Paradise Park Family Fun & Adventure

Took my grandson today to use up the remaining credits on my card. This was my third visit and I must say I was a bit disappointed. The two previous visits were good but today it was evident that things have slipped. First off the foam ball cage was in need of repair. The two main pieces were not working, th e thing in the middle of the area and the big cage up in the ceiling was also broken. Now for the arcade area. I saw several games that were out of order and of the three skee ball games only one worked but did not spit out any tickets so actually it was broke too. The two main ticket eaters were broken also. Management needs to keep on top of things because negative experiences like this get around and people will avoid a bad experience and look elsewhere where they will get their monies worth. My grandson loves this place so no doubt I’ll be back but as for today I was not happy

I come for the batting cages. One round is 20 pitches, most other places are around 12 – 15. You add money to a reloadable card and it converts to credits. Overall it’s much cheaper than any other cages I’ve been too. I just reload my card every other week or so and I can just show up and not have to check in. Not only that, but the cages are very large to help see your trajectory and quality of hits. The machines rarely backfire and if they do, the staff is always happy to make it right for you. This place is great.

There was definitely a lot to do but considering I sat on my computer but still had to pay $$ to go «play» in the edutainment center is insane. This isn’t a cheap day out and to ask parents to pay to watch their children play is bad form.

We are a family on a budget. We paid for 2 hours of indoor/​outdoor activities. We spent a chunk of our 2 hours locating employees to operate the activities, ie. The climbing wall, bumper cars and laser tag. We walked up to laser tag (a 5 minute walk with kids) 3 x before someone was there to let us play. The first time there was a family going in, the operator said come back in 15 minutes so we walked back only to find it completely empty with no one there to operate it. So we went back a 3^rd time. Very frustrating. Also, honestly most of the folks working were friendly, however, there was a short lady with straight blonde hair whom was overly rude and unapologetic. We had been to the bumper cars several times and no one was manning them, in the end, I said we have spent so much of our 2 hours tracking down workers, we are staying longer to makeup the difference — the lady was so rude! She let my girls on the bumper cars but was very hostile and rude… she made an aggravating situation worse. :/​We would not do this again.

Took my granddaughters here today for a hayride and to see Curious George. Ha what a laugh. .first we were charged 10.00 each for a hayride that took us maybe– one mile around the property. .that included the girls who are only 2. that hayride was to include hot chocolate and smores. .we waited in the concessions line for 10 to 15 min to order and then 15 to 20 mins getting our food which came out. over cooked and unedible I did voice my complaints to the manager but the out he was willing to do was give out free passes
.I said thanks but no thanks… This is my first and last time here… do not recommend Paradise park!!!

My company rented out the entire place for our annual picnic. I am writing this review based on this event and have never been to this place when it has been open to the general public. My friends, coworkers and I had a blast! We were adults with no kids. I do not see myself coming back without children but for a company gathering it was awesome! This place has go-​karts, laser tag, arcade games and so much more. It was a hit with the families as that is what it is marketed for. Our company had the place provide the food and I really didn’t care for the taste of any of it. The food provided by paradise for this event was bland and did not have much flavor. I’m sure the kids liked it but as an adult I didn’t finish my plate. This place was great for the event and I reccomend it for other groups private events but just sample the food first or see if their are options that allow you to bring in your own catering. I don’t know what they normally offer for events but we had burgers coated in some kind of sauce, Macaroni and cheese, cheesy potatoes, hot dogs, salad, and chicken fingers. I’m not picky but I just think it all tasted bland. We got to make s’mores after at the fire lot and that was a ton of fun. The staff were all super friendly and on top of all our needs. Check this place out I’m sure you will have a good time.

My son participated in the local Summer Reading Program, and Paradise Park generously gave back to the community by offering a free entrance for the kiddos. My son really enjoyed the foam ball activity area. We will try the other activities next time.

