Interested in your experiences.

I’m seeing offers for what appears to be complex assignments requiring others to accompany us in various entertainment pursuits (but often not enjoy the experience together) stating generous reimbursement (but actual pay is $20 with occasional $10 bonuses) and eye-catching totals in the title touting $200+ for several hours of time, travel, specific and sometimes time stamped details, and lengthy written reports…if your submission is accepted.

How has that played out for you in terms of effort, experience, and reward for you and your guest(s)?

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/03/2026 06:42PM by SBP.

I've worked with them for years. Schedulers & owner are great. They don't have too much in my area but when something pops up that interests me I don't hesitate to apply for it.
This isn't the type of company where you are going to pay your mortgage doing their shops. This is the 'I really want to take my kids to xyz place but don't want to spend the money to do so'....
I've done zoos, Rollercoaster parks, water parks, bowling alleys, movie theaters, tourist spots, museums....

I tried several times, but the jobs never matched up with the attraction shops that were available. And they seemed to have a lot of required purchases. I never ended up doing any jobs for them, and I think they deactivated me because I never did anything.

yes "This isn't the type of company where you are going to pay your mortgage doing their shops. This is the 'I really want to take my kids to xyz place but don't want to spend the money to do so'....
I've done Rollercoaster parks, water parks, & bowling alleys.
Reports are easier than they seem in guidelines. Schedulers are always available

I agree that their come-ons are way more attractive than reality once you realize the fee is small and it’s mostly reimbursement.

I have done a few theater checks. One did require us going to separate showings of the same film. It was stupid and we did the checks and left. Our showings were an hour apart so she had to wait to get started, I had to wait to catch up with her to leave. We had no interest in the eligible film. But it was heavily bonuses so worth it for the $$$. We then went out to eat. The second let us watch together so we picked a show we wanted and stayed for the whole film. It was an easy report. Shop was also bonused to make it worth our time. We did a dinner shop on our way home for another MSC.

My second experience was a very lengthy one at an amusement complex. I took two friends and we had fun but I had to take over 50 photos and make lots of notes. I spent many hours on that report for $10 fee. But it was big reimbursement. We enjoyed it but are not rushing back.

I agree it’s mostly good for paying to let you go to somewhere fun that is outside the normal budget. A kid can just enjoy it. An adult guest can help a little (my friends helped with name tags and descriptions). They do have great phone support though so you can get help if something pops up instead of hoping you got it right.

I stay clear of this company due to the amount of work and minimal incentive coming back.

Its been a very long while since my kids were young but we had a lot of fun on these shops. Yes it was work for me but i enjoyed being able to take my kids so they could enjoy it. The reports were long but not at all difficult and I found ways to make the "fee" larger.I remember at the zoo making a game out of the many food shops required. We had a rolling lunch/dinner game where we ate one part of the meal at one place and then moved on to another for the next course. I also had discounts for admission I could use. I am not sure they still allow that now but I had some I was allowed to use back then. For purchases at the gift shops it was mostly a pencil, a post card or a chap stick. Having another adult along means you can leave your kids with someone while you run around and work.

Thank you for your replies.

These were hit and miss. Some require lots of legwork. Others are fairly easy. We had bowling alleys pop up a bunch in my area and they were awesome with little kids!

These are good for an affordable adventure with family. I've done fun centers (bowling, games, laser tag etc), amusement parks, water parks, etc for some decent weekend trips that were almost all paid for. Yes, the survey at the end can be a bit intimidating with all the required sentences, details and photos, but I feel its worth it. After a few laps around the track, doing them gets easier and easier.

I like them for a few things that “reimburse” with a flat amount more than the cost of doing the shop.
Also I used to do theater counts for them when they had those available (not theater checks).
What I don’t like now is their weird system of having to check daily on the site to see if you have been approved for a shop and then claiming it. If you want me to do the shop, just assign it.
(I would be willing to do more for them, but I don’t have children living near me that I can take as required.)
I will say that one of their schedulers, Shanna, is the nicest I have ever worked with.

I've done a few for them over the years.

Pros:

Schedulers and Editors are unmatched IMO. They are one of the only companies that maintains amazing communication before, after, and during your shop. I have called at 11 pm the night of a shop and had the owner answer my call. If they don't answer their phones or chat, I feel like I've never gotten a response later than maybe 12 hours from the time I sent it.

Cool Assignments - I have to say, (building block land!), a few smaller theme parks, and some of the arcade shops have been the highlights of some of my kids' vacations.

Cons:
Deceptive advertising - When I see that a shop is $200, I get excited only to determine that the actual payment is $5 and it's $195 reimbursement. I feel like these emails and postings are phrased this way to make you think it's worth more than it is and I end up feeling a bit ripped off.

Tickets as payment: lots of the "good" amusement parks are paid in tickets for future use. I...absolutely hate this. I am very unlikely to complete these unless there is a ton of bonus money attached because I don't usually go to a theme park more than once a season. I have to drive at least 1 hour to get to any of them, usually more, especially if I am doing these while vacationing in Florida or wherever. Paying me in tickets means I'm essentially working for free and/or the "experience" which can be fine if I want to give my kids a good time but definitely not if I'm trying to make bank.

Reports. These are long and the form they use is clunky and outdated - I swear this company must have been made in the 90s and kept their interface since then. When I worked for the government decades ago we had the exact same style and this was already outdated in the early 2000s. I can get the reports done but it takes me hours and these aren't always worth it.

When looking for assignments, the ones that put cash in your pocket have a circle with a couple dollar signs in it in the listing.

I've done a dozen shops for Amusement Adv over the years. They are highly communicative and always pay.

Their shops are the *only* shops out there I'm willing to work for such a low return (explained later). As others have stated, the big numbers you are seeing are not pay, it is reimbursement with a small amount of pay (usually starting at $20).

I remember after my first shop with them I calculated my hourly take: $1.66 LOL!
(driving time + shop time + report time = 12 hours total with $20 pay).

I remember my first 1-2 shops, holy crap it would take me around 6 hours to get those reports done because of the clunky website and amount of writing. I slowly realized I was over writing and covering things that were asked in other sections. So I was basically doing extra work for no reason.

I recommend to carefully look at what a section asks and *only* fill out things pertaining to *that* section. I've been able to reduce my report time from +6 hours to about 3.5 and keep an excellent shop rating.

With that better approach and bonused shops, my wage is up to about $5 an hour. As you can see I am well on my way to retirement with this setup.

Why do I do it? It's a great opportunity to take my kids to do something fun that would cost me hundreds of dollars - reimbursement is between $115-$300 in my area and I only do the heavily bonused shops ($50-$60 is the most pay I've seen)

BTW, they almost always increase bonuses, you just have to wait. Why work for $1.61 an hour when you can make $3 or even $4!

Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 05/09/2026 06:58PM by jdyeah.

reimbursements are not taxable but payments are.