Bounce Empire — Attraction in Lafayette

I want this place to succeed, but there is room for improvement right now.

First: the main event, the bounce park. 5 stars here. A variety of inflatables that were fun for our kids at various ages and various levels of bravery. Everything was working, and all supporting equipment like soccer balls was where it was supposed to be, which is certainly not a given at a place like this.

Second, the lounge. There's an adults only lounge and bar where you can hang out while your kids play. This is a cute idea, but not super usable. Our kids are not at an age where we can completely turn them loose and not expect them to come find us at some point. Even when our oldest is ready for that, our youngest won't be. To make this work, they would need more of a "camp" structure where we know there are attendants watching our kids. Otherwise, it needs to be accessible for our kids to find us, not a 21+ lounge. 3.5 stars here.

Finally, the restaurant. This was the biggest disappointment, and had a lot of room for improvement. I appreciated that there was a nice menu and that I could go to a place for the kids without having to eat low quality carnival food. But although I was happy, the kids were not. The kids selections were not super appetizing to our kids, especially the picky eaters. They all came with sweet potato fries or yucca fries, which went untouched.

The restaurant also has some logistical problems. They have kiosks where you can order, but none of the food on the screen has a description. For instance, the "Mack Attack" has a photo that looks like chicken tenders, which one kid picked based on the photo. It's served up with fancy mac and cheese and bacon bits, and also went untouched. I found descriptions of the dishes on the website, but nowhere inside the building. There were also apparently other dishes that could be ordered not from the kiosk, although there was no visible attendant at the counter so it wasn't clear you could order by any mechanism but the kiosk. And on top of all of this, they didn't bring the drinks we ordered, and it took quite a while to find them since, as mentioned, there was no attendant at the counter.

If you strip everything else away, this place is a nice bounce park. It's trying to be more, but right now it's not delivering...

I went to this place on January 2nd, 2025. I definitely regret going because I broke my ankle and leg in there obstacle course. Obviously I don’t blame them for myself breaking my own bones on accident. But I do have a huge issue with this place, and here’s why. When I got injured I was only halfway through their obstacle course. I quickly realized how isolated and trapped I was. I was by myself, severely injured, and afraid. I screamed for help but no one could hear me. There is no safe exit. Luckily I was in shock so I couldn’t feel the pain yet but I knew not to walk on my leg. I had to jump over the barrier onto the ground, but that’s when I noticed the ground also had no exit. All of the bounce houses were connected and no escape. So I unfortunately had to pull myself onto a different bounce house by jumping on these black boxes they have. I had to jump over one more barrier to get to a point where I could finally see people. I started yelling for help again and some dad finally came and helped me after he realized I was in trouble. We had to hop together all the way through this flat bounce house thing to finally get to level ground. Then I finally got help. My concern is that doing all that caused more damage. And my main concern is what if I wouldn’t of been able to get up in the first place. What safety precautions are there in case someone needs help and can’t get someone to help them. My other issue with them is that they told me I would get a refund for my ticket and not only that, they could refund me for my whole party because they felt bad. I left them 3 contacts to get a hold of, they told me they would reach out. I was told this on the 5th of January. It is now almost 2 weeks later, I haven’t received any phone call and bother has the other 2 contacts. I’ve called them multiple times and no one can help, or they don’t answer. And of course their mail box is full so I can’t leave a message. The place seems like they acknowledge how unsafe it is but don’t care enough to protect their customers as long as they sign the waiver. This has caused me to not be able to walk for 6 months and the least they could do is make the refund aspect of it...

First visit to Bounce Empire today the 5-year-old #twinadoes. Pleased to say that it greatly exceeded our expectations. They are new, and certainly have some kinks to work out, but they had plenty of attentive staff who ALL went out of their way to be helpful. Many thanks to Jamie, Leslie, Ariann and Bradley. The inflatables were large and AMAZING and pictures certainly do not do them justice -- you have to experience the fun firsthand.

They are continuing to experiment with their pricing based upon customer feedback (and the large $$$ investment made to open such a neat place). They are now charging $20 per person, per hour (down from $25 initially), and have a greatly discounted rate for adults who are not going to participate in the bouncing. There is some kind of complex discount when you buy food and we had some misunderstanding about whether you are charged for the time you are eating (which they promptly and professionally took care of upon asking). I think they will continue to tweak the pricing and packages as time goes on -- they seemed very open to any feedback, which is a good sign.

The food is solid, but served in a "to go" bag with paper plates/utensils, which probably takes a way a bit from the desired experience. Certainly MUCH better than typical bar or "fair" food, which was refreshing! The upstairs "Rubbish Bar" is 21+ and probably a good place to watch the kiddos below from the viewing glass (or whilst relaxing in one of their comfortable massage chairs...).

There is an interesting DJ stage in the middle, which I learned is actually on hydraulics and raises up. They plan on having some good performers/concerts this summer, but this afternoon, they had a pretty incredible 9-year-old DJ who was doing a great job.

This really is a unique place and a local small business that we want to support to keep them here (I also learned that they are building another one in Centennial from scratch). Definitely check it out and give them a bit of time to get everything sorted out. My twins asked if they could have their birthday party there in August, so they definitely had...