Indoor Play Places - 2011

(click on the title for a full review)
As the weather turns colder, more and more often people will be looking for indoor places to take their kids to play. Last winter, 10 of Calgary’s indoor play places and 1 in Okotoks were reviewed on Calgary Playground Review. At that time that was every single one in Calgary and the surrounding area. Already one of them has closed (Playgrounds Coffee Playhouse) and a new one has opened (the Coffee Tot).
This Winter I intend to try to review them all again to see how they are doing a year later – and review the one I haven’t yet of course! 
I love indoor play places. Since winter in Calgary can go on and on I think it’s great that there are indoor places for kids to be active and run around. The comments can get a bit heated because while some people love a particular play area, others find it disappointing. The thing I try to remember when I am doing my reviews is that each indoor play area has their own approach and no one is the right fit for everyone. In alphabetical order, here is a short review on each to find the one that’s right for your family.

1. The Coffee Tot

Located in MacKenzie Towne – I’ve yet to visit this newly opened play place (Spring 2011). According to their website “We are the only Coffee and Play place in the City providing all Wooden, Eco-Friendly, Educational, Role Playing Toys For the Ages of 0-4.”  Update: 2011 review of The Coffee Tot

2. Coffee and ‘Scream

Located in Cambrian Heights NW this coffee and play place is aimed at children 6 and under. It features a driving track, little tykes climbers, kitchens, play house and a soft mat baby area and more. It has a full service coffee shop with food that is made to order. This is a great place for toddlers to engage in independent play. Update: 2011 review of Coffee and ‘Scream

3. Kidz n’ Koffee

This coffee and play place on MacLeod Trail is for kids 6 and under. It features Little Tykes climbers, playhouses and cozy coupes as well as a baby area with bumbos and exersaucers. The coffee shop is located at the back of the play area and does not have outside access.  Update: 2011 review of Kidz 'n’ Koffee

4. Joso’s Play and Learn Centre

Joso’s runs a play centre and a preschool program at their north Calgary location. The play centre is for kids 8 and under. It features a 4 level play structure with a ball pit, baby area and 2 plasma cars. They have a concession which primarily serves snacks.

 

5. Let’s Play (now Fun 'n' More)

This family fun centre can be found at MacLeod Trail and Canyon Meadows. Its features are aimed at children from 0-12 and include a huge multi-level play structure with a ball pit and roller slide, arcade and redemption games, and a toddler area with a ball pit and climbers and more. The fast-food style concession has a large eating area with big bright windows. 

(note: Let's Play has undergone extensive renovations and has re-opened under new management as Fun 'n' More)

7. Playtopia

Located in Okotoks this play centre is aimed at kids 10 and under but can accommodate kids as old as 12. It features a multi-level play structure with a large ball pit, bouncy castle, climbing wall and baby area with a ball pit, slide and other age appropriate toys. The eating area has bright windows and serves fast food style options that are made fresh when you order.

8. Play a Latte

Calgary’s only mobile play place is located in Midnapore on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays only. It features 3 big bouncy castles, 1 little bouncy castle climbing toys, ride on thomas train, bouncy and hippity-hop horses. For ages 7 and under. Play a Latte primarily offers snacks but they do have a couple of sandwich choices if you want to stay for lunch. Update: 2011 review of Play a Latte

9. Shakers Family Fun Centre

This family fun centre located to the west of Calgary is aimed at an older demographic than the others here serving teenagers and adults as well as younger children. Its also the largest centre with an indoor play ground, arcade/redemption games, climbing tower and laser tag. In better weather they also have mini golf, go-carts and water wars. They have a fast food style concession. Summer review of Shakers Family Fun Centre

10. Stir Crazy Family Fun Centre

Stir Crazy opened last year in the NE and is aimed at kids 12 and under. It features a large dessert themed indoor playground, bouncy castles, toddler area as well as a quiet play room for kids 3 and older.  Stir crazy offers a variety of pre-prepared sandwiches, wraps and salads as well as cupcakes made on site. Update: 2011 review of Stir Crazy

11. Tommy K Play

Also new last year Tommy K Play opened in the South East at 130th Avenue and caters to kids 12 and under. It offers a huge indoor climber, a lazer maze, gaming tower, roller race track and toddler area. They offer a number of pre-prepared lunch and snack choices. Update: 2011 review of Stir Crazy

Playgrounds Coffee Playhouse

This indoor play place closed earlier this year (2011).

We found Mater!

He’s not in Calgary, but he’s close. Western RV Country in Airdrie has a truck painted up to look just like Mater from Disney/Pixar’s Cars. Gordie was a little disappointed that he wasn’t a tow truck but was still really impressed. map

If you have a Cars fan, you should definitely check it out!

