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Scandia Family Center
Rating Details »
- Good for Kids:
- Yes
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- Category:
- Party Supplies
- Location:
- Benicia, CA
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24 reviews for Scandia Family Center
Scandia is hella fun.
I was a bit weary coming to Scandia for my first time in years... Ya see, last time i came here i was still a kid. Now that i'm old enough to write Yelp reviews, I had a gut feeling that I would be having a field day writing how boring and run down Scandia was before arriving... but that definitely was not the case!
Despite what it may look like from the freeway, Scandia actually has a lot of life in it. The staff appears to be a lot of high school/young adults, but they are all incredibly helpful and don't appear to be loathing their jobs. The mini golf course is fun and well maintained. The batting cages are a GREAT deal at only $2 per 25 pitches! The arcade area has a HUGE variety of games, both old and new!
I didn't have a chance to play the Laser Tag, Go-Karts, or Water Boats... but i watched other people play and they all seemed to be loving it... and again- the prices aren't that bad.
I admit, from the outside I never gave Scandia much hope... but i'm sooo glad I came here. It's definitely much better once you get in lol... I definitely plan on coming back soon to take advantage of the $2 batting cages with my friends- and kicking more mini golf butt!
People thought this was:
- Useful (10)
- Funny (9)
- Cool (9)
A bit worn down - but lots of fun - and great staff!
Scandia turned out to be Father's Day Plan B after sitting over an hour in a six mile freeway traffic jam leading to Six-Flags. I figured the lines at the park would be just as bad - so we bailed out. On the way back is the Cordelia Scandia and I haven't ridden the go-carts with my daughter since ever, so this was a good chance for some cheap dad's day thrills.
For $20 each we got enough tickets and tokens for two hours of fun - 25 pitches each at the batting cage, two 10 lap races at the go-carts, a round of laser tag, and a couple quick arcade games.
My (16 year old) daughter had her first try at batting a softball for years - she popped five or six good hits, with one that would have been a home-run. This was my first try at laser tag - it's a workout and was fun, fast, & exciting - plus the staff gave us an extra round for free!! The laser tag arena and gear are in newer shape than the rest of the center. The go-carts are in good shape, the track is windy with plenty of corners to slide through, and fast enough to feel dangerous, without the need for helmets.
I almost give them five stars because they were very helpful in a pinch - while running around like a mad man in laser tag I lost a pair of $100 prescription shades, and they turned on the lights and helped me look afterwards. We didn't find them, but I left my name and number and that evening they called and said they had them waiting for me at the desk.
Of course I have to drive 100 miles there and back - so I called and asked if they could mail the glasses. Guess what - they said no problem and no charge! Great service - thanks Scandia!
People thought this was:
- Useful (5)
- Funny (1)
- Cool (6)
I love mini golf! Me and my bf had fun at a surprise outing to Scandia this weekend. Thats all I can say. Just go. Have a ball. Everyone is friendly.. its a cheap yet way worth it date.
There are also bumper cars, lazer tag, batting cage, etc!
Such fond memories growing up as a child and spending summer days ridding around the raceway track and the water buggies. YEARS later.. I came back for a visit to take my daughter to the clubhouse and I was sadly disgusted with how much It has deteriorated since my childhood.
Hmm..maybe it was always like that but my rose-colored-adolecent-glasses made Scandia seem like the 2nd happiest place on earth. They still have the old favorites like the raceway track, water buggies and batting cages, arcade but there are a few new things that are obviously new. They have this wall that you can scale, a laser tag center and an extended arcade/clubhouse. I was taking a look at the prices and I couldn't believe how they were charging and arm and a leg for rides!
My daughter absolutely enjoys the Scandia clubhouse. Imagine the Jungle but miniature sized. Endless tubes and spiral slides..we can literally spend hours in there. Great thing is they let parents play in the tubes, too! For just $5 you can walk in and out all day until the facility closes. They don't charge for the parents which I think is great. Cleanliness within the clubhouse is decent, they don't allow shoes in the play area and they sell socks just in case you didn't bring a pair of your own.
People thought this was:
- Useful (1)
Going to Scandia? Bring your own security! I was in the mood to hit up the batting cages today, so around 6'ish I headed over to Scandia. As I pulled into the parking lot, there were multiple groups of people hanging out in the parking lot, drinking, smoking, and making out. This is suppose to be a family place?
