Castaway Play Cafe — Attraction in Howell Township

I have been to castaway many many times and I have to say that every time I go the quality gets worse and worse and the price keeps going up. I'm very angry at the way I was treated by more than one staff. I realize they're busy and probably DO get swindled by people often but they should NOT assume that all people who say a machine has taken their money is lieing. This is how my experience went at castaway with my 6 y/o child. I arrive there and pay the money we go in and I wanted to use the family bathroom, it was locked and no one was in it. So we went to the other bathroom. My son wanted 50 cents for one of the vending machines by the jump areas. It ended up eating his money and he was very disappointed so I told him to go to the front desk and ask for his money back. They DID end up giving his money back but to only be eaten by a different machine. I went upto the counter and told them about the bathroom and the broken machines. I even gave them specifics at which one were out of order so they could correct the problem so another child would not be heart broken when their own earned money is ripped off. I was there for OVER 3 hrs and no one put out of order signs or unlocked the bathroom. My child and I then stumbled across the arcade that they recently have opened. Lets just say I wasted atleast 5 dollars in broken machines that did NOT work and had no signs. We then earned some tickets and when we put about the 60th ticket in the machine it jammed. There was another machine next to it with another woman who said her machine was jammed also. The maintenance man came over and was struggling for a very long time to fix them. We only had about 100 tickets total and I took them to the ticket counter and the child employee informed me no way he could count any tickets it had to be through a machine.(I don't think he could count that I) Needless to say I told him someone was working on ALL the broken ticket machines. I walked back over and was talking to the maintenance guy about how I have been ripped off by the machines and ticket machines and how unhappy I was. His next comment was how people ALWAYS come up to him and try to say they got ripped off and he can tell when they are lieing... I really didnt know what to say to that because I already requested the stupid 50 cents and I didnt want to go back up the front counter and tell them EVERY single time I got ripped off by their machines. I tried warning other parents before they put their money in the broken machines. I would have GLADLY walked around and put out of order signs on the machines that I knew were broken. I hate to see kids disapointed when they did nothing wrong. This place is just trying to make a quick...

We have been here several times and usually love it . This particular time we decided to purchase the pick two option and try the challenge zone. This area was not worth the $16 you pay for a 30 minute experience. The facility was not busy on this day. The employee quickly went through the rules and started the timer. When we asked some questions about the areas she was describing there was no explanation provided regarding our questions. We had no experience with this area and it would have been appreciated that they showed us the area since the facility was not busy.

The sports simulator was not tuned in and sensors were not accurate. The simulator kept saying our child was doing terrible and he was hitting directly in the correct zone. This made for a less than realistic experience.

The challenge zone has a height requirement of 48 inches and no one was measured prior to purchasing or entering the area. Also, it requires closed toe shoes which was not explained prior to purchasing or entering. There is no information clearly present when purchasing this package. We noticed this information on signs inside the challenge zone. These types of things should be addressed when making the purchase to insure that their own rules are able to be followed by its patrons.

Furthermore, it was extremely hot inside the building especially the challenge zone area which made for undesirable playing conditions.

Lastly, you are allowed 30 minutes in this zone and the employee said we had 3 mins left when the timer in the area said there were 6 minutes remaining.

Overall, we did not have a good experience with the challenge zone. We enjoy the regular indoor play area and bounce houses regularly but the challenge zone was disappointing for the cost of...

This was our first time here and we were there for about 3+ hrs. Good thing about this place is that my 3 yr old loved the play areas. He was so excited to be up high and go down the big fast slide. The food was ok but a bit pricey, and they tend to oversalt the fries. Yuck. Staff was nice. Cleanliness could be better, the bathroom barely had a working hand dryer and no paper towels. Some of the antibacterial hand foaming stations were empty. Arcade games were pricey and you barely got tickets from playing the ones that gave you tickets. Oh and the heat. It was so warm in there and none of the ceiling fans were on. Not sure what the issue was with the air conditioning, but the kids were sweating and so was I just sitting there.

I'm sure I'm not the only one to find this odd, but the weirdest thing about this place is the daycare/preschool! I was completely stunned to see the daycare room by the arcade room. They also had designated rooms just for daycare, but was still attached to the play areas. Honestly, who would want random strangers amongst their children who are being cared for? Plus they're sharing a bathroom with customers that come in. Seems unsafe, especially when most daycare facilities have locked doors before being buzzed in. My son wanted to go in and play with the other kids there, and I had to explain to him that he couldn't since it was a "school". Sorry but as a parent, this raises major red flags. If you're going to run two completely separate businesses, at least have them in separate buildings. Not intertwined together to confuse customers and other kids. We probably won't be going back...