Edgepark Ravine

Location    map
Community: Edgemont - Along Edgepark Blvd from Country Hills to Edgemont Blvd
Parking: There is parking along Edgebyne Crescent. There is also parking at the end of Edgepark Rise but there is a fairly decent hill to get down into the ravine.

Note: There are pathway improvement underway through this park this year (2012). The park will remain open but the sections that are actively being worked on will be closed.

Gordie’s Review (3 years old) – the bunnies!

Features: Hiking trails, Picnic tables, Pathways, Gazebos, Rabbit Hill Statues, Tennis, Basketball
Playgrounds:  There are 2 older playgrounds towards edgemont blvd - map.

Overall: Gordie, Nicole and I, visited this park for the first time with my friend Tanya’s Calgary Outdoor Adventure Playgroup (which you should take a look at if you are interested in doing toddler/preschool hikes). We started up at the top of the ravine at the end of Edgepark Rise walked over to the rock at Edgemont Blvd and back again, stopping at the playground and the rabbit statues along the way. At this point, Gordie had just turned 3. I found this walk to be pushing the limits of what he could do without a stroller. If you decided to start at Edgemont Blvd instead, (and skipped the hill) the difficultly would be greatly reduced. Due to the geography of the ravine, this is a really safe place to let kids run around without having to worry about cars. Although the playgrounds in this park are nothing special, the park has some great features that make this a really fun walk for kids.

    The rocks by Edgemont Blvd are perfect for climbing and were a bit hit with all the kids in our group. There is also a nice grassy hill to the west of the rocks that was perfect for rolling down.

To the East of the rocks, are tennis courts and an small, older wooden playground. You can see the playground if you look carefully in the picture below, I didn’t manage to get a good picture of it.

Heading away from Edgemont Blvd, there’s a bigger playground and a gazebo.

There’s also some older wooden equipment, picnic tables and benches.

Continuing along the path, you’ll find the really unique feature of this park, Rabbit Hill. The rabbits are toddler sized and Gordie (and all the other kids) loved climbing on them.

The last major feature along our route was this gazebo. This one (unlike the other one) has platform flooring.

View of the ravine and the gazebo from further up the path.

Have you been to this park? Have a suggestion for a playground review? Would you like to write a guest review? Write your thoughts in the comments.

Calgary Parks Playgroup

To kick off the start of the Spring season and my return to blogging since having my new baby, I’ve decided to start an informal playgroup that will meet at different parks and playgrounds in the city. Currently I’m planning on hosting playgroups twice a month on Thursday mornings.
If you are interested in joining us you can either e-mail me at playgroundsnoop@gmail.com and I’ll add you to my distribution list
or I’ve also created a facebook group - Calgary Parks Playgroup.

The locations for these will generally be in the Northern half of the city (as that is where I live). However, if you would like to host a similar playgroup at a different time or one focusing on the south side of the city, please let me know! I’d love to be able to help even more families connect with each other for outdoor play!

Also, be sure to check out my friend Tanya's Outdoor Adventure Playgroup. It is aimed at toddler and preschoolers and is more focused on hikes and walks. She also has a group on facebook - Calgary Outdoor Adventures Playgroup.

Our first playgroup will be on Thursday May 24th at 10am at the West Hillhurst Community Centre Playground. I hope to see you there!

Baby Nicole!

Please welcome the newest member of the Calgary Playground Review Team, Baby Nicole!  Nicole was born last week at a healthy 8 lbs 10 oz. Gordie and I are looking forward to reviewing fun places to play with her in the upcoming months.

Toboggan Hills in Calgary

When I was looking for great places to Toboggan in Calgary, I was surprised to find out that downhill tobogganing and sledding in Calgary parks is only allowed on designated toboggan hills. There are 17 such hills located throughout Calgary. These hills are large enough to be tons of fun, but are in safe locations free of trees and other obstacles. We haven’t made it out tobogganing much this year. Between my pregnancy and the warm weather we haven’t had a lot of good opportunities. I did write up a profile of three of Calgary’s toboggan hills for Calgary’s Child Magazine which you can access here. They also have some great information on tobogganing safety.

I hope next year to be able to visit some of these toboggan hills and be able to add some pictures as well. But for now, I’d love to hear which toboggan hills your family loves and I’ve listed all the official Calgary toboggan hills below.

Official City of Calgary Toboggan Hills:

North West Parks

• Confederation Park - 2800, 10 Street NW (north side of park immediately west of Rosemont Community Centre).
  
• Royal Oak - 50 Royal Birkdale Drive NW (north side of hill)
  
• St. Andrew's Heights - 2504, 13 Avenue NW

North East Parks

• Big Marlborough Park - dry pond - 6021 Madigan Drive NE
  
• Deerfoot Athletic Park - 14 Avenue and 16A Street NE
  
• Marlborough Community Association - 636 Marlborough Way NE
  
• Monterey Park - Catalina Boulevard and California Boulevard NE (NE corner only)
  
• Prairie Winds Park - 223 Castleridge Boulevard (north side hill).
  
