Movie Party Theme...

So What Happened?

First of all,

Thank everyone for their response! It really helped me get kick started on what I needed to do. :)

I loved Constructive Playthings/US Toy in Plano. I also found one polaroid camera--at Walgreens in East Allen, but with the film was as expensive as the camera--$40 for the camera, but the film for 20 exposures was $30! I opted not to do that and just used my digital camera to print prints at home--just as effective and a lot cheaper! Walmart, Target, Wolf Camera all said they did not carry them (called several in the Allen, Plano & McKinney area).Walmart even told me Polaroid was not making the camera anymore. So in a sense, the film will still be available, I'm sure but it'll be hard to find and even more costly.

The party was a wonderful success and the kids had fun, but due to the size of the "party room" at Cinemark 16 in Allen, we were barely able to utilize the room, and scaled back on the fun I had intended to pass the time in the party room, which was karaoke for the girls. So here is where the "Thank you's" end and my "Review" begins.

Let me say, the people at Cinemark were very nice. I was not upset with the customer service at all. I am however vexed with the accommodations versus the price, especially with the "break down" of the price list. We paid for the room per child, the movie tickets, and the kids pack.

The price itself was not a problem. Just FYI: I knew going into the deal that it was going to be $15 per child, and the adult tickets, drinks, etc was separate from the bill.

The biggest issue: The room was a glorified closet. It seemed like the designated party room was an afterthought in the construction of the building. It really cannot be the original idea for that space. If it is, someone was not thinking ahead.

There were two long tables put together, and there was barely walking room around it for the kids much less an average sized woman. The table to put the cake and gifts on was not large, and they used it to hold the door open, so all our party noise trickled out into the lobby, and more than once I had managers/asst managers, employees etc, coming by to try to probably shush us. The rest of the adults, toddlers with strollers, and two of my children (not the party kids) stayed outside the room just because there was no additional space. I was not pleased with the size of course, but the color of the room made my eyes water. It was a jungle theme, which is cute, and would have been less overpowering in a larger room, and the colors used were electric/neon green under florescent lighting. And of course, I did not know this when I asked that we have "red" decorations because the theme was high school musical. So all the accessories for the party was red (cups, plates, table cloth). I actually kept their jungle green table cloth on the table, and the brought yellow plates to us instead of the red. If anyone has ever seen Steven Kings The Shining, that's it made me flash back to "redrum" with that eye wincing color combination of red and green.

For the price, I should have been 100% happy with the accommodations. Of course, the girl who booked our party did tell me that the room was "green" and with a jungle theme. Oh that was an understatement. What I had envisioned was totally different from reality.

Another issue I had was the fact that the room was so small, I was unable to keep all the kids in the party room. It was also really hot in there. So, we had to go into the hallway to breathe, and eventually the arcade to break up the monotony. There were 12 girls, my son (he kept the girls entertained with his "video game skills" and it doesn't hurt that he's a cute older boy! and two toddlers, and four adults. That was additional money spent there was well. The good thing was, we only had to pay for the kids who were going to watch the movie (12 girls and two adults).

Also the Party Planner suggested that we get there 2 hours before the movie. We were watching Nim's Island at 4:15 and so I said, great, everyone arrive at 2, that way we can have half an hour-45 minutes of karaoke (that did not happen due to the lack of room size) and of course, we brought funky dress up stuff to do our "Hollywood red carpet " arrivals. Barely room to find a way to do that. And then we had cake and opened gifts. We were done literally by 3:15 and so we had an hour to twiddle our thumbs, hence we did bathroom runs, video game runs, and then the movie. Which was really a cute show and all the kids enjoyed it.

Not to sound like I'm just bashing the theatre, remember I did say I liked their customer service. The party was kind of in my hands, and no room for the employees to even squeeze in much less the guests to help out much--passing out cake, drinks, etc, which is what most planned events do, right? They brought our drinks pitchers to the table and checked in, and brought what I asked though.

Before the movie started, the attendee's got our drink orders, took care of bringing everything to us, and reserved our seating...that was great. I really liked that perk. The also kept the party room available for us for parents to meet up and pick up kiddos.

I know this turned into a "review" but I felt like it should be said. The party was a success. The kids had a blast and my daughter a wonderful time which is all that truly matters. Yet, my wonderful family (hubby, mother-in-law, and one of my closest friends) kept me laughing and sane, and kept things moving along and turned the negatives in the situation around for me. You know how sometimes you get lemons, well we turned it into lemonade.

Oh and if anyone from Cinemark 16 in Allen reads this, feel free to call me up, and we can chat. I will be happy to redo your party room, between my mother in law who is a talented muralist, and myself with some creative and artistic talent, we could turn that room into something more flattering, and it we won't break your bank account. I don't know if the theatre has another area that could be used for a party room though. I can't help you there, but if it was possible, that room should be at least double that size, but I'd suggest triple. If anything, changing the room "decoration" would be a huge boost to "morale" of the surprised parents. Also, be sure to take the measurements of the room and let your customers know what they are getting into. We were shocked that the room was that small with a 10 child minimum reservation list. And the max reservation for the room was 15, I'm telling you 10 is pushing it.

If you made it this far, thanks! I just felt compelled to share my experience just so someone else would know the pros and cons of the situation.