Malibu Grand Prix

My best friend and I use to come here for his birthday every year! But when we went his pocket watch came out of his pocket and accidentally ran over it. He really hated them. We also stopped going because it closed. I think they should re-​open it but with everything cleaner and in better shape.

Two years after visiting this shit hole, I am proud to come back and write it this eulogy:
Malibu Grand Prix ranks among the Shake Weight and my law degree as one of the biggest wastes of money in my entire life. I will always remember MGP as the place where I wasted a full day for a half round of mini golf that was at once without challenge or whimsy. It was a place for parents who abuse their children to pretend like they love them without wasting the energy or the two extra dollars it would take to go to Six Flags. Despite all this, Malibu Grand Prix held onto life until the last second, selling discounts in Groupon to unsuspecting tourists. That way, customers couldn’t even ask for their money back when they realized the trap. «Um, I guess I can give you your voucher, ma’am.»
So, Malibu Grand Prix, you will not be missed. But you will always have a place in my heart that I can never get back. See you in hell.

Even though Malibu is closed just wanted to say thanks for all the wonderful memories through the years of fun! THANKS Malibu! I’ll miss the mini golf with colored balls, batting cages, video game arcade, endless tickets and race track!

I visited Malibu Grand Prix twice in the past five years. The first time I visited to use the batting cages and to drive the big racing cars. The second time I visited to play mini golf. It was on the 13^th of August of 2013, the day the facility closed (because rent was too expensive — it sounds like I’m not the only person with that problem in this area).
I found Malibu Grand Prix a fun place for kids and adults so I find it regrettable and sad that such a nice place had no other choice but to close. I think the facility had decent battle cages (although at times they would jam), a nice race track (although I thought the big cars could have a little more acceleration) and a discrete golf course (actually, there are 3 but I didn’t notice it until the last day).
I would recommend this place to families with kids and teenagers in particular but I cannot do that anymore … unfortunately. Malibu Grand Prix will remain in the memory and the hearts of many people of the San Francisco Bay Area.

I’m sad to see this place go. When I learned of the inevitable closure this coming weekend, I considered moving my kids birthday picnic here for one last hooraw but alas, my children are of the generation of angry birds and mobile devices and have no idea who a ryu or cheung li or a sub zero or a scorpion. ok I lie, yes they do cause hell, dad and I still play.
We did make it a point to take the kids here a few years ago and even then we were surprised at how dilapidated the place had gotten. I remember going there for parties galore as a kid. Weekends with the cousins in the batting cages or mini golf. I’ve never got a license from there cause hell, I suck at driving a real car and you want me to drive in circles? Eff that, i’ll take shot gun and enjoy the ride.
I do know, the peninsula is losing a great place. We as a whole need places like this for families to enjoy.

Overall: OK — The extra star goes to Sean on the tracks.
It’s something to do with the kids but not sure I’ll come back for awhile. There’s a mini golf course and some water boats (looked silly as there was one boy on the boat waiting for people to play with him)
Tracks: 4 laps around the tracks were enough for me. It would be nice if they timed you so you can see how fast or slow you were going. Sean was really nice. Thorough with the instructions and just very happy. He was also training another staff and he was very patient. I asked if I could drive and text and he looked at me like are you kidding? :) Just playing with you Sean! Thanks for being a good sport.

The arcade is small & gets crowded, not too much of a variety of fun games for the adults. Most of the real fun happens outside where the go carts, batting cages, and mini golf is at.

After planning our go-​cart sunday for about a week we finally made it!
So we get there with two hours to spare so my friend Andrew N and his cousin buy 6 laps of tickets for twenty some dollars for a two seat go cart each that way Aileen N and myself can ride as passengers. The attendant is pretty thorough about safety rules and makes sure you’re at least pretending to pay attention or she’ll have you stay and go over it with her again. Helmets are provided in multiple color coded sizes for domes of all shapes and sizes!
The track is out door with a lot of sharp turns. I don’t think it takes more than a minute and some change to get through a lap. Only one car goes at a time as to avoid collisions. The wait isn’t too long between laps. It’s a fair amount of time that you can easily spend calculating modifications to your approach to your next lap. If it’s your first time, I suggest taking it easy the first lap to get acquainted with the turns. Next five, go for time! Too bad their time board wasn’t working properly otherwise it would have made it more exciting to race against our best times!
There’s a small concession stand inside the go-​carting side of the park, however, the attendant who runs it is non existent. Walk across to the other concession stand in the other arcade across the park and there you will find people working, but pretty slow service.
We played the batting cage! There are multiple speeds for all levels. Helmets and bats are provided and if I remember correctly it cost 2 dollars to play 10 balls. Choose your speeds wisely or end up striking out!
Water boats and mini put were in the mix but nobody was really playing those.
With the right group of friends, I’d come back again! I’d probably just bring my own stop watch to time the go-​carts.

