I called 2 weeks in advance to set up a reservation for my daughters 6th birthday. Everything went great over the phone. I was told we had to pay $25 for the space if we wanted to do cake and presents. That's a great price. They told me we would have the bowling space for 1 hour and the tables for 2 hours. 3 hours all together. Plenty of time for a unrushed party! 1 hour for arcade games, 1 hour bowling, 1 hour cake and presents! Sounded great. I called the night before the party to make sure they still had my res. And to ask if we could bring pizza into the alley. They said yes, and confirmed my res for 4 o'clock.
345 the next day I show up at the bowling alley to set the party up and do what needs to be done before people show up. My reservation had been crossed off the calender! My heart sunk but they told me they had the room and gave me 4 lanes and 4 tables (when I only reserved 2)
I got everything set up and friends and family started rolling in. I had gotten quarters and put $5 in little cups so the kids could play the arcade games. 5x7=$30 plus all the money that parents gave kids after they ran out of the money I gave them.
5 o'clock comes and I'm getting all the kids together to start bowling. The older lady that works there comes over to me and tells me they expected us to be done in 15 min. Meaning they wanted us out at 5:15. I told her that whoever I talked to promised us 3 hours. And she informed me that there was a legue coming in and that they needed that space. So we needed to bowl as quickly as possible but that when we were done bowling we could still use the tables. Ok, I kept my patients and tried to get 7 kids to bowl as quickly as possible. We ended up not even finishing the games because "they needed to oil the lanes" bowling for 7 kids $7 each
$7x7= $49
So we get up to the tables (it's about 5:35) and I'm getting the candles in the cake and the employee comes up and tells me we need to rush again because the league needs these tables. At this point I'm in tears because my daughters birthday is being rushed and is not fun for anyone. So I light the candles and didn't even get a chance to get everyone around the table because I'm being rushed. At least 3 people missed the birthday singing.
We get everyone cake and before my daughter gets any cake I start her on opening presents.
What do you know, here comes employee asking if we are almost done. At this point it's about 550 and my wonder full sister in law cleaned up the other 3 tables so we are only taking up 1 table.
My daughter rushed through presents. We left at about 6:05
It was a horrible experience. Something that could have been avoided by doing her party any where else.
With the bowling, arcade games, soda, beer, reservation and shoes. We spent about $200 for 2 hours of being rushed and harassed the whole time. I will never be going back for any reason again. I was so dissapointed. I hope for everyone else's benifit they don't ever do this to anyone else. read more