Kinepolis Brussel — Local services in Brussels

I will never ever go back to this expensive chaos. We went on a Thursday afternoon during the Christmas holidays. Parking was difficult and chaotic. When going to the complex, there is one entrance that everyone enters and leaves through. It has about 6 machines for paying for parking. There were at least 15 people waiting to pay at every machine. It was necessary to fight to get through this entrance area and go up the stairs to the cinema. I had a voucher from my work, so I had to queue to get my tickets. There were maybe 6 people in front of me, but it took more than 15 minutes to finally get to the cashier and exchange the voucher for tickets. Then we went to get a self service drink and snacks, and waited again more than 10 minutes to pay. After all the previews and advertisements there was a message on the screen saying that the parking ticket had to be validated BEFORE entering the cinema. Interesting way to inform the customers, when it is already too late. After the movie I asked a man from the security if I could validate my parking ticket and he told me that I had to go to one of the cashiers. i waited again in line for 15 minutes, and I was told that the parking ticket can only be validated when entering the cinema and giving the tickets. There was a huge queue waiting so I didn't bother trying. As I was leaving, I went back to the security guard to let him know that he had given me incorrect information. He told me that I was wrong, and then he said that the parking ticket had to be validated BEFORE entering, and couldn't be done afterwards. He seemed amused. I believe that he intentionally gave me the wrong information, just so I would wait and be told that it wasn't possible to get the parking ticket validated. We left, waited in line to pay 6 euros for parking, and left. I will never go back to this badly managed chaotic...

LE CINÉMA DES GUIGNOLS

The cinema itself is great, good sound, good image. However everytime I decide to go there there is not one but several things happening with hurt the experience. First of all - this one is funny though - you go to buy your ticket with your student card to have the reduced price seats and you can't because you should have the student card from kinepolis which you can only purchase online. Ok, no problem, we will pay the full 10.30 euros. However! When 2 tickets cost more than 22 euros I feel compelled to ask the boy selling tickets how come. Here's the funny part, "all tickets for movies over 120 min long cost 0.75 extra" ... who does this?!

And then we go to our seats, the film is supposed to start at 20h30 but nothing happens until 20h55. No commercials, no film trailers, the screen is off. Lights are on. Someone from the audience goes to check what is happening and is told "the movie will start soon".

The screen is on and the film starts straight away. But the lights in the theatre stay ON for another 10 minutes!!!

As soon as the end credits start rolling the lights are on in a second and the credits are not even going until the end, the movie is suddenly stopped.

The movie was nice and someone clearly invested a lot of money into the quality of this cinema theatre in terms of video quality, sound and seats (which surely reflects in ticket pricing) but there are some serious management and human resources issues. The staff is fairly young and under qualified. And although this may not be a problem at tickets counter or popcorn stalls, please make an effort and hire professional projectionists who turn on the screen and turn off the lights on time.

So far, every Kinepolis cinema experience seems like a joke.

Also, in the cinema theatre it was so cold that everyone was wearing their jackets...

The only reason to go to Kinepolis Brussels, is their IMAX theatre. Other than that: dirty and sticky (but that’s not Kinepolis’ fault, it’s because of the disrespectful guests. The staff really do their best to keep things clean. At least the IMAX seats are tidy and that’s the most important part) film selection is excellent. food & drinks: good choice. Expensive given that ticket prices are already high. film prince: VERY expensive. Expect 15-20€ for one movie parking: two of the three exit gates have been broken for over a month. This means that ALL the cars have to squeeze through one small gate to leave the parking. After last week’s Oppenheimer, we stood in the waiting line for 40min (!!) just to get out. customer service was poor. (Only required it once so might just have been that particular person) In the end, except for blockbusters such as Top Gun/Oppenheimer/Mission Impossible, it’s beter and more enjoyable to watch a movie at home with friends. I don’t see the point in going to the cinema anymore for...