Birthday party mishaps

So it was Miss C's Birthday this past week and we celebrated with a Frozen Themed Birthday Party for her. Was it a surprise that she chose frozen as a theme? Nope she's obsessed as is every other child I know of! We had such big plans and most of them came through! With that said let me tell you what happened!

We had so much planned as usual I ordered most of my decorations online, as I do every year, to save us the hassle of trying to find what I was after and not succeeding. We organised a frozen jumping castle and fairy floss, we sorted a small number of games and had a few extra tricks up our sleeves for the kids!

Decorations as usual is always the easiest things to work out, jumping castles on the other hand for a September birthday party is another thing though so we had the Castle organised months in advance.

So it would come as a shock to me to get a phone call at 6pm on a Friday afternoon the day before Miss C's birthday party and being told that the jumping castle I had booked was "damaged" that day. Ok with this in mind I have two things to say....

1. Who would hire a jumping castle on a Friday for a party when we know most parents work their butts off during the week and have no way of getting their child to a party. And,
2. What type of company am I dealing with if they couldn't even organise a replacement castle for me prior to calling me?!

To say I was furious is an understatement. Not only did I have my sister's 21st birthday to get to in 30 minutes I now had to find a replacement castle for my daughter's birthday party as I had only two games organised relying heavily on the castle to keep them entertained! I spent the next two hours (never hearing from the company with my so called 'damaged' castle after I had asked for a replacement) I ended up calling a multitude of companies with jumping castle's all in the hopes that someone would have SOMETHING for her party!

I spoke with one large company I usually hire from and they had nothing however they were able to provide me with quite a few other vendors who may be able to help me. I was informed by every single company that I called, about this problem occurring constantly in the jumping castle industry and most of them are called at least once a week with this happening. And the main reason behind it is not that the castle is damaged as it takes a LOT to damage one, it is because another customer has wanted the very castle you've booked and has offered more money to have it delivered to them instead. Now how is this fair for the parents who are diligent and hire in advance and the multitude of children who have had their hopes up for this castle for their party only to have their happiness crushed by money hungry pop up companies!

After being on the phone, not ready for my sister's 21st, and running around like a nut we found someone who had a Disney princess castle available! We were worried whether it would fit in our backyard but in the end they saved the day! Coming to the rescue and managing to fit the castle perfectly into our yard!

I don't know what I would have done if it wasn't for replacement castle and honestly I recommend that everyone wanting to hire Jumping Castle's to do their research. Call these people and if you can't find a phone number move on. Even if they're offering amazing prices, chances are they're not worth the saving as you end up losing your deposit with them and you end up wasting your time, time that you could be spending with family or spent making things for the party coming soon. Instead of feeling overwhelmed by the chance of losing a crucial part of your child's party and the stress it causes trying to find a replacement.

I hope this blog entry finds it's way to many mum's and dad's and helps in regards to this issue.