I am going to share some really positive and some really negative experiences about this place. We did not mini-​golf, though we had originally planned to. Both of us adults have disabilities and were just having a hard time walking or we would have. First the positives:
1)Great facility with some really great activities. The kids had a blast.
2)There were 2 young ladies, and 1 young man — I wish I had their names, were very good. One young lady ran the bumper cars most of the afternoon on Sunday August 30. The other young lady ran the rock wall most of the afternoon. The young man, with nearly shoulder length hair, came on shift to work late afternoon around 4 p. m and greeted us very warmly.
3)We complained about the food price to one another after we paid, but ultimately when it was finally brought out to us, it was well worth it. The supreme nachos were amazing.
4)Rock wall is great! Oldest boy loved it.
5)Go Karts were great and the boys handling the ride were very good with the kids.
Ok, now the opportunities for improvement.
1)The young lady at the front counter did not explain options for us and in the end missed out on more revenue because we would have bought a higher package had we known. It was our first time there, she should have asked if we had been there before.
2)This same young lady, later on when we wanted our kids to enter the edutainment area, talked to someone on the phone and wouldn’t look up, smile, or acknowledge that we were standing there for greater than 5 minutes. She needs to be trained that, even if she is on the phone, at least smile and acknowledge the customer.
3)If a parent buys wristbands for their children, and the children want to go into the edutainment area, the parents should not be forced to buy a wristband to go in and supervise their children. We didn’t want to go in and play, we wanted to go in and make sure our children were supervised. We were blocked by this same young lady and told we could not go in unless we had a wrist band. This is a real problem.
4)Young lady at the laser tag area told us that we could go in and play laser tag for a couple of minutes but that she was expecting a large party and when they came we would have to leave. This was not explained to us at all when we purchased the wrist bands. We were told the kids had 2 hours to play everything. There should be a time when large parties are allowed to block out attractions… say after 4 of what have you, and that should be explained to you at the time you purchase the wrist bands. Fortunately the party didn’t show and the kids got to play the laser tag for a full round.
5)New gal, very nice at the food counter needs to read the menu and be familiar with it before being stuck on a register. I felt bad for her. It was my first time there and I had to tell her that refills on sodas were $.75. That is clearly marked on the menu. This is a training error by her trainer.
6)The water area near the exit to the outside is stagnant and probably loaded with bacteria. It could be a really nice photo spot but something has blocked the flow of water.
7)Nobody was manning the children’s mining area at all. The laser tag girl is right there, but she wouldn’t even look at us or acknowledge us while were standing there. We ended up walking away.
8)If you are going for the arcade, there are very few games. It is great to see some of the old school games like Galaga, Ms. Pacman, and Donkey Kong, but most of the games are ticket based games.

Perfect fun fill place for toddlers and teens; it’s win-​win for my boys since their ages aren’t so close together. (3, 6, & 9 yrs)

Things are always broken here and also very sticky. None of the staff is willing to help, especially the management. I talked to a manager for 15 minutes until he abruptly took a phone call and walked away from me rather than solving my problem. Cool Crest is 15X better than this hell hole; do not go here.

If I’m dropping $ 86 between the both of us and say «I want everything,» that means I want everything. I was feeling spontaneous one day and decided to reminisce with some childhood activities. The lady looked at me a little crazy: yes, I’m an adult, this place is empty, and I came here to play arcade machines and do everything else you offer. All access pass doesn’t include the batting cages or mining and a few of the other attractions are an additional charge.
The staff is composed of what at first glance seems like disconnected, snot nosed teens. But actually, they were pretty chill to say the least. The day we came here it was about 100 degrees out so if you wanted to play an outdoor attraction you would have to run inside and grab an attendant. More than understandable. Their laser tag is a bit different as it’s outdoors with plastic dividers. Some are flush with the ground, others are gapped so you can see under.
No major complaints really here. It’s a family oriented park. They offer a lot of different activities indoor and outdoor so everyone will have fun.

Little pricey. Wait for attractions was a little long. Decent every once. inawhile

We had an ok time. It was kind of pricy and we had to wait behind a group of people while playing mini golf so it took a while to get through 18 holes. Our 11 year old daughter loved the laser tag, it’s outdoor and there is room to run around. The go carts were disappointing and not worth the 45 minute wait in line. I do not understand why, but at times the go carts only allowed 3 kids to ride at a time, which really backed up the line. Overall it’s ok.

Paradise park offers alot of different things. It is very expensive though. My daughter and I go to the batting cages a couple times a week and they dont use coins you have to purchase a card to swipe at the machine. They charge you a 1.50 to add money to your reloadable card. That is ridiculous. If anything there should be a one time fee but not everytime you have to add money to it.

