Des Moines Children's Museum — Attraction in West Des Moines

I will start by saying that my kids loved the place. I have an almost 2 year old and a 7 year old. They were running all over the place having fun!

Coming from the Iowa City area, I expect more though. We have a children's museum which is 3 floors and we can't get the everything done in 3 hours. Going to West Des Moines, a larger population and and better market for more fun things, I expected something even better than the children's museum in Coralville. We typically go to Children's Museums whenever we visit a bigger city, too, so I expected something similar to or better than the smaller market of Coralville.

I drove around the mall twice; there is no exterior signage for people from out of town. One of the girls on the phone described it as "by the old Yonkers building. It looks really run down". There needs to be some sort of exterior signage for people who are not familiar with the area. The "museum" is an old store, inside the mall, converted into more of an indoor play place, at a desolate end of Valley West Mall.

While playing, there were items strewn everywhere. I saw 3 girls working. 2 of them dat at the front desk most of the time we were there. They needed to be walking around picking things up and putting things back in their respective places.

We gained free admission to the children's museum through the Iowa Library Adventure Pass. Knowing it was only $6, I'm not sure I would take the time out to bring my kids again, when we come back to town. Like I said they had fun, I just expected more...

Brought the grandkids to the museum today, after almost 2 yrs of not coming here, and was told it cost adults $4 now to get in. Why? Staff proceeded to tell me because adults were bringing kids here, dropping them off and going shopping! This is VWM, the mall, there are barely any stores open anymore to shop at!

I mentioned this to staff several years ago about the security of kids walking out without parents and vice versa. At that time I was told they are not concerned with this, they do not foresee that happening. I had suggested the same system as Chuck E Cheese uses, a stamp on parents and kids hands. No one leaves without verifying the stamps match. Problem solved… parents cannot leave without the child that has the same stamp on their hand, this stops a parent from leaving without their children.

When opening this facility that should have been the first thought, safety and security of all children. Charging parents a fee to be here with their children is not going to stop them from leaving the kids here,

Today I was told that we do not have the staff to watch all kids here. When we came in there are three adults sitting up front chatting, what is it they are to be doing? .

Another thing that I have noticed after being away 2 yrs, there are only two things different. A children’s museum needs to change, add new things, for the kids to climb on, touch, feel and explore.

I can almost guarantee we will not be returning anytime soon, it simply isn’t worth the money for what...

This place is great for kids under 5. Lots of things to play pretend with. They really need a bigger space.

I don't know if it was the norm for there to be as many people as what was there on Friday morning, but within a half hour of first opening there was already 30 plus kids and the place was a mess with all of the pretend toys scattered everywhere, and within the hour there was 50 plus kids and no point in trying to do any of the activities, because any items associated with those activities were no where to be found.

I really feel for the people working here because there is no way they can keep things organized in those kind of conditions.

As I said up top, they need a bigger space. I don't know if they can afford it, but they need a space at least something 5x the size. They could spread out the activities, make them more enclosed rather than a giant open space, and then maybe things wouldn't get so scattered around so quickly.

I wish you guys the best luck at growing your business. But we probably will never return, especially if you guys continue to do business in...