Swing-A-Round Fun Town — Attraction in Fenton

I’ve been to Swing-A-Round Fun Town MANY times in my 17 years living in St. Louis, but this is my first review! Overall, this is definitely a fun place to bring your family, and I recommend it.

Be prepared to spend, as the cost per game is a bit more than arcades we’ve been to recently. $25 per person should be enough to satisfy your arcade cravings and get you enough “tickets” to leave the kids satisfied with their winnings (prizes). We spent more, but that’s because we have a toddler, who doesn’t understand how to spend the credits carefully like our teenagers do, and likes to have momma or daddy play along on two player games. My little one’s favorite game was Ice Man, where you spray zombies with water to freeze and kill them haha. Never in a million years would I have seen that one coming. Ice Man is a two player game that doesn’t last very long, and you get very few tickets, so it was very good luck that my toddler won a 1,000 ticket jackpot just by chance (literally by just pushing a button) right after our last go on Ice Man.

Food and drinks are priced a bit high as well, but the food is edible, good enough that you can all get by until you can grab good food after. I heard someone say the food at the “giant rat place” tastes better, and from what I can remember, I’d have to agree. We had a pepperoni pizza with extra cheese, and let’s just say that if we got the extra cheese, then it’s possible they don’t include cheese at all when it’s not asked for haha. We also ordered chicken strips and fries: the chicken strips were actually better than most, and the fries were almost all burnt at both ends, but still edible.

We had some trouble with our power cards being scanned for the outdoor attractions (we purchased 2 hours for each of us to enjoy the outdoor fun stuff). The entire 3+ hours we were there, we only saw what appeared to be high school students working, and there was no manager around to consult even though the employees usually didn’t know what to do when something went wrong. Ultimately, almost all of our issues with the outdoor attractions were resolved by just not using the power cards. 3 out of our 5 cards gave us a hard time: one card kept saying it had no funds, even though we had the receipt to account for it, so employees just let us ride the bumper boats a few times without it. Another card gave the same error when we tried to get a golf ball, so they just handed us one at the counter. A third card gave repeated errors at the batting cages, and we were ultimately told they had no idea why the card wouldn’t work, but if we just waited 15 minutes, it would probably start working again…it actually did. There are definitely some kinks that need working out with the power cards, especially since you’re paying for time and the issues with the cards actually cost you time you paid for, but we were able to do everything we wanted to do within the 2 hours we paid for, so everyone went home happy.

Suggestions:

Have an adult in charge who’s present and easily located when something goes wrong.

Lower the cost per game, or at least on the games for young kids that don’t award many tickets (without increasing other game prices).

Service the arcade, especially since most of the things that were age and size appropriate for our toddler were inoperable. The carousel didn’t work at all, nor the small basketball game, there’s a skeeball machine with 0 balls in it, which you don’t realize until you’ve tried to use it (we reported it, and got the credits back, but no one ever shut it down), and the top left button on the Kung Fu Panda game does not work, so it’s almost impossible to win the game. There were a few more arcade things out of order, but those were the ones that I remember best.

Sweep the mini golf course. No one’s trying to play a PGA tour here, but it would be nice if the ball could roll unobstructed across the green when you hit it.

Also, please don’t allow smoking outside near attractions. Battling cigarette smoke while trying to enjoy mini golf with my family was unpleasant...

I am not a big complainer so me writing this review is a big deal. I usually go with the flow but ...

I had my daughter's birthday party at swing around fun town. I knew we might have issues when I called the day of the party to confirm that everything was in place and the person on the phone proceeded to tell me how to book a party even though we had been booked in advance.

When we first arrived I contacted the hostess and was told it would be 20 minutes before the food would be ready and then we were given no direction as to what we could do in the meantime ( an ongoing theme even as we went from activity to activity) so we were kind of just sitting there looking at each other thinking of what we should do. It was all VERY awkward. The hostess suggested that my daughter would be able to pick out a stuffed animal that she wanted and took her to the counter to help her with that. She was supposed to get an outfit for the stuffed animal but never got it. I hadn't realized that I needed to bring a cake ( perhaps I missed something on the website but it would have been nice to hash that out over the phone with someone prior to the party) Once I realized my error, I asked the hostess if they had cupcakes that we could give to the guests. She wasn't sure but told me that they had ice cream that they could give out to the guests. I told her if there were cupcakes I wanted to do that but if they did not have them, the ice cream would be ok. She gave us ice cream. I later found out that there were in fact cupcakes available on the menu but the hostess did not have knowledge of what products were available and so we had to settle for the ice cream. We purchased the party bags at $2.95 a pop. When we got them, they were hardly worth even $1 this is what the PLAIN WHITE PAPER BAGS had in them: two pieces of hard candy , once small, plastic, cheap toy( like a mini dinosaur or something similarly less than fun) and an advertisement offering free tokens to book a birthday party there along with a list of the party options available. It was awful !! I felt we had been taken advantage of. Had I known that the party bags were so pitiful, I would have definitely put together party bags on my own with more content and for less money. Please, if you have a party there, DO NOT GET THE PARTY BAGS they are not worth it and it was embarrassing. It would have been better if the children were allowed to decorate the PLAIN WHITE PAPER BAGS as an activity. Swing around fun town should be ashamed to offer such a lackluster product for money. Despite all of the technical errors, we participated in several activities which the children enjoyed. After the party I contacted the manager to inform them of our experience. I was told that the party bags should have had some pass in it ( that I did not see or perhaps it was the incentive of free tokens in exchange for booking a party). I let the manager know that the hostess needed additional training regarding available products as well as providing direction for guests and that my daughter did not get they outfit for her stuffed animal that we paid for as part of the package. He was polite and thanked me for the information but at no point did he offer a suggestion as to how to even get us the outfit that we were due as part of the package. Bottom line, do not purchase a party package here. It is a great place to invite friends to play but the party package is simply...

I would give it a big fat 0 if it was available. BEWARE of having birthday parties here. They are not worth the money. I booked a party for a 3 yr old. Only her 19 month old cousin and her grandparents showed up. We were lied to about seating and hour and a half play, when booking party. I specifically asked the girl if seating was tables with chairs. I told her I would not book if it’s only picnic benches due to some of the adults not being able to move in and out easily on benches, plus they are terribly uncomfortable. She assured me it was tables and chairs. Of course she lied about that too. They added in an extra $30 gratuity, which I was not aware of, would be charged. The total party was supposed to be $260 for 2 1/2 hrs. I was told we got 3 pizzas and 8 armbands for an hour and a half play. Another lie was told. They charged me an extra $25 for the 3rd pizza, which after it was all over, they told me they charge for anything over two pizzas. When I booked the party, the girl never told me we only had an hour and a half to play and it had to be the first hour and a half. The other hour is to eat. You can’t use armbands after the hour and a half. The party area we were supposed to have, was filled by the party before us, and no one made them leave, when it was time for our party to start. Finally an hour later, their party left, and we were finally given the area. My party didn’t even get to use their armbands, and we were rushed to eat pizza and cake, and asked to leave the area after the hour was over. The climbing pit area was overcrowded with older kids who were hurting the younger kids. One of the kids jumped on my 19 month old grandson, and another punched a little girl in the face. When I reported it to Omar, he did nothing about it. Omar gave us 2 pitchers and pizza, and that’s all he did. The total bill was $335. When I complained to management about the added charges, they refused any compensation. Omar gave my mom a card for 1000 points toward a toy. The line was so long we didn’t use the card. I would never come back and would not recommend to anyone. It’s a rip off. BEWARE OF...