Race City — Attraction in Panama City Beach

I have never been more disappointed in customer service nor with an establishment. In fact, I’ve never left a negative review for any business before. I cannot believe how much of a rip off this place was. Don’t bother wasting your money. My daughters and I got here mid-day and opted to buy the unlimited arm band. At the desk I asked about the requirement for the sling shot chair and was told it’s not working. I said oh, I thought it was working last night - because we drove by and it was working. The lady said you didn’t see it working last night it’s been broken for a week, she was kind of rude about it but I just said ok. My girls were so excited to play in the arcade so I bought two arcade cards. We played a few games but they decided to play the claw games a bit. We have a lot of experience with arcade places in various cities and my kids always win things from the claw machines. The claw machines deliberately release the product right before hovering over the drop zone. This happened so many times to us that we recorded it on my phone. I took it to three of the employees to let them know their machines aren’t working right. One of my daughters was crying by this point. These three employees told me that the machines are programmed to work this way. One of them asked if I wanted to take to a supervisor and I said I would love it. Talking with the supervisor, she told me that the you have to keep playing and sometimes you win and sometimes you lose. So again, told me they are programmed to open before the drop zone. I told her I didn’t believe I would ever win because it’s programmed to drop it. She shrugged her shoulders. The people working here do not care at all. They were flippant and dismissive. I asked for the supervisors name and they refused to tell me. This has been a horrible experience and not only will I post this review everywhere I can, I will be personally sharing my story as well.

Addition on 8/21. In response to the reply to my original post: I absolutely am positive that Race City is where I had my horrible experience and I will NEVER waste my money on your arcades again. Not will I recommend anyone else do this. Your arcade claw games are set so that they cannot be won. Your staff confirmed that was how they were programmed. It was incredibly disappointing to my child because we have always won at claw machines at other establishments. As an addition, after being upset with your establishment we went next door to Cobra and had an amazing time on their sling shot chair. So there is absolutely no mistake and I will not be...

I don’t put reviews on for places, but I hope to save someone the disappointment and money. I also am just one person but I am quite and listen to the others in line around me so it my opinions mixed with strangers words for support. Do not get unlimited bands we got them and it was not worth it, the go carts are fair not the best. The roller coaster looks great but it is very jerky and scary in a not fun way. The rocking roller is supposed to make you dizzy, but the spinning last way way to long. The haunted house is about like it looks on the outside, the scary part was trying to find the way out. There were several spots where maybe staff doors or something must have been open because we made a circle in the almost dark and made it back to the entrance. The staff is slow they could have cared less if we rode at all. It was not crowed, and we went at 12 o’clock because they closed the beach’s. We stayed an 1 1/2 hours. We left because we were a little board and tired of waiting. We went back 🤦‍♀️ at 8 think we would get more of our money worth it we road go carts again. It was a little more crowded but not a huge crowd and still slow. The armbands are good until 10 and it says you have to be on the ride by then for it to count!!! We were in line!!! We had been in line for at least 45 min. The staff also let a cart go that clearly had something wrong with it and were laughing as it drove off only for it to stop about five laps in and take them 10 minutes to move while the staff “moved” (looked like they were having fun riding the carts too) other carts around. We got there at eight and rode 3 things!!! One was a kids ride that didn’t have a wait 😁 It is like a small thrown together fair on a black top so it is hot. I gave it two starts because we enjoyed the bumper boats 😂 Road it all but the sky sling thing and some small kids stuff and was very disappointed. Save your money 4...

Race City is what happens when someone with ADHD, a love of motorsports, and questionable zoning laws gets a blank check and a parking lot. And honestly? I respect the hell out of it.

We grabbed the unlimited wristbands like the naive optimists we are, thinking surely we’ll tap out after a couple go-kart laps. Eight hours later, we were still hurling ourselves around the tracks like middle-aged Mario Bros trying to outrun back pain and parenting responsibilities. The tracks? Legit. Fast enough to be fun, not fast enough to get sued. The kids had a blast, and no one crashed into anything they couldn’t blame on someone else.

The Haunted Mansion? A fever dream built from Halloween leftovers and pure Florida energy. Is it scary? Not exactly. But it's just disorienting enough that your kids come out scared with big eyes and you come out wondering what kind of fire code violations just touched your soul.

Now, the soda situation. Whoever decided that unlimited refills should be handed out by a person instead of a self-serve fountain clearly hates joy. There is no greater buzzkill than standing in line for thirty minutes behind a guy debating his kids what ride they want to go on like it's a hostage negotiation. Give me a button, a lever, something. I’ve got dehydration and mild sunstroke, don't make me beg.

For that, four stars. Because we rode everything, everyone had fun, and by the end of the day, nobody cried. Except maybe that one guy who got stuck taking all the little kids through the haunted house a dozen times and questioned all his life choices. 100%,...