As I reluctantly stepped out of my car and walked towards the cages, more teens smoking and hanging out upon the walkway. The cages were good, all in working order with a good variety of softball and baseball cages at various speeds. 25 pitches for $2 bucks, so in all not bad. You could also buy 25 tokens for $5 bucks. I gave the guy my ID and got a bat, hit my balls, returned the bat, got my ID back, and headed inside.
There is a big sign outside that says "Drug Free Zone". I suppose if they had a sign that said "THUG Free Zone", they'd be lying, as I had to navigate through groups of people loitering outside the main entrance.
Inside, the carpets were filthy, the video games were old and most were out of order, hip hop music was playing in the background while two teen girls were freaking each other by the redemption counter.
I don't know if this place is any better during the daytime, but the "Family Fun Center" line of Scandia Family Fun Center seems to be borderline false advertising. Unless your idea of family are pre-teen thugs dancing to hip hop on sticky carpet surrounded by others who are smoking, drinking in the parking lot and making out.
They do have a wide variety of entertainment options, including bumper boats, indy cars, laser tag and mini golf. But, seeing as to the fact it was getting dark outside and wanted to get back to my car, hoping it was still there, I dared not explore the rest of the facility.
I am giving it two stars. It really deserves one star, but I'm being generous because at least the batting cages were all working and I think 25 pitches for $2 bucks is a pretty good deal.
People thought this was:
- Useful (1)
- Funny (3)
- Cool (1)
This place is in serious need of a overhaul. My daughter and I went there there Sunday morning to play pee-wee golf. The place was dirty and stinky. The golf course was very run down. Some of the holes didn't work properly and the ball would just go through one thing and never come back. One of the holes had not trap to catch the ball. On the 9th hole a black bird attacked my head twice. Very creepy and gross.
We went inside to play some games and at least 25% of them were marked as broken and another 30% just didn't work or took your tokens and didn't work. The game rooms stunk like mold and urine.
It was disgusting and I will never return.
Luckily there is the Jelly Belly factory just a couple miles down the road where you can enjoy a nice tour, some candy and a clean well maintained fun environment for the kids.
This place really should be ZERO stars! Don't waste your time there. Playing at McDonald;s Playland would be better. Anything but this disgusting filthy place. Stay away!
People thought this was:
- Useful (2)
- Funny (1)
This place has been around longer than I have and is pretty run down. However, my 7 year old and myself played laser tag at the end of our day and had a BLAST!!! Still, this place needs help. I feel like I constantly have to go to the bathroom and wash my hands. Touching things here cant be good for anyone. The go karts are totally run down and same goes for the mini golf. Games are up to date but the arcade has this dingey feeling just walking thru it.
Im sure kids that hang out here. I know I could have cared less when I was that age.
We are going back today so my son can bring a friend to experience laser tag.
An absolute hole. This place is dirty, worn-down, falling apart, and expensive. Miniature golf for an adult and two kids can cost close to $20. The boat water is disgustingly dirty, and the boats are usually broken in one form or another. The batting cages are a good buy--if you get a machine with power and accurate aim. If you don't, shame on you, because you're not getting a refund.
And still, even with the decline of this place, it is noisy and always filled with rude, badly-behaved people. And their kids aren't any better.
People thought this was:
- Useful (1)
- Funny (1)
- Cool (1)
When I like to go all out Mary Poppins style, I take the kids to Scandia. Where else can 6 chitlins aged 6-10 have a good time without me freaking out trying to keep tabs on all of them? Scandia is a great place for kids, and I have to admit, I have my share of fun there too. It's in the cuts (25mins north of Berkeley), but a fun place to spend an entire day. For about $20 per person you get a round of mini golf, bumper boats, a ride on the indy cars and tokens for the batting cages or arcade. Prices are here : http://www.scandiafami...
There are height requirements for the indy cars, just a heads up. And sometimes the competition can be fierce. Case in point:
I saw a dad pass up his 10 year old and yell out "IN YOUR FACE TODD!!" A fine example of parenting, if I've ever seen one (but whom am I to judge, maybe the kid was a prick).
There is also a laser tag area and an separated place where you can watch the ongoing play-carnage. You can stage your very own psuedo-Lord of the Flies/Ender's Game/Battle Royale*. I've never seen my typically docile 7 year old buddy geek out as much as he did while playing laser tag. (Think Mel Gibson a la Braveheart) So I was pretty grateful for that glass partition.... and the spare "pre game Ritalin" I keep in my purse.
