Pretend City Children's Museum — Attraction in Irvine

Do I want to just complain? NO, but the reality is that every time I got excited to show my son how something “really worked” or play with him, I was disappointed and I think he was too only being 5yrs old… because in the end, almost EVERYTHING was lacking (bells and whistles, sounds and lights, technology, etc.) especially for the ticket prices.

Watch out: Tickets are sold for entrance 1:30-4pm. The doors open at 1:30pm on the dot, not 1 second early. YET, they close certain activities by 3:45pm. They should sell tickets with actual times stated: 1:30pm-3:45pm.

I have worked in hospitality / restaurant/ customer service my whole life in the CA, US and it is a simple fact that business hours / customer service hours are those stated on the ticket, while the establishment then pays employees a pre-established time beyond closing, say 30min to “clean up”, “restock”, “re-assemble”, etc. It’s ridiculous that they stop allowing us to play so that they can clean up prior to the scheduled time of service that I paid for on my ticket just so that they can get a head start and go home by 4pm, over which time I paid for a service, not the establishment.

The felt toys in the restaurant have never been washed since first use. They are gray and used and OLD. ❌ not anti-COVID friendly.

The aprons in the fishing zone are NOt DRIED or cleaned after each use AND also do not keep one from getting wet. My 3 year was soaked for hours after entering and first playing with the water. No towels or paper towels to dry off with.

The garden “soil” (dark brown rubber wood chips) had black long human hairs all stuck and tangled in many pieces when my child picked some pieces up.

The “workshop” was very WEAK and lasted about 10min not from 2:30-4pm which is quite MISLEADING. The macaroons were a far cry from real French macaroons. Even Trader Joe’s hits the mark better.

The Trader Joe’s super market lacked sufficient shopping carts and bananas (there was a while shelf decorated with banana pictures, yet only like 5 bananas to shop for). Insuficiente product quantity for all the children present to play (capacity should be better managed by the establishment). No money or credit cards were distributed to be played with. The scanner doesn’t even make a BEEPING SOUND.

Hardly any of the vehicles have a gas tank that you can open the door and place the nozzle in at the gas station for it to be realistic. We could also not pay at the pump with credit card or anything. No flashing lights anything. We had to fake / pretend everything… it’s like a WANNA-BE Pretend City, but not quite. At this rate, I could pretend at home with my child and not spend $80!

The mechanic shop power drill didn’t even make sounds for when we were placing tires on the car and I pressed the button on the drill to a disappointed face when the drill made no sounds :(

None of the screens (cash register in super market, screen in mechanic shop, computer in the UPS store, screens in the restaurant, computer in the library) actually worked or made any electronic realistic play sounds.

We felt like sardines here… like we passed the fire safety occupancy limit for the sq. footage of the establishment.

Did my kids have fun? Of course, they are toddlers.

Worth the money we paid? NO, go to Discovery cube to get your money’s worth and discounted tickets for your children to go free instead of paying $80 for mediocre-not-quite-pretend fun.

Establishment policies in line with other similar in the county, state, country? NO we have visited over 10+ indoor children’s museums similar to this over the past 20days (we are on vacay) and have never been kicked out of an activity 15min. to the time that was stated on the ticket. Discovery cube let us jump and play until the last minute and there were others just finishing up on a few minutes past the hour as well.

Remotely located in an industrial area off of the 5fwy so NOTHING to do while you wait 30min. in line in the HOT SUN without shade from a canopy / umbrella / or otherwise.

Customer...

Brilliant concept, great intentions for child development & growth, commendable support that’s offered to various communities, but my family and I will never return to this place again.

Due to Pretend City’s unclear policy regarding admission prices and playtime sessions on their website, we were only allotted 1 hour of play and paid $45 for admission ($14.95/ person). If we wanted to reenter after their 12-1pm closing for cleaning, customers must pay the full admission fee again for everyone in the party.

