Kennedy Park — Attraction in Hayward

Planning your party here? We did just a few weeks ago. When researching I did not see any useful information about having parties here when you did not reserve ahead of time. Here are some tips. But before we get there here is the story of how I couldn't reserve a party area in time.

Since January my son knew that the new minecraft movie was coming out in April so he said for his birthday (in April) he wanted to just go to the movies with some friends. Great. Easy. Then April rolled around and he said "I think the minecraft movie is not going to be good I think I want to have a birthday party at the park."

Gee, 10 days away from your birthday and now you say this?!

Originally, we wanted to celebrate at Robertson Park in oakland but all of the reservation close to the park were booked. So we looked into Kennedy. I mean this is THE PARK he really meant when he requested for a park party. It has everything. He had always watched the seasons come in go for as far back as he could remember and always wanted a party there.

We called the rec office and they gave us the pricing BUT reservations are only able to be made up to 11 days before the date. And being on day 10, we were too late. Fortunately, there were many sites available for a first come, first serve basis. Now, knowing that this park is usually high demand. We came out the Sunday BEFORE the Sunday we wanted to scope out what it looked like. The park opens at sunrise, roughly 6:30 am and from what we saw for the middle of april, no competition. We have had experiences in the past when we lived in stockton where during peak season people were literally camping out the night before to claim picnic areas for parties.

The Wednesday before our desired Sunday party date we came to the park and had a walk thru. The staff post reservation notices up for the following week so that you know on the day you want to have your party, what is available to you.

Originally we thought we wanted site 8, but it had already been booked for that Sunday. We were told all the sheltered sites (nearby the playground) had all been booked. We walked thru the whole park thinking for the size we wanted to host we might have to arrive and claim two smaller sites.when we got to the corner near the tunnel we saw site 1 would be available and thought this would be good since it has trees for shading and its far enough from the park for less crowds but a good walking distance. But as we rounded the park back to where we parked near the Victorian house,we saw that site 4 (21 tables and covered!) was not reserved for our desired date.

So Sunday morning, at 6:30 am we arrived to the site to make our claim on site 4. We were so early we were there before the morning cleaning up crew. Our party wouldn't start until 12 pm, but it was just enough time for us to have a no pressure party prep. We put on table covers, blew up a few ballons, bbq some foods, set up the Coolers. We did bring a broom to sweep up as the baby shower the day before had left a ton of debris that was not cleaned up by park staff, but everything else was cleaned up by staff (emptying trash bins,picking up larger trash like cups,plates,napkins that did not make it into the trash bins).

Tip #1 come early in the week to scope out which unreserved site you want to claim by checking the notices at each site (advanced reservations can be very expensive, had we booked ahead of time it would've cost us over $450) no notice usually means no reservation, call ahead to confirm with park staff

Tip #2 come early the day of. From what we saw on a Sunday at 6:30 am there wasnt much competition for first come first serve claims. Saturdays may differ. To ensure we got our site we were there when the gates opened. But up until 8:30 am we did not see anyone else but park Staff and early morning...

Horrible customer service and everything there is overpriced! We reserved ten tables for my sons birthday party and when booking there was an article on the website about a package C which included 20 free tickets for booking ten or more tables. When time came we went to the concession stand to ask about the tickets, there was about four lines and only one girl at a window. When we asked the girl at the concession stand she said there was no such thing, I tried showing her the article and she refused to look at it, when I asked to speak to a manager two other girls popped up from behind her and started to yell about there not being a manager on site therefore we couldn’t speak to one and they continued to claim that there was never a package of that sort and that we would need to call the city in order to figure it out as if we just made it all up. Not only did they give us unnecessary attitude when we were just trying to get information but also rushed us to purchase the tickets that we did pay for. They were utterly rude and very unprofessional. That was the worst customer service I have ever received in my life. After that terrible experience I called the number that was provided in the website and sent an email with a link to where the information was about package c and I got a response with them saying that the article was outdated and that the package was now non existent I tried to explain to them how it was not clear that that was the case prior to us booking with them and they’ve yet to respond. The facilities communication is completely trash and they’re customer service is as well I would definitely not recommend having any parties there especially if you plan on reserving...

The farm play structure does not have enough openings to visibly see your child inside the structure. There are different areas where they can exit. If your child is fast like mine, it will be difficult to keep an eye on them. Be careful when paying cash at snack bar. Today the register person saw I was distracted with my son and they tried to over charged me $10.00, thinking I wouldnt catch it. When I asked them how they added my order up, they went back over hand written order receipt, quickly and spoke quietly. They pointed to where they wrote "no sour cream" for my order and tried to charge me $10 thinking I wouldnt catch it. They were acting as if it was an additional item ordered. I asked them are you charging me for no sour cream? They said "Oh I'm sorry, I don't know how that happened." They didn't use a calculator at register, it wasn't a mechanical error. The person was really just trying to pocket my money. The petting zoo is closed, maybe not there anymore. Train was not in operation today. The tea cup ride was a lot of fun. Landscaping was beautiful, a lot of trees for shade, many picnic areas and tables. A...