THE CUBE Canary Wharf — Attraction in London

Attended as a larger corporate group for a work social event, found the games to be a lot of fun, but the whole experience here was let down by the staff here.

Firstly started off poorly when emailing back and fourth about the booking. Credit where it’s due, Kirsty who supporting with most of the booking experience was extremely helpful and attentive, however I was passed over to another colleague of hers (who I won’t name publicly here) when she was on leave, and I was dealt with rudeness and abruptness. This colleague also repeatedly called me by my surname name via email, instead of my forename (this is a microaggression btw), even when it was very clear what my name was.

When we then arrived to the experience on the day of our booking, we were giving a booking card at the cloak room and instructed to go to the check in area with this to check in. We stood there for 10 minutes, in a queue behind another group of guests who had also been waiting for 10 or so minutes for someone to serve them and check them in formally. I went back to the only staff member I could see (at the cloakroom) to let them know that there are 2 groups waiting to check in. She said someone would be over in a minute. We then waited another 10 minutes for someone to come over and check us in. We can all appreciate its busy, but this situation was not helped by us all being able to see multiple staff members standing around chatting, whilst there was large groups of people waiting to be checked in.

Once we eventually got checked in, the woman helping us asked if we had chosen our pairs and groups of 4. I was a little confused about this as the email on booking confirmation said that the groups would be allocated to us, which is why I put in all of our individual names into their system beforehand. However, this was not the case, and she told us that after we finish our food, to come back up to the area in our groups. Fine – so we sorted our groups after eating.

When we went down to eat, we were yet to receive our welcome drink which we had paid for, so I asked the lady serving the food when we would get this, and she had the cheek to say ‘are you sure you haven’t already had your welcome drinks upstairs?’. What on earth! How would we have even had our welcome drinks when we were stood around for 20 minutes waiting for someone to check us in!!

After our food we went back up to the check in area in our groups and pairs that we’d chosen, to then be told by a different staff member at the check in area that once we scan the QR code for our game, our groups have already been chosen and assigned, which is different to what the other person told us before! There was then a huge faff in getting at least 4 of us to download the app for game play as wifi was awful in the building.

When we eventually got to play the games, they were a lot of fun and as a team we generally had a good time. The only thing I will say, if you can’t have even groups of 4 people, its not as fun for the 2 people who are just playing for points versus playing each other.

I will also add that there was so much inconsistency with the staff members manning the different games too. Some of them were overly positive and to the point of being cringey, and some were completed unbothered and borderline rude. One staff member thought it would be funny to throw one of the game objects at my head? Another staff member was really rude to one of our team members who started a game straight away without realising she had to wait for the floor to flash red. The staff members really ruined the experience for us as a group, as just felt so inconsistent.

I would visit again as the games were fun, perhaps in a smaller group and maybe a slightly less busy time, but all of the staff here really need to align on what experience they want to be giving their guests, and generally speaking, learn how to interact better with members...

Part 1 of 2 We decided to go to THE CUBE for our works Christmas event. Booked 12 places online at THE EXCLUSIVE PACKAGE for a total cost of £1,542.00 which should have included the following (Besides entry to the games)

Exclusive host (Didn't receive this) Champagne on arrival (Received 2 hours after arrival after queuing 30mins) 180mins reserved seating (Received only 4mins at 9.56pm when we arrived at 7pm) Refuel before challenge (Didn't receive any food)

Exclusive host and glass of champagne on arrival- So on arrival, you come out of the lift on the second floor and are met with a queue, initially thinking this the queue to announce your groups arrival we start to queue with everyone else. Then realising it's actually just the cloakroom queue we decided to wonder aimlessly for a few minutes looking for someone to tell us where to go to check in. Approach a staff member with an iPad on a lanyard around his neck and ask where we check in. “I can do that for you, can I take a name please”. No problem, looks like you’ve booked an exclusive package so you’ll need to go back and speak to someone else nearer the entrance.

So we headed back to where we’d been pointed in the direction in to a stand which was now being manned. We were then “checked in” by being given two brown envelopes of vouchers and told our dedicated host Nathan would be taking care of us for the evening, whilst strangely also being told he would be taking care of other groups at the same time…this not essentially being the definition of a dedicated host.

