Mountain America Jurassic Jungle — Local services in Lehi

RELEVANT TO MEMBERS: we are members of Thanksgiving Point, three of us arrived December 17th to experience the new venue. Nonslip socks are required was the first thing we learned, but more importantly we found out that 'Without an advanced reservation, even as a member, you will be charged full price for admittance' according to the representative of the counter. She went on to explain that 'we are still trying to figure out how many guests are safe in the jungle, so we charge members full price for admission if the limited spots to reserve are full.' It was something like $14 per child and $5 per adult. I asked, so charging members is a deterrent for them to visit and limits your visitors? And how soon will you know how many people are safe in the venue? Doesn't the fire marshal need to establish that? I'm guessing the manager or supervisor behind the counter in Black stepped up immediately and tried to explain to me that Thanksgiving Point is still trying to pay for the new venue, and since it's so busy they are charging because there are safety implications if they allow too many people in. I asked her how long this will be happening, and she said advanced reservation will be required permanently going forward after I repeated my question (hmm not for a time). I asked how much time is considered advanced notice for a reservation, and she didn't understand, so I said again is an hour advanced, a day, or a year considered advanced notice of our visit? She said as long as we reserve it online it is considered advanced reservation. I also asked her to clarify why they would let people in past capacity if it's not safe. She repeated that they are trying to pay for the new venue, and they need to limit the number of people coming in. I repeated my question more clearly, I asked why they wouldn't close the venue if it's already reached 100% capacity due to the safety concerns? Why would they continually allow people to go in just because they are paying money? I was anticipating reporting them to the fire marshal immediately. She did concede that they would close the venue if it was beyond safety and they reached 100% capacity. But this confirms, they just want to charge more money even to members. This is bull crap, the venue is already paid for and they just want to charge extra money. Quite the grand opening, what a nasty and bitter taste this leaves in my mouth about Thanksgiving Point.

PLEASE do not pay anything extra as a member. Drive about 10 minutes south to Coconut Cove and pay $10 for children over the age of three, $5 for children under the age of three for unlimited play all day. And join me in reserving only when it is 'free' to members who have already paid for the venue with their membership. There should be free socks at least for the grand opening. About an hour after I walked away from the counter without paying, I got a notification from their app that members need to reserve in advance. Hopefully I get through to management, what a crappy grab at more cash. I feel the same about Luminaria. Ashton Gardens is worthless during the winter, in other words it is their slow season, so they charge even more money to members to bring lights to the garden when nothing is in bloom instead of just putting up lights to encourage people to visit they charge even more money so their garden's slow season is now probably it's...

I love Thanksgiving Point, we have been members for almost 8 years. However, this new venue is a big disappointment for several reasons. While several other Thanksgiving Point venues have done a great job catering to both older and younger kids, there is almost nothing for kids 2 and under to do. Jurassic Jungle totally missed the mark here. There are a few puffy “pillows” toddlers can climb on but they are placed on level 1 and 4 right in the middle of walkways, where many kids and adults are running and walking constantly. Having a low walled off area like the curiosity museum has for infants and toddlers could have been so easy. Could still be implemented in the dark and almost completely abandoned lava level or several other areas. But as it stands I wouldn’t bring kids 2 and under here. The smallest green slide that looks like it was designed specifically for young kids, has a weird, slippery rock structure you have to climb over to get to it. Our 3 year old needs help with it every time. Unlike the rest of the Thanksgiving Point venues, children 2 and up need a ticket/paid entry. While you don’t need a ticket until 3 at any other venue. First of all it’s confusing and annoying, especially as members. Secondly, why are you charging $14 per person for a 2 year old who can’t really play here? The design is incredibly flawed. They built it into the existing layout of the imax theater and it shows in a bad way. It’s almost completely stairs, with small landings that have little to entertain. There are 4 slides in the whole place, but ease of access for an adult is zero. It wouldn’t have taken much to make at least some of the slides more accessible for small kids/adults as I’ve seen the big red multi-slide at places like Coconut Cove and Kangeroo Zoo. Those ones aren’t hard for adults or smaller kids to access. This one is. Our son’s coat was stolen when we visited right before Christmas. I know it was opening week and it was crowded but it REALLY left a sour taste in my mouth about the whole place. We’ve never had anything like this happen in the hundreds of times we’ve visited every other venue at Thanksgiving Point. So don’t bring ANYTHING of value into the building. Leave it in your car. 2 stars because my older 2 kids had a good time since they were ok to go through the structure as long as I stayed on the level 4 landing area and they could check in with me periodically. But like other reviewers have said, if you have kids under 5, either don’t bring them or they need a 1:1 parent to child ratio. I agree wholeheartedly with another reviewer, I hope you consider involving parents in the design plans in the future as simple changes in design could have made this place...

We're Thanksgiving Point members and had been eagerly waiting for the new Jurassic Jungle to open. We did our homework and knew that we'd have to sign up in advance for free member tickets. It ended up being about a 3 week wait, which we didn't love. Our time finally arrived today, near the end of the day (6:45 pm), which were the best tickets we could find for 6 people. Although it was late, 1 hour 15 minutes was enough time to explore everything. We brought our grippy socks from home, and my husband and I had to buy some from Jurassic Jungle for the two of us, since we never needed them at other play places. I'm okay with this because adults will likely end up walking around most of the structure and there ARE places where we could slip and fall.

There was plenty of seats for adults to sit and wait while the kiddos run around, but if you sit you WILL lose sight of your kids. It's dimly lit (great for the jungle atmosphere, not the best for safety), and the structure is built in a way that you can't see much from any point. You have to be okay with letting them loose and hope for the best. There is one exit, so you can sit there if you're worried about any of your kids leaving the premises without your permission. I primarily sat in the upper level seating area. My kids ages 10, 8, 6, and 3 ran all over the place. They showed up to my sitting spot from time to time, and sometimes I did a quick walk around for a kid check, it was still easy enough to find everyone and gather them to go home.

We did not buy the wristbands for the little quest thing. After our visit today, I'm not so sure our family would spend the extra money for that option, the play structure is enough for us.

Overall, we loved it and Im glad we have another venue to go to with our Thanksgiving point membership. The membership was already worth it, and now we have another fun thing to do! However, we love being spontaneous and sometimes squeeze in a quick trip to Thanksgiving Point into our day, planning it weeks in advance is pretty inconvenient. I hope that eventually the novelty will wear off and then they'll open it up for free membership tickets whenever we feel like going.

I also hope it doesn't break down too fast. It looks like they've already had to remove one of the guns at the T-Rex shooter thing. We struggled to get the one gun working. It did work, but it wasn't easy or reliably working. It's too bad, because I feel like it's one of the coolest...