Lava Island — Local services in Englewood

What Should Have Been a Celebration Turned Into a Nightmare, Thanks to Lava Island’s Management

We hosted my daughter’s birthday party at Lava Island, and what should have been a joyful and memorable day turned into an absolute nightmare—thanks entirely to the actions and mishandling of the general manager. About an hour into our scheduled 3-hour party, I noticed the general manager escorting two boys from our group who were visibly upset and crying toward the front of the facility. Concerned, I approached him to ask what was going on. His response: "There’s been an incident and I’m going to have to ask you to leave." When I asked for clarification, he repeated himself, still offering no details. Only after asking a third time did he finally claim that these boys were involved in harassing another child—accusing them of physically grabbing a girl, leaving marks on her arm, and even pulling her shirt up. I was absolutely shocked and furious. These are young boys we know well, and I refused to believe such serious accusations without proper evidence. I asked if there were security cameras and the manager confirmed there were. I then requested that the footage be reviewed to confirm what had actually happened. He told me he couldn’t show the footage to me, which I understood—but agreed to review it himself. What followed was roughly 40 minutes of complete silence while we waited with no update. The accused boys, along with family members, sat at a separate table outside the party room—missing presents, cake, and the celebration entirely. My daughter’s birthday was irreversibly disrupted. No accommodations or empathy were offered during this time. Finally, after our hour in the party room had ended (and we were moved back to general seating), the manager returned. His conclusion? The incident happened in a “blind spot” of the cameras, and he stated this should be a “life lesson” for the boys. A life lesson? For being in the same area as another child, with zero evidence of wrongdoing? That was absolutely inappropriate and unacceptable. When it was time to check out, I approached the manager again—still deeply unsettled by how this was handled. I mentioned how this impacted the party. I continued to add that the "host" was nowhere to be found. We were the ones to refill drinks and go get silverware and a knife to cut the cake from the concession stand. Therefore, I asked if any accommodation could be made. His response? “I’m not giving you a discount for those individuals missing the party.” "I handled the situation the best I could. I have a daughter." On top of that, he proceeded to tell us, “You should have brought silverware because we don’t provide that unless asked.” Now, I’ve never hosted a party where plastic utensils or a knife to cut cake weren’t included or even offered. (Continued on next post due to word limit...

Maybe more 1 star reviews will get the attention of the management.

I WANT to give 5 stars for the facility. We frequent a lot of "indoor playground" type places. This location is clean, well designed, good variety/range of activities, properly staffed... on the nicer end of what you'd expect... and I was PUMPED to have a location close to me.

But...

FULL PRICE for ALL adults? FULL PRICE for the elderly, pregnant, recently postpartum, and disabled?! Full price for the accompanying friend or family member who is physically incapable of participating, but has no limitations to be included in the socializing? Full price for the grandparent who just wants to watch the kids play or help supervise a large group? Who do you think your target market is?

The salt in the wound was the person standing at the counter lecturing us for questioning the policy.

"We like to think of ourselves as an amusement park.... like Disneyland! 😀 Everyone can enjoy themselves, and the adults should try to have some fun and participate too. You might like it if you try it. " 😀😀😀

Lava island is not Disneyland. Like, c'mon. This place used to be a Big Lots.😐

It's like you've never heard of a disability. The quiet condescension in assuming that an adult doesn't want to participate because they're "just being grumpy" while you try to laugh and rub elbows with the kids was astonishingly disrespectful.

Management: If you're going to charge a blanket entry fee, just call it that.

Don't say that babies under 9 months are free if you are charging full price for their caretaker. Most babies of that age came out of someone who might not be recovered enough to jump on a trampoline.

Read the reviews here... SO MANY mention how this issue personally impacted their enjoyment. It's not fun to be excluded when you WANT to participate... your policy and the way you've trained your employees to handle questions about the policy only make that reality MORE painful.

I've been to a LOT of indoor playspaces, and I've NEVER encountered full pricing for the physically disabled. It felt VERY bait-and-switch-y. You don't realize you have to play for every single adult until you're already putting socks on the kids. I was really excited to make this a regular part of our special activity rotation, but I'm disgusted by what seems like a very greedy, very excluding policy.

Please make your pricing and policy more transparent...

Horribly. Horrible experience for my son's 10th BIRTHDAY Party! I'm so upset I chose this place to host my son's birthday celebration. I chose this location because it's close to home it's new and our first time ever at lava Island. I was excited and have been anxiously waiting for this day to come for a while now. I was let down from the moment I entered the building. The communication from the start was not good.Once we got into the room it reeked of VINEGAR, could've been aired out a bit before having us enter the room it was just a very very overpowering smell. (I understand it's what they use to sanitize, just could have warned us a heads up we would be smelling that the entire time) the room is was hot and muggy asked the manager to put the air on, he comes back with a ladder and messes around with it right next to the kids whom are eating the doughy uncut sliced pizza. The manager was unable to get the air going and opened the second door inside of the room to let the air circulate. I guess we were a problem because another employee shut the door fairly quickly. The HOST, what host? Once they brought the undercooked/uncut pizza she left and never came back . I had to ask for our drinks the kids where sweaty and very thirsty , I had to ask for extra plates and cups plus do the water refill myself I didn’t mind but at 8 months almost shy 9 months pregnant was a lot to go back and forth for refills . I was embarrassed not only to have to pretty much do it all myself I was not about to ask parents to help me run my own birthday party! That’s the point of the host to make sure we at least had water . She looked pretty busy standing at the front desk laughing and giggling. The multiple times I had to go up to the food stand and ask for plates and cups the young girl who works the register hardly understands English, had to keep asking the young kid who works in the back to keep coming up to help us . It was the end of the world I asked for cups and plates man they told me it’s against policy! What policy !!! I just cannot believe my experience! Never again save your money and go...