Venue: Monkey Joe’s
Website: http://www.monkeyjoes.com/
Location: 6250 Northwest Highway, Suite B, Crystal Lake, IL. Located near the intersection of Northwest Highway (US Route 14) and South Main Street.
Hours: M-Th: 10:00am – 5:00pm; F-Sa: 10:00am – 8:00pm; Su: 11:00am – 6:00pm
Admission: $9.99 per child ages 3 and up, $5.00 per child ages 2 and under, adults are free. Party packages are also available.
Parking: Free – plentiful
Our Experience: Monkey Joe’s is a fun-filled inflatable play center. It looks pretty unassuming from the outside, nestled next to a giant Hobby Lobby, but the Crystal Lake location has a total of 7 GIANT inflatables for the kids to enjoy. Two of them, located towards the front of the play space, are designated for kids 3 and under so my son spent most of his morning there.
This was taken in one of the toddler inflatables. The bottom was covered in animals that the kids could crawl over.
Word of advice: If you’re headed to Monkey Joe’s on a weekend, be sure to get there early and stay till lunchtime. We got there right when they opened (10:00 am) on a Saturday and practically has the place to ourselves for a little while, but by lunchtime, the place was packed!
See – our coats were the only ones hanging.
By the time we left (a little after noon), people that were arriving were waiting for an available hanger.
There’s also a small play area for kids under the age of two – helpful if you have a little one that isn’t quite old enough to enjoy the inflatables. We kicked back in this little room for a bit. There’s also a big flat screen TV right next to this area for mom or dad to enjoy while the kids play.
Overall, our $5 was well-spent at Monkey Joe’s. We spent a good couple of hours there and my son didn’t even want to leave for lunch.
A few more helpful tips:
- Don’t forget to bring socks!
- Monkey Joe’s serves food and drinks, but you can’t bring in your own (they’ll make you leave it at the door).
- Party packages are available – there were quite a few parties going on while we were there.
- Free WiFi is available so bring your tablet or laptop if your child is old enough to explore on their own.
- If you have smaller kids, be sure to wear comfortable clothes! You WILL be dragged to a few of the larger inflatables and asked to climb up. My son just had to slide down the pirate ship slide and guess who got to go along for the ride! Good times!
[...] Venue: Monkey Joe’s Website: http://www.monkeyjoes.com/ Location: 6250 Northwest Highway, Suite B, Crystal Lake, IL. Located near the intersection of Northwest Highway (US Route 14) and South Main Street. Hours: M-Th: 10:00am – 5:00pm; F-Sa: 10:00am …read more [...]