I used to know somebody who had worked there for awhile. She was deeply traumatized by the experience.
The first time I went to try a CC was coming home from camping. I had a really bad sinus headache coming on but not arrived, and we were starved. I had two siblings of grade school age. I did manage to make it to the back of the place before yelling let’s get the hell out of here. I’m sure the results would have been exactly the same had the sinus problems not been happening. I had a skull splitting migraine when we reached the car. I would never enter one of those again, and I don’t care if a kid has to miss a party there. It is the absolute worst place to ever have to eat unless you like screaming children. It is not like the ads where children can play nicely and watch a stage performance. No! It’s like a trip to an asylum, where patients scream and gibber all day and night. I don’t see how OSHA can allow the employees to work without hearing protection.
[QUOTE=Rysto]
Oh, God. When I was young, Chuck E, Cheese’s was one of my favourite places to go. I probably got to go once or twice a year. Do I owe my parents a huge apology?
[/QUOTE]
Yes, yes you do. (NO, I am not joking, call them an apologize.)
[QUOTE=Webner]
Actually, speaking as someone who is young enough to remember going to a Chuck E. Cheese as a kid, and who has gone there every year or two since for his cousins’ birthday parties, who hates the obnoxious atmosphere inside as much as anyone else in this thread, let me say -
Chuck E. Cheese has wonderful pizza. And I know many others who agree.
Delicious sauce, and the kind of cheese that really stretches out when you take a bite, so when you swallow a string of cheese follows the bulk of the pizza like a tail, staying in your mouth an extra delightful second.
[/QUOTE]
I do not comprehend this statement. It makes no sense, there pizza is not even edible to me. It was more like Frozen Pizza.
Jodi, I am very sorry for your horrible experience. It is truly about the worst place anyone would go voluntarily. 8 weeks of boot camp is about equal to 2 hours of “UpChuck some Cheese”. You at least get a sense of satisfaction from boot camp.
Jim
[QUOTE=Jimson Jim]
They no longer serve beer!!! Oh shit…
My wife is pregnant with our first. What the hell I am going to do when my kid gets invited to a party there? I worked at a Chucky Cheese in collage and my wife worked at a Showbiz. We know the horror all to well. I couldn’t’ count the number of parents who I remember saying “The only thing that makes this place bearable is the beer.”
My only hope is they go under in the next 5 years.
[/QUOTE]
Ha. I already have friends having their child’s FIRST birthday at Chuck E. Cheese. It ain’t gonna take 5 years for you to get dragged there, buddy.
(Yeah, I’m bitter, too, because I was thinking beer was the only thing that might get me through going to Chuck E. Cheese next month.)
Tim Wilson does a great song called Chucky Cheese Hell. It’s all over You Tube in various incarnations.
Was the Chuck E. Cheese I went to the only one where the music was turned up to levels exceeding that of unbaffled jet engines next to your eardrums? Because the party was in the animatronic band room, and they had that thing turned up so loud it was actually painful. And I say this as a veteran of rock concerts in my misspent youth (particularly the Yardbirds) where I was deaf for three days afterwards from the loud music. It’s a wonder I’m still able to hear.
I don’t remember whose birthday party it was I took you to that day, whiterabbit, but you will owe me an apology for it for the rest of my life; no matter how many times you apologize, it won’t be enough! 
Chuck E Cheese’s was pretty good in the mid-80s, before the video game bust. Ah, fond childhood memories…
Shakey’s had better pizza though, IMnshO.
[QUOTE=Scuba_Ben]
Chuck E Cheese’s was pretty good in the mid-80s, before the video game bust. Ah, fond childhood memories…
Shakey’s had better pizza though, IMnshO.
[/QUOTE]
I agree! The video games were great for a mid-teen guy. And Shakeys thin crust is still the standard by which all other pizzas are measured. They all fail.
I’m glad not to have to go to CEC nowadays. It has all the things I hate that have been listed: noise, crowds, children, ladk of peace, crappy food.
We have an understanding in our house. I’ll take our daughter to all the softball games and practice, to Sunday School and ballet and tap and jazz and to the zoo and museum and theatre rehearsal and performances, to soccer and pick her up at school every time it rains. I’ll sit patiently during sunday NFL when all her friends romp thru the house and hang lace dresses from the big screen and…
my wife takes her to (Up)Chuck E. Cheese.
Shakeys? Heh, loved it.
[QUOTE=lieu]
We have an understanding in our house. I’ll take our daughter to all the softball games and practice, to Sunday School and ballet and tap and jazz and to the zoo and museum and theatre rehearsal and performances, to soccer and pick her up at school every time it rains. I’ll sit patiently during sunday NFL when all her friends romp thru the house and hang lace dresses from the big screen and…
my wife takes her to (Up)Chuck E. Cheese.
Shakeys? Heh, loved it.
[/QUOTE]
You drive a hard bargain.
I have friends who worked there in high school. One of them for two years. They said it was not that horrible although one of them said that the worst job was being the mouse. He said that the kids would kick him and the suit was really hot.
