Crown Uptown Theatre — Attraction in Wichita

Marj Hitchcock reviewed Crown Uptown Theatre — 1 star Sunday, December 3, 2017 at 10:13am ·

I wanted to write my review last evening but I thought I should sleep on it. So I did. I still feel the same this morning as I did last evening. My daughter-...in-law has been taking care of her ill mother for 1 1/2 years - since July 2016. December 27, 2016 she found her father on the bedroom floor. He had passed away from a heart attack at some point during the night. November 1, 2017, her mother passed away. Sarah wanted nothing more than to go to the Crown Uptown for a nice dinner & a show to relieve some of the sorrow & stress. My son purchased 7, that's SEVEN tickets at $32..50 per ticket, to see "A Christmas Survival Guide" as it was advertised as "a family friendly comedy". This was my son & daughter-in-law's Christmas gift to myself, my husband & our 3 grandsons. We arrived at the Crown Uptown shortly before the doors opened at 6pm. Everyone had to stand in a line at the door & wait to be seated by 1, that's ONE, person. He would take 1 group at a time, seat them and then return for the next group. This took quite some time as there was nearly a full house. And then it was time to serve yourself at the buffet! We were all so excited to have our turn at the buffet! We started by getting our 8" or 9" clear plastic dinner plate & plastic knife, fork & spoon, and napkin. Then came the food, or lack thereof. My son & daughter-in-law paid $32.50 PER TICKET for a Salad, Mac-N-Cheese, a two bite dinner roll, a cookie &/or brownie. THAT does not a dinner make!!! THEN when my grandsons wanted to go thru the buffet a second time - because they were actually HUNGRY & expecting to have an actual DINNER - they were told it is only ONE time thru. SERIOUSLY?! I just keep feeling so bad for my son & daughter-in-law for spending $32.50 EACH for SEVEN people to have a wonderful evening & so far - IT HAS NOT BEEN WONDERFUL. After eating our Mac-n-Cheese "dinner" we had to wait for over an hour for the "family friendly comedy" to start. While waiting we warned the table next to us to make sure & load their plates when they went thru the buffet because it is only ONE trip thru the Mac-n-Cheese buffet. The gentleman responded, "I do hope you are lying about that." We assured him we were not. When they returned from the buffet, he was NOT happy, but he did thank us for the warning & filled his plate. The waitress was friendly but had TOO MANY tables/customers to keep up. The service was SLOW. What the hell has happened to the once great "Crown Uptown"? Now the "family friendly comedy". I'm still waiting for it. It was one lame song after another. There was no acting. The singers were ok but nothing I will EVER go back to see/hear again. Our grandsons were not impressed with the "not so family friendly". It was a bit embarrassing for me too. Don't get me wrong. I like a good comedy with a bit of adult content as much as the next person - just not while sitting next to my 16, 13 & 11 year old grandsons. If it would have been up to me - If I had paid the $32.50 for the tickets - I would have walked to the box office & demanded my money back when I saw the buffet table's Mac-N-Cheese dinner. After hearing all of the complaints from other attendees & seeing several others leave, we decided to join them. We left at intermission, after paying out tab for drinks & dessert, which by the way was $5, that's FIVE DOLLARS for a slice of cheesecake! And YES, we did stop at McDonald's for the dinner we didn't have at the Crown Uptown because we were actually HUNGRY after NOT having dinner at the CROWN UPTOWN DINNER THEATER. All we wanted was for my daughter-in-law to have one wonderful evening out with no worries, no stress, after her long, stressful, depressing year of losing both of her parents. The Crown Uptown did not deliver. Sorry but this does not even come close to receiving 1 star, but since I have to mark a star, I will do so unwillingly. I will say the...

If you are planning to have the worst wedding, than this is the place for you. Management here is completely rude! Before I go into details of my traumatic episode here, I do wish to state that I took the extra steps to contact the owner of this establishment through their "management". I even tried going in person to give the information, but either the managers are hiding the fact that I was a very unsatisfied with the treatment I received or the owner just really doesn't care. When I first went into this venue, I had tears of joy. But, close to the end I had tears of anger and frustration! I was working with a young lady named Darian (who was actually quite pleasant). Everything we had gone over several times during our several meetings was set up in writing and finalized. Everything seemed to be great, until I had to start working with her manager Carolyn, who not only decided to change things, but talk to me like I was, "a problem" not as a customer. 1. We discussed the champagne (which I was providing on my own). Darian said it would be ok, she just needed to find out what the rules were about serving with their alcohol license. I called her back to get the status and Carolyn starts asking me about a champagne fee per bottle was $10.00 and how was I going to pay. I explained to her that this was not discussed with me and Darian and she needs to discuss it with her. 2. Then there was the case set up. In one of our meetings Darian and I had come to an agreement that the night before I could come over and drop off the champagne and decorations, so we could just stop by in the morning and set-up. We had agreed that 8:00 pm was a good time to show up. I was also told that they would clean and freshen the location up. I call the day before during the morning to make sure that we were still on for the drop off of our things and Darian was out, but I spoke to Carolyn. I had her n speaker and I as I was explaining the agreement she not only would she continue cutting me off, but she started raising her voice in a rude and forceful manner to tell me that they were not going to let me come in at 8:00 pm it had to be tomorrow morning. It was so shocking that I had my bridal party in the car and they couldn't believe that I was being treated that way (being the bride the day before my wedding). It was very unprofessional. Not only that, but when we arrived the place smelled musty and horrible and was pretty messy. My mother in law went to the store to buy febreeze to at least clear up the stench. It was not ready. People get tripping over the holes in their dance floor. And, after emailing Carolyn about some other issues after the wedding that needed to be resolved she didn't stop being rude. She wrote, "On a side/personal note, I do not appreciate the condescending tone that was directed towards me as I was thrown into this blindly" She was not thrown into it blindly, since she was the person changing fees, rules and prearranged agreements since the beginning. They're a lot more details about my horrible experience, but I think what I have said so far should be enough to warn other brides-to-be about the horror they are about to go...

On Saturday, December 2, my husband had his work Christmas party at the Crown Uptown. He was excited because we had been a couple times and had thoroughly enjoyed it and he wanted to give his employees a classy and fun evening, so we rented a bus and drove in from out of town. The venue was a beautiful place, but it was downhill from there. The buffet was actually just some pans of food. There was a salad, some noodles with a little chicken, some tiny cold rolls, hard butter and a brownie or cookie. There was a salad-sized plastic plate, a plastic fork and a napkin, not even a knife to use to cut your roll in half and spread your hard butter on, and you could only go through once so we had 16 adults, mostly men, eating a meal off of a salad plate. Apparently they were short handed so we didn't see our waitress often and when we did we were told we should order two drinks at a time because it would be 15 minutes before she would be back with them. The show wasn't bad but not as good as it had been in the past. There was no announcer introducing the singers or welcoming everyone, the show was sometimes a little risqué and awkward for those with young children with them, and some of the things just seemed a little unnecessary. The singers were good, but we enjoyed the 2nd half of the show much better than the first. All in all, the evening was a letdown and a bit embarrassing for my husband as he hadn't expected having plastic dinnerware, plastic cups and macaroni and cheese at a place that he had spoken so highly about to everyone. Unfortunately, we would not recommend it to friends after this visit as we would have...