We recently went to The Buzz at Red Point in Worcester because we've previously been climbing at Red Point and our kids saw it on the big screens in the climbing area and thought it looked amazing. The Buzz is a large inflatable play area. From the photos, my mum was referring to it as a soft play, but it's not actually a soft play because it's all inflatable.
Before we went, I was trying to get a few questions answered to decide whether we should go, and there were a couple of articles in Google called Everything You Need to Know about The Buzz. But they didn't answer my questions, so they really weren't everything I needed to know about it. Hence the title of this piece!
Do you need to buy socks for The Buzz, Worcester?
My main question was whether we would need to buy socks, because I read on their website that you could only use their socks, and I know when you go to things like Air Hop or Ninja Warrior, the socks cost more money on top. When you've already spent £13 for everyone to go in, to then be hit with the cost of socks can be a bit much as it all adds up.
So we took our Air Hop socks...
When we got to the counter and they asked if we had socks, and I showed them the Air Hop socks and they said "Oh no, you can't wear those" and I thought, "here we go". And then they just asked us our shoe size and gave us socks to wear, which we had to give back at the end. (Although thinking about it, no one really checked, we just put them into a tub that said 'please put your used socks here'). So that was a really, really pleasant surprise that they supply the socks and they seemed very clean.
They were quite sheer in ways that made them seem breathable. And they said unlike the Air Hop socks, they weren't grippy.
Arriving at The Buzz and getting checked in
I'd read a comment on another website of someone complaining that they took a long time to check you in, so I made sure we'd done all the disclaimers and everything before we got there. And we got there in plenty early and we were fine. They checked us in really well and the girl on the counter was really nice. We remembered to go to the loo before we took our shoes off and put our socks on because they don't want you to wear their nice clean socks in the loo, understandably. And then we just sat and watched the screens and waited until it was our turn.
Just before it was time for our session, we went to find the lockers which we'd asked about when we checked in. We'd asked how we could pay for the lockers we were told that you could use cash or card, so we thought that was fine. When we got to the lockers however, we found that you didn't put your money into the locker, you had to go back to reception. And give them the money for a key, and that was frustrating because we had asked at reception how the lockers worked or if we needed cash and they said no card would be fine, but they hadn't said "let us sort you out a locker now" - they just let us wander off, wait, and then when it was nearly time for our session, we had to join the back of a long queue of people who hadn't filled in their waivers.
So that was quite annoying when it felt like we were nearly gonna be late for our session. I don't understand why, when we asked about how the lockers worked, the girl didn't sell us a key then and there.
The other thing my husband wasn't keen on was that the idea of the lockers is that you put all your valuables in there including any keys, so they're not sharp in your pocket. So you would put your car keys in this locker, for your car that's parked in the car park just outside, lock the locker and then hang your key on a board of keys. And this board of keys is completely reachable by any random passerby in the whole complex, and the reception staff are a few meters away with their back to it. It basically did not feel secure at all. So my husband said actually he'd like to keep his key with him for the locker. In which case, why did we even lock our car keys in there if we were just gonna keep a key in our pocket anyway? And they said that he could keep his locker key with him, but he would have to pay a £20 deposit if he lost it. He said he would rather risk £20 than risk losing his car keys.
What age is The Buzz suitable for?
Our son is 3 and under 5s need to be accompanied and as we were going in February half term, and we were on a little holiday in Worcester, rather than one parent sat outside on their own, I thought we should all 5 of us go in. Too older kids - a 10 year old, a 7 year old - the 3 year old, and my husband and I. So all together that came to £66. So £66 for a 1 hour activity for a family of 5.
I would definitely say that it's right that under fives don't go in on their own. Our 3 year old did absolutely love it, but there wasn't an awful lot he could do. He could do the obstacle course bit, and he could climb the stepped wall with one of us going up alongside him (I did see some tiny toddlers falling off from great heights). And he could go down the fast slides, which he absolutely loved. But he couldn't do the leap of faith, he couldn't run and jump to the top of the wall, even our seven year old couldn't do that. And he certainly didn't want to stand on a podium and get knocked over by a giant wrecking ball. Because he was with older siblings it made him feel like one of the gang, but I wouldn't take a toddler there on their own unless it was a special toddler session so they weren't swamped by older kids.
What's in The Buzz, Worcester?
Once we got in there, there was a long bouncy area immediately in front of you, which was good for running and jumping down; a kind of swing ball to the right so that you could try and knock people off podiums; a wall that you can take a run up and try and reach the top off and haul yourself up onto the top (there were two of those side by side, one slightly higher than the other); a leap of faith where you jump down onto a large cube and hopefully land in the middle of it; a steep slide; stairs to climb up to all of these higher things; a section of kind of hurdles, for lack of a better way of putting it; and then a kind of obstacle area designed for slightly younger kids, I'd say, where you go under a roller or past some inflatable bollards that you have to squeeze your way past.
It's very good, but to be honest, within 20 minutes we had done all of it a couple of times and that was with quite a few other people there. I read someone say that one hour wasn't enough, but for my husband and I, one hour was absolutely enough. The kids did really love it and they probably could have stayed a bit longer, but everyone was very hot. I'd say there wasn't as much to do as at AirHop in Bristol.
Is The Buzz Worcester worth the money?
Overall, the kids had a really good time. We all had fun. And it's a great rainy day activity to do if you're in Worcester. But it is quite expensive. And an hour is plenty long enough. If it had been a couple of pounds less per person, it would have seemed like a better deal.
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