Craig’s Cruisers Family Fun Centers (Wyoming)
5730 Clyde Park Avenue SW>Only a few more weekends left in summer.
We’ve spent a lot of our weekends at the ice rink. L is really getting in to competitive figure skating and wants to spend every opportunity she can skating. Wings West does public open skates on Saturday nights all summer long for $8. We’ve spent almost every Saturday night there because there are usually less than 10 people skating and it’s cheaper than club ice.
Sunday’s have been club days for her and time with her coach. That ice time is the middle of the afternoon so between those two skating times, it’s limited what we can do on weekends.
A few weeks ago, my work sent out an e-mail about a family day at Craig’s Cruisers in Wyoming. It was right during L’s Sunday ice skating time but we decided we needed to do something different. One day away from the week wasn’t going to hurt her.
Craig’s Cruisers “Grand Rapids” location is actually on Clyde Park Avenue in Wyoming. The large metal building is just south of 54th Street. When you pull in to the large parking lot, the place really doesn’t look like much…it’s just kind of a big warehouse looking thing…. but it’s pretty amazing what’s behind those drab, grey, metal walls.
We had never been to Craig’s Cruisers before this trip. We see it all the time on TV but it’s never really been on our radar as something to do. I grew up going to a place kind of similar back home near Bradley, IL but I was much older before that place was built. I’m always a little worried about B. He’s just at the age where he wants to do everything but there’s a possibility he can’t because he’s not tall enough yet.
The company was paying for the wristband that got us all the attractions and the buffet. We got our wristbands when we walked in the door and our socks for the trampoline area.
It’s a little bit of overload when you first walk in. There’s so much to do that’s it’s hard to figure out where to start.
We went for the first thing that was right in front of us. The Cruiser Coaster.
This ride is a little roller coaster. They call it a cross between a tilt-a-whirl and a figure eight coaster. The kids got in to one of the cars together and it spun them around pretty good. Neither kid has really been on any kind of coaster before and they both really liked this. The smiles were big.
Right next to the Cruiser Coaster is the Ninja Course. The kids go one at a time against the clock on this course that ends with two chances at climbing the wall. An employee follows the kids acting as a commentator. L did pretty well her first time through and made it up the shorter wall without much of a problem. B’s height hurt him a little here but he still made it to the wall pretty quickly. He wasn’t able to get up the wall though.
Next we decided to try the indoor go-karts. Neither kid has ever driven a go-kart and I hadn’t driven one since I was a teenager back at that entertainment complex in Illinois.
B was not tall enough to drive on his own but they have two person go-karts. He and I got in to one of the two person karts while L got her own. The course isn’t very big but it’s fast, slick and has a lot of sharp turns. It took me a little while to work up the courage to just slide through those corners like we were on a dirt track. After a couple laps, the goal became to catch up to L who was also a little hesitant in the first couple laps. We eventually did catch up to her and passed her because she ran in to traffic.
At this point, we decided we needed to eat. We had three hours to play so we forced the kids to take twenty minutes to go hit the buffet.
I was a little surprised at how good the food was. There wasn’t a lot of choice on the buffet. There was a salad bar, a pasta bar, a pizza bar, and a dessert bar. The pizza area only had three or four pizzas out at a time and they were all pretty simple.
We grabbed plates of pizza for everyone. L was the outlier here as she went mostly for the mac ‘n cheese and corn from the salad bar.
My first plate I grabbed two slices of pepperoni pizza and a couple of breadsticks. We did the same for B but just one slice and two breadsticks. The pizza was not what I would usually order on my own but it was pretty tasty. It was a really thick crust but it was very soft and chewy. There was a lot of sauce on each slice but not a ton of cheese. The breadsticks were delicious. I could have eaten a whole plate of them. They were soft, cheesy, and kind of greasy. So, so good.
On my return trip, I decided to try the pasta. I grabbed a plate of spaghetti and sauced it with red sauce and meatballs. The meatballs were tasty. The pasta was, meh. It was fine but nothing really special. I also grabbed another slice of pizza…because…it’s pizza
There is a self serve ice cream machine so we let the kids go get ice cream after they finished their plate. I did a chocolate chip cookie for dessert and there was also these pudding cups. J had the idea to add ice cream to one of those. B just ate it on it’s own then went and got some ice cream as well.
