B Adventurous
I have a love/hate relationship with inflatables.
On one hand – I think they are a lot of fun. Like seriously. The most fun ever. Even as an adult, there is something about bouncing around in a pink Princess castle that is just pure enjoyment.
On the other hand – most play places have limited inflatable hours, charge more during inflatable open hours, or reserve inflatables for birthday parties only during peak hours. This can lead to total meltdown for a routine oriented child who got to do all the inflatables during their last visit and now can do none.
That will not be a problem at B Adventurous. This place is essentially all inflatables, all the time.
Location
Convenient location. It is right off I-275 within the now mostly defunct Cincinnati Mall (Cincinnati Mills, Forest Fair..it’s had several names throughout the years). Enter through Entry #2 which is next to Kohl’s. Once inside the mall, you are only a few steps away from entering the play place. This particular location has been several different child entertainment centers over the year. I remember something along the lines of a jungle theme as a teenager.
The mall is a little spooky. It’s dark. But it’s actually not completely empty. There were many, many, many people walking the mall on a Friday morning.
Cost
$8 Dollars for One Hour of play or $10 dollars for unlimited play.
Friday morning special of $5 dollars for one hour of play.
Toddler Time on Tuesday and Thursdays (6 months to 4 years old – though all ages welcome to play) $5 dollars for two hours.
SOCKS REQUIRED.
Waiver
Save yourself time and trouble, fill out the waiver ahead of time on their website!
The Play
This place is all about the inflatables. So many inflatables. They are well kept with a lot of variety. Everything is here – Obstacle courses, big slides, traditional bounce houses. To give you an idea about the size of the inflatables and skill level required, my 2.5 year old was able to navigate her way through every inflatable and my adventurous 4.5 year old had zero issues with climbing, jumping, rolling and sliding.
The large inflatable slides were definitely a crowd favorite and seemed to be what most of the kids were gravitating toward.
Unlike other inflatable experiences, we did not experience long lines with limited bounce time. While my understanding is that weekends can be busier, a weekday visit proved to be just the right amount of busy. My kids had other kids to play with, but they weren’t tripping over each other to get a chance to bounce. There are SO many inflatables here that I would imagine that you could always have a chance to play without a line, unlike facilities that have one or two inflatables available at any given time.
Toddler/Preschool Area
In addition to the main inflatable area, they do provide an area for kids 5 and under. I actually appreciated that the maximum age here is 5. Many times, the toddler cut off is 3 which means I have one kid who may need that specific area and one kid not allowed in. This set up worked well for us.
This area features two bounce house inflatables with slides, a large square open bounce pad, and many toddler toys. My daughter thoroughly enjoyed the play kitchen and the push and ride car.
Visibility
Not great, but it didn’t feel unsafe either. Visibility within the toddler section (which is partially sectioned off) is great. But if you have younger kids who are going to venture away from the toddler area but still need supervision, you’re going to be moving here. There were several times when I wasn’t sure exactly which inflatable my son was in, but I did know he was in one of them. I never felt panicked over his location. And for the most part – I was able to just walk back and forth in a relative small area and watch as they bounced from inflatable to inflatable.
Restrooms + Cleanliness
I was pleasantly surprised to find restrooms on site. You DO NOT need to leave this place in order to use the restroom. They do have restrooms within the facility. Changing table in large stall in women’s restroom.
There is some general “wear and tear” – but this is an older facility so that is to be expected. That being said, everything was clean. Plenty of hand sanitizer stations. Clean restrooms. Concession area was tidy.
Concessions
We ordered a couple of juice boxes. Reasonably priced. We did not try any food during our visit but it appears that you are able to order pizza from Papa John’s and I did see soft pretzels and nachos on the menu. They have several child-sized tables in the concession area which the kids really seemed to get a kick out of.
Conclusion
Overall, it was a great experience. An hour was plenty of time for my young kids. They were very sweaty and very tired by the time we left (and are in fact napping as I type this). Older kids could easily spend several hours here. We will definitely be adding this to our rotation of indoor play places to visit. It felt..nostalgic to me, reminiscent of the play places of my childhood.
This is a case where I don’t feel like my pictures really do this play justice. It is laid out quite well, but due to the size of the inflatables – it’s really hard to capture the essence of this place in photographs so you really are going to just need to go check it out for yourself!