Funny enough, neither of the guys who worked there have kids or are planning to have kids even though both are in their thirties.
[QUOTE=CalMeacham]
How dioes Buster and Dave’s stack up against Chuck E. Cheese? The closest one is in Rhode Island, and I’ve never been.
[/QUOTE]
Dave and Buster’s is a lot more of an adult-oriented place. No animatronic characters, easily-accessible bars (even right among the video games), etc.
Aside from the permeating odor of little feet that apparently is indeed a Chuck E. Cheese staple, I was always annoyed to be carded by someone who then could not serve me, since they weren’t old enough.
(pimply teenager) “Could I see your ID, please?”
(annoyed old grouch) “Here you go.”
(pt) “Thanks. I’ll get someone to help you.”
(aog) “Zuh?”
(pt) “I’m not old enough to serve alchohol.”
(aog) (gnashes teeth)
(new improved, somewhat older pimply teenager) “Could I see your ID please?”
(aog) “Could I get a root beer instead?”
Anyone remember the refridgerators at Shakey’s? The one here had 3 of them in a row, and were labeled thusly:
“Ice-a-boxa”
“More Ice-a-boxa”
“Even more Ice-a-boxa”
I know that – my question is – is the food decent? Do they keep it clean? Or are they coasting on the appeal of the arcade?
[QUOTE=CalMeacham]
I know that – my question is – is the food decent? Do they keep it clean? Or are they coasting on the appeal of the arcade?
[/QUOTE]
Dave & Buster’s food is along the same lines as Applebee’s fare…chicken tenders, riblets, salads, etc. Nice and clean, not as loud as I thought it would be.
The beer at the one near us is VERY cold and there are video screens everywhere for watching sports, etc. if you don’t want to play games. I like that they have the ticket games and video games, many of them on big screens, etc. And I thought it was priced rather reasonably.
Try it out with a group of friends if you have one near you.
I’ve been to a couple Chuck E. Cheese’s around here. It’s not too bad, but after an hour or so it starts to get old.
Didja know that the founder of Atari started Chuck E. Cheese’s Pizza Time Theatre? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chuck_E._Cheese’s
I’ve just been to CEC twice, both times bringing my boys to other kids’ birthday parties. Both times on Saturdays, and both times EXTREMELY loud. I left with headaches both times, too. I won’t say “never again,” but if I never went back to one I wouldn’t be terribly broken up.
I loved Shakey’s when I was a kid (late sixties). They had live old-timey sing-alongs with guys dressed in barbarshop quartet garb. When the musicians took a break they showed classic silent comedy and 3 Stooges shorts.
[QUOTE=Ruby]
Ugh! It was sooooooo much better when they served beer. <sigh>
[/QUOTE]
huh?
They stopped serving beer?
My dad’s favorite place to take his then 4 year old granddaughter (the eventual BusKid) was Chuck E. Cheeses. Even as her dad, if they hadn’t served beer I’d have never gone.
[QUOTE=Jodi]
Sweet fancy Moses, what a nightmare Chuck E. Cheese is. There is loud tinny calliope music, broken only when the poor, downtrodden teenagers who work there have to assemble at one end of the restaurant to sing and dance. The place is of course filled beyond capacity with running, shrieking, shouting, crying children of all ages. The lights from the games blink festively. The bells and whistles from the games go off constantly. There is a guy wandering around in a giant Chuck E. Cheese fur suit, constantly trailed by an entourage of hopping, yelling children trying to get his attention by yanking on him.
The tables are unbussed, because they are so much in demand that people are simply piling the last party’s garbage in the overflowing garbage cans before taking over the table. People without tables (including us) hover until a table frees up and then instantly take it. The tables are sticky. The floors are sticky. The soda station is six kinds of sticky. The pizza is hands-down the worst excuse for pizza I have ever eaten.
You have to buy a certain number of tokens for the games and rides with your dinner. We bought $20 worth. Once the kids had blown through those, we found we had 60 tickets. (The games, if you “win” them, pay off with tickets.) For 60 tickets we got ONE plastic ring of the type you can get out of a toy vending machine for a quarter. My sister gave it to the 3 year old and said “Enjoy your 20 dollar plastic ring.”
Of course, you can’t just eat and run (screaming) out – no, no. The fun for the kids is to use the tokens to ride the rides and/or play the games. Not wanting to infringe on their fun – the reason we were there, after all – we spent TWO HOURS in the atmosphere of flashing lights, squawking music, shrieking kids, frustrated parents, and crappy food before we could make our escape.
If you tried to invent the worst possible dining experience for me personally, I think you’d come up with Chuck E. Cheese: Over-crowded, loud, distracting, over-priced, stressful, dirty, crappy food. So now I’ve been to Chuck E. Cheese for the first time. I devoutly hope I’ve also been to Chuck E. Cheese for the last time as well.
[/QUOTE]
Quit talking it up. It is not as nice as you make it out to be! 
If only they could corral each and every site and strike a match to 'em.