I survived.
I brought my daughter here as a reward for learning over 40 sight words during her summer break. She'd never been before, but I had. It's changed so much since I was a kid too. The tubes and ball pit of my youth are gone and the entire floor is now devoted to arcade games and rides.
The only way a trip here is really worth it for me is with a coupon. I used one on this trip that gave us a medium pizza, 2 drinks, 15 tokens plus 10 bonus tokens for $19.99. I also did the salad bar ($5.99) which is totally worth it. I probably made at least five trips to the salad bar and loaded my plate with as much vegetation as possible. It's a pretty basic salad bar but had sunflower seeds, banana peppers, dried cranberries and what looked like chips or fried wonton strips for toppings at the end of the bar. Our pizza came out super fast, before I was even finished with my first salad! After we ate as much as we could I got a to-go box to stash the leftovers and we set out on our adventure around the Chuck.
Yeah...this place is a total freakin' madhouse! Poor Chuck E Cheese came out and got swarmed by 10 kids at once. At one point, about 7 of them had him literally pressed up against an arcade game surrounded and demanding hugs and high fives. I couldn't help but laugh because my brother used to work here and had to don the Chuck costume regularly. It's not laundered regularly, so have sympathy for the poor teenager stuck inside.
In the 2 1/2 hours we spent here that day, I came up with a list of tips for other parents to survive their own experience at (dun dun dun....) THE CHUCK!
- Monitor your child in some way. You don't have to follow them around if they're older but check in on them while they're playing and make sure they aren't getting bullied or doing any bullying.
- Be respectful of people waiting in line to play a game and tell your children to do the same. You will encounter teenagers with a mountain of tickets still attached to the game and a line of children waiting to play, but too afraid to speak up. Like me, you will probably rejoice in punking these older kids a bit about being a bit more aware of their surroundings. (Don't worry moms, I was nice about it!)
- Bring a small backpack purse or leave your purse locked up in the car if its just you and your children. I saw more than one mom trying to drag her purse around while weaving between hoards of children. Trust me, just don't do it.
- MANY of the games and rides here are broken in some way and 99% of them aren't marked. You WILL lose (several) tokens. You won't get tickets when you were supposed to. Accept this.
- If you want someone to replace your lost tokens good luck finding the one person who works the floor. He was wearing khaki shorts and a black polo with a small Chuck E Cheese logo on it, but unless you spot the logo he just looks like any other dad.
- Avoid bringing children too young to play. I actually saw a baby that was left alone at a table by themselves while the family went out to play for a good stretch. Okay, so they stamp your hand and your child's when you go in with matching stamps...but is it really a good idea to leave an infant unattended in a public place while you attend to your other kids on the other side of the building? No, no actually it's not. Find a babysitter, or wait a few years. To really enjoy this place a kid would need to be at least 4, but 5 seemed to be a good age for my own daughter. Bringing an infant to this place just seems like a real chore.
Overall, the trip was a success. My daughter really wanted to do the ticket blaster (clear enclosed stall that blows tickets and "mega-tickets" around for you to grab in a certain amount of time). It was $5 though and I was done spending money at that point. We'll be back, but only with a coupon! read more