Encore Creative Arts Camp

My daughter (5 years old) really enjoyed the winter camp. She loved the staff (Laura and Joseph) and was super excited about all the crafts and the winter performance each day. They taught her singing, dancing, and even yoga! She made a lot of friends and some of the older kids helped her with her crafts, read books to her, etc. We were hesitant about the older reviews and being that it would be our first time sending our child there, we decided to check out the camp during Thanksgiving break, before sending our daughter to winter camp. We learned they are under new management and all of the staff members have been trained to properly watch kids. We felt very assured that it would be a safe and fun place for our daughter, and we certainly were not disappointed at the end of the winter camp session. Overall, this place was a hidden gem for us. We checked out many other camps in the neighborhood but it did not compare to Encore. I felt compelled to leave a review to counter the negative ones because we saw firsthand the staff work very hard to keep the kids entertained and make camp fun and educational for them. Bonus points for working parents: the hours were very convenient (we paid for the extra after hours so it ran from 8:30-5:15) and the parking was very easy. We hope to be back!

We registered our son last summer and he had a really great time thanks to the camp. Our experience with the staff was pretty good and our son was always very eager to get to camp every morning. We found it to be a very creative and fun environment with lots of activities. If your looking for summer school type environment, this is not it. But, if you want your kids to have an amazing summer and make new friends, you can't go wrong with Encore.

I registered for the camp very early on, before seeing the unhappy reviews from other parents. I sent my kids on day 1, mentally preparing for the worst… but you know what? My kids really like this camp! My son is in the survivor camp and he LOVES learning all of the very real survival skills. He’s completely engaged and talks nonstop about all that he’s learning. My daughter is in arts and crafts camp and she’s very happy! She has made friends quickly and wakes up every morning eager to get going back to camp. I wish I could do 4.5 stars here - we are happy but would love to see some better quality arts and crafts projects, and maybe a bit more counseling from the counselors (my kids tell me that they regularly hear swearing and put downs) so there is definitely room to improve on their end. However, my kids know how to deal with those things that happen EVERYWHERE, and overall they are happy and loving Encore!

SUMMER CAMP REGISTRANTS - BEWARE!! I signed my 2 kids up for camp 3 months from now (in July) and 1 week after sign-up I tried to cancel and get refunded for the camps. When I've called (multiple times), everyone I spoke with say they don't handle cancellations and that I have to email one of their departments to do this. I sent that email and 2 followups 9 days ago and only received 1 response a week later, not honoring my request for cancellation and refund, but instead giving me information to see if I didn't have to cancel!!!!! I requested that they honor my request to cancel instead and they haven't responded since. These people will make it so difficult for you to take your kids out of their camps and get your money back. So if you are not 100% sure that you want your kids in their camps, don't sign up.

We have a great experience for my son last year and we are back this year. My son loved the program he was 5 and in the Minows program. What I can say is that he really had a good experience, the staff was younger, some times we had to wait for responses and my son lost a couple of things, yet he came home smiling every day and was happy to return!