Coming here for my sons bday was pretty fun. It’s a lot different than when I was a kid coming here. They really need to do some updating. The mini golf course is really worn down. The turf is torn up almost on every other hole. The bumper boats are fun as well as the batting cages. They make some good pizza. I prefer them way more than chuckie cheese that’s for sure. At least when it comes to kids gatherings. They need to work at there food stand cuz it takes forevvvvvver!
They only use one cashier regardless of how long the line is. I’m sure there are other places to go for kids, but if they like it that’s all that really matters. I still enjoy myself every time I go to Malibu

This is really 2.5 stars but since it’s the only gig in town, I decided to mark it as 3 instead of 2.
The biggest complaint here is that it is run down. The mini golf courses have patches in the fake grass, cracks in pavement, and uneven surfaces (that are not intentional), and look a little shabby.
The service is a bit subpar; on sundays, which is undoubtedly one of their busiest days, they had only 1 person handling tickets for batting cages, bumper boats and mini golf. The line was deep, and they did not bother to open the 2^nd ticket window.
Some of the games inside are always broken/​out of service; and other machines eat your tokens without giving you full game play. If you can find a staff person to report this to, they are good about giving you the token that the game ate.
it gets super crowded and loud but all the kids seem to have a great time. The prizes seem to get cheaper/​lamer every year for the small value tickets. This is a cash cow for the owners but at the very least they should have some pride in ownership and refresh it a bit. I’m glad that there’s a place like this for kids so i don’t want to over-​ding but this place really has seen better days.

This place needs some serious TLC. Rip up the carpet on the miniature golf course and replace it so that the ball isn’t bouncing over paint spills or threadbare material. While you’ve got the carpet pulled up, consider leveling the holes or smoothing over some of the rough concrete that makes the ball jump around unexpectedly. There’s not much of a theme to any of the courses, but it would nice to touch up the paint on the rickety, school house that’s threatening to fall over if a strong breeze kicks up. Heck, strip all the buildings down to the bare wood and repaint them all.
This isn’t the Malibu Grand Prix I remember from being a kid. The magic is definitely gone and the whole place feels chaotic and on the brink of sinking into the Redwood City salt ponds. This could be a cool place, but somebody has really got to start giving a damn.

«Zoom, Zoom, Zoom, Weeeeeeeee!» These were my exact words as I sped down the racetrack holding tight on the steering wheel as I whipped around and pressed down hard on the gas pedal. Exhilarating, Exciting and for anyone who has an inner dare devil, come here…
The only con was that when it was as busy as it was, you have to wait in a really long line before getting your chance to lap around again.

Mini Golf early bird special if you get there within the first hour! Only $ 3.50!
I have been going here ever since I was 5! I’ve only had experience with the mini golf and arcade so I cannot speak for the go carting but my friends seem to like that a lot and go often. There is also a batting cage and another fun little water cart thingy.
:Mini-​Golf:
Don’t feel pressured to go straight to the first course if there are a lot of people there. Just start at course 3! (far left once you walk into the area)
The course is pretty clean and simple. Don’t expect a huge fancy pansy thing though. But it is fun enough to spend 1 – 2 hours finishing the entire course!
Very family friendly. Kids, teens, grown-​ups, elderly!
Also, there is a freeway LITERALLY right next to Malibu Grand Prix (like if you wack your golf ball too hard it would hit a car). fair warning.
Happy Mini-​Golfing!

Overview:
Carts: 2 Starts **
Golf: 5 Stars *****
Batting Cages: 3 Stars ***
Customer Service: 3 Stars, pushing 2
wanted a date night, somethign different than a movie with the bf and decided this would be good. it’s been awhile since we’ve gone and what guy doesn’t like to do the carts. we pay for the extra runs and the time cards… and after we do the runs i ask where we can get the times printed out. the guy then informs us it’s broken. i would have loved to know cause the sign was hard to read and wasn’t paying attention. not that guys fault, but i when i was being rung up i was working with the manager on shift. i would think they would say something to us about it being broken since it’s part of the package! not too happy.
in the beg i had flip flops on and didnt realize i needed shoes, he was pushy and not very costumer service with us. i was about to walk out the door and not do it but i luckily found a pair in my trunk. so the experience here SUCKED. managers fault not the person outside really.
mini golf was fun and general, nothing bad about that.
batting cages, the balls kept getting stuck so you had to go wait in line and have them reset it.

Visiting Malibu I have to agree with a lot of the lower star reviews. The place is very dated and in desperate need of some work.
The mini golf courses are in really poor condition (rips in the ‘faux grass’, cracked pavement and some of the holes swallow your ball never to return it) and the Arcade is weak as hell with the usual really crappy prizes you spend an absolute fortune trying to win.
But with all that said the Batting Cages and Go Carts are pretty fun if a little slow, I guess they’re more aimed at Children though as they Children I witnessed seemed to think they were going ”super fast… vrrooooom!”.
They have some good deals too — Unlimited Video Games for $ 10 on Tuesday’s and throughout out the summer they have unlimited time on the Go carts on Sunday evening’s for $ 21.

