Regal Mission Marketplace — Local services in Oceanside

I just returned from the Regal Mission Marketplace RPX theater for the F9 movie premiere. I did not have a good experience. During the opening trailers, the volume was so incredibly loud that it was painful to my ears. Since I use my ears for my professional job with audio engineering and video editing, I need to protect them. I went to the front ticket counter to ask if they could check the volume levels. The nice kid explained to me that since the theater is a Regal Premium Experience (RPX), the volume may seem to be a little louder than normal which is why if I looked up from my seat there are speakers completely surrounding me... Regardless, he would give me the benefit of the doubt and check the projector room audio levels.

I took my seat and he reported back saying, he was unwilling to turn the volume down a little bit and it just is what it is. He would kindly offer a refund if I wanted it though. Nice kid, truly, but I wanted to at least watch a couple minutes to see if the movie trailers were the actual problem.

Sure enough, the rest of the movie was painfully loud too with so much treble or high-end sound that my eardrums felt like they were getting pierced and dealt damage. It really hurt. Even odder, I looked up at the speakers to see the RPX set-up he was talking about and noticed none of them were actually getting used. Yes, my seat was completely surrounded by speakers but the sound was only coming out from directly above the silver screen left, center, and right mounted speakers... So, serious question, where is this amazing RPX sound experience that is advertised to rival iMax surround sound?

I went back to the ticket counter and the manager kindly gave me a refund with no problems. I refuse to ruin her night, or any of the kids working there, but I was about one of maybe ten people with tickets to this 10:30pm opening night movie showing. The theater was nearly empty. IMHO, it's ridiculous that they refused to turn the volume down like 5 dB to save from permanent hearing damage. Is this a policy?

On a side note, I'm a 35 years old frequent moviegoer and this is the fourth movie title I've seen on the silver screen this season (The other three being Cruella, A Silent Place Part 2, and The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It). Two of those movies were at this same location with no problems but I will probably not be returning to this location for future movies because I don't want to deal with any hassle of refunds, and scheduling another ideal time to catch a movie. I'll kindly pay the extra $10 a ticket at Cinepolis so that my evening's plans are not ruined and I don't end up with a hearing aid or tinnitus. Seriously, I've been home writing this review for about 40 minutes now and my ears are still ringing after watching the trailers and just 5-minutes of the actual movie.

Under circumstances like this, I would normally give the review 1-star but in this special case, the manager and the kid at the counter were really kind and understanding. So, 2-star review for the concessions, nice attitude, and comfy seat but the RPX sound experience is a complete joke and a rip-off.

UPDATE It is now 1 in the afternoon the next day and my ears are still pitching a sound, which indicates I did suffer permanent damage. Nearly 14 hours later im feeling very little improvement. If we are supposed to bring hearing protection to these theaters, where were the warning signs posted?

UPDATE As of July 19th, my ears are still ringing with little improvement. SMH. It’s been more...

We had a terrible experience last week. First, there is no box office to purchase tickets, only touch screen kiosks. However, these screens do not accept the Regal Card for rewards. The employee we flagged down couldn't help us, and sent us to concessions. After waiting quite a while for those ahead of us to choose their snacks, we were finally able to purchase tickets. We wanted tickets for the following day, and made that very clear, reiterating it several times with the employee who said he would make it so. Then, there was an issue printing the tickets for the following day, and we had to wait for a manager. Almost 30 minutes after arriving to make the purchase, we were finally able to leave. The next day, when we presented our tickets, we discovered that despite our clear request, the tickets were printed for the day prior. The employee couldn't help, and we had to wait for a manager, who also couldn't help. He called HIS manager, who also couldn't help. We had to wait a 3rd time for the top manager at the site to come down. During this long wait, we discovered that the theater was practically empty for the showing we had paid for and planned to see. But the 2 managers wouldn't just let us go in, despite our intact tickets. Apparently they couldn't just comp us, and we were made to feel it was our fault for presenting day old tickets. They wanted us to buy NEW tickets and then request a refund for the day old tickets. Only after calling Regal Customer Support, did the top manager finally let us in to see our movie. Lastly, when we entered the assigned theater, it was filthy. Trash and popcorn everywhere, old sodas and candy wrappers still in the cup holders. The preview commercials were already going, so it wasn't as if we had come in before the cleaning crew. We had to track down someone AGAIN and ask that they clean the seats, as our seats were disgusting. Overall, it was such a headache, we dont know that we will return to this location any time soon. Regal, if you are reading this, you should have one person at concessions dedicated to helping those with...

Trying to see spiderman: no way home, 2 of my 3 children became nauseous and spend a solid third to half of the movie in the bathroom throwing up. I'm not a doctor so I cannot say if it was food poisoning or something else, could have just had too much popcorn. When I finally got everyone cleaned up enough to sit in the theater together, I went to the front desk to politely asked if we could possibly get a voucher to come back and see it again since we missed so much. I even said, technically only 2 of us missed most of the movie. I was thinking that my honesty would have an ice breaker kind of impact on the situation given that I was asking for free vouchers. The woman that I spoke with decides to berate my timing by telling be that she couldn't give me a refund and would only give me 2 vouchers since there was now only 15 minutes left of the movie and had I come let someone know earlier, maybe she could have done something else. But she would give me the two as a courtesy. I old her that after bouncing back and forth between the theater, leaving one of my kids alone while the other two vomited popcorn, going outside for fresh air, trying to convince my 11 year old we needed to leave because his brothers were not well, this was the first moment I had to come speak to her. I said no thank you, I don't want the "courtesy" tickets. I just wont be back. With the potential of sounding like a complaining "Karen", I won't be coming back to this theater. It's a bummer that one of the few times I have ventured out to do things with my kids during this pandemic, my desire to stay home is hugely reinforced by someone who thinks that I should be grateful for the bone she threw. How about treating a mom who's dealing with puking kids with a little more grace. On the bright side, Christina, the cashier who sold us our tickets and popcorn was wonderful,...