Hollywood Bowl Milton Keynes — Attraction in Milton Keynes

Had the worst experience at Hollywood Bowl Milton Keynes from start to finish!

We went to book 2 games of bowling for a group of 4 on New Year's Day. There was 1 slot left so we went straight ahead with booking it online before it went.

Had a look on the site for information about how to book concession tickets for disabled/carer. Normally when we book tickets for this the carer gets the discounted ticket or free ticket with a full priced ticket paid for. Again there was no information on their website to say how to actually do this. So we went and booked 1 concession ticket and 1 adult ticket then 2 children's tickets.

Called the centre straight after we had secured the slot and asked if we did it the correct way. Straight away I was told that I couldn't get a refund before I had even asked for such a thing and that we should have booked both the tickets as concession. I explained that it didn't say this anywhere which I was rudely told that I ticked & agreed to their terms & conditions so couldn't get a refund.

Explained that we didn't want a full refund as we still wanted to bowl. They refused to refund the difference or even let us have the difference back in a drink whilst we bowled.

I asked to a speak to a manager twice and was put on hold both times & a manager refused to speak to me. They left me on the phone for 20mins to speak to a manager to just refuse to talk to me.

Found out from a notification from my phone provider that the call cost me nearly £9 which is probably why they kept me on the phone for so long! So now they have extra of my money on top of the money from the call!

When you call the number it doesn't even say that it charges you!

I put a complaint in through insta & email. I was called by a lady who was incredibly rude & short. Told me straight away I couldn't get a refund and no one would listen to me at all.

When we got there we had a VIP lane. Our lane was covered in plates, cups & food everywhere and all over the floor from the previous group. We had to ask twice to get it cleaned up.

Called for service on our screen and after 10mins of waiting was told that they wouldn't take our order and we have to go to the bar.

Through our second game we went to use the toilets and the corridor leading up the toilets smelt absolutely rancid! It made our eye's water and everyone was complaining about the smell.

It smelt of extremely strong urine and fish! It was absolutely vile!

The customer service I recieved was absolutely disgusting! No care or compassion at all towards a disabled customer! How they treat their disabled customers and customers in general is absolutely awful! Incredibly rude how I was spoken to!

The place was filthy and stunk just as much as the customer service and attitudes of staff!

This was supposed to be a fun activity to start off our new year and was just the complete opposite thanks to Hollywood Bowl Milton...

Worst place to have a kid's party.I have hosted parties for my kids at other venues, play areas, in the last 10 years but this is the worst I have ever experienced. I payed for a VIP party at the Milton Keynes bowl a week ago and everything was terrible.

On getting there, I was handed a machine and told to come back when it beeped with no explanation. I queried this as I had children turning up for a party at a set time and I deserved an explanation on why the party was not starting at the scheduled time. I was finally told some people were still using it.

-We had to entertain the children and keep an eye on them for about 20 minutes. I had payed for the VIP lanes to also ensure all the kids were safe in one space

When we finally got to the lanes, the rubbish from the previous party was still there so we moved to one side.

No drinks were given to the kids until I had made 2 trips to the desk and kids were almost midway through the session.

A few times the boards stopped working and again we had to go seeking someone to fix the problem.

When we then moved to the party tables, we found someone had left all the ordered food on a side table before we arrived, with a couple of wrong orders, and we were left to ask the kids what they ordered,and handed out to the kids.

Adult meal items ordered were brought as kids meals.

No cutlery, no napkins, no sauces and again no drinks

Another 2 trips down to the desk and kids halfway through their food, before kids got drinks.

Another trip to the desk to request the icecream kids were entitled to with the VIP package and they finally came in batches.

Kids tired of the wait and wanting to wander whilst waiting for items.

No one knew when we were done and I could have walked out without giving them their balance but I'm not one to cheat although we were cheated in every way.

Another trip to the desk to advice that I owed an outstanding balance and they could not work it out. I had to help, and the staff had to get someone else to help her work it out. I had to wait in line for a while till it was my turn.

Finally we had NO party host although the agreement stated a DEDICATED party host.

Overall the WORST party venue I have had for my kids and I definitely will not advise anyone to have a kid's party there.

A staff member encouraged me to leave an honest review as they stated it is not run appropriately by the manager.

Very shocking a kid's party can be run in this manner as the MK Hollywood bowl has a play area just opposite them who run kid's parties and I hosted one there a...

This place is clearly the poorest bowling facility locally, Luton, Dunstable, Hemel and Stevenage are all far ahead in every department. Visited on Sunday having booked in advance, only to be told there was a 15 - 20 minute wait, possibly a ploy to get you to spend money in the arcade🤷, so no point in pre-booking which is annoying particularly if you have other activities lined up as we did through out the day; that as a result of this delay, were impacted. The surfaces to sit by our lane were cleared as we stood there but not wiped down which was a concern, considering covid's still a thing, isn't it🤷There were no working toilets so had to use the ones in the shopping centre, annoying for a young family as can't leave your stuff (or a child) unattended mid bowling to use the toilet. Ordered some drinks, what an experience that was. No milkshakes, no slushies,( so much for a kids treat), no fruit shoots, no coke zero.......ordered 2 cups of tea, asked if wanted them to take away, bizarre as we were just starting bowling. Then asked which tea we wanted, "standard tea, English breakfast tea" I replied, in cups as we are staying, she wasn't sure as her device showed 2 types of tea so she went to check. When the drinks arrived they were in take away cups as apparently they had no "drink in" cups. We had to rush through the bowling which certainly took some fun out of the experience as we didn't want to miss our next activity. Overall, this facility and it's product offering is poor ie drinks and no toilets, staff not trained properly, manager not prepared to help at all. When I spoke to the manager about our experience he got very defensive when i challenged the server about drink availability and knowledge, saying she was new and had done well all morning so far. I pointed out, I agreed it wasn't her fault and I did tell her that. This was an issue with the training she was given and clearly an issue with the products on offer as there were so few drinks available for my children. I was told to call the customer service centre on Monday, "what for" I asked as that doesn't solve anything now, but he said that's all I could do, he was more of a caretaker of this facility that a manager I'm afraid. Clearly needs some more experience and shouldn't get so defensive when it's clear there are issues here. Such a shame as Milton Keynes has so much to offer, and so many original and outstanding activities and facilities, but unfortunately at the moment in its current state, Bowling is not...