I read some of the low ranked reviews, and they are pretty accurate. But I wanted to try this place out myself. It was true, how the customer service was horrible, the uneven ground for the golf course, etc.
This place doesn’t have the best customer service. When one of the arcade machines were broken, I went to go find help. I had to wait at least 20 minutes, just to tell the worker it was broken. He sounded like he didn’t want to talk to me, saying he will be there, to fix it, and then he just walked off. I waited another 15 minutes, as i waiting, some of the employees just glimpsed at me and noticing I’ve been waiting here for a long time. Still, they didn’t bother to assist me. Maybe, they were to lazy to walk out and fix it. Finally, one employee just walked in, she said she will talk to me in minute, more like 10 minutes. However she did help me fix the arcade machine.
*And try not to waste your money on the arcade, they have really bad prizes. I’m never going to spend money on the arcade.
The batting cages weren’t so fun. When the ball shot out. it landed really low. It was hard trying to hit the ball at my height. Didn’t get to hit much. When I did hit some balls, you can feel the shock from the ball hitting the bat. And it hurts, still now my arm hurts, as I am typing this. They need better bats; its metal and has warn out tape.
Also, for the turbo racing track, whenever you drove onto a patched up or bumpy road, the go kart will jump. Therefore, you also feel the shock. And my back hurts right now too.
There’s more bad stuff about this place, but I’m not going to waste my time on this place.
It’s nice place to try, but not so great place.

Bought a Groupon here a few months back, and finally got to use it right before it expired.
There are separate entrances for Grand Prix and Castle, and it’s nice that the people I went with knew that, since the Grand Prix entrance is tiny and I would have totally missed it otherwise and had to walk all the way around the mini golf.
While the Groupon was good for 2 unlimited all-​day passes for Grand Prix, Turbo, or mini golf, we only Grand Prix’d. It’s the faster of the two cars (still slow compared to indoor tracks) but was definitely a fun time.
We drove until our necks and shoulders gave out.
Not sure if I’d go if there wasn’t a screaming deal though.

After coming to this place, it confirmed my addiction to arcade games. Nice thing about this place is that most of the machines were working. The lady was pretty efficient (though not happy) in fixing up the one that was broken. The place is pretty crowded (machine and people wise) and swarming with kids. Lots of fun though if you have a competitive streak. If you are trying to win prizes, this is definitely not the place to come unless you have money to burn. I like to scope out the cutest kid to give my few tickets to.
3 Mini golf course and are pretty standard with 18 holes and a good amount of variety to them. Nothing to complain about here unless you have to wait for the other person in front of you to finish their 15^th stroke.

Not a bad place to go for outdoor go-​kart driving, but don’t expect anything fancy or nice. The whole place looks kind of old and has clearly seen better days.
The go-​kart courses are timed, so you can compare stats with your friends/​family.
Be sure you purchase a ride on the go-​kart course that you want. My group apparently went to the slow course, but there’s a faster-​looking course on the side facing Hwy 101. So get this clarified with the cashier before you pay.
If you’re bringing someone here and you want them to get a good impression of the place, bring them in from the «castle» building’s front entrance (not the Grand Prix parking lot/​entrance). We didn’t realize a main front entrance existed, so we parked at the Grand Prix entrance, and that was pretty underwhelming.

Malibu Grand Prix is a hugely entertaining experience. Every time, I come for the go karting, and yet end up doing so much more. Let’s go ahead and review these one at a time…
If you sign up for the rewards program online, you get a free spin of their wheel every month. Whatever prize the wheel points at, you get. It can be anything from a number of tickets (to redeem for prizes) to a free round of games to a free food or drink item at the concession stand. Not a bad start to the outing!
After that, my girlfriend and I will usually hit up the go karts. They have two different go karts, one for adults and a slower one for children. The adult go karts go so fast that you need to have a valid drivers license to operate them (and they check for it before letting anybody on to the course)! Out of my many laps, only once have I gotten a lap beneath one minute (60 seconds), so that’s the bar I’ve set, and I challenge you to beat me!
The mini golf courses are decent enough, and certainly are a good value considering how much time you get out of a single round of golf. I stink at mini golf, so I mostly find the obstacles infuriating! But you’re probably better than I, and you may enjoy it!
The batting cage is fun, although even the «medium» speed seems really fast to me! I usually just stick to «slow.» Although, you’re probably a better batter than I, so you can probably handle faster! ;)
I’ve never really played in the arcade, although it has the feel of and similar games to Chuck E. Cheese’s or Dave & Busters. Like those two establishments, it also has tickets that you earn from the games to redeem prizes.
(They also have bumper boats, although I’ve never used them, so I can’t offer a review on them.)
Overall, this place is just plain fun. Enough said. :)

Vrooooooooooom!!!
I remember bringing the kids here when they were little and dreaming of the day that they’d be old enough to drive the cars. Then it happened and wwhhhhhhheeeee!!! The first time we climbed into one of those mean machines it was heaven! Zooming around the track, trying to catch the guy in front of you! Vvvvrrrrrroooom!
There are two tracks — one slower track for the youngsters and one speedier track for the big kids. The arcade is not bad and they serve food that’s perfect for any junk food craving. If you get bored with the cars and arcade, there’s a miniature golf course — another family favorite! It’s a great place for birthday parties!
If you and the kids needs a place to go that’s fun for everyone, this is it — a full day of old fashioned, family-​oriented fun!