Strike & Spare — Attraction in Erlanger

(I would give this place 3 & 1/2 stars, but you can't do halves, so 3 stars it is.)

Took my son to a friend's birthday party here this evening. It's what I would consider a family fun complex. The birthday boy's mom bought the Extreme Package ($22.85/person) which includes one hour of bowling, 45 minutes at your party table, and a wristband that gets you unlimited access to almost everything.

On the main level, there's an arcade area (which was honestly a little underwhelming), a small roller skating rink, some sort of interactive game called Time Freak, bumper cars, laser tag, maybe 10 bowling lanes, and a VR coaster which was out of order. There weren't a lot of arcade games to choose from and they required quarters to play. They do have ATM and change machines, but dealing with all that loose change is such a hassle, especially if you have small kids. There are maybe 3 or 4 tables with chairs and a couch for adults to sit while kids play, a prize counter to turn in tickets, drink and snack vending machines, and a counter to order food. There are restrooms on both levels.

The stairs to access the lower level are quite steep and there's no elevator. Down there, you'll find about 20 more bowling lanes, tables for birthday parties, and what I think was a bar, but I didn't go over to that side and check it out. It is super cramped in that lower level and the noise from kids screaming, people talking, music blasting, etc can be deafening in that it's difficult to hear someone talking right next to you.

Just a friendly warning: If you get easily overstimulated or claustrophobic, have anxiety disorders, sensitivity to sound, lights, or touch, etc., then you may want to avoid this level or take necessary precautions to manage triggers.

Each birthday party gets a table with plates, cups, party hats and a "party coordinator" who is basically a server for your group. Ours was an incredibly sweet, helpful, hardworking young lady named Malia (spelling?). After pizza and gifts, we moved to our bowling lane. One hour was included in the price, but we had 7 bowlers, all teenagers and I swear I think I've seen molasses move faster. 😂 They only made it to the 7th frame before the lane was turned off (with no warning, btw.)

All in all, it was pretty cool for a garden variety fun complex and the kids had a great time. However, I tend to think it's quite overpriced for a birthday parties. If you just want to hang out and bowl, I feel like you're going to get more...

Strike and spare is definitely a fun atmosphere for the kids however it is ran very unprofessional, unorganized, and inefficient.

The moment you pull into the parking lot and get out of your car you wonder what door you enter through. Usually at businesses they have a main entrance and other doors are for exit only in the case of an emergency. However this is not the case here. ANYONE can enter and exit at any door in this building. No one stands at these doors to make sure you are going in the correct direction or welcome you in general. No-one is at these doors to supervise the hundreds of children who are running around with no parents and could easily escape or someone to grab a child and leave with the child. That’s super alarming with todays society. For example Chuck E. Cheese has someone who supervises the front door to make sure families leave with the correct families and no stranger danger. This issue for sure needs to be fixed if I was to ever think about going back.

We were attending a birthday party that was not structured well with the business what so ever. They have bowling lanes downstairs and bowling lanes upstairs. The upstairs also includes quarter games (which half of them didn’t work), bumper cars, laser tags, skating rink (with no supervision) and a few extra things.

So you would think that the birthday parties would be held upstairs where all the kid activities are located so that regular bowling customers could enjoy there time a bit more as well. Nope, not the case here either. It was a complete mad house and kids were running up and down the stairs, running into adults who were carrying food/drinks. If parties remained on one level less issues would probably occur. A party room is falsely advertised when booking or looking online.

You would think that each birthday party would have its own employee chaperone. This employee would guide you through the 2 hours you have to play, bowl, open present, sing happy birthday, and eat cake, pizza,etc. employee could ease the party into each activity better to make sure everything is done at enjoyed before it’s time to leave. We waited forever for our food which was pizza. Not to mention we never got to do bowling because they had no lanes. I get it employees are hard to come by and business is short but that should be a reason these parties are more structured and not double booked.

Some employees were extremely rude and not willing to help with anything.

This is sad but do better...

My family , friends, and I had a unpleasant time for my son's birthday party on Saturday 11/11/23. We booked his birthday party because we had another sons birthday party there previously and had a great time. When we arrived there we had a few questions. The young lady in change of our party didn't know what she was doing and had to keep asking other workers for help. The main one was that we originally had seven kids planning on being there, but two canceled so we only had five total. We asked if that was ok and her and the two other workers said yeah that's fine we'll just be charged for five kids. After our hour of play time and we came to eat and the lady informed me that we had to pay for six people all of a sudden. Reluctantly we agreed. Almost as soon as we sat down to eat and do presents the lady asked if we were ready to bowl. We said not yet since we had only used 15 mins of the slotted 45 mins at the so called party room aka table. The lady came over numerous times asking if we were ready to bowl. When our 45 mins were up we went to bowl. We got there and our lane was not working due to a issue between the pins and and computer or something like that. After waiting 5-7 mins we finally got to bowl. They did give us the full hour. About ten mins into bowling the lady came to me and asked if we were paying with card or cash. After saying that I didn't know she huffed and walked to my wife, that was getting our guests stuff and my son's presents and things put up. She stopped her from doing what she was doing and made her pay. We felt rushed the whole time we were there and was and still are not very happy. When I went to go get a new ball I saw the same lady watching us bowl with a not so nice facial expression on her face while eating and staring at us. After bowling we went back upstairs to play. A third of the bumper cars weren't working and we couldn't do the virtual rollercoaster because there was no employee there. This was definitely not worth the money we paid and we'll definitely not be back for any more parties or in general. They lost a loyal family...