Mystic Luxury Cinemas — Local services in Stonington

I took my child to a movie today, I gave him some cash and told him to grab a popcorn and that I would be right there. He went up to a younger girl who looked lost, maybe she is new and he told her a small popcorn. She said, $8.50. I said no he wants a mini. She actually told me "he said small,' and I thought to myself, seriously? Okay, no problem. So I said, mini, again. Since they were popping popcorn, we asked for it from the popper. She relayed this info to the young man and they both were so annoyed that we asked this request, that it was as if I told them that something awful happened! The young man storms to the back and gives my kid a bag that wasn't even fully filled. It cost five dollars too, and it used to be $4.50. He was really rude and couldn't even politely give it to us. Its cool if your mean to me, but being completely unprofessionally to a child under 10 is just wrong. It wasn't crowded. I don't understand why this place continues to hire people who have no people skills whatsoever.

I have been here before more than a few times and the turnover seems to be often. The lady with the braids is lovely. The bald dude at night is also always angry, and thankfully I don't go at night anymore. The younger staff is just miserable. I read about the "gen z stare' and in this case, this is face to face customer service for $16 an hour and free movies. Sign me up! There should be no excuse. It's an easy job. I did it many, many years ago. It can be stressful during a rush but there was only four other people in the lobby. I have experienced this with many of the younger staff here, and I am going to give up going here. It makes me sad and frustrated. However, I am at my wits end. I want to support local businesses but I cannot do so anymore until this theater hires people with better customer service skills. I know they can because they done so in the past. The younger staff who work here are rude, mean, unattentive, ignores customers and just do not care. They are either chatting in the back while there is a line or glued to their phones. I came here one night last summer and the employees were lying on the lounges located in the lobby while watching stuff on their phones. The same night, I wanted a soda well before closing time, only to the find not one employee in the lobby. It was odd.

The bottom lines is I am sick and tired of coming here and being treated as an inconvenience to most of the staff. Perhaps that is why they don't wear name tags? Their HR department needs to hire people who likes movies and at least try to be pleasant.

The theater is nice besides that, it really needs a proper cleaning though. I dropped my keys under the seat and it had old candy and popcorn under it. I believe it was the first showing of the day too. Those heated seats are great though!

If you do need to go to concessions, make sure you go someone who looks like they want...

I purchased tickets March 13 for a 2 o’clock showing on April 6, only to be told that manager Lorraine booked a birthday party. I have never been to a more unprofessionally run movie theater in my entire life. And I have worked for a movie theater company for decades and not once did we ever do anything like this to customers! They don’t offer a refund they try to give you a free pass to come in for another time. Here’s a thing I have about 12 of these free passes and every time my son and I go to use them we can’t. My son also has had two $50 gift cards that never seem to work when we go so beware that if you buy a gift card from these places, they don’t even know how to work those. I have furthermore told family members and friends. Please don’t keep buying him for his birthday anymore movie theater gift cards from this movie theater because they don’t work and we wind up paying out-of-pocket. I used to hold this movie theater. In such high regards since the man I met Bill who is part owner of this theater. Is the most wonderful man ever. It’s just disappointing the people he has running. It are absolutely horrendous. I have purchased another ticket for Thursday’s show and I hope that I don’t get a runaround that they booked another kids birthday party. I will say I felt bad for the workers there who had to tell everybody this because it was not their fault and people really shouldn’t get mad at the workers because the management was so greedy to cancel an entire show that people booked four weeks in advance to see only to be turned away and have to go to a later show and then stand a chance of not getting the same seat that you purchased. So we returned for the 630 show only to be told now we have to wait because the party is going over in time. Do these people realize that others have to work in the morning and we’re accommodating for a stupid birthday party? Furthermore, the staff there was talking badly about management and I don’t blame them management left them in the lurch. It’s sad that the stupid little stunt that they pulled yesterday is gonna cost them a lot of loyal patrons. My entire family and friends in this area will be sure...

I tried to share this privately and got no response, so I'll share it publicly. I fear this theater is going downhill.

The AC unit in theater 4 was so loud. As loud as the action scenes and was especially distracting when it kicked on for the first time during a quiet moment. Sounds like something is very wrong with it.

Also, I'm not sure if the brightness is down on your projector or something, but the movie was very washed out and didn't feel at vibrant as it should have. My friend commented that the previews were very dim, and I thought that it was just the lights being on, but after the movie started, I think he was on to something.

But worst of all, I ordered a snack of fries and those might have been the worst fries that I've ever been served. It was obvious that they were baked from frozen, but they somehow managed to both char them to black and still leave some in that were frozen in the center. I don't know how, but it was inedible.

I remember people raving about y'all's concessions, but if that's what it is today, you shouldn't be serving anything but popcorn. It's what a tired parent gives to their children when they won't shut up about being hungry. I'm actually offended that the kids behind your counter didn't tell me not to get it.

Easy fix: get a few air fryers, I like Cosori, but you can probably access much higher quality commercial models. Then it's just 15 minutes at 380 with maybe a spritz of avocado oil, shaking halfway through. The Cisco crispy fries are probably the best, but Aldi does a "crispy restaurant" version that's pretty good if you want to off-the-shelf it. They come out of the air fryer good as fried and you don't have to maintain a deep fryer. Don't try shoestring or crinkle without a fryer. Can do your chicken tenders in there too, though even better if you pre-fry and freeze homemade tenders over a store/supplier brand.

I hope you can solve your maintenance and kitchen issues because I like your little theater. But at this point, I'm ashamed to admit that there are nearby mainline brands (showcase) that are simply a better...