Jambo Park in Phoenix

So UMM i want to say Thanks for trying to make a nice indoor amusement park. The idea is awesome. Only thing is… that it is ran by DISRESPECTFUL & LAZY PEOPLE. The manager walked out… «the party host» was an amazing girl but wasnt helping enough cuz they had her working like a dog ! Doing the party, the restraunt place, and rides. OH & one of the workers pushed my Mother in Law while she was holding my 8 month old son. I talked to the manager (that got there once the place was closing) and all she did was laugh about it. Then the workers kept saying why dont they just get the fuck out already. UM MAYBE CUZ I PAID $ 320 TO BE DISRESPECTED AND MY MOTHER IN LAW ASSAULTED (yes i went there). THE KIDS ONLY GOT TO RIDE 2 RIDES IN THE WHOLE 2 HOURS. CUZ THERE IS NO OPERATERS BASICALLY! UM SO MY REVIEW IS YOU GUYS SHOULD BE CLOSED DOWN

Wow, unless you want to play arcade games from the 1980s and you have a high tolerance for dirt, stay away from this place. We were looking for an indoor attraction to beat the heat one day with our almost 2 ½ year old daughter and unfortunately ended up going here. The bathrooms were disgusting, the place had a foul smell to it overall and the play area was pretty filthy. Yes, it was inexpensive and she had fun but we almost wanted to burn the clothing she was wearing after we left. Walk around the mall for 2 hours instead.

The place has a good concept but is flawed in its execution. The main issue (one that other reviewers have touched upon) is that it is woefully understaffed, to the point that you have to search high and low for a ride attendant and it took almost an hour to get our food.

We come to Jambo Park because our autistic 3-​year-​old son adores this place! He asks to go there at least weekly by randomly exclaiming, «It’s Jambo time!» That said, we probably actually go once every 3 months or so.
The rides are fantastic. The video games are fun. The staff is friendly. We even had our son’s 3^rd birthday party there. The food is good and the grounds are usually very clean.
The only problems we have run into are that there are not enough employees on staff to run the rides — ever — and many of the video games will take your tokens (coin return not functional) without activating the game. Sometimes they will take your token and turn on, but the game requires balls of some kind and all of the balls are missing from the game. In those cases, even though the game turned on, we still end up disappointed that we cannot play it due to lack of balls.
In the case of the lack of ride employees, we have been told that if we just come to the front desk and request someone come over to the ride we want to engage, they will gladly come over to service the ride, but that doesn’t always work because there is not always someone there at the front desk either.
In the instance of the token eating games, we have been told we can simply come to the front desk and request replacement tokens when that happens, but it is so often that we’d honestly be doing that ALL DAY. It’s just not worth the hassle to us. We’d rather just purchase more than we think we need expecting we’ll lose a few.
Those problems aside, I still must give them a 3 star review because it is a really cool concept that is unmatched in the Valley of the Sun. There is no place else that offers anything close to the amusement park rides that they do for children as young as my son. He absolutely loves it, and as long as Jambo Park exists, we will continue to patronize them.
That said, obviously from my review, you may be able to tell that if I owned this business, I would run things a bit differently.
Another suggestion that I have made to staff on multiple occasions is for them to please get some sort of membership program going for frequent guests similar to what Butterfly Wonderland, the Phoenix Zoo, We Rock the Spectrum, Sea World, Disneyland, and other indoor play places/​amusement parks have. We would come much more frequently then, and they would make quite a bit more money over all resulting from our increased token and food purchases from the unlimited visits under a membership such as this than they would from just the price of admission they are currently getting as infrequently as we go now. They are the only such place in their category of establishments that I know of in the Phoenix area that doesn’t have some type of a membership or frequent visitor program.

Horrible place! My husband I took our daughter to play and for potential place for her second birthday party. Dirty, dark, ghetto place with little to no employees running the place. We constantly had to look for an employee to start a ride for us. Wrote the owner a email letting her know we will no longer be doing my daughters party there and told her why and she never responded back with an email.