I was even taken on a date here a few weeks ago. How did he find out my weakness for the carny-esque? Damn you Jason Gellerman! So fun for kids and the proverbial "kids at heart".
*If you've never seen this movie, you make my heart cry
http://youtube.com/wat...
People thought this was:
- Useful (1)
- Funny (3)
- Cool (2)
Honestly, my friend and I just walked around the place, but it seemed nice enough. The faux turf seemed like it had recently been replaced, but the rest of it was showing age. There was an old railroad station that was presumably left over from some sort of train attraction, but it seems silly to leave the station without providing some other form of attraction at that building.
The people seemed a bit eh, but what do you really expect?
It was a blast to walk around and explore!
Okay, I honestly don't understand why this place got such great reviews. Scandia used to be such a fun place... when the games actually WORKED. What happened?
About a year or two ago my friends and I noticed a dramatic change in the place and after going there tonight, I've decided not to come back in a long time. Why? Because NOTHING works and the place is getting really run down. I swear, we counted about twenty or more game machines that didn't work. Where the heck are their repairers? It's been this way for almost a year and there really is no excuse for that; either get new machines or fix them. And when you pop a coin in one of the machines that is supposedly working, there's about a 50% chance it will eat your token(s).
All in all, I will not be coming back here anytime soon, except maybe for miniature golf, which is the only decent thing they have here anymore, in my opinion.
People thought this was:
- Useful (2)
I took my (BBBS) lil bro here today, and I've got to say it served its purpose. You see, the lil bugger has figured out that I don't mind unloading a few bucks here and there. So this time I had to outsmart the kid by pulling in the reigns a bit, but still exhaust the fun out of him. So here's what we did...
- Miniature Golf - 14 bucks between the two of us, and if you're kid isn't like Tiger it's gonna take a while. My kid's not that bad. He'll beat yours...
- The Clubhouse - We didn't have ball pits/jungle gyms like this when I was a snot-nosed rugrat. As they say it's "three full levels of climable, slideable, jumpable, crawlable, walkable, padded playspace where kids are guaranteed to have a ball." A mere 5 bucks for unlimited time. This definitely exhausted the fun out of my kid.
- Food - I have a bone to pick with the food. The pizza was barely edible, and the salad left me burping a weird iceberg lettuce smell. Whatever, kids love this stuff! They don't like Wolfgang Puck's, Lil Star, CPK, or Zachary's. They like the Chuck-E-Cheese-ish cardboard pizza! And all for 12 bucks!
- Go-Kart - $13 for two rides. I had to drive the kid around since he's too young so it was actually a bit of fun for me.
So that's a grand total of $44 combined! I don't mean to sound like a cheap-skate, but I sure got juiced last time at Great America for at least a Benjamin on him alone. But this round goes to me! Haha, you had a whole lot of fun, and I still have funds to buy myself a nice, juicy rib-eye at Bob's Steak and Chops. I sure fooled you...!
Maybe this place is a bit run down and needs a major overhaul. But ask a kid if he or she had fun, and they'll always say YES! This place has everything a kid needs: miniature golf, an arcade, go-karts, an immense ball pit/jungle gym thing, and completely unhealthy and mostly fried food. What more could a kid ask for?
MUST BRING: A lunch if you're an adult. *Burp* Ew, the iceberg lettuce smell is still there. Not good eats...
People thought this was:
- Useful (4)
- Funny (4)
- Cool (2)
Great batting cages.....I could care less about their laser tag because you wait forever for someone to assist you. If I had nothing to do in Fairfield this is a great place to relieve stress. There is nothing like hitting some balls when you want to unwind......
People thought this was:
- Useful (1)
Features: Lots of parking, Go Karts, Bumper Boats, Mini Golf, Arcade up the wazoo (some seriously awesome ones at that), Laser Tag, Batting cages etc......
For Kids: Well organized, contained, birthday party zones, climbing fun zones, younger kid arcade games, kiddie prizes, etc. Kid friendly food. Please note that if your kid is under 48" they can't do the Go Karts, and other things without an adult.
For Adults who want to be kids: Mini Golf, Go Karts, Laser tag, some AWESOME arcade games, go when the "families" leave at around 5 and really have to park more to yourself with all the other "older teens and adults". Mini golf is well lit and sometimes it's SUPER HOT at scandia so the evening hours are nice.
