public places is ok. I told him I was calling the police. I then walked over to the slide where the big kids were climbing up the slide backwards so the little kids were screaming because they were being walked over. None of the parents were doing anything. At this point I had had enough. I took my grandson and we left. I won’t go back on a weekend. I’m also calling the park personnel tomorrow. I told the police what was going on but just left since the adult male bully had hauled butt. Very...

Brought my autistic son here this morning (March) and the playground itself was completely empty. Awesome for an autistic kid, probably wouldnt be fun for a single neurotypical kid who wants to make new friends.

This playground design is fantastic, better than anything I have within 50 mins of my house in metro Jacksonville. There are probably over 100 different features in this playground from swings, to ladders and slides and ziplines and more.

It was 65 degrees during our visit but I would 100% NOT bring him here if it was 75 or warmer with all of the metal slides and such.

I have to laugh at some of the super negative reviews. The kids smoke pot and rode their bikes and the parks department didnt come - so go ask them to do it somewhere else because your kids can smell it or get hit. You left your stuff out and ppl took it - yeah that can happen literally anywhere.

Like I said my biggest negative is that this park has a lot of metal which isnt great for Florida like 60% of the calendar year. If I had to nitpick, the “freedom” theme complete with graffiti telling me to praise Jesus also seems a little right wing propagandist. But all in all seems like...

I went here with my 2-year-old Granddaughter and her Mother and Father. What a great place for families and kids! I saw two pavilions, each housing several picnic tables. Each had a Bar-B-Q grill. There may have been more pavilions, it was my first time here and I would not know where to look. The Playground was big, with many things to keep a kid busy and happy. My Granddaughter, at age two, was perfectly content with the swings. There were certainly many more diversions, however. The Playground itself is divided into two sections, one for younger children and one for older ones, older meaning ages 6 or 7 to perhaps 10 or so. The ground is covered with a spongy sort of padding to reduce bumps and bruises caused by the inevitable spill. The entire place was very nicely done. The one area that I feel could use improvement is the lack of shade. It's was not near as hot at the end of October when we visited as it would be in July and August but it was still uncomfortable to us, and we are Florida natives that grew up with Florida heat. Still and all, I had a great time with my family and will most...