Smarty Sprouts Kids' Club — Local services in Bryan

I had my daughter's 6th birthday at Smarty Sprouts yesterday. It was the worst birthday experience I have ever had. Per the emails, I was suppose to be contacted the day prior to my party. However, I was contacted 45 minutes before while I was on the way. I was not allowed to enter before 12:45, which is fine because that is the policy. The other party showed up early as well and was allowed in. I expected a provided host to actually help. We weren't even walked to the room but instead just pointed to the 'second door'. I had to ask about waters and socks. 45 minutes into the party, I was asked to walk around and collect everyone's last name for waivers. Why weren't the guest told to write full names when they arrived? Why weren't waivers verified upon entrance? I was asked only twice if I needed anything. I had to yell out for all of my kids to come do cake because even after me asking, the didn't do it. My sister had to, again, ask them to come help me with cake. The place was disgusting. All of the walls needed to be wiped down, the nets had holes in them, the kids were able to climb through the nets and underneath the slides, sealtbelts for the play place were broke and the back door WAS PROPPED SLIGHTLY OPEN! *Please see attached photos. I can't even fathom what could have happened had a child been able to run out, especially since this establishment is catered toward younger children!

During our party, never once, was I asked about payment. It had slipped my mind since I was busy hosting the birthday party. Your staff called us 20 minutes after we left to collect payment. When I asked the balance they stated it was $288 because we had 2 extra kids and had already paid our $100 deposit. One of the mothers had paid for her 2 extra kids before leaving, giving me a total of 16 children. After arguing with her for several minutes, she finally went and verified my statement and came back with the new total of $251. They stated they were unable to collect over the phone so my husband said he would be by tomorrow since we live 30 minutes away and we're almost home. They did not seem to have an issue with that.

After all of this I was contacted at 8:15 Sunday evening about the remainder of my balance. Diane stated that they were expecting payment today and they were "waiting on me!" I reminded them that we would be by tomorrow and they explained that they were closed on Mondays (which they didn't say when we told them that the first time.) I then told Diane that we would by on Tuesday since I was literally in the middle of putting my kids to sleep. She then told me that she would report us as THEFT OF SERVICE, as it is policy! I asked to have the owner call me IMMEDIATELY, because if someone is threatening pressing charges on me then I deserve to speak to that person. To say this experience was AWFUL would be an understatement. There were 4 staff members sitting at the front, whom only left their chair twice. They screamed across the room when they needed to redirect the kids. I truly cant imagine this is how anyone intended for this business to be run. I have sent an email requesting a call back as well as SEARCHED to find information to contact the owner directly with no success. Go somewhere else, anywhere else! It's not worth the stress I have been...

After a year of quarantine, we chose Smarty Sprouts to host our daughters 7th birthday. Although it was very expensive, I felt we owed her a "special" experience. Also as advertised, all was done for us, we just had to select our room and show up with our cake. First off, I booked online and was pleased with the online communication at first. When we showed up to the party, my first observation was the venue was awesome. Looked like fun and my daughter was very excited. I will say the two ladies there were very unhelpful and unwelcoming from the first second we walked in. I literally had to ask for a tour for starters. I was also put in the wrong room (the space room as opposed to the whale (girls) room). When I asked they told me the other room was being used for storage and not an option and someone should have called me and told me. Noone did. The bathrooms were very dirty, smelled like urine and the mirrors were so dirty you could not see clearly in them. The girls were extremely rude, sat on their phones behind the front desk and in the storage are behind the front desk for the entire two hours. They also did not greet any of my guests, nor offered them socks. I had to ask each time for socks and greet my own guests upon arrival They even watched some guests walk past the door looking in the window to see where to come in and they just sat and watched; very unhelpful and disappointing. I actually stayed up front until all my guests were there after observing the subpar service, taking away about 30 minutes of my daughters party to do what in my opinion was part of their job. The only thing they were good at was reminding me when I had "one hour left", "30 mins left" and "15 mins left". They began cleaning up during my part in the play area WHILE MY GUESTS were playing and making my guests uncomfortable over20 mins before our party was officially over. Although I loved the venue, the staff was awful and I asked for the owners name and contact info and they refused to give it to me. I will most likely never come back. I spent close to $400 for two hours and it was not a...

This place is very cool! My kids loved it and so did I. There is no other play place like it in BCS which makes it refreshing and unique for all.

I would love to give it 5 stars for quality and cleanliness but I was disappointed by a couple of things. I wish there were a membership option for larger families. I have 4 kids. So we won’t be able to go very often. Maybe once every 3 months. So disappointing! My kids loved it and I wish we could come once a month. But the membership rates reflect that owners only consider families with 1-2 kids. Not realistic for many families in this town.

Lastly, I was so frustrated that the staff member working the day we went decided to bring her son with her who had very obviously had a cold. He was coughing, sneezing and sniffling. All great symptoms for spreading it to every kid who walked in the door. And as he was not just sitting with his mom but playing on the equipment and with my girls and other kids, my girls DID all pick up his cold. I wanted to walk right back out but we had reservations which are non refundable and my kids had been looking forward to going all week. I understand sometimes you can’t find childcare and maybe this parent was in that situation. Super awesome her employer is willing to work with her. But as a parent who knows her employer values a clean, sterile play environment, she should have made other arrangements for her child that day. Practically negated that they close to clean midday. His germs would be right back on it all when they reopened for...