Reel Cinemas Lancaster 7 — Attraction in Manheim Township

I went once this past summer and thoroughly enjoyed it... but not so much this time. For one... there are only 3 napkin dispensers in the whole place kept in the center of the concession stand between the two registers. There were no napkin dispensers at the self service soda/butter station or anywhere away from the head of the concession line. If you don't think to get your napkins when you buy your popcorn, you have to negotiate around the crowd between two side by side registers to get them. Try doing that by yourself with your hands full. 😐 And, to boot... they're those tiny 4x5" tissue-thin folded napkins like they used to have in schools and diners in the 90's. 🙄 You'd better bring your own if you're planning to put butter on your popcorn.

When I went to the concession register the employee didn't mention anything about printing my ticket. When I walked over to the ticket printer kiosks, they were all out of order with signs saying "you must print your tickets at the concession stand". Then I noticed a sign on the concession menu saying " Please have your tickets ready before ordering". How? The line was long... I couldn't wait through it again before my showtime... so I walked to the usher and fumbled for my phone with a popcorn and big soda in the other hand to show him my confirmation email. The usher barely glanced at it and just asked what movie I was going to see and waved me on.... which means printed tickets weren't actually necessary. What if I had gotten back in line and was late to my movie because of the contradicting signs? Also... the usher didn't actually read the confirmation on my phone. I could have just shown him any old email screenshot and walked into any movie without buying a ticket period. 🤦‍♂️

Lastly... the theater stank... it smelled bad like B.O. with a hint of garbage juice. It seemed clean enough in low lighting, but it smelled absolutely gross. This was a Sunday afternoon and the show wasn't crowded. Honestly if I had gotten food like I did on my previous time there I'm not sure I could have eaten it. It made me concerned about the condition of the food prep area if the auditoriums were not just soiled, but sour smelling. I don't think I'm going to take my chances on the food there again. 😨

I totally want to love this place, I love the concept of the movie tavern type business, but the execution at Reel Cinemas is like going to a second-run bargain theater for full price. 😕 This wasn't a busy weekend, but the facility was noticeably unclean, the staff seemed ambivalent, and it appeared that simple supplies like napkins were being tightly rationed. The experience here just isn't on par with other theaters despite the allure of 'reel' food and beverages. I was planning to see two films that day and actually chose to race across town to see the second film at a different theater instead. That should tell you...

So let's start off with expectations. With all the offerings, I still didn't expect 5star dining of course given at the end of the day it is still just a movie theater, but I expected better than we got. I also didn't expect anything to be out of this world but it definitely did not deliver what you would expect.

The POSITIVES: The movie theater was very clean, lobby and the theater we sat in. The employees were all very nice and respectful. The seats were spacious and comfy, with a back/butt heater(my wife loved that), and also automatic recline which was nice. The space between rows was actually nice as well.

The NEGATIVES: Even though the employees were nice and as a plain movie theater the place was clean and decent....these are why I gave it a 2star rating.

THE FOOD: I got a bacon cheeseburger with fries, and as much as I wasn't expecting anything crazy(again I understand it's a theater) but I still expected decent considering it's part of the experience you are trying to get people to choose your theater over another. My wife got a Chicken Parmesan Sub, and she said it was literally just chicken tenders with plain sauce poured over in bread. The fries we got didn't come with ketchup. TheY brought us one tray to our seats with both our food so I had to eat my meal in my lap haphazardly. We also ordered popcorn and I've never had more stale popcorn in a movie theater...it was like they popped it hours ago and it was just sitting...it was like, chewy....not good.

THE BAR: We ordered drinks to come to our seats. We were excited to drink a few drinks a get a little tipsy and watch a movie together(part of the experience you are selling....right?). My wife's drink and mine we both BARELY even tasted alcohol at all...and mine, all I got was a Jameson/Ginger Ale...it was basically just Ginger Ale.....to make it worse, each drink was $10. If I was at a Theme Park I would be annoyed to pay that much, but at a movie theater that price was just stupid. So we refused to get more drinks. We would've spent way more if drinks were not $10 each. The bartender was nice though I'll say that.

THE SYSTEM: Walking in(bought Fandango tickets) you have no clue if you are supposed to use your confirmation receipt or what to get into your movie...it wasn't until we decided to order food we were told about getting actual tickets printed out for our reservation. Very unorganized.

OVERALL: If you are acting as a regular theater you did okay. If you are selling yourselves as this upscale or even just better "experience" movie theater...yall are failing hard. Every part of the extra experiences did not do well...the dining food, the bar, the unorganization. hopefully they do better in the future...it was not worth the...

Today my husband and I went to Reel Cinema to see Little Women. The movie was very good, the experience was very disappointing.

Even with pre-purchased tickets through Fandango we had to wait on a long and slow concession stand line for someone to try to figure out how to print tickets for us. It took him three attempts to succeed at getting the printed tickets. Hopefully the staff will be retrained in how to do this and entry will be separated from concession purchases so those who purchase tickets in advance do not have to wait in those lines.

Then we went to the theatre and people were sitting in our assigned seats. I showed the tickets to the staff person in the theatre and her response was “Oh it is fine, you can sit anywhere. The whole back row is empty and the handicapped seating is free sit there.” I pointed out that someone may have purchased those seats and I did not want to sit there, I had selected and purchased the seats I wanted to sit in. Then She said they don’t sell seats in handicapped row unless someone has a wheelchair, but she would go check to see if they are available. She acted as if I was being unreasonable. She never came back to the theatre after verifying which seats were available, and by this time the movie had started. For the record the correct action is for the staff person to ask to see the tickets for the people in the wrong seats, and show them to their assigned seats. We were stuck in seats I never would have purchased, and half way through the show my neck was hurting from having to look up so much to see the screen. This seat nonsense NEVER happens in other local movies (PENN or REGAL). Fortunately we have choices, and I will never set foot in Reel Cinema again.

There are also sound insulation issues between theaters. The noise from Star Wars sometimes drowned out the dialogue in Little Women.

I also wonder what lines in rest rooms will be like on a busy weekend afternoon or evening. It looks to me that there might be issues, there were long lines in the ladies room on a Tuesday afternoon.

My advice to others, if you care about where you sit and/or sound quality choose PENN or...