Alright, back to rides. We actually split up at this point. L wanted to go outside and ride the go-karts out there. There’s a pretty big track with gas powered carts. I thought she would have liked them more but she said she liked the indoor track better.
B didn’t want to ride carts. He wanted to play laser tag. We got in the line for laser tag but we were the only ones there. We waited about ten minutes and he started to get inpatient but then a big group of ladies from what appeared to be a college sports team got in line so they opened up the room.
There’s a small entryway where you watch a video explaining the rules and how the guns work. From there, you go into another small room and gear up. I grabbed two of the same color vests for me and B and got his on. The vests are not meant for big guys so I put it on the best I could. We then headed in to the game floor which is lit by blacklight and filled with smoke machine fog. B teamed up with some of the ladies playing leaving me on my own. I just kind of walked around and fired at random people. I finished 10th in the game…B finished 8th. I think there were 15 playing.
We still had so much more to do.
B decided he wanted to go to the trampoline park so we put on his socks and headed up to the platform where the trampolines are. It’s pretty similar to Airborne Adventure Park (formerly Skyzone) so he just kind of took off and I let him go.
The thing that made this trampoline park different was they had a few more jump in to attractions. There’s a big air bag that you can swing, jump off a trampoline, or jump off a platform in to. There’s also a jousting beam and a tightrope walk. They had basketball hoops and a dodge ball pit too which is pretty standard at these types of places.
Not long after we got to the trampoline platform, they shut the lights off and turned on the blacklights. B was wearing shorts and a shirt that really glowed. I texted J that it had turned in to a glow jump and L came running back inside to join us.
B is a little accident prone when he gets overstimulated and he was really overstimulated at this point. He took a joust to the face from his sister followed by a basketball to the nose. One of the employees saw him crying and sat him down. A manager came over to check on us but he didn’t really hurt himself. L and J went back outside and once B calmed down, we headed to the arcade.
The arcade wasn’t included in our package so I bought a $20 card to let him play. He loves the VR games and they had a Rabbids VR machine. We also played the Halo game a couple of times before we headed outside to meet J and L.
L was already in line for the bumper boats when we got there. Only four of them were working so B couldn’t get in at the same time as her and they wouldn’t let them go together because she wasn’t 18. L did fine but when B got a chance, he really couldn’t drive it so he got frustrated. He was overstimulated, I was frustrated from telling him no constantly about things he couldn’t do or couldn’t have so it’s a good thing this was happening at the end of our three hours.
We had about a half hour left and both kids wanted to do the zip line. This was the one that concerned me. B is right at the edge for the height limit to ride without an adult. I would have gladly went with him if I needed to but I’m right below the upper limit for weight on most zip lines. I’m not at the limit….but it’s close. I really didn’t want him to be disappointed because of my failures so I was getting really anxious as we waited in line.
The zip line is pretty cool. You’re loaded in to a seat at ground level with another person (or you can ride alone if you don’t have a partner) then the zip line pulls you backward to the top of a pole on the other side of the property.
The zip line flies over the mini golf course and the outdoor go-kart track bringing you back to an air brake assisted stop where you started.
When we got to the front of the line, the attendant didn’t question B’s height but he did question the weight of both of them together. There’s apparently a minimum. he put them both on a scale and was happy so he strapped them in and let them go.
We were out of time for the attractions but we still had a little bit of the gaming card left. We went back inside to finish that up and I had to again, get in to an argument with B about getting an Icee before we left. The pizza buffet is the main source of food at Craig’s Cruisers but there is a snack stand next to the arcade and he could just see those Icee’s taunting him.
Craig’s Cruisers has never been on our radar before this trip and damn, was it fun. The kids had a blast. I think we figured out if we had paid for what we did, it would have been about $40 per person, but you know what, it’s worth that price. The kids had three hours to do pretty much whatever they wanted and they took advantage of it. It’s only about a 45 minute drive from Kalamazoo and a great rainy day…or any day really…activity spot if you’re looking for something different to do.
SW Michigan Dining 