Had high hopes for this place but unfortunately it was a huge disappointment. Let’s start with the cleanliness. The place felt dirty and looked dirty. Most alarming was their play area. The sign states to remove your shoes. So you would assume they would keep it clean for safety reasons. Sadly enough the play area looked like it has never been vacuumed. How irresponsible of a business to not only prohibit our kids from wearing shoes to protect their feet but but to be so reckless to not ensure the area is clean and safe for our kids. I hope management understands they need to focus on safety with. Includes keeping their place clean so if our kids have to walk barefoot, they can do so without worrying about all the debris on the ground
The rides were okay, the arcade is small and the games are outdated, and four of the coin rides didn’t even work. But honestly seeing how dirty the place is, it would not shock me that everything was just mediocre.

This place is cute. It seems like my youngest (3yrs) enjoyed the rides more than my oldest (6yrs). The price is decent if you stay for at least 2 hours. I think they could take the arcade out in the back and perhaps add on to the rides. Perhaps a pool table or another ride. The manager is very friendly and the workers are not extremely nice or rude. Just indifferent. I would suggest this place anytime.

My 5& 6 y/​o kids love the rides here. For the most part it is a great place for kiddos to play indoors. The reason I give the facility 3 stars is due to how long in takes to get any food from the concession stand. If you order a pizza, coffee or soft pretzel you will be waiting at least 30 minutes. The chairs in the food area are broken. Also, the majority of the video games are not working consistently so you have to find an employee to give you a token because you didn’t get to play or ask for tickets because they don’t get paid out…
It is VERY loud in there and the music is blasted on top of all the noise the rides make. As I said my kids do have fun. However make sure you give yourself ample time to order food… Go back to the counter to check on it as you won’t be able to hear the cashier call your number and they will not go find you.
The current management seems off… A lot has changed at this place. The best way to summarize it is that it looks abandoned. The cleanliness, empty bins for ticket prizes, malfunctioning OLD games, more than half empty «claw» game broken chairs and terrible food service screams closing down soon to me.

This place is a great concept for smaller kids, and of course they love the rides. However, the cost to have a party is overpriced, and the part hostess is never around or available. If you buy food, beware you have to pay extra for any condiments like ranch with your wings. They give you nothing except the wings themselves.
The staff that i dealt with was rude and the manager has no business being in the hospitality business. In my opinion he was a jerk with the personality of a large pustule. He had no interest in making his customers happy or even giving the appearance if doing so.
Will never spend the money here again.

Felt like I went back in time to the early ‘90s. Not a ton of games, but enough. It was very dated, but very clean. It’s more for kids between 5 and 12… however, 12 seems pushing it.
It has LaserTag, so that was cool for the bigger kids.
I did order two pretzels at the snack bar area that never came. We to leave so I didn’t bother picking asking what happened to them. Only $ 4 lost. The GM seems flustered by everything.
Something good was that most games took only 1 token to play, unlike the other kid’s themed pizza places that cost almost $ 1 per game.
Over all, not sure I would go back. However, if my kids got invited back for a Bday party like this time. I would take them. They seemed to have enough fun.

Everything it’s great, lot of activities, good food, clean, and warm people

Went there for a kids party and our 3 year old grand daughter had a great time. I honestly thought, ok… where am I going to eat after we leave but these guys make pretty good food. They had a room reserved for the party and the staff who took care of us did a great job and really seemed to care if we were having a good time and kept the food/​drinks coming. I compare this place to chuckee cheese and to me, this place beats them hands down. The kids had a great time. All the rides were up and we never had to wait for anything so perhaps they hired more staff? (I mention this because of other reviews in here.) I am not sure about the reviews saying the place was dirty. That simply is not true. Fun, cheap time for the kids. These are the kinds of places I am looking for.

This place is great for young, school aged children. We just had our daughter’s 6^th birthday party and the kids and parents had a great time. We weren’t quite sure what to expect but you must remember that this is a place for children. Through the lens of a child, this place is a place where they can run around with friends, participate in games, rides, laser tag and golf. We got a little room but the kids didn’t even want to come in and eat cake and pizza. We didn’t even open presents there because they were more interested in playing with each other. Our party coordinator was sweet and attentive and the staff in general appeared to be happy. Some of the games are dated but you know what? The kids had a blast. That’s all that really matters.

