WhirlyBall — Attraction in Edmonds

Edit 2: I think I hosted events here seven or eight times and it keeps getting better! Today, the manager Will went behind his service and gave us an experience of a lifetime. Extraordinary staff like Will is the reason why we keep coming back.

EDIT: Changing my review from 4 star to 5.

We decided to give it another go for the 3rd time and this time it exceeded my expectations! I brought a party of 60 people and everyone had a wonderful time! Referees Ethan and Bryan were amazing and the manager, Thomas, was the center of the spotlight for exemplary services. Thomas went above and beyond and was a joy to work with. He even gave my group a private magic show! We had 12 teams of 5 and every team was able to play at least 6 times in 4 hours. Wonderful! Needless to say, we'll certainly be back for the 4th and 5th time :)

Also want to give a shoutout to the owners, Tom and Susan, for their excellent communication and accommodation.

This review is not easy for me to write because I had really wanted to give them a 5 star. This is the second time I organized and hosted a private event here. The first time was with 39 other people and the second time was with 49 people. They are indeed, per other reviews, very strict about outside food and drink. The main reason for our not so stellar experience is due to a lady referee today who was very unpleasant to work with. She's loud, obnoxious, and just plain difficult to communicate with. Her demeanor actually caused one of our guys to storm out of the building. We asked for some group photos and she literally cropped a tenth of our large group. I'm not penalizing on her bad photography skill but at least offer some decency and patience to retake for us. Finally, I didn't appreciate the way the game bracketing worked. We had 50 people today and ten teams. We were put on 12-15 minute game and played the same team more than once. They should have asked me how I wanted to organize this and I would have told them to make the game 10 minute or less and allow us to play with different teams. It's frustrating when I am bringing so much business to them and our expectations were short lived. It's even more annoying when the refs took a long break which ate more of our time. At any rate, this establishment isn't at all terrible and is quite an experience. I would recommend this activity and venue to anyone who hasn't tried Whirlyball before. My first experience was superb, and I think the second time was just a one off. We'll definitely consider doing this again the third time...

It’s my second time at whirlyball in about three years. The staff was different, but they all vibe the same way: really chill, almost hippyish personalities with lots of character. They’re welcoming and hospitable, but also try to have fun with their job and be relatable. They’re just people who host and play a really strange, enjoyable game! Ethan was far more involved than our last Ref. Though he’d been up since 2am and was pounding caffeine to stay engaged, he was really present with us, even joining as a player when one of our stepped out for a game. We brought mostly middle and high school students, and he was able to connect well and keep things PG while still being humorous and competitive. Brian was also super friendly and helpful with subbing as a ref, repairing broken carts, and hosting us at concessions. It’s a rugged place, but they have other arcades and VR to keep you entertained while you’re waiting to play. My group had 10 people; just enough to fill the court, and we played hard for 2.5 hours with very few breaks. Everyone was really enjoying themselves, and though you learn some strategies fairly quickly, it’s hard to really do well at this game, keeping the playing field...

Overall the Whirlyball game was fun, although the kids appeared bored after awhile. My daughter invited her club volleyball team to celebrate her 12th birthday. We had 7 girls, a few of their siblings and adults. The staff was helpful and food was decent. Things got weird when we were told our group had to move from the main facility into an overflow room that wasn't even heated due to a large group coming in for a memorial service to remember someone that was a big Whirlyball player. You can't make this stuff up. The owner told me we had to be done eating and gone within an hour and to exit via an outside door as not disturb the memorial service, which appeared non-existent other than people socializing. In fact, the owner even went as far as to move a foosball table to block the doorway from the overflow room into the main facility until I told him he needed to move it out of the way. In short - it was all a money grab to the tune of $700. It ruined my daughter's 12th birthday, which as a parent I can never get back and we left not feeling great about how we were treated. I would not recommend this place to anyone. Go somewhere else and save yourself a...