Johnson County Museum — Attraction in Overland Park

I'll point out a few things you won't read elsewhere.

Kidscape is worth a membership!

After visiting here the first time we decided to get an annual membership and after our second visit it's definitely paying off. Rainy days aren't the only reason to hide from the elements (it's over 100 degrees right now!) and having any indoor play area is worth the price of admission. The Kidscape area surrounds a central ring of seats, all in one large room so it's easy to keep an eye on the kiddos without having to chase them from room to room (looking at you, Wonderscope...)

Others have described the place in detail, so I'll point out a few things you usually wouldn't notice without going yourself.

I recommend wearing a hat. The lighting in this area is mostly small spotlights and they can be distracting at best.

There's a family restroom just outside the Kidscape entrance, but just around the corner are the regular restrooms. The men's room also has a changing station (Yay!) and a short urinal for boys (who doesn't?) but surprisingly doesn't have a short sink. It's necessary to hold the kids up to wash their hands. Even a step stool would help.

It looks like the place has wifi though I haven't tried connecting to it.

There are recycling bins connected to the trash cans. Great opportunity to talk to the kids about recycling!

A large elevator leads to the lower level (where Kidscape lies).

There are no windows in Kidscape besides the door, which has no view to the outside world. Thus it's very comfortable inside (maybe even a tad chilly if you're not running around.

The bones of the old King Louis bowling alley are still there and it's worth looking up as you enter or leave Kidscape.

The rest of the museum is also worth checking out. I'll leave those details...

I was HIGHLY dissatisfied with the customer service here for a birthday party I had. They were EXTREMELY rude throughout the party. They interrupted the party in the midst of the party attempting to kick us out. Their contract is not clear and needs rewrote. You only get the food room for 1.5 hours and the contract is so messy you miss this when you read. They could have quietly pulled me aside and said, I’m sorry to bother you, but the room time is done. But they literally said “your time is done you have to leave right now.” I asked if we could pay for more time and they rudely said yes. Then when we left they told me rudely at checkout, “we got the payment for the extra hour and we waved the 3 extra guests you had.” But yet we had 25 guests, only 9 of those were children and we were allowed 45 guests. Oh and… the entire beginning time they were like WE WILL COUNT EVERY PERSON YOU HAVE. Very rudely. Anyways, I’m still confused what three guests they waved because I did not have any extra guests. Also, the entire time we had the party Kidscape was open to the public which I did not know would be a thing so there was other kids constantly taking toys from people in my party. Not the end of the world, just a complete shock. I was very disappointed because the people who work during the week are SO KIND. But they weekend staff management really needs to review their customer service skills.

3 stars because we love to play here...

Very disappointed in our experience today. Went with a very shy 4 year old to do the daily craft activity. The website said it was a, "drop in activity" from 10-12pm and registering before was not needed. We got there 10 minutes after it started and was told it was full and they weren't accepting anyone else for the entire 2 hour time slot. We drove over an hour to spend the day in the city, this was our first activity so I wasn't overly pleased. When my group went into the entry way to talk about what we could do instead a staff member asked us to come back so she could check and see if she could "squeeze us in". When we got the art room it wasn't even full. The craft itself took roughly 10 minutes to complete and other groups went in and out freely. I'm not sure why we were turned away. After our craft was done, which we had basically no direction on, we quickly walked through the museum where tons of kids were being insanely loud and rude while parents stood around. In the Kidscape area I was very unimpressed, it was a mess and the toys were old and dirty looking. Parents again were not watching the children and the child I was with wouldn't do anything because of the others running around and butting into his personal space. Our entire time there...