This place was a pretty neat. They had a lot of different things to do. I took my grandchildren there for fun over the summer. They were decently priced. They road the go-​carts and played the video games and had a really great time. It is a great place to take your kids in Lees Summit but I’ve been to much nicer places, but what got me was how friendly the staff was. They were so nice, the gentlemen that sold us our go-​cart tickets even was leaving at the same time as us and we talked and found out that he was friends with some of my son-in-law’s friends. It was nice that even in the parking lot he was trying to help me wrangle up children who were running around all crazy. I saw they had batting cages which was pretty neat so I’ll probably be taking the sports-​junkie grandchild there in the future. I recommend to anyone with children in the LS area.

So as far as kids entertainment goes here in Kansas City, this place is it. Chuck E Cheese, Zonkers, etc, have nothing on this place. There is simply EVERYTHING your kid could want to do here and more.
Indoors there is so much to do. You’ve got your traditional arcade, which operates on a swipe card based system (like Dave & Busters), so you aren’t touching a bunch of dirty tokens. Also in the arcade area are various games that award tickets which can later be redeemed for prizes.
Next there is what I can only describe as a two-​story, foam ball, Thunderdome (except more than 2 men can enter). Inside are hundreds, if not a thousand, colored foam balls. On the lower level there are various apparatus for scooping/​vacuuming up the balls in to bags so you can take them up to the second level (which can be done by hand carrying the sacks or via rope and pulley system). Once upstairs there are around 10 pneumatic cannons that you load the balls into as ammo (two of which are full auto). The second story is also handicap accessible via elevator lift.
Next are the hovercraft bumper cars. Bumper cars are awesome as it is and to make it better, these hover. Also available is a rock climbing wall.
The other half of the inside is the Children’s Edutainment Center. This is a hands on learning area where kids get to learn about banking, running a restaurant, grocery shopping, construction, etc. They can put on costumes and «play» in a mock town essentially that has various buildings set up like I mentioned above. There are a few scheduled activities back here, including one where they get to cook food and then eat what they cook, so it’s important to check the schedule.
Also in this area is a ball pit (that includes a cleaning system that washes the balls) and an indoor obstacle course thingy (like you find at McDonalds).
Then you go outdoors where there is tons more to do. First off there is a Maze you and the kids can wander through. There is also a full miniature golf course and batting cages. For the older/​bigger kids (and kid-​like adults) there are Go-​Karts.
I am serious when I say this is the place to go for kids. It’s worth the drive to Lee’s Summit no matter where you live. You also can eat here as well and their menu trumps any other place like it. Please if you have children you need to take them here. But be warned, they will be begging you time and time again to return.

We love this place; unfortunately it’s a hike from OP. We’ve hosted a party here which was probably one of our best hosted party experiences. They have a great variety of activities for various ages which makes it fun for everyone including the adults. The café menu is generously priced (the personal pizza is plate-​sized for $ 6). Like other entertainment venues in the area, it can get pricey if you don’t come armed with coupons but you are sure to have a good time here. Note that some of the activities are outdoors so if there’s inclement weather, you’ll miss out on go-​carts, mini golf, & maze.

