Krazy Kingdom Durham Soft Play Review

Thanks to Gaia from Toon Lunch Club for this review of Krazy Kingdom Soft Play in Durham. This post is based on a visit in January 2022. Please check with venue direct when making plans / visiting as information and prices can change over time. Over to Gaia.......

Opening Hours

• MONDAY to FRIDAY 09:30 to 18:00
• SATURDAY  and  SUNDAY 09:30 to 18:00
• Admission Prices – 2 hour play session
• Last admission is 1 hour before close of business.

Admission Price

• 0-12 Months £1.00
• 1-4 Years £3.95
• 5-12 Years £4.95
• Adults £1.00 Website:
• Website: https://krazykingdom.com/
  

Prices and booking

You don’t need to book in advance, in fact their website advises you just turn up and pay so I don’t think it’s possible to prebook! It costs £1 up to 12 months, £3.95 for 1-4 year olds, £4.95 for 5-12 year olds, and it’s one of the places where adults do have to pay (£1 each). You can pay by card or cash.

There’s a free car park which gets full pretty quickly at weekends due to the amount of birthday parties they host (more on that later!) but street parking is available. 

The Soft Play

Krazy Kindgom has a medieval theme; so you’ll spot dragons, knights and princesses on the walls and around the place. There’s a big play frame with a castle theme which is for over 5s, but younger ones can play on too with adult supervision.

My 7 year old and nearly 4 year old loved it and played independently on it most of the time we were there.

There’s a twisty tube slide and a wavey slide that 4 kids can race down together along with a multitude of climbing possibilities, bouncy balls, ball cannons (which weren’t in use when we visited), bridges and tunnels.

The under 3s area is perfect for toddlers and has a separate area for babies with lots of toys to keep them entertained. 

There were a LOT of birthday parties going on when we visited on a Sunday in January. My youngest was there to attend one of them so I just paid my eldest in (and didn’t have to pay for myself). It is a busy place but it’s so big that you don’t feel like you’re on top of people unless you’re queuing or in a party room. The tannoy announces when parties go to certain rooms for food and party games. There must have been at least 5 birthday parties going on when we were there.  

Also a small note on hygiene - it didn’t seem to be the cleanest place. Menus and tables hadn’t been wiped down and the sinks in the toilets hadn’t been cleaned for a while. There was hand sanitiser dotted about, but that doesn’t really make up for basic hygiene levels being low. Hopefully we just caught them on an extra busy off day and this will be rectified. 

I made the mistake of not wearing a coat - this was a bad move! It’s fine if you’re running around as a kid but adults definitely wrap up warm as these big industrial hanger-type soft plays are chilly! Most people know this I think but I forgot as it’s been a while since we visited a large soft play. 

Climbing wall

As you enter Krazy Kingdom there’s a climbing wall on the left, it’s not too tall but a great extra activity for kids. 

Basketball/football

There’s an enclosed court which can be used for basketball, football or dodgeball which some kids were playing when we visited. 

Food & drink

You don’t go to a soft play expecting fine dining, however there are some things that are hard to get wrong. I ordered a tuna melt and chips (£5.45) and an extra portion of chips (£1.95) for the kids to nibble while they whizzed past. 

Tuna melts are one of my favourites and I get very upset when places get them wrong. This was not the worst I’ve had (which was microwaved!) but it did miss the mark somewhat.

It was on a crusty baguette which was decent enough in itself but it could have been vastly improved if they’d just used a panini machine and decent ingredients. There was too much lukewarm tuna mayo covered with congealed orange cheese. It didn’t look or taste appetising.

The chips where OK, there were those ones that aren’t chunky and aren’t quite french fries that you buy in batch and stick in the deep fryer. Portion sizes were huge.

You have to queue up at the counter and then they bring it to your table and you can pay by card or cash. The coffee was from an automatic bean to cup machine and was decent enough. 

Bowling & go karting 

Upstairs there’s 2 bowling lanes and some mini go karts. Bowling is paid for at the food counter and costs £5 for half an hour, regardless of how many players there are. Go karting is paid for with pound coins and as we didn’t have any and there’s no cashback available, we couldn’t test them out.

After our time was up in the soft play and the party was over we wanted to have a go at bowling. One of the (stressed) staff members working there was a bit abrupt with me when I asked if we could do this, as they were so busy you were supposed to leave after your 2 hours were up. However she said we could stay for the bowling as long as we “left straight after that.”

We got our token (£5 for half an hour) and headed upstairs. You don’t get bowling shoes. We tried to use the lane with bumpers but it wouldn’t accept our token so we tried the other lane which only had one bumper up. It worked but the very basic machine was so hard to navigate that I couldn’t figure out how to get it off ‘one player mode.’ 

As this was my kids’ first ever time bowling they didn’t seem to mind, we just took turns and the system just keeps going until you hit 30 mins. The staff member at the food counter had told us we could come and ask for help if we needed it but I didn’t fancy standing in the long queue again, so we just got on with it. They managed well with only one bumper and we had a great laugh. It’s definitely not proper bowling though and I think the price reflects this. 

Other attractions

There are loads of machines dotted about the building that cost £1 or £2 to play - peppa pig car, fussball with free bouncy ball, various win a small prize machines etc. If you want to indulge the kids make sure you bring £1 coins. If you don’t, having no change is a great excuse not to!

All in all Krazy Kingdom has a lot going for it and the kids loved it. There’s plenty for babies right up to about 10 year olds I’d say. In these Covid times hygiene is of extra importance though so hopefully they will sort that out and it was just a one off as it didn’t feel the cleanest environment. 

Check out our other local soft play reviews below: 

The Fun Zone Durham Review 

Round the Twist Benton Review 

Dobbies Soft Play Review 

CJ's Jungle Cramlington Review 

Gigglewicks Role Play Centre Cramlington Review 

The Fun Shack Newcastle Review