Malibu Jack's Lexington — Attraction in Lexington

This place is an absolute lifesaver in the summer. It’s an indoor arcade/theme park with air conditioning. If you’ve ever been to a Main Event or Dave & Busters or even GattiTown then you basically have a great idea on what this place is and how it works. You load money onto a reloadable card, with my family of 5 we put $100 (which gave us $130 because they add $30 extra for that price) and we did almost everything in the building in 3 hours and still had $20 in Malibu Bucks left over and tickets (which to be honest didn’t find out what to do with those, but I’m going to gander it’s like any other place and you redeem them for prizes).

My family is comprised of my self, my husband, and our 3 kids (3, 7, and 12). And there were things everyone could do and most we were able to do together. Now my two youngest are in the short side, but the only reasons they couldn’t do certain rides was because of age: Twist & Shout (which is basically tilt-a-whirl kinda thing) you have to be 4, so my youngest didn’t ride it. And Wave Runner you have to be age 8 and a certain height and my 7 year old couldn’t ride because they were just under the height and a year younger.

X-Rider the inside 4D experience was awesome. We did the Dino Safari and Snow Coaster. Dino Safari was the best out of those too. 4 D aspect wasn’t really there because the last 4D experience I went to, water happened when it rained and smells were around. None happened. There were random bubbles in the Dino one and it “snowed” in the snow coaster one. But no smells were there.

The Dark Ride we went on to kill Zombies but my 7 year old got really scared because in 3D the zombies really look like they are coming after you. The ride operator was amazing and could see that we had stopped playing. I’m not sure if anyone one of use actually did the “X above our heads” that you are supposed to do. The person was amazing. Even told us to get a refund since we stopped it right at the beginning. I only refunded the 7 year olds Malibu Bucks because the rest of us would have enjoyed it and it wasn’t that big a deal to me.

The only other things we paid for out of pocket were bowling and drinks (3 bug juices and two bottles sodas was about 12 dollars). Bowling was fun. It was darkened, and there were tv shows playing in the screens, music playing above. Every other lane was shut down (Covid things I suppose). But it was fun none the less.

The thing I didn’t like: I have lower back issues and walk around a lot for long periods is hard (not impossible). There were only a few benches in the whole place. By the kids play area (think Mickey D’s play palace kinda thing) and by the Twist and Shout coaster. Other than that no other public seating really. I made it work by choosing rides I could sit down in and enjoy with my kids (car racing, the typhoon roller coaster simulator (do the snow coaster one… it blasts you with cold air the entire time, it was amazing!!) the x-rider 4D simulators.

Overall my family had an amazing time and would recommend it to anyone because it’s a fun place to be.

Things that were there we didn’t try: go carts, mini golf (back issues), the spinning bumper cars, laser tag. The VR experience was down for maintenance so we didn’t get to experience that. Oh some of the things were on a timed schedule like the next ride on the Wave Runner was at 15 minutes after the hour, ever...

I was throwing a birthday party for my child. 1. Our room was given away, 2. Someone double booked another party for that room where we were supposed to be, 3. The sales manager, Laura, whom the hosts had to call about the chaos, acted like and told the hosts she didn't remember booking my party when she reached out to me, personally, via texts, for almost 8 hours on and off, we talked about the plans, just a few days before, They tried to put us in the bowling area (no privacy, rowdy adults, using prophanity and just all over the place...... NO PLACE FOR MY CHILD OR HIS FRIENDS) the cabana and restaurant areas that are blocked off for current construction..equipment and stuff all over the room and floors We were given no other options, we weren't given the room after that double booked party left. 6. We were in the restaurant area where the lights were so dim, guests were complaining, it was cold and though it was blocked off, all kinds of RANDOM guests were moving the curtains and peeking into our party!!! Some walked in from outside and right through the room/party. 7 They were not told to not touch or open the curtains.. Even after I told them it's a private party, they wouldn't stop. 8. We had nobody to support or speak up for us and keep the random guests from peeking in on my child's birthday party and respect our space. It was completely and totally disrespectful. Even a few people from their staff said, them putting us back there.... In the path of a construction zone,.... was unacceptable...obviously they were right!!!! Anything could've happened. It was fast too late to make other plans. Kids were already dropped off. It took then 30 minutes to get us somewhere, (unlimited time was given for that room but we still had to endure so much. I just got tired of voicing the issues to the girl that was hosting for us, nothing was changed, finally I just said we're good. We had to go find people for refills. I don't know where she went. I don't think we saw her the rest of the night. When I received a text for a rating and mine was 1, (but if possible it would've been 0,) I got a call from someone that's over the reviews, I explained everything to him, I believe his name is Chris, who offered compensation.... But that would be the only way I'd go back, and honestly, it's not close to enough. I don't plan on having any personal big events there anymore. Malibu Jack's can blame Laura for my review.

These pictures show the curtains in the background, which shows no privacy. You can see other guests through the curtains so you know they could see us. Also, you can see how accessible it was for any random guests to see through the curtains and opened whenever they wanted. The other picture is the dim lighting, and dark room. These are literally NOT exaggerated photos. The only editing is to take out faces out of the photos. It took then 30 minutes to put us in a place like that, The extended check in time is why we were given, at that point, was unlimited time...

Typically, we love Malibu Jacks. We moved away from Lexington a few years ago and every time we come to visit family we make a trip the MJs. We went this afternoon and had the only bad experience we’ve had and I want to leave a review about this experience. Part of the reason we love MJs is the play area. I love that it is gated and we can allow our kids to run and play in a safe place. This morning was not the case. I met a friend there with her two children and I have three. There was a large group of kids, I’m assuming from a summer camp there. Totally fine of course- but - part of this group was kids that were clearly over the age limit to play in bounce beach. This would also not typically bother me but this group was not only extremely loud but they were playing very rough. My friend and I watched from afar for a while. The. We got closer at one point when my two year old started to get a little tired. This group of children ran and pushed through our group knocking my friends older son to the ground (he’s 8 so not a small one like some of the other kiddos playing at the time) my friend told the kids they needed to watch where they were going and chill out bc there were little ones playing too. As far as we could see there was only one adult supervising these kids and his eyes were glued to his cell phone not even watching them. My friend went to go tell a manager hoping to help the situation. By the time she was getting back the group of kids decided to leave and play games. The manager and an employee came and walked around the play area for a short time and we told her the kids had left and my friend added it was probably bc she told them to chill out. This is where today is the issue- the manager told her that she could not tell another child what to do or tell them to slow down. She told my friend that in this situation my friend should pull her children out of the situation and get a manager bc another parents may not like their child being reprimanded by a different adult and that if she had kids she would not like it. My friend said that she would always stick up for her children and if another parent had an issue with it that parent could come talk to her. This manager would hardly let my friend discuss this with her and kept cutting her off saying that she needed to let her talk. I’m sorry in what world is it okay for other children to roughhouse and knock children to the ground and nothing be said. Not to mention the lack of supervision these kids had. I don’t know this managers name but whomever was there around 12:30pm on June 28th may need some better training bc the way she handled this was extremely poor.

Outside of this issue we’ve loved this place in fact we were in just yesterday to play while in town and...