Billy Beez Crossgates Mall — Attraction in Town of Guilderland

I had my son’s 3rd birthday party here and couldn’t have been more embarrassed or disappointed with the outcome. For starters, over the phone, they told me I could come 45 minutes early to decorate. Instead, I wasted basically that entire time waiting for them to allow me into the party room. I had absolutely no time to set up and guests started showing up while I was frantically still hanging up decorations, it was a bad look and it took time away from the party. The package lists a host, but you will never see them. They will never check in on the party, or see if you need anything. I had to keep carrying the pitchers down for refills myself, to only have the woman roll her eyes and give attitude every time. Another person from a different party pressed one of my guests and accused her/our party for stealing their pizzas even though one of the staff members brought them up to our room (surprisingly) My guest was visibly uncomfortable and confused, as the woman yelled at her and cursed her out in front of her toddler and other young children. As we were then having cake, a fight broke out amongst the employees and a customer. The staff is suppose to monitor the gate to leave, and ask to see each child’s & parent’s wrist band so they can match the numbers and confirm they came in together. The upset customer’s young child escaped through the gate which lead to the entire mall. The staff members were not diffusing the situation one bit, but instead adding to it, the one employee took his shirt off and was telling the customer to fight him. This went on for quite some time and completely overshadowed us singing happy birthday, all you could hear were curse words being shouted and loud banging from things being thrown. A staff member then comes into our party room and rudely says to us, “ya’ll got to get out” even though we had about 10-15 minutes left, and I was already visibly packing things up and taking the decorations down as she said this. I explained that we were just collecting our things and will be out. She comes back not even 5 minutes later and tells us “Get out” A guest of mine, who was special needs, went up to her and asked how he could help and offered to take the broom from her and start sweeping. She couldn’t have been any more rude as she told him “no, what you need to do is get out” At this point, the majority of my guests got up and left because they were so uncomfortable. Everything was in boxes and taken down at this point, I was just waiting on my family members to come back up to take the rest of the boxes/gifts down. Since they are located on the third floor of a busy mall, with a packed parking lot, it wasn’t the easiest to carry things down to the cars. And there was no way we could carry our young children plus everything else at the same time, which I tried explaining to her. She immediately starts screaming at me and of course, cursing as if there weren’t toddlers there! Thankfully another staff member came in and told her to get out and apologized on her behalf. Trust me, no one wanted to stay there any longer, we all couldn’t wait to leave! Also, we were the last party of the day, 7:45 and they did not close till 9 or so. It’s not like we were preventing the next party time to set up, or taking away from another party whatsoever. I even told her she could charge me whatever for the additional minutes I would have needed to make the trips down to the car. She kept shouting “Get out! No you need to get out right now!” I grab everything that was left by myself at this point, and move it out of the room, into the hallway outside of it, so she was able to clean. This resulted in me dropping the leftover cake on the floor (it was in its box/didnt get on the floor) but was completely smashed and ruined. It was a horrible experience from...

I was definitely not a fan and would not recommend. The place was not well managed at all. Employees were practically non existent. It was not busy at all the day that we went and it was still all discombobulated. The equipment itself was cool, big kids section was very large with lots of slides and things. The toddler section could have been a little better compared to other indoor play areas I’ve been to but it wasn’t bad as far as equipment to play on. The toddler section however was a disaster. The little buildings were completely torn apart to the point where they were unusable. The foam blocks were ripped and my 1.5 year old son kept picking up pieces and handing them to me… it’s a good thing I am attentive and up his butt and that he doesn’t put things in his mouth because that is a huge hazard. The toddler section was also filled with older kids who were rough and throwing things…in such a small area that is made for the littles this was chaotic and dangerous.. my son wasn’t even interested in playing in there because he almost got hit by something or knocked down every two seconds. The rules need to be enforced more, I realize that the parents should have stepped in but at some point the place should also be enforcing the rules to make it a safe environment. I have gone to other indoor play areas and they had staff stationed places enforcing rules and it was a much better experience. My SS who is 7 has been here many times and loves it but constantly says the he was pushed or injured in some way and I thought he was being dramatic before I saw it for myself… not a safe atmosphere. Again the day we went was super slow too and he said when he normally goes it is very busy. If I had this experience when it wasn’t even at the quarter capacity I can’t imagine how terrible it would be if it was closer to full capacity. This place is also not cheap so I was expecting much better. For those reading this and looking for advice skip this and go to the children’s museum in Saratoga, or ready set play in Mass if you are looking for an indoor play area… it was much cleaner and much better managed and when I went there it was busy too and still a...

Firstly, finding the place: the location is blacked out in the listing on the mall map. But it does show it on the actual map: head toward Best Buy and go up the escalators to the 3rd floor and it's there.

I took my 2 boys here, 5 and 9. They have a card you fill up with money for various things. Price was a bit steep($20 each) and they do charge for the parent($7) which most places like this don't. Adults are allowed on everything though. I thought the trampolines were included in the entry price but they aren't, it's an extra $2.50/kid for 5 minutes jumping. They did enjoy it though, I still think it should be included in the price.

So, really cool array of steep drop slides, tunnel slides, with high climbing play scapes leading to them. Everything is secured with netting but younger kids might be scared by the heights, I did have to retrieve my 5 year old once. Some of the steeper slides are more appropriate for adults and older kids. The ball cannons are fun, better to be behind one than down as a target in the pit.

I will say it's easy to lose your kids here, make sure you know which color slide they are going down unless you're going to follow them everywhere. I did like that Parents and kids get matching bracelets and exit is controlled by a manned gate.

There is also an arcade, but you can't spend quarters or even tokens there. You have to get credit on your Billy Beez card. The machine I was directed to to add credit to my card had no credit card reader, so I was glad I brought cash. The arcade games are not a value: you pay $1 and play for about 30 seconds. You do earn virtual tickets on your card and can trade them in for some cheap prizes. If you want to save money, just skip this altogether.

We did get snacks at the snack bar, pricing was about what you'd expect. Service there was not with a smile, but the entrance people were fine.

Overall, my boys had a blast and I know we'll be back. Not a cheap indoor activity, but they ran around rather than staring at a screen, so, that's a plus. And we spent nearly 4 hours here and they were still...