I’ve often promoted Big Bounce events which are run by The Best Fun on my Facebook page. The idea of paying £7 per child (Adults £1) to have 90 minutes of Inflatable fun on a variety of slides, bouncy castles, obstacle courses, diddi car track and more, sounded amazing.
You may remember my review of the pop up event Planet Inflata In Dudley which I gave rave reviews of. It was fantastic (if you want a reminder, check it out here: https://smallhousebigtrips.co.uk/planet-inflata-at-dudley-college-evolve-centre/) . I therefore had high hopes of Big Bounce.
We arrived at Walsall College Hub (which is a fab location for events to be held) on 19th Feb in the school holidays. We were about 15 minutes early (usual for me as I dislike being late) and we gave our car registration to the staff at the hub (you were entitled to free parking) and lined up ready to go in. The girls were excited.
Our time slot came and we were all filtered in with tickets on mobiles being checked. Those paying cash had to wait until those with tickets were seen first. With two seperate queues ensuring this happened. Children were given wristbands to wear and the grumpy-ish assistant on the door grumbled to me to make sure they put them on.
We got inside and the girls were excited to take off their shoes ready to play on the equipment.
It wasn’t as big as the event I had reviewed before. Still, there looked plenty to choose from – this helter skelter slide being the thing that attracted my girls attention the most.
The event is aimed at children aged between 2 and 13 years of age. And there are three sessions per day (10:30am – 12pm, 12:15pm – 1:45pm and 2pm – 3:30pm). I would suggest that instead of having all three open covering those ages, it would be a good idea to do one for ages 2-6, one for ages 7-13 and one session for all ages (2-13). For me, with two children aged 3 and 5, having to play with big boisterous 13 year olds just wasn’t fun. Not for the girls and not for me who couldn’t see where they both were as the event (after the first 15 minutes) was full of lots of adults stood up everywhere and loads of kids running around (having fun like they should be, there were just a few too many for me and my little girls liking).
I felt quite anxious during the session and I didn’t find it fun, those who know me, know I love taking the girls to places, so I found this disappointing. The only great thing about this event was the fact I bumped into family and the girls got to play with their second cousin. Matilda (aged 5) got stressed and frustrated with older children knocking her about and Jemima (aged 3) just enjoyed watching and talking to the very friendly and chirpy assistant on the helter-skelter slide that she loved.
Matilda loved the diddi car track but it was unmanned and there were a number of accidents where children ran over other children’s feet.
Matilda tried the bouncy castle which was being manned by a really friendly female assistant. She was ensuring only a certain number of children were on the bouncy castle at any one time and this seemed to work really well.
Overall, we weren’t impressed BUT with a bit more thought and organisation I think this has the possibility to be a much better event. And I’m sure if you have older children you will most likely have a much better experience.
I do not like to do negative reviews but I keep all you followers by giving honest reviews. So here’s this one.
For more details about Big Bounce events or to check out bouncy castle hire for your personal events, check out their website www.thebestfun.co.uk they have loads of great stuff for you to hire.
The next event is at Cannock on Sunday 24th March at Chase Leisure Centre, WS11 4AL.