• Rundle Dry Pond - 4120 Rundlethorn Drive NE (behind Rundle Elementary School)

South West/South East Parks

• Glendale Park - 25 Avenue and 45 Street SW (west side).
  
• Kingsland - dry pond - Heritage Drive SW (behind the RoseKohn/Jimmy Condon Arenas)
  
• Maple Ridge - dry pond - Mapleglade Close SE
  
• Richmond Green - 33 Avenue and 25 Street SW
  
• Sacramento - dry pond - Sacramento Drive and 104 Avenue SW
  
• Scarboro - 15 Avenue and 16 Street SW
  
• Signal Hill - Sirocco Drive and Signal Hill Heights SW
  
• Stanely Park – 4011, 1A Street SW

Have you been to any of these toboggan hills? Which is your family’s favorite?

Tommy K Play Review - 2011

Location    map      http://www.tommykplay.com/
Address: 148 - 4916 130th Avenue SE (between Deerfoot and 52 avenue)

Gordie's Review (2.5  years old) – Let’s climb again!

Cost: $8.95 for ages 4 and under, $12.95 for ages 5 and older, children 9 month and under and adults are free.
Age Range: 0-12.
Footwear: Socks. Socks are available for purchase for $3 if you forget.
Safety Features/Concerns: There are closed circuit video monitors with a rotating video feed; Children and adults get matching wrist bands that get checked and cut off at the door.
Play Area Features: Huge climbing structure designed for kids 5-12 but accessible to younger kids if accompanied by an adult; toddler area with plastic toys and large foam blocks for kids 4 and under; laser maze; roller race track and interactive gaming tower.
Additional Services: Birthday Party Rooms.
Food Services: Full Service Coffee Bar with sandwiches, salads and other snack items.

Overall Assessment:

This is Tommy K Play’s 2nd year in operation. We dropped by on a Saturday morning, which is one of their busiest times of day. However, it didn’t start feeling crowded until about 11am.  The main attraction is the giant play structure – the largest in the city at this time. On this visit, my husband who is 6’4” came with us, and I was 5.5 months pregnant. This is my husband’s favorite indoor play place in Calgary (he really liked the one in West Ed) because it is a great place to crawl around (and I do mean crawl!) with your kids.

It is recommended that kids 4 and under are accompanied by an adult when they are in the climber. This may be a bit of a challenge if you have more than 1 kid and they do not agree on where to go next. If your kids are in the climber alone, there is plenty of seating with good visibility as well as multiple closed circuit video monitors with a rotating video feed.  At the end nearest the play structure, there are comfy chairs arranged facing the play area and TVs with sports on above.

We were both able to navigate through the entire climber including the rollers. The rollers were a little squishy for me but not uncomfortable and I otherwise didn’t have a problem navigating through the climber. My husband took up quite a bit of space going through some of the tunnels, and his knees and shins were sore at the end but there wasn’t anywhere he couldn’t go. We both found it to be a workout though.

   

    

     

  

Roller Race Track

This year Gordie was old enough to try out the Roller Race track. It was still pretty challenging for him though and he needed a lot of help. The race track is popular but it seems to go in waves – sometimes all the roller cars are in use and the next time you look there’s only one being used.

  

Toddler Area

On this visit more care had been taken in the display of the toddler area and the result was a lot more inviting. This was the very first place Gordie wanted to go when we got to Tommy K Play. There were a number of ride-on toys that he really enjoyed playing with. In general though I think the area is best suited for kids under 2. Unfortunately there is not a lot of space for grown-ups to sit inside the gated area aside from the floor, but there are some stools that you can sit on that overlook the play area.

  

Laser Maze and Gaming Tower

I had intended on running through the Laser maze, but any time I looked over there was at least one group waiting to go in, which if nothing else speaks to it’s popularity. The maze has different levels of difficulty which can effect how long you have to wait for your turn as well.  There were often kids at the interactive gaming tower, but there is nothing to sit on which limits the amount of time any one kid will play on it.

                

It didn’t end up staying for lunch this time. The food looked to be pretty standard pre-prepared and pre-packed items like sandwiches, salads and various snacks. The eating area is quite large with a number of tables and bar style seating that faces the play area.

We don’t make it down to the South end of the city vary often, but if we were there I wouldn’t happily go again – our whole family had a great time. It would also be my first choice of where to go if I was planning a trip to an indoor play place with my husband.

Click here for last year’s review of Tommy K Play with comments.

Have you been to this play place? Have a suggestion for a playground review? Would you like to write a guest review? Write your thoughts in the comments.