I hate to agree, but seriously has a health inspector been by recently?!
This is a neat place. Or could be… But 50% or more of the games are marked broken. The rest that we played malfunction… 3 «staff» working the rides that were working.
And as much as the ¹⁵⁄₁₆ year old employees dusting fake trees helps… This place is gross. Really want to bathe in bleach right now. But hey they keep from making eye contact if they looks busy with the plants.
I would seriously like to slap the owner. If shit worked and had a half decent staff I would be here almost every weekend. He/​she could make a killing! But you can tell that ghetto rigging and teenaged employees are more cost efficient.

What a waste of a groupon. I still have half of it left and wont return. We went over summer. The staff just stood around, playing with the games and each other. No one to operate any of the rides, half the arcade games broken. The bathrooms filthy, hot, vents broken, stench. My God it was hot and smelly.
This place has so much potential yet it is such a dump. Don“t bother, you will only dissapoint your kids. Luckily mine is young enough to not know better yet.

Jambo has the makings of something good, but needs serious deep cleaning and maintenance/​repair done throughout. Two stars because the kids enjoyed it, but I don’t think we’ll return. Everywhere I looked had an «eww» factor I just can’t get over.

I decided I drive here all the way from Goodyear for my daughters 2^nd bday. I was beyond disappointed. The place itself was small and not very clean. There were literally 5 other people there. Yet employees were visually annoyed if you asked to get on a ride. I made a joke with my daughter asking if she was drunk after a ride, the guy working the ride then says, «I wish I was.» We stayed an hr if that and then left, worst money I ever spent.

Jambo is where carnival rides go to die. Everything there is from the 80s or 90s. Young kids (2 – 4 year olds) will like the rides. Anyone older and especially adults will not like it.

Dirty, neglected, not safe…3 feelings you have as a parents. Yes, my son loved it, so two stars. But like others said, half the games are broken, and probably has been for years. I am sure arcades like this don’t make a lot of money, and owner seems like a nice guy, but he needs to focus on things he CAN control, like a bathroom that doesn’t smell like a portopotty, cleaning the games and place in general, removing dangerous items, covering electrical outlets. Etc. Yes, it wouldnt still be run down with games from 1993, but at least I would feel dirty while there and my son loves it. It would be a great place if cleaned every week at least, and hopefully one day get a guy to fix the games so 80 percent work
I will not be back for a long time and hope it is fixed up

Equipment poorly maintained. Employees are so unenthusiastic, they look like they’ve been drinking Nyquil. About a third of the arcade games were out of order or stole my tokens. Laser tag only accommodated 4 people at a time, which made for VERY slow moving lines. Despite all this, my kids still had fun, which was good, but I feel this place could be maintained so much better.

Kids will love it, parents not so much. Poor maintenance and broken machines. The clientele is a bit ghetto. Notice multiple dangerous maintenance issues. The staff is friendly and helpful.

I’d like to start off by saying, I’m typically the type of person who is grossed out by everything. I don’t like being dirty and I’m kind of a snob.
After reading all the reviews on here last night, including the tips, the reviews they don’t feature on here and the ones on Facebook, I was a little weary about going here. I was invited to a birthday party with my kid who is 3, so I figured why not it’s free. Now bc I didn’t have to pay for anything, I can’t speak to prices, but holy moly; I’ve never seen my kid so excited before in her short little life!
She. Lost. Her. Mind.
Jambo’s caters to the tiny humans. If your child is over, maybe 7, this may not be the best place for them as it may or may not interest them. But under… wow. My daughter loved it. The lines were short so she was able to ride over and over again. We waited maybe 3−5mins if an attendant wasn’t available to operate a ride, which is fine bc they would let the kids stay on and go again providing they didn’t have a line and they had all day wrist bands.
I was really impressed by the issues mentioned in previous Unilocal reviews that were corrected when I was there.
The jungle gym area had no hole in the netting, the dining area was clean, all the rides were function (though some of the games were not, however the ones that were gave out a crap ton of tickets)
The staff was friendly and sweet. I really liked how well they interacted with the kids. I’ve worked for a competitor before when I was in high school and trust me, these jobs aren’t fun for anyone. The fact that the staff here was able to be friendly and fun to the kids on a Saturday at noon, that says a lot. Way different than I expected.
The food will get a pass from me even though it wasn’t terribly good, I have to keep in mind that this is supposed to be geared towards kids. They like simple and basic items (at least most kids do, calm down elitist parents who can get their kids to eat only the finest foods and ingredients) so I didn’t expect the pizza to be great.
The reason that the food didn’t lose a star in my review was also bc Jambos was able to provide a guest with an unexpected (to the party hosts) gluten allergy with an alternative glutton free lunch. Well played.
I’ve got to hand it to the new management. They are trying their hardest to take care of this place and revive it from the ashes the previous guy left it in. People need to realize they only had new management at the beginning of 2015, so everything is going to take time. The key issues have been address so the others will happen slowly but surely.
In conclusion, I would come back here. They deserve a fresh slate and I think it was worth seeing the joy on my daughters face
Tips for the management:
A deep cleaning once every 3 months never hurts, however it’s not as bad as the previous Unilocalers have said.
The golf course could use a little love. Or some coverings on those sharp edges.