Being in charge of a group of 12 myself and wife arrived 30mins early to get everyone checked in and our table sorted but this is where the first major floor in the night occurred. When I said to Nathan where’s are table so we can get settled he was unaware that The Exclusive Package came with 180minutes (3 hours) reserved seating and only though we had 60mins which wouldn’t be ready for us to use another 2hours or more closer to 9.30pm. I even had to get the website and my booking confirmation to show Nathan what the Exclusive package included (180mins Reserved Seating). He seemed surprised as much as I was that he didn’t know this was what was included. He said he’d try to sort something out, and told us to wait in the bar downstairs. So we waited in the bar as the rest of our group arrived over the next 30mins. Still no update on our reserved seating.

Whilst waiting we decided to order a cocktail from the menus provided. The first three we tried to order was simply met with a stern “We don’t do that”, followed by me highlighting it on the menu and asking “you don’t have that?” nope “We don’t do that!” Ok but it’s on your menu? Yeah so what?. So first impressions weren’t great at the bar either. After getting everyone’s new drink choice we order and sit down, I’m getting a little bit annoyed by the situation at this point but it’s Christmas and it might just be a busy time. (Turns out this was the quietest it would get in the venue).

Once everyone had arrived we then returned to the bar to claim our “Champagne on arrival” (Which is in fact a drinks voucher). Only to be told the bar we had been sat at on Arrival doesn’t have champagne either and would need to go back upstairs to claim this from a different bar.

We decided instead to order another round of drinks but this time to order from the festive menu being advertised online and in the toilets at the venue. “We don’t do them” conversation then reoccured and we didn’t actually end up getting any further this time either.

By now Nathan had returned without any luck in finding our reserved seating and ushered us upstairs to watch a short video on how The Cube games would work.

Without the dedicated reserved seating we then found ourselves back in the queue for the cloakroom to get rid of our jackets.

Part 2...

So I’m driving home after celebrating a 50th birthday which included a visit to the cube at Canary Wharf as part of the day. So here are my thoughts about it. On entry your hit immediately by the cloakroom/storage area. This initial experience alone should put you in a frame of mind for your whole visit. Disorganised and rushed! No space to get things sorted or organised to store as there are just too many people either dripping or picking stuff up, or at least they were when we arrived. Move on to the next area which is a small bar in a small corridor. Of course you want a drink, you’re here to chill right. Wrong. Join the line and hope to get served whilst still taking in what is actually happening. We purchased expensive drinks and moved onwards to the next area that allocated the team names depending on the party size. Remember 4 people minimum or you’ll be paired up with some strangers. Not a bad thing but a think to note if your not of a friendly disposition. So team names done move into a crowded pen of many folk waiting and widening what is happening next. Your basically given the game rules by screen and audio print, told about the breaks you can take during the game and that you can order drinks whilst playing the Cube that will be brought to you. Only then to be told by a human that you actually can’t order drinks during the game. Your allowed a 30 minute break during the 7 games you participate in. Unfortunately for us that 30 minutes was wasted as the bar staff of the bar we decided to go to didn’t acknowledge us or even look up whilst we waited to be served. They seemed distracted but could have acknowledged us out of courtesy. Remember this was a 50th so something you want to carry forward and remember in a positive light. The Games themselves are picked randomly and are either 1 or 2 player. They are well structured and pretty close to what you would expect from the TV series. I thought they would be pretty naff not not really. That was a plus. What wasn’t a plus were the amount of people waiting outside each game. This made it difficult to watch and support your friends as there always seems to be somebody on the way or blocking the view. This did spoil the feel of it. Each game host was friendly and did make the experience more enjoyable. In the main they did seem invested in your enjoyment in a theme part sort of way which was good. One or two seemed not not care less though. Anyway the games over time to collect from the cloakroom. What can I say… I thought we were going to have to claim for lost property. As much as some of the cube games where challenging, it seemed that matching a number on a slip to your item was equally as difficult and as a result left our team feeling anxious about getting our stuff back. Let’s get out of here!

So I’m sorry to have left a review which seems to draw on the negative experiences of this day. This place has so much potential and could have been an otherwise wonderful experience. Instead it felt disorganised, rushed and far too cramped to enjoy. Would I go back. In a heartbeat not only if and when improvements are made to the system that make it...