Absolutely not worth it. And I liked Gymboree, and we took our first son for a couple years (before I found MMM).
Here's the thing. It's basically the same 4-8 families showing up each week playing with $100 worth of toys for less than an hour. At some point it finally hit me that we could just buy a few toys and invite people over, or vice versa, and we would have accomplished exactly the same thing for $1k less per year.
Gymboree is like how cutting the grass turned into "landscaping" and became 10 times more expensive. It's a way to separate upper middle class parents from their money (because it's "for the kids"). Kids (particularly young one) just want some attention, and they may only marginally realize/appreciate that other kids are there. Save your money, spend time with your kids, and set up play dates to get them around other kids. You will have accomplished the exact same thing as Gymboree but saved ridiculous amounts of money in the process.
