Theme & Amusement Parks in Bound Brook

Black lights spill across an indoor arena, casting a fluorescent glow over a squadron of laser-tag players as they wait silently for the start of a new round. Suddenly, fast-paced music blares and the air is filled with more flashes of red than a confused stoplight. Friendly battles like these are everyday occurrences at Fun Station. The sprawling family-centric center houses everything from air hockey, to skee-ball, to a miniature bowling alley. Laughter emerges from within colliding bumper cars, while pizza and hotdogs anchor the snack shop's menu. The family attractions also extend outside, where visitors are often found settling land disputes at a miniature-golf course or speed across a tire-lined go-kart track.

Inflated structures, slides, and games fill the climate-controlled environs of the numerous BounceU locations that speckle the nation. At each site, staff members closely monitor all activities as little ones traverse obstacle courses or pull on oversized inflatable boxing gloves. The crew also invites parents to join in on the fun, letting them bounce alongside their kids or make sweeping edicts from atop a bouncy-castle throne.

In addition to open sessions, the indoor-play haven sets the stage for the Preschool Playdate program, where instructors lead games and activities. Special events include family-bounce night, which lets parents join in the bouncing or relax in the party room and do grownup things, such as eat marshmallows with a knife and fork.

The waterpark's family-friendly layout is set up with 16 waterslides, a one-million-gallon wave pool, stately palm trees, a water playground, and water. The park's newest attractions, Pirates' Plummet and Walk the Plank, are covered/open-air 200-foot-long flowing slides that end with a 50-foot photo-worthy plunge into the depths of a pool below. Go tubular in the Runaway Bay Wave Pool or the whitewater Jungle Falls. The Hurricane, a swirling slide that is under rising pressure until a final drop dumps you in a pool, is the perfect place to test if sewing your passport into your appendix keeps it safe.

The phosphorescent indoor landscape at Monster Mini Golf immerses putters in an eerie universe that inverts the sun-soaked cheer of conventional courses. Rimmed in glowing barriers, 18 holes lure swingers of all sizes to challenge their coordination and resolve in the face of winged monsters, scowling animated trees, a creepy clown, and their opponents' shockingly dazzling smiles. Sheltered from searing rain and howling wind, the indoor course enables play around hazards such as a spell well and luminous, ghostly windmill at any time of the year. An in-house radio station and DJ mask the sound of pounding hearts with lively beats and course commentary, and golfers looking for additional glory can win prizes by participating in regular contests or at the on-site arcade.

Pump It Up's indoor inflatable arenas launch socked striplings into the air with a plethora of kid-friendly bounce pads. Staffers supervise fun-filled visits, during which adult counterparts leap around with their kids through gargantuan bounce houses, skip down air-filled slides, and slither like snakes covered in bacon grease through an inflated obstacle course. Occasionally, the staffers switch off the lights, arming the roomful of players with glow sticks and bracelets as they navigate the air-cushioned obstaclescape.

The colorful venue also hosts custom birthday parties and private team parties, each themed to please the partygoers in question. These soirees immerse children in a schedule of interactive activities befitting a pirate or a superhero while melting off youthful energy faster than ice cubes thrown into a running DVD player. The birthday boy or girl even gets to blow out the candles on their cake seated in their blow-up throne. Relying on the staffers' vigilant, watchful eyes, guardians can rest assured that their charges will stay safe, and each piece of the inflatable playground is held to the wall by a complex series of anchors installed according to strict safety standards.

Camp Iliff entertains and educates children with a broad array of childcare services and play facilities. Certified teachers help budding toddlers’ minds blossom and convenient afterschool programs provide children up to age 13 with bus transportation from many local schools. Kids celebrate birthday parties playing ticket redemption games or frolic on the forest playground, replete with a mirror maze, tunnel tubes, and slides.