We were on the South Shore this weekend and stopped by Scalliwags in Pembroke, an indoor play place. It boasts a large, soft play structure, an inflatable bouncer, an arcade, and a toddler room for littler ones. Scalliwags looked great on paper, but after visiting we’d think again before going back.

The entry fee for kids 2 and over, which includes $3 in tokens, is $7.95 Monday through Thursday and $9.95 Friday through Sunday and on school vacations. For kids under 2, the cost is $3 less and does not include any tokens, which makes sense since the arcade is mainly for that 2+ age range.

The primary focus of Scalliwags is the soft play structure, which has three levels of chutes, slides, tubes, rope ladders, fun pits, and soft tumble trampolines. This structure is impressive and would keep kids busy for a good amount of time. Next to this structure is a large bouncy with a big soft slide attached. The main seating area for eating is in the middle of these two, which gives parents a perfect view of the kids. The play structure provides for pretty good viewing of the entire area, so it’s not difficult to track your kids and unlikely you would need to crawl into the tubes to see what is going on.

The arcade has more than 20 games to play, which is a bit small compared to some others we have been to, but none of the kids playing seemed to care. We got there early on a Saturday when it was not very busy, but might worry about overcrowding in the arcade on a busy day. All games take tokens, which are 25 cents apiece, and reward you with tickets. Half of the games were the type where you physically move something to win the tickets, such as our favorite, the popcorn catcher, where ping-pong balls pop up and you have to catch them by moving the arm of a popcorn bag. Skee-ball and basketball are available for the sports fans out there. Tickets can be redeemed for prizes, both small and large.

The toddler room, for ages 3 and under, is in the far end of the building. Since our kid is in this range, we spent the first 30 minutes in this room. There are a few different large, soft blocks, as well as different types of riding toys, both of the pedal variety and ‘Flintstone-style’ move-with-your-feet type. We had a great time zooming around the room with our kid in a cop car and started an impromptu parade with the other vehicles. Regardless of the fun, we had quite a few complaints about this room. It was freezing the entire time we were there. We inquired about this and were told the heat was on, but didn’t notice a change – hopefully this isn’t the norm. We also thought the floor in the toddler room could have been a bit softer given the room’s purpose. It was carpeted, but was pretty hard. Between the hard floor and the cold, we were worried about our child running around in socks. The toys were very worn and the play kitchen sink was dirty, which is bothersome since toddlers stick everything in their mouths! The lack of variety was also disappointing.

Food is available, although we were a bit early for lunch, so didn’t partake. The menu looked decent though, with standard kid fare.

Dad Says: I wasn’t too impressed with this one, but if we were local, it would be a good place to bring 3+ year old kids to burn off some energy in the play area and arcade.

Mom Says: Next time I’ll be sure to pack a winter coat or blanket. (Snuggie, perhaps?) If you are interested, don’t check out their website. I don’t know how old those pictures are, but it gives a false impression of the facility.

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 16th, 2009 at 1:47 am and is filed under Playplaces. If you use RSS, you can subscribe to the RSS feed , or if you would rather receive an e-mail, please subscribe to the e-mail in the lower right hand corner of this page. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.