There’s a brand new one about 10 minutes from my house, and I went there twice, thinking it would change my previously negative attitude about it. The first time was for a kid’s party, and it was lame just like any other Chuck E Cheese party. The second time was about two months ago, Groupon had a special where you get a ton of tokens plus pizza, salad bar and drinks for $25. Because it was winter at the time I figured we’d do it, and it would give us something to do.
The food was so gross, the salad bar was so bad, so lame. I was lucky enough to find a table that someone vacated, and I found a busboy to clean it. He comes with his bucket and rag and wipes. It was so loud because there was a speaker right overhead, where they have blaring music (in addition to the machines that all have beeps, whistles, honks, etc. coming out of them), and I asked the busboy if he could have the speaker turned off, and he said they couldn’t.
I’m sure the rides and games are not cleaned adequately. They look clean, because they were fairly new, but when you think about dozens or hundreds of kids each day playing, touching, eating, going to the bathroom and touching the games, it’s gross.
Unfortunately, my daughter is invited to a birthday party at one in a few weeks, so I’ll be going there again.