Amy Cramer

Review of Sahara Sam's Oasis Indoor and ...

This place is profit-centered, not service-oriente...

This place is profit-centered, not service-oriented. Went as a family of 4 for the first time, thought season passes were a good deal ($190 for 2018-19 for 4) until we got there - you get what you pay for.

While it was not that crowded on a Friday night 4-9pm, many of the rides were closed. The main 4 slides up several flights of stairs had two for which you had to carry your own tube; but the problem is that there was only one person working and she would switch from ride to ride, so you would not know which ride was open next. If you did not bring a tube up thinking one of the other rides were open, you're out of luck and stuck on the wrong line until whenever.

At one pt., a group of 4, 2 men 2 women, were on line with us - the two men started making out, even with children around.

After about an hour I was done, but my children were happy to go on the rides again & again even with the wait. I thought I'd hang out at the hot tub, but it was a "warming tub" - water was about the same temp. as the pool (not warm) with some bubbles. An extremely large man happen to be sitting in it the whole time and the tub was small. It was also located next to the cafeteria - shot of fried grease smell every time someone came out. I passed.

The outdoor rides were all closed but there was Halloween special (came free w/our passes), which was an interesting stroll through various exhibits in the dark. Basically, a bunch of people dressed up looking like death in various forms booed/hissed at you from nowhere and everywhere to startle you. Not very scary, but good fun. The costumes & decorations were well staged, not just the cheap stuff you'd find at party stores. There were a lot of workers ready to pounce on you - time and money definitely went into this effort. I was glad I did not buy the passes before the August cut-off date - then it would have cost an add'l $13.99 pp.

The kiddie arcade is where I ran into trouble. We are not regular arcade users and I generally do not like them. They are a money pit for parents and they resemble casinos. That being said, we got $40 of free game cards with our passes, so why waste them and if I am going to play, why not play to win so kids can take home some worthless plastic to keep them happy in the 2+ hour car ride, even if the toys end up in the garbage?

I ventured to the game where you fire coins to make other stationary coins fall into a pit. The silver coins are worth 5 pts., green chips 10 pts., red chips 20 pts. and game cards were worth 50 pts. Silver coins that fall into the pit do not come out of the machine, but the other items are supposed to come out, be collected and redeemed for prizes.

In the first game I played -first time ever, never played before- I got one green coin. Yay! I moved to a different machine and even though I saw a few green & red chips fall down, nothing came out of the machine. Did I read the instructions wrong? If so, why did I get one green chip from the first machine? Do the chips come out or not? I finished the 12 rounds quickly, didn't win any bonus rounds. Then same thing happened in the third machine - saw chips go down but none came out. So 3 games on 3 different machines, I had one green chip. I asked a worker to clarify game rules.

Worker said I'd have to ask the mgr. to get $2 put back into my card. Jim the mgr. came and argued with me for 15 mins., suggested I was lying, did not take any responsibility for the machines and kept telling me to "call the number" on the machine. (There was no number.) The points are accumulated in the card itself electronically, so he could scan the card to see I was not lying, but he said he doesn't know what fell into the pit, which was a logical argument. Since I played 3 games, got 1 chip, so either I was really bad or I was telling the truth - if I was really bad, I'll probably do the same thing again if he let me redo 2 games! Bottom line: he didn't want to help, worst manager anywhere ever - I have never had such a terrible experience before. All for $2!