PRICING: They had some pretty good package deals at $13 and $18 that included a go kart and mini golf with some arcade tokens. $13 killed about 2.5 hours.
Some things you should know: They don't tolerate any BS or cheating or unsafe behavior. There were some sketchy types there who got kicked out with their kids. Also, they don't allow outside food, so if you do bring some eat it in the parking lot.
We had trouble finding where to purchase the package deals. It's in the back of the main building to the right of the prize counter. When you go in you have to navigate past the arcade to get there.
lasertag is fun. even though i suck.
it smells in the arcade rooms.
People thought this was:
- Funny (1)
Used to come here while in high school, hanging with the homies and chasing girls. Ah, the memories. Now its only to come to kids' birthdays or to take my little league team to the batting cages.
I love that they still have pinball machines and some of the older arcade games. A good mix of attractions for all ages at reasonable prices.
They have pretty good group rates, special party rooms, helpful staff, and again attractions for everyone.
Sadly, this is lackluster golf. I come to Scandia specifically for the putt-putt, and I remember being more impressed with the course on my first visit than on my most recent. It's in pretty sorry shape. For example:
* On the hole with the swinging pendulum, the bottom half of the pendulum had been broken off. That takes away most of the challenge of the pendulum.
* It looks like there was once a train that circled the western course, but the tracks have been scuttled and the old train station at the northwest corner of the property sits vacant, collecting dust.
* I don't know what happened to the water on the day we were there, but empty concrete bowls rather than lakes and rivers definitely take some of the magic away.
* Even the actively used mini buildings were in dire need of some TLC (or maybe just paint).
Overall it's not a bad course, I just hope that management decides to dedicate to mini golf the resources it deserves.
That said, lackluster mini golf is certainly better than no mini golf at all. Plus they have the batting cages, air hockey, etc, so you'll probably end up having fun no matter what.
Yup, this golfland is old, I can't think of a minigolf place that isn't. I still have fun in the arcade and shooting 18 holes with my grandma (she lives near here)
this place needs a serious upgrade both in apperance and in the staff. The place was a really cool place when i was a kid and we came to visit my godmother and her family and we kids would head here and play for hours. NOW its more of a "do we really want to go there?" kind of place. if you want to do scandia i recommend heading over to sonoma county and go to the one in rohnert park.
This place is nuts, and it's in the middle of nowhere. Sometimes on the way to tahoe and back you just want to stop get off the freeway and stretch. Well it looks like you can hit the batting cages, smack golfballs or ram your friends in little boats. Let's not forget the aggression release in old skool arcade graveyard games!
People thought this was:
- Useful (1)
- Cool (1)
Batting cages, bumper boats, kart racing for kids AND adults, miniature gold and ARCADE ARCADE ARCADE!!!! I love this place for offering all the game alternatives though... Bring over 60 kids for a discount!!!
People thought this was:
- Cool (1)
i had fun here. i took my boyfriend and two neices. They seemed to have fun. and the prices were preety good too. the only problem i have that yes it does seem run down. Most of the machines are "out of order." ALSO the prizes were crap. For 25 tickets all you get is candy? WHAT THE HECK IS THAT? But the novelty counter worker was nice enough to give us something better. Mini golf was fun, as well as the go karts. Food was alright. lets just say you get what you pay for.
I have to echo a lot of what Stephie wrote, this place is rundown and way too loud, the machines often eat your tokens (which you have exchanged for at a quarter to one token rate) and give you nothing but the blues,, many machines are officially broken (with signs saying so) and many others are unofficially broken (these eat your tokens and laugh silently at you, or work miserably like most of the pinball machines there....it's no good having a goodly number of these old funmakers if they dont work...weak or broken flippers are a sin! The bumper boats are a bit underpowered but since little kids go on them I suppose I can't complain about that (though notice I just did)..and at 5 minutes for $6.25 it's a bit of a ripoff....I know the dollar is falling rapidly in worth but it isnt that bad yet. Anyway, on a positive note the pizza looks better than Chuck E. Cheese's (I didn't have the courage to try it though) and the miniture golf is probably fun.
People thought this was:
- Useful (1)
- Funny (1)
This place is a mess! The games don't work, it smells, and its dirty but one thing good about this place its fun for the kids! Just make sure they clean their hands and if something fell on the floor... leave it behind!
