Keiki Kingdom Wonderland Adventure — Attraction in Oʻahu

We were so excited that a large indoor playground had opened closer to home. After trying a few indoor playgrounds around the island, Kid City in Honolulu had become our go-to location, and it has been great, but it takes us an hour to get there.

Unfortunately, Keiki Kingdom was disappointing on a number of levels. First, they make it abundantly clear that their main motivation is to make money. They nickel and dime you for everything (even the adults have to purchase their socks). Then right when you walk in there is a toy store (?!) filled with overpriced and cheaply made toys calling out to kids - it was all I could do to keep my kid from returning there and asking for stuff we can’t afford and that will break in two seconds. Further, almost half of the downstairs is unavailable for kids to play with (games and rides) because you have to pay extra for them. At Kid City, you pay one price and everything is available. You don’t have to keep telling your kid “no” and redirecting them back to the other activities.

The tunnel system downstairs, while elaborate and pretty cool, makes it very hard to keep track of your kiddos. They can easily end up out of view and exit somewhere without your knowledge. While I felt that the entrance and exit to the facility were well monitored, no one was monitoring the elevator, and little kids could easily wander in there with no one noticing.

I actually lost my son downstairs for over 10 min. I couldn’t find him anywhere. I had seen him start to come down one of the exits, but then it was like he disappeared. I searched downstairs and upstairs. He’s five, so old enough that I didn’t panic right away, but I was still concerned and finally reached out for help. Which brings me to the staff. Do they get any training in customer relations, and do they realize they work in a place that serves keiki? The guy I spoke to had no empathy, seemed totally annoyed that I was asking for help, and clearly didn’t know what to do to find a missing kid.

Before I could get too frustrated with his response, I saw another parent leading my upset son across the floor. He had finally reached out for help, and she was kind enough to help him. There is a hidden room of soft blocks at the back end of the first floor - I didn’t know about it because it was our first time there. My son had ended up there when he left the tunnels, and I couldn’t see it from the outside.

We heard from other parents that their older kids really like the upstairs. Our son has some movement challenges, so some of the activities were really hard for him. That’s fine, and we are working on that, but it was discouraging that many of the activities are very structured with lines and kids waiting for their turn, so it’s not a great place for kids a little behind the curve to practice and build strength and courage. It also didn’t help that staff upstairs were inpatient and unfriendly, too. He got barked at several times for not following signs (e.g., only one kid at a time on each trampoline) that he can’t read and that weren’t visible to me from where I was watching.

Ugh, no thank you, Keiki Kingdom! We will drive the hour to Kid City, where the pricing is transparent and inclusive, where the staff are family-friendly and professional, where it’s easy to keep track of my kid, and where he can play freely in a self-directed way. All the extra little things Kid City does to be welcoming and supportive to kids AND parents are appreciated, too. My mom friends and I like taking turns in the massage chairs ($1 for 3 min of peace and a chance to recharge). Such a more positive, cost-effective, and stress-free experience.

We will give Keiki Kingdom another chance at some point to see if they are learning anything from the feedback they are getting and making changes. But if it continues to feel like a soulless money-grubbing operation, we will keep our...

ATTENTION TO ANYONE 🚩 who is looking to BOOK a PARTY or has RESERVATION for a PARTY.

I recently had a party there and invited my child's friends. They are all aged 4-5 years old. The room you reserve and pay for is for 20 ppl. You can pay in full but a deposit must be paid. There is no such thing as Kama'aina rate! Okay fine, no problem. The part they do not tell you is every child is counted as 1 and every adult is also counted as 1. This rule applies to ALL. Whether or not the adult or child are playing or not playing. There is ABSOLUTELY NO GOOD PARENT ON PLANET EARTH that would just drop off their child with strangers in the 4-5 age group. With this rule you get to 20 people very quickly . Parents must chaperone their children. Especially when you include parents who aren't playing. Once you hit 20 it is now $35.00 per person adult or child . Again, whether playing or not. When we expressed this to management the lack of care was very evident. The manager was nonchalant . They have done this before. As another reviewer said previously it would be helpful to train managers and staff about customer service. This is a incredible learning opportunity on how to speak to people. The excuse given was it is a larger indoor playground. The downtown location is an additional $5.00 per adult. Not Aiea. $35.00 per person if playing or not it does not matter . If Grandma comes to sit and watch her grandchild blow a candle. Grandma is $35.00 if there are over 20 people there already in party room . It does not matter if Grandma is in a wheelchair with no legs . We easily paid for two playrooms for the 3 hour window even though we reserved one room. If transparency was there we would have reserved two playrooms .

