Another big "thumbs down" on the Zoomazium
Sunday, July 02, 2006
I agree with the other poster on the potential for injury with the "cliffs" of the Zoomazium. I just wanted to add a few more observations in the "what the heck were they thinking!?" arena.
My husband and I went to the ZM yesterday. We brought our son, just over 2 months old. B. (son) is both physically advanced and very careful, so we do not have as many worries as some parents do when bringing children to physically demanding play areas. We do have other worries, though, and this place was absolutely desiged to play on them.
First, the center, "toddler" play area was pretty much designed for toddlers only, and not for adults to follow them. This is okay up to a point, unless you are dealing with a toddler who is going through a possessive and/or aggressive phase. There is a cave area under the slides that is no higher than 4.5 feet tall at any place (so parents, you are on your hands and knees all the time). I could not give you the square footage, but there is more than enough room for a kid to disappear into there and not reappear for some time. There are lots of nifty things, like a wide screen TV showing a very compelling image of lava flowing. My son got into his first fistfight yesterday over who was going to view that TV screen up closest - him or another little boy going through a physically agressive stage. The other mom and I had to crawl and claw our way in to get to our sons and drag them out. FUN!
The "climbing fig" tree is just plain freaky. The sign says it is for older children, but then the "you must be this tall line" is set at, like 2.5 feet. My son rushed for it when he discovered it, and when I saw that parents could do it with their children, I thought it would probably be okay for him. Just imagine this scenario, if you can, because this space defies my ability to describe well...a narrow (perhaps 4 feet square), vertical, rubber pathway that you climb up (maybe meant to represent vines?), followed by a spiral climing pole, to a slide, or to another spiral climbing pole (we did not go up that one). ALL IN THE DARK INSIDE A SMALL METAL CAGE. Can someone say "serious fire hazard" please?
Add to that, when you go down the spiral slide, you are in pitch darkness, and have no idea if other children might be coming up backwards on the slide, ready for you to hit. You HAVE to go down that slide, adult or child, b/c there is no other way out, and if you somehow get separated from your child in that process (as I did while spotting B's climb; thank goodness my husband was there) you can literally be trapped in that claustrophobic metal box until the inflow of kids slows down enough to let you climb and follow.
Needless to say, the staff supervision was nonexistent. As my husband put it, the staff responsibilities seemed to consist of noticing when trouble happened (as in bottlenecks and/or screaming matches) and looking on, very intently and with great disapproval.
B. had a great time there, though. Gotta admit that one. We dragged him out screaming. Chalk it up to experience. I, on the other hand, felt like I was going to faint by the time I left.