Charlie's Safari Family Fun Center — Attraction in Tacoma

I have taken my daughter here during the week a couple times with her friend and it was not too busy. Can’t beat seven dollars for the admission. However with the play area being five stories high in areas you can’t see through you often cannot find your child. They put a stamp on your hand and your child that supposed to be matching and they do not check it when you leave the facility. We went there today on a Saturday and it was pure chaos. At one point I could not find my child and was running around screaming like a maniac with my heart pounding. Adults are also running around through this maze and who knows what could happen to your kid in a non-see-through tunnel? Somebody could walk out the front or back exit with your kid!!! Nobody is watching the exits. The food took one hour and four minutes after I reminded them two times. The guy who I’m assuming is the only person back there cooking came out and asked me if I wanted bacon or anything on my potato skins? I said will being that on the menu they come with cheese, bacon and chives yes I would like it. They came out with cheese and bacon, no chives! My sister ordered before me and after checking 30 minutes later was informed her food would be out and then the person who is doing the cooking came out and told her they were out of the boneless wings she ordered. How did the people taking the order not know this?! After a hour total wait her food came out and she got supreme nachos instead of boneless wings. They were cold. Her pretzel she ordered was hard as a rock and she had him redo it and it took him four tries. Then she was informed they were out of the dipping cheese. I also ordered a Cabernet Sauvignon And the girl behind the counter said what is that? I said it’s a wine. She said is it red or white? She said I don’t know anything about alcohol. I’m sorry but if you’re working in a place that serves it you should know what is on your menu. Also do NOT refrigerate red wine!! We won’t be going back. It’s too much of a risk of having your child kidnapped or hurt! Shouldn’t have a bunch of people who seem like they’re under the age of 20 working by themselves in an establishment like this where children’s...

We went there for somewhere fun for our toddler to play and have fun in the rain. The staff was super uncooperative to the lady who was there before us trying to check in for her daughter's birthday party. Her arms were full and she could barely balance her baby and all of her stuff. Rather than letting this poor woman set all of her stuff in the party room and come back to pay, they made her do all of it there. Not once did they apologize for the lack of proper communication from her calling them when she set it up to when she checked in. That should have been our first clue to leave.

When it was our time to pay there wasn't anything posted that told us about an additional card service fee. They really just seemed to care about herding people in like cattle.

Once we could finally go in it was best described as pure chaos. No one offered to tell us where anything was, we had to figure it out on our own. I enjoyed the old Charlie's Safari before they moved. Well laid out with a section for smaller kids and bigger kids and the staff seemed to care. It also was a lot cleaner too. With the play structure a free for all for toddlers and bigger kids it was very overwhelming at this location.

Our toddler HATED it. Within 10 minutes he was ready to leave, he even grabbed his Dad's shoes and handed them to him and begged us to go. Needless to say even if our friend's have kids who have a party there we won't be going. Not worth it for our toddler to be miserable.

$18 isn't expensive for an afternoon of potential fun but it is if you don't stay. The staff should have offered some sort of a refund since we didn't even get to use any of the toys. We tried to get him to climb around or use the bounce house and he just cried and wanted to be held.

We won't be back. Maybe another family enjoys that kind of chaos, ours...

I will start off by saying we are new in town and did not go to the previous location. I can’t believe people have given this place poor reviews!

Our family of 5 enjoyed this place. We like that the main climbing gym is in a separate room from the bounce houses so it wasn’t very loud. There were plenty of tables and chairs for the parents to sit at. They have ice cream, soda, pizza and other snacks. The bathrooms and building are clean. We didn’t play any games but they have quite a few in here as well as a prize counter. There is laser tag for an additional fee that we also didn’t do because our youngest isn’t tall enough.

The room with the bounce houses is louder because they have the pumps on for the bounce houses. It wasn’t miserable by any means.

In my opinion the prices are reasonable. They charge a $2 admission fee for each adult but turn around and give you the money back in the form of a voucher you can use for food or tokens. We ended up using it to get drinks. The price for children 5+ was $10.75 and for the younger ones it was $6.25. They also offer discounts for firefighters, military, etc.

We spent 4 hours here for the cost of $29.18 (after tax). My kids would have stayed and played for several more hours if we let them. It’s way cheaper than going to the movies, arcades, bowling, etc. and it’s a healthy option for kids.

We will definitely be coming back here! Only advice, bring a jacket! They keep it cold in here to prevent...