Following a fantastic evening out in Greenpoint and Camps Bay, not to mention the wondrous experience of being able to sleep in late for a change on a Saturday morning, Chantelle and I eventually needed to make the trek through to Bellville to retrieve Jessica and Emily who had spent a fun night over at Oupa and Ouma’s house.
The plan was simple: let’s treat the kids by taking them out to somewhere they can stretch their legs and have a little bit of fun at the same time.
Now I’ve mentioned Funky Frogs before, but this time around we wanted to try out something new – Blasters, situated out at Cape Gate Décor Centre and a venue previously mentioned to us by friends on numerous occasions.
From their website (which isn’t very good mind you): BLASTERS is a new concept in Entertainment, creating a safe and secure environment for children and adults of all ages to relax and have fun. The main services we offer are:
- Families with young children can come and enjoy a tasty meal from our restaurant or relax in our cigar lounge, while the children have a blast in our jungle gym under the supervision of our attendants.
- Catch up with friends over a coffee while all the kids play safely together.
- Parents can drop their children off for a couple of hours, giving them the opportunity to shop, visit the gym, attend to meetings/appointments, or simply take some time out.
- Birthday Parties and private functions of any sort can be accommodated and themed to your requirements.
We found the place more or less easily enough (remember, it is at Cape Gate Décor Centre and not Cape Gate proper, i.e. where Tafelberg Meubels is situated), and after wandering into the top floor which is the restaurant/cigar lounge, we were ushered downstairs to the kids’ play area.
It’s a bit of an interesting one really. Honestly, I felt the place came across as a bit “common”, the incessant rave “doef doef” music that blared driving that point home all to well, but on the other hand, the kids’ play area setup is simply amazing, with an incredible, spacious, and safe array of slides (so many to choose from!), climbing walls, gas guns, and all manner of kiddie obstacles available, making it near impossible for a small child not to have fun once they spot the hulking mass of plastic and padding taking up most of the room!
It’s not particularly expensive either mind you, R40 for 120 minutes is not bad, though I was a bit annoyed that I had to pay R30 for Emily even though we were quite clear that she is too young to play and would be sitting with us the whole time (which she did). The kids are outfitted with electronic tags which makes exiting the building without sounding an alarm impossible – a nice touch by Blasters I thought.
Whilst Jessica got to the all important business of playing (in fact, Chantelle joined in, evening going down one of the slides with her!), I ordered some coffee and a pizza for us, and in the end I have to say, the food was delicious, the coffee good, and the waiters very keen and friendly with the kids. (Sadly, the childminders on the day didn’t impress me quite so much though).
Fix the music, make the kids’ area look a little less industrial and I think you’ve probably got a winner on your hands in terms of a kid friendly venue. That said, it doesn’t really matter what I say – after all, Jessica had an absolute ball, and that is what really counts at the end of the day! :)
(And as an added bonus, on coming home we were introduced to the crate swing Monty had set up for the girls – and boy did both Jessica and Emily get an absolute thrill out of it!)
Related Link: http://www.blasters.co.za/capegate/