"Beautiful fun carousel ride. My granddaughter loves it. Only $2.00 a person and a taste of childhood! It's indoors too."

Mary Danis

"My name is Ann. As an employee of the St. Louis Carousel, I am very saddened to read the review written by a visitor who recently had a birthday party for their one year old daughter at the Carousel. I remember this encounter very well & wish to defend my actions by saying I take my responsibilities very seriously. When operating the carousel it is my job to make sure the riders are safe, maintain order & most of all provide a fun & enjoyable experience for our patrons.
We do have many parents & grandparents who bring small children to the carousel & when a child is under the age of 2 years, I will many times suggest the adult ride on the horse with the child. It has been my experience over the past 4 years that it isn't uncommon to see a child leaning over & reaching for their parent, grabbing at them & some crying because they do not want to sit on the horse. In this case, that was what I observed & I went to the parents & suggested that one of them try getting on the horse & having the child sit in front of them. In my experience, this really does create a safe & secure seating arrangement for both the child & the adult & the best part of it all is they both end up enjoying the ride.
Unfortunately, my intensions & suggestion did not sit well with the child's mother & is was obvious that what I said & how said it
upset her. I do remember saying that as a nurse, I didn't want to be held responsible if the very upset, agitated child fell & cracked her head. The mom said she was a nurse as well & the child would be just fine which she was once the ride got underway. I think that at the end of the ride I even mentioned (much to my relief) that the baby ended up doing just fine. Unfortunately, I had no way of knowing that the child would calm when the ride began.
Lastly, I apologize for speaking loud. Unfortunately, I am hearing impaired & I do have a tendency of talking loud & quite honestly didn't realize I was actually talking into a live microphone. I also apologize that I made the mother feel singled out & possibly embarrassed. I certainly will be much more aware of my situation in the future & I will also think twice about mentioning to parents that the child more often than not does very well when sitting in the arms of the parent.
As for the mentioning the need to have the room cleaned & cleared out quickly because we had another party booked for 1:00 pm, I personally don't remember repeating multiple times that they needed to hurry up & get cleared out for the next group. We almost always have 2 parties on the weekends & are accustom to jumping in & helping clean up the room. I would like to note here that I did make a suggestion a couple of months ago that we start the morning party a half an hour earlier so we can have an hour between the morning & afternoon parties instead of the current half-hour. This suggestion was accepted & in January of 2026 the change will be implemented & we won't have to rush like crazy to be ready for the afternoon party.
Lastly, I love my job at the carousel. It is a very fun & happy place to work. I get great joy out of seeing the happy, excited faces on the kids when they walk through the door & as I tell our older riders (& we have many), everyone who walks through the door is......a kid.
I hope this review will not prevent anyone from coming to enjoy a wonderful piece of St. Louis history & it really is a great place to have a party.
Best Wishes to All,
Ann"

Annie Liebling

"We booked the party room for my daughter’s first birthday party. The party room and carousel were wonderful. Everyone had fun. From the time we arrived we were reminded no less than 20 times by Jay and Anne that there was another party after ours, so we would have to clean up quickly, which we were already prepared to do as that’s what it said in the contract we signed. The extra rushing was not appreciated.

At one point before the carousel started moving our daughter was getting fussy so my husband picked her up off the horse and held her. Anne, who was operating the carousel at the time, started directing us over the loud speaker that one of us should sit on a horse and put her on it in front of us. When we ignored her suggestion she proceeded to get up onto the carousel and approach us, still over the loud speaker, to tell us again what she thought we should do. When we dismissed her again she told us she was a nurse and it won’t be her fault if our daughter falls and busts her head open. As a nurse myself, I found her behavior annoying, embarrassing, and unprofessional. My daughter stopped crying and happily rode on the horse with us standing next to her as soon as the carousel started moving again."

Kayla Fell