BLAST — Local services in Waterford

I was hemming and hawing between 3 and 4 stars, but in the end the party turned out fine so I went with 4.

Yesterday we had my sons 8th birthday at Blast. We chose the deal that we would pay $599 for 20 kids. And from what I understood, for that amount we were getting the entire venue for an hour 11-12 and everything except laser for the rest of the time 12-1. My first call was with Christina who explained everything and I felt pretty clear on all of the info. I got another call the week of the event from another girl and her info was a bit different. She asked me if Laser was 30 min, ninja was 30 min, and the inflatables were 30 min. I explained that my kids were most interested in laser so I wanted that to be an hour. She said that kids get tired pretty fast but I explained that I still wanted an hour of laser. I also asked, and if kids get tired, they can leave laser and do something else, right? I was told yes.

So anyway, flash forward to yesterday, party day. The kids went to play laser tag. I wasn’t keeping time, but after about 15 minutes, laser tag WiFi went down and the guns don’t work when that happens. We waited for, what felt like, 20 minutes or so to find out that they were having trouble fixing it. So the kids were directed to the ninja area. My kid (the birthday boy) wasn’t really feeling into the ninja so he did not participate. He really wanted laser. They finally, at about 11:50, got 14 of the 20-something guns to work again (we have 20 kids in our party so now they had to rotate.) I was also informed that a party was coming for laser at 12 so the kids only had about 10 more minutes to play laser. I explained that I paid for laser for an hour and we lost about half our time. This is where it was clear that some of the communication was misunderstood. The girl tried to tell me that we were set up for 30 minutes at each area including laser. I tried to correct her but she said she has another party and there is no time. Luckily, after some discussion, Christina asked the next party if they could hold off for a bit so we could get more time. They agreed. I think we ended up getting about 30 minutes more and the kids were sufficiently sweaty... exactly what we were going for.

Overall, the party worked out. I understand that things happen. Christina and her team did their best to amend the situation. In retrospect I have a few comments/suggestions...

-The owner showed up at one point and ventured over to the laser tag area. He kept telling the kids “no running.” I didn’t understand this. It’s called laser TAG for a reason.

-I figure that the business model wants to pile the parties in to the venue with as little dead-time as possible. In today’s situation however, it would have been nice if there was a 30 minute buffer between parties.

-I think the ninja wall should move to the back of the ninja area so walking through the runway isn’t such a concern.

-I was under the impression that it would be just our party from 11-12 and then one other party from 12-1. It felt pretty crazy in there, like there were maybe 4 parties going on at the same time. Maybe people were just waiting for their party to start, but there was no way to keep track of the kids in my own party. There were just too many people and it didn’t seem like anyone was sticking to the zones. God forbid a kid wandered out of the venue, or worse yet, was taken from the venue. I wouldn’t have known.

Again, we did end up having a good time, and the staff did their best in a tricky situation. While I think there are some things that can be improved upon, I would recommend this venue...

We had my daughter's birthday here a few years ago and everything went really smoothly and decided to have it again at Blast this past weekend. The kids had a great time, and the girls they had moderating and supervising the kids were wonderful. However, the customer service skills on the management side of things was very subpar. Please note that they do not have a refrigerator here if you have a cake that needs to stay cold, also if you add on more than 2 extra pizzas - anything more than that won't come out with others and will take an additional 20 minutes to come out because when addressed with the manager they "only have one oven and can only do so much". In that amount of time the kids are done waiting for pizza and back to playing - so you're going to be taking home wasted pizza that you paid extra for. For the price of the party, I expected pitchers or some kind of cold water accessible to the kids but I had to keep asking for water and cups (apparently they are on a cup ration there and only give you 5 cups at a time and don't put any over with the drinks when they finally bring them out at celebration time?) The water and pink lemonade they provide will not be cold, ice will not be offered. They brought the ice cream cups over AFTER they served cake and the kids were back to playing - so more wasted food and money on an add on. I don't know what happed over the past few years but this was not even close to the experience we had the first time we had a party here. I expressed my disappointment with the staff and manager and the only thing the manager could say in response was "well is your disappointment with the moderator running the group because she thinks you're upset with her."-super unprofessional. My daughter's party ended up costing over $800 and I really feel like for that amount- even the basic necessities or customer service were not provided. I'd never consider having a party here again after...

Your children will have a BLAST, but you, will not!

I’m leaving a 1 star review, because of the overall, cumulative, experience from start, to finish.

First (and no big deal, in and of itself) I called and left a VM because I had a few questions before booking online. No call back.

A week later I just went ahead and booked anyway. FOR 12 kids. This part was fairly smooth.

Received confirmation email info, I asked questions about add-ons. No problems.

Afternoon of my son’s party: we arrive and are greeted at counter by cold, and extremely rude young woman & as if we were “bothering” her.. My advice to her: If you don’t like your job, find another.

“Your hostess will be right over.” Nope!

Our official hostess didn’t come over until about 50 min into our 90 min party. She was nice and very attentive to pizza, cake (which we brought)

All told, she was with us for about 30 min.

Towards the end, I wanted to give our hostess $20 tip. The dolt that I am, I failed to notice (in the fine print) that gratuity was included for a party of 10 or more! I couldn’t track her down, so I gave $20 to rude girl at counter. She gladly took it. Not one mention of gratuity included. What really chapped my posterior, wasn’t my failure to see gratuity was included, but rather that it was an $80 tip, plus the $20 I added additionally!!!

What exactly am I tipping $100 for!!!?? When I go out to eat, I don’t tip the owner, or the chef, or the hostess. I tip the server! I feel that $20 was above and beyond, because she was great for about 30 min of service. Really the ONLY service we got while we were there the entire time.

In short, the kids had a BLAST! That’s worth one star.

Unfortunately, the exorbitant price paid was not worth it!! Nearly $600 for 12 kids to have fun on equipment, eat 2 pizzas, drink water and kool aid, 30 min of...