It was our first time there, and we travelled from afar to visit and read the website in advance, which currently is not explicit about this policy, but it was clear when speaking with the manager, Nicole, that she was disinterested nor willing to display any sort of understanding or empathy for the situation and provided a luke-warm, disingenuous reply that I could buy a membership instead to reenter, which is an empty & insincere resolution to present in my opinion. Still standing at the entrance, I reiterated that it was our first time here, and I don’t want to buy a membership to a place I have yet to experience and frankly do not like in the current moment, so the manager Nicole decided to cast us off to Kelly, but Nicole did not care to provide her with context to an already frustrating situation and left us to explain the entire ordeal (the front, where Nicole was, had no customers waiting). Appreciatively, Kelly agreed that the website lacks clarity regarding the admission policy and admitted this misunderstanding has happened before—particularly with customers who are not from the area like us and therefore are not familiar, so if anything, I am disappointed that revisions have not been made to their website to avoid continual negative experiences like this.

However, Kelly showed more kindness than Nicole, but she was under the impression we were only there to complain and failed to understand that we were inquiring about any sort of financial accommodation for us to reenter without paying the full admission price again to which Kelly offered us complimentary readmission as a one-time accommodation and to name drop to the cashiers when we return.

Ultimately, we decided not to return for reentry because our experience became tainted before it even began, and we left feeling disappointed & frustrated with the poor customer service received that impacted our overall experience. It was clear to me that management is oblivious and imperceptive to the ideology that establishments such as this should care about the parent experience as much as the child’s, and they lack the required customer service skills needed to foster a positive, wrap-around experience for the entire family. Yes, the sets are fun, creative, and well-made for children, but this should not be Pretend City’s crux into believing or caring that this is where their concern for “experience” should stop. Additionally, I do not agree with their admission policy per session as it is clearly a move to strong arm parents/caregivers into a membership. For us, it would have been $220 for a family of 3 for one year. I understand that this is a nonprofit, but other reasonable admission options for same-day reentery beyond the membership or a second full admission payment could clearly be made available.

** unless the parent clicks the link to purchase advance tickets, which I did not, the website does not offer clear explanations that $14.95 entrance fee per person must be repurchased for reentry once reopening from cleaning. “Session” can be subjective and interpreted as a day, as in my case, since a brief closing only occurs in between for cleaning. An explicit disclaimer should be present on the website, such as “admission must be repurchased at full price to reenter the museum once reopening from cleaning...

I honestly expected more. Been wanting to go for a while. Brought my 5 year old for his birthday, with his 12 year old brother in tow. Granted, I didn't expect there to be much for the 12 year old, and there really isn't. Not even a little movie theater for him to sit and watch some cartoons (which almost every little city we have been to has a movie theater..). My 5 year old enjoyed himself.. to an extent. 2 hours and he was pretty much over it. From what I can tell, the place isn't maintained. They build an attraction, and as the attraction breaks down (especially anything electrical, or that has a button) they don't do much to bring it back to its original glory. This led to areas being very lackluster, like the water area. Water barely moves, air blowers are too weak to work, and the boats don't actually fit going down the "river".. so the original boats they had are non existent, the pumps and air compressor are in need of replacement. There is a ball maze magnet thing, but there is only 1 ball in the entire city to use with it. You can see little indicators and whatnot everywhere, indicating things are suppose to be there but aren't. We came early, got there at 10:05 (they opened at 10) so it's not that they were in use or anything. There is a main stage in the center, with a booth in front. Has a bunch of buttons on it, like animal sounds, light colors, etc.. but none of them work. There is a stem room with stuff like circuits, but the components on the board hardly work so the kids couldn't get interested. How hard is it to replace a few wires and computer fans? Lightbulbs..? Just a set it and forget it kind of place. We won't be coming back, and that's unfortunate.

Update: thank you for the reply. I unfortunately need to add that my 5 year old, and the 2 other toddlers that went with our group, all got sick afterwords. All had caughs, wouldn't/couldn't eat, and high fevers for roughly 3 days. In retrospect, we should have been much more diligent on making them wash their hands.. with that said, I didn't see a single employee sanitizing anything the entire 3 hours we were there. Take care, love the idea behind...