West Allis-West Milwaukee Recreation Department — Attraction in West Allis

Mixed review. Had our 1 year old's birthday party here and we were very happy with the space and price. Seems to be lots of fun activities for all ages being hosted here. However yesterday myself and the other people who showed up for the 8pm adult nerf event were very disappointed.

Due to the cyber attack affecting the rec's website we were unable to sign up for the event but we called a few days in advance to ensure the nerf event was still happening. We asked if we could pay in advance but we're told reservations are not needed, but they were glad to hear we were interested because there has not been much interest.

We arrived at 750pm and the doors were locked for the main entrance and to the gymnasium where the event was taking place. I looked in the gym and saw it fully setup and could tell the youth event must have just ended. My wife stayed by the front door the entire time as I tried to get the attention of the staff to let them know the door was locked. Both my wife and I saw multiple staff members who while inside walked near the doors, saw us with nerf products but didn't come to the door. They just continued for 15 minutes to start taking down the setup and cleaning up the nerf darts, etc.

At this point more people arrived at the front door right around 8pm to start the event. We were relived because for a moment we thought we misunderstood the time of the event. But something still seemed wrong because it appeared the staff was shutting down all the lights and getting ready to leave. Finally at 8:10 I started knocking on the gym glass to get the staff to open the door.

I was approached but a woman who told me that due to nobody showing up, they decided to cancel the event. I asked her to direct her eyes at the main entrance at the people waiting by the locked door. I said "we have been waiting at this door since 7:50pm, the door was locked then as it is now, did someone make a mistake by having the door accidentally locked?". I could understand a mistake like that, while unfortunate, it would have been a lot of work for the staff to fully setup the event again after just spending 20 mins tearing it down. But what happened next was just bizarre and worth writing this review.

The staff member said, "Oh, well you all must have just got here, it's 8:14pm now and the event is all packed up." I said, "we did not just get here, my wife and I arrived at that door at 7:50pm and it was locked. I have been standing here watching you tear down the event for the last 20 mins while she has been standing there.". The woman said, "that's not possible, that door has been open until I walked over and locked it at 8:10pm". I said you are mistaken, please don't lie to me, the other people arrived right around 8:00 pm and they and my wife will confirm you did not even walk to that door in the last 20 mins.". The staff member stuck to her story and said we were mistaken, and was starting to close the door and walk away". I told her, "you need to go make an announcement and tell all of those people what you just told me, I want you to see their reaction as well".

She went over and made an announcement, trying to sound professional while gaslighting everyone the entire time telling us we infact were not standing at the door and she literally just locked the door so we must all must have just arrived. This staff member along with the 3-4 other staff members who were employed to run this event all were seemingly in their 20s. I guess they all didn't want to be there so they decided to lock the doors early. Ignore the people trying to get their attention as they packed up the event ~2 hours early as this event was supposed to go until 9:30pm. The absolutely worst part of this is the lies, I just can't convince myself to support this facility anymore until someone at the rec center holds them accountable for...

Really sad. My son’s backpack got stolen his shoes and all of his belongings in summer camp my son while in the pool he went swimming and when he came back nothing was there he had wet clothes and no shoes not clothes to change literally nothing. I had asked them to please reimburse everything that got stolen about $100 worth and or to please pay a week of camp. They pretty much said “no”, they check cameras but they were blurry literally if something happened the incident would be blurry too? I felt unsafe to even continue to take my son to camp without proper clear surveillance cameras. My sons stuff were never found they didn’t bother to even help out to buy new shoes and back pack & clothes that was stolen. I’m extremely disappointed that no one could help with this matter. Apparently stealing is ok and no one does anything to help parents out when things are stolen in there lockers my son trusted his stuff being in there now I trust nothing about camp at all...

Well the dollar rate is good compared to other camps however the staff hired, mostly team leads could not care less about having that job. Among different missteps, they left my 5 year old kid unattended at 9ft water without a life jacket and my kid almost drowned. The principle tried to cover it up but my kid told me what had happened. At the end of the day his life was at danger. Would not recommend this place to anyone with young kids like mine, 5 years old. Too many kids, too chaotic with irresponsible teenagers (teenagers) that don’t understand the importance of their job and a principle that although tries to make things work, she has hired anyone off the street to do this job. Totally...