There are very few place to go like this in AZ. Yes, it is small and older, but the rides are great, the food is good, the staff is wonderful and it’s very affordable. I have a 3 ½ year old and she loves this place. It’s difficult to take her on rides because she has autism and usually can’t go by herself. The staff went above and beyond to help us and have done so every time we have been there. A place like this will get trashed quickly with tons of kids in it throughout the day. But what I saw was the staff constantly cleaning the floors, scrubbing chairs in the food area and a very friendly and helpful staff. Is it a multi –million dollar corporate
operation –no. It’s a mom and pop shop which makes me want to support them even more. Give it a chance before you make a decision to go, we drive over an hour to get there and it’s totally worth it.

I wish I could give them no stars!!! This is the worse place ever!!! 1^st– super Dirty 2^nd– everything broken including arcade games 3^rd employees not professional at all!!!
Really Dirty and Old!!!

My five year old asks over and over all the time (almost daily) to go to «Jumbo». It’s cute so we don’t correct him to say it is Jambo! This place is a bit dated, but so flippin’ what!!! It is FUN!!! It is UNIQUE!!! And my kid LOVES this place!!!
They offer a lot of super fun amusement rides INDOORS, a big sized play place, laser tag and indoor golf (included in the admission price)!! They have video games! They have good food options so we can hang out here for HOURS!
The employees are super friendly and actually make it MORE fun! I just can’t understand all of the bashing! So, there are more rides than employees, but the employees are super observant and hop around when there are kids ready to ride! RELAX and teach your kids patience, and that waiting one or two minutes to ride a ride is NO BIG DEAL!!!
Some people complain it is dirty? Well, let your kid play in their HUGE play structure and check out their knees and toes or socks compared to when you take them to McDonald’s!!! My kid leaves McDonald’s play structure FILTHY DIRTY! This place is way cleaner than McDonald’s! I actually bought black socks for when I take him to McDonald’s! I don’t need his black socks here.
MAYBE IF PEOPLE WOULD STOP bashing this place, they could attract more customers and be able to invest some of their profits into making some minor updates. BUT, we like this place as is and we will go back over and over, because, although not perfect, this place is a BLAST for my kid and that is all that matters!!!

I was a little leery of coming here because of all the recent reviews saying this place is filthy & poorly managed, but it seems they’ve made some improvements & my experience was better than anticipated.
I brought my 2 yr old here a little before noon on 5÷4÷15. The place was not busy at all – there were maybe 3 other families there, so there wasn’t really any waiting for rides. During the 1.5 hrs we spent here, I observed employees wiping down rides & mopping, & the place was generally clean – a nice surprise since I was expecting the nasty facilities reported in others’ reviews.
The employees were pleasant, & there were at least 5 on shift, so they were able to share the ride-​running duties & kept waiting to a minimum.
Overall, I feel like we got our money’s worth from our visit. For only $ 8, my son enjoyed some fun rides & the soft playground in the A/​C. Yes, the rides are old & run down, & the majority of the arcade games are out of order. He didn’t notice those things, though – he just ran around & had fun, & that’s all that matters to me.