I just returned from a birthday party here– and here’s my take.
It was nice for a birthday party — the private rooms are fun and clean and you can bring in your own food and/​or have their generic pizza. We didn’t get to spend a lot of time there (45min). After dinner and cake, there wasn’t enough time to open presents — which was confusing because my girls actually enjoy watching the kids get their present. Then all these 4−6yo kids were given 10 tokens and 3 passes to activities and set free.
The arcade was lame. 2 skeeball lanes, 1 air hockey table (that was actually really nice) and a few car driving games and the rest were all pull a lever/​hit a button and get some tickets worth about 0.1 cent each. 300 tickets for a bag of jelly bellys– you’d spend $ 20 in tokens to get that $ 3 bag.
My 6yo liked the bumper cars. It was a small area and relatively harmless. I think it would be boring to anyone over the age of 10.
The go-​carts were fun and they were nice enough to let us use the kids pass for us to drive since they were too small to drive the jr karts-​so we didn’t have to pay. Certainly overpriced if you buy just one pass, but if you plan on spending the night out there and playing golf and go-​karts it might be worth it.
I was confused by the foam pit. The foam balls all felt sticky and dirty to me. Several of the foam ejectors didn’t seem to work right.
The ‘edutainment center’ for kids was ok. It would have been more fun if there had been other kids there to play with-​but it was saturday night and the crowd was mostly tweens and teenagers. There was a huge area of several doll houses with all the stuff to put in them. A make believe kitchen/​restaurant — but only 2 pizzas were there to serve as food — really? About 15 pie servers and plates, but no glasses or any other things at all — odd. There was a bank– what’s fun about a bank? The supermarket was nice. The water play area seemed shut down for the night. The face paint area was a mirror with some wax crayons. The ball pit and climbing area for the little kids was ok — but I’ve seen better set-​ups at McDonalds play space — and that’s free.
we didn’t play the mini-​golf, so I have no comment on that.
Bathrooms were clean but the soap dispenser was empty and one of the sinks didn’t work.
Staff seemed bored, but were nice.
Overall — I’d never pay to go here. I can think of much better places to do all of those things elsewhere in the city for less money. Frankly, I’d rather take my kids to Dave and Busters or chuck-​E-​cheese — at least I could have a beer to blunt all the noise.

Mini-​golf:
The most boring course I’ve ever golfed at… Seriously, it was like the same hole over and over agian. There were no obstacles, no fun contraptations to hit the ball through. Just the same straight line over and over again with maybe a slope.
There’s only one course, so be prepared to stand around and wait for those infront of you to finish.
Snack bar:
We ordered 1 Root Beer, 1 Dr. Pepper, a bag of m&m’s, and a bag of chips. The only thing the poor boy had to do was fill up our drinks. He looked at the screen approximently 10 times to double check to make sure he was getting our order right and then called back for help with only 1 person behind us. Boy, if you can’t even fill a cup with ice, you’ve got some issues…
Batting Cages:
My dad enjoyed those. $ 1 for 20 hits.
Arcade games:
Decent selection of games. I enjoyed the one where you stomp on spiders. Spent only a few dollars and got 32 tickets. I asked the lady for some Toostie Rolls, and she gave me 6… which means she rounded down. The nice boys at Cool Crest will give me a huge handful of Toostie Rolls even if I had only like 5 tickets.
Not really sure how to sum this up. The place is alright, but I prefer my old-​school, run down Cool Crest.

There’s something about these contrived «fun centers» that gives me the willies. I used to love going to amusement parks and arcades when I was a little kid, but similar places today just seem devoid of any soul. I remember my favorite kiddie boat ride and how I was intrigued by the filthy green water. Astroland at Coney Island (until last year) upheld the tradition of old timey rides that are just a bit woebegone. They may not be the cleanest, spiffiest or the fastest rides, but they had soul!
«Family fun centers» of today (not even called «amusement parks» anymore) are *carpeted* for christ’s sake, and employed with teens who don’t seem have an ounce of angst. It’s just… wrong. These businesses are all trying to be Disney World, and rarely come close because they don’t have the «imagineers» to make it happen (I’m a huge fan of Disney Parks. Shut up).
Enter Paradise Park. It ain’t paradise, seems rather sanitized as I mention above, but it’s not as bad as some of the places that look like army bunkers in the middle of a strip mall. It has well-​kept grounds and a pretty decent outdoor race car track (seriously, fun). It’s now decorated for Halloween and while I think they could do more when they are charging a big chunk of change for a 10-​minute hayride, at least it has outdoor areas that are well-​landscaped and such. They give everyone s’mores (you roast the marshmallows over a fire pit when you get off the hayride for a break) and hot chocolate, too. It was quaint, except for the loud, bad «hoedown» music that was being played to beat us over the head with the idea that we were at a real country kinda hayride. This place is located in Lee’s Summit, not exactly the middle of farmland. So yeah, a bit contrived, but not altogether horrible. The kids seem to like it.
From reading the other reviews, it looks they have even more to offer than seasonal fun & games, so that’s interesting, too.
Overall, I think it’s pricey for what you get, but I have a feeling that most family fun centers aren’t exactly bargain town.