They are NOT transparent & do not care!

Also, you are not able to set up birthday party a little early. The 3 hour window they provide is quite literally 3 hours and does not include any extra time . Not even 10-15 minutes for the party set up. So as you set up your party, the guests arrive at the same time. As soon as that window is up their staff is in playroom to boot you out ASAP! They do not ask if you will take things , they pick up , trash it & quickly ! One staff member asked if he could grab a cart to help move the things out of playroom. Which was nice. He went and brought a cart to us. The rest of the staff cleaning the party room ignored us completely.

If you have a cake that needs refrigeration they will take care of that. They provide extra tables with the plastic table cloths . There is also a cooler available but you will need to provide the ice. We still had our own cooler with drinks & ice . Also , there are no balloons. We brought previously aired up balloons. They also provide little carts to load things from car to party which is helpful . I guess.

There is no Thank you for choosing us for your party. No nothing . Which is sad. Every customer deserves at least a "THANK YOU FOR YOUR BUSINESS"! The party rooms aren't cheap.

I would suggest taking a good look at budget and getting everything in writing to prevent any awkward moments with your guests . Also, print out directly from the website & use due diligence to read through everything . Even the fine print.

I cannot remember ever writing a review to this extent . However, people must know the truth. Especially in this economy .

Low rating for misleading website , lack of care & lack of appreciation for customers from staff...

Update: We just revisited this location this past week, and they are now making it mandatory that you wear their socks. If you have any other socks you bring, you will be asked to purchase theirs under the guise that it is a part of their policy. Socks are $3 a pair per their website.

Location & Parking: Their new Aiea location is huge! It definitely is bigger than the Honolulu one. Easy to find and tons of parking.

Wait time: We arrived at 9:30 a.m. and there was already a line. We were in line by 9:38 a.m. and then the line started to wrap around the building, so I suggest you definitely get there early.

Reservation & check-in: It is a little pointless to make a reservation for 10 a.m. because they open directly at 10 a.m. and you still have to wait in the reservations line to check in. We made a reservation and didn't get checked in until 10:16 a.m. they let us start our time at 10:25 so it evened out. Both the walk-in line and the reservations line moved at the same pace. There are 2 workers checking in both lines, so it moved fairly slow.

Waiver: Just FYI, if you signed a waiver at the Honolulu location, it will not transfer, so you have to fill out another waiver.

Price: You'll pay the $26 for the children and $8 for adults. But they do list on their website that if you do not come in with your child or party, you will have to pay full price. They did not have any Kamaaina or military prices listed anywhere that I saw while we were there, so idk if they do give those discounts.

Observation: it looks like most of the front staff are teens, and when the doors open, it gets very overwhelming because of the sheer number of people. A little empathy and kindness for them will go a long way. They're still fairly new and maybe still figuring out the fine details. I suggest having separate signs outside the building that marks where reservations should stand and where the walk-ins should stand before doors open. (I.e. reservations line up outside on the left and walk-ins line up on the right, etc.,) this way when the doors open the lines will flow right thru instead of everyone trying to sort themselves out at the entrance. Too many people at the front doors clustered together may serve for an unsafe situation in case of an emergency.

Experience: The lockers inside and the keys are easy to use and have space enough to fit a diaper bag. The whole area was very well thought out and designed. Love the toddler areas on the first floor. Very well put together. Even big enough spaces for the parents to accompany their Littles throughout the play areas. The second floor is perfect for older kids. There's even machines that take tokens to play on. The tokens are $1 for 1 token. They also have a cute little shop downstairs to buy items.

All the areas were so clean and well kept. The employees wipe down the rides after the children get off of them. Very awesome place to take your kiddos both toddlers, pre-teens, and teenagers. The adults also have fun here as well with their kiddos. I'm so glad they made a place close to this side of the island. Definitely...