I brought my granddaughter here for a birthday party. If your child is young, they will stay busy and be happy enough. But, if we never visited again, I wouldn’t miss it. They are short staffed and the workers look bored and tired and untrained. The wait for operators to run the rides means less ride times and pushes the kids to ask the parents to buy tokens for the other games. Maybe that is the point of keeping the rides to a minimum?
I absolutely would not leave my child unattended here. It is a prime place for a child to be taken unnoticed, or worse. The please is dirty and old. Alot of hard cement flooring.
The assistant for the birthday party rarely showed up. We did all our own clean up, service, etc. Pizza was so — so.
If you need something to do with your kids, don’t expect much, have plenty of hand sanitizer and you don’t mind watching your child every minute, it is a place for them to ride some rides and kill a couple hours. But, for the money, there are better options.

Ah, the ol’ gave one star because you can’t give 0 stars. I don’t give this one out often, but Jambo was awarded this honor.
Some points:
1. This place smells like dirty feet.
2. It was muggy when I was in there
3. The manager (male one) berated my 4 year old nephew and mom because a nice employee told the 4 year old nephew that he could have a soda in his water cup.
4. The manager then demanded that my mom tell him which employee it was so he could fire them which makes for a great environment for children
5. This is personal opinion, but I would not trust my child around that same manager. He looked real sketchy and potentially pedo bear-​ish. I mean, he yelled at a 4 year old for a 2oz cup of liquid. What does that tell you about his judgement?
Then again, maybe he’s a great guy with a nice family and a great career path. I dunno, I mean Jambo is kinda like Disneyland right? Managers at Disneyland probably make good money, I bet. And they’re around kids ALL DAY. And really, I haven’t witnessed it before, so that doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen, but maybe the characters walk around Disneyland terrorizing the children when the adults aren’t looking. Maybe Winnie the Pooh shoves your kids when they do something trivial.
Anyways, I just thought you should know to keep your eyes on your kids at this place. It contains foul smells, sketchy ventilation and a power hungry male manager that is certainly not of sound mind.

A change in the weather caused us to use Jambo Park as a last minute substitute location for a birthday party. The party rooms, which looked appealing, were booked. We made the best of it and managed to find some seating. The $ 10 wrist bands (with a 20% discount) seemed pricey, but proved to be a bargain ride after ride after ride after ride. Bottom line: Our four and five year old party animals had a blast!
There were some issues. It was surprising that Jambo seemed understaffed on a busy Saturday. The park rangers, who were great interacting with the children, were forced to run from ride to ride, causing waits. The game tokens were not a great deal, especially with a prize counter seriously in need of restocking. The ticket counting machine was «full,» and seems to have been so for quite a long time. Restrooms could charitably be described as, well, gross. Definitely in need of more frequent inspections. The snack bar was fine, a little expensive as you might expect at an amusement park. Did serve us some very stale nachos, but others around us seemed to be enjoying their pizza…
I do wish there was a little more security. We were concerned that we might lose a kid out the front door.
Jambo Park was a perfect fit for our four to five year old age group, but I can’t imagine it holding their attention in another two or three years. On this day, we were happy to overlook deficiencies in service simply because the rides were such a huge hit with our little ones.

My brother and I went back to Jambo later that evening and the moment the manager saw my mom, he ran to the back. We told my mom to wait in the car while we confronted the manager. To make a very long story short, throughout the 20 minutes of him being in denial and saying that what he did was not wrong the 2 things that stood out were:
1. ALL adults should know that ONLY water goes in to those cups and if my mom saw something otherwise, she should’ve poured it out (Yeah, cause my mom works there and knows their rules)
2. As to why she didn’t «rat» the guy out who gave my son soda, «Let’s say your son was being beat, wouldn’t you want management to know who was beating him and not worry so much about him getting fired?» (Uhhh beating a child and giving him a small cup of soda is NOT comparable!!!)
His logic was so irrational. In the end, after refusing repeatedly to give us the owner or HIS managers name, he finally blurts out, «You can call here another day and ask for Jackie.» My brother: Okay, who’s Jackie? CHRIS: She’s a black lady.
UHHHHH what does her having to be black have ANYTHING to do with this?
CHRIS: I’m not trying to be discriminatory. She’s another manager. mmm okay.
We demanded a refund and at first he refused to give us one saying he was allowed to give only 2 refunds a month, then he retracted and said, okay, if I give you a refund will you not bring this up again and leave me alone? Will you not escalate this? (Admitting fault, are we?). My brother kept demanding the refund to which he gave us. Are we satisfied? Absolutely not. This is still going to be escalated!!!