06/28/09

AWFUL Service; disorganized; waste of time/money!

by bears85

What a mistake. Think a long hard time before you have a birthday party at Firkin & Kegler. It's expensive and very disorganized. You can read my edited version here or see epinions for my prof review.

Our 5 y/o wanted a party at Firkin & Kegler. Our friends were also curious about the place, none of us had been here before. Staff appeared nice, explained the packages, and the $50 deposit. I was very happy to book our party here. One might think a bowling party for a 5 y/o? Let me set the scene. We have lots of family and friends who have children. The plan was to book the child's party; then rent 2 lanes by the hour for the adults. I like the idea that someone is going to stay on top of the time, the expenses, the set up/take down and keep order. I like to have fun at my children's parties, interact with the guests & children, take pictures / movies. I spent the entire party running to the front desk to get issues resolved. It was a mess. A monuental walk-a-thon to the front desk due to incompetence and untrained staff. My child's party was ruined and no one had any fun. I paid over $200 for a two hour party in order to enjoy my child turning 5.

Our assistant repeatedly had to run to the desk to ask questions and then never came back with the answers. To find out the answer for simple issues. We ordered a la carte from the pub (pizza and drinks). You cannot bring in food from the outside. Prices were fair for food & pitchers of soft drinks.

Kids/parents arrive. We needed to add the kids' names to the roster, start the button, and let them bowl. No one knew how to operate the computer. Party tech was missing. We had to hunt him down. We found him. The kids are running all over, "we want to bowl"; the adults are standing around in their shoes, ball in hand, and the game couldn't start; the clock had already started (we rented the adult lanes on an hourly basis) and we couldn't use the lanes.

Bumpers were inconsistently available. Kids would get added; bumpers would go down again. We kept calling to remind them to put the bumpers up. Kids were waiting for their turns, computer wouldn't come up. The party assistant was GONE AGAIN. We'd have to run to find him and wait for him to find out what was going on.

Adults would have to wait to be added, there was no one there to add them at the seats. Everything had to be taken up to the front desk, we made at least 30-40 trips to the front desk to resolve an issue with adding guests, kids, food order. If the party assistant had known what to do it would have been easier, but no one seemed to know how to operate the lanes, the computer, or to run the cycle of the party. It was a chaotic mess.

Food was never available. They offered pizza; so we ordered pepperoni and loaded pizza. ("We're out of loaded pizza"). We then ordered cheese / pepperoni. We ran out, instead of the party assistant ordering it before we ran out. He let the food run out; when he got our order for pepperioni / cheese again, it was 45 min before he came back to tell us, they were out of cheese pizza. We took the pepperoni and didn't get the order until we had 1/2 hour left and the cake was being cut. What kind of mgmt hires someone; then trains them on the day of a big party, without an assist. Toward the end the front desk girl came back to help us. It was too late, everyone left to the arcade, the children had lost interest.

In the end the guy running the register offered me $20 for my trouble. I was insulted. $20 for ruining my child's party that cost over $250??

At the end...We were told the party assistant was new and so you used my party to train him, with no substantial discount? 10 families saw this mess today. We're doing our part to make sure no other family ruins a child's birthday party at this place.

• Pros: Near our house and it's pretty...
• Cons: Disorganized, no fun, unexperienced staff w/attitude

11/28/08

BEST FAMILY ENTERTAINMENT IN ORLANDO FLORIDA :-)

by KRINGKRING

YOU ARE MISSING HALF OF YOUR FAMILY ENTERTAINMENT LIFE IF YOU HAVEN'T VISITED THIS GREAT PLACE YET.BOTH MY DAUGHTER AND I WERE SO AMAZED HOW WONDERFUL THEIR BOWLING ALLEY WERE.SUPER GREAT.WE DEFINITELY WOULD GO BACK AND CELEBRATE MY DAUGHTER'S INCOMING BIRTHDAY SHE LOVES IT TOO MUCH.:-)