The Great Story — Local services in Ridgefield

Does not do anything to assure the safety of children. Took my petite 21 months old there for the first time and she was bullied from entry by a boy that hit her face as soon as she got into the ball pit. I gave the benefit of the doubt that it was an accident and told the little boy "don't hit her please". The mother was right behind me and grabbed him. He became rabid and lunged after my daughter again. I could tell the mom was used to his behavior and I jumped right in and picked up my kid to move her away. He followed. We got all the way to he wood pellets area and I thought he was distracted enough. He chucked pellets at me but ignored my daughter so I let her play. Next thing I know he came running around, brought his hand all the way back and slapped her across the face. I was furious at that point and I told the mom your son just slapped her across the face. She told me she's trying. She was not trying. She should have taken her son out and calm him down first not continue along his Ted Bundy Jr ways. She turned and became rabid on me so I went to front desk and they did NOTHING. The other mom even followed me and started screaming. The workers response was "well, their party just ended so she's leaving anyways" and "this happens all the time".. later on, the mom came to me again to yell that I'm crazy and a whole bunch of things about not being a good mom.. while foaming at the mouth and carrying her son. I understand clearly why the son behaves that way but this place should have a zero tolerance policy to that type of behavior if they are servicing children of all ages. Poor policy and I could not relax at all at that point because I felt I had to protect my child the whole duration of time. Expensive place but I wouldn't have minded if their standard of service matched. Might as well take your kid to a mosh pit and hope they...

I am warning all soon to be and recent customers to please beware and watch out for how this place operates. They are more focused on profit rather than being concerned with their customer’s well being. Today, we just got scammed big time by this place. We used to love it here because even if they are expensive, my children loved it here until now. We celebrated a birthday thru their package and the whole setup and service was a hoax. My wife could have set up the whole place but we were not allowed and the outcome was really disappointing. They charged $500 plus additionals and excessive gratuity for a subpar birthday experience. Again, The setup looked like less than $50 worth of decorations and they did not host the event which we understood but they were more focused on counting the number of kids and adults in the party than anticipating for our needs in a very short period of time. My guests felt pressured being watched and followed, also reminded of the time left but we were not even provided with our basic necessities for the party. Overall, we are extremely disappointed and we have never felt more betrayed and fooled by their customer service and experience. I wish there was a 0 star rating but 1 should be an adequate rating for such a subpar treatment by this facility. We won’t be coming back. We felt unsafe and upset at the same time. I wish all other customers to find some place else and I hope no other person gets treated horribly...

My wife and I have been taking our 19-month-old son to The Great Story almost weekly over the past few months as my son appears to love spending his time at the place. We can attest that the place is quite neat and the employees seem to keep things well-organized. Food and drinks are decent and employees are kind and welcoming.

However, we have noticed some concerns over the past few weeks, especially on Saturdays.

The main concern is that there is no person/entity that screen customers for symptoms concerning infection before entry. We saw a child (who appears to be older than 7-years-old) who was coughing incessantly throughout his stay on this past Saturday afternoon. Unfortunately, my son appears to have contracted the same respiratory infection 2 days after the visit.

Additionally, there were parents who were not wearing their masks in the vicinity on Saturdays. We understand the state mask mandate was recently lifted and, as a result, owner/employees cannot enforce parents to wear their mask. However, it is really concerning that these parents elect to forego safety precaution at a place where there are infants and young toddlers who may be immunocompromised, and that some parents bring kids who are symptomatic.

We understand that some components of above-mentioned concerns are beyond control of the facility, but we believe there are some components that can be addressed.

Thank you, Concerned parent of a...