WhirlyBall Twin Cities — Restaurant in Bloomington

Not a negative review necessarily. Bowling and drinks are VERY expensive here. $53/hr!! Despite allowing up to 6 people per lane, $53 for 1 hour is just not enough time to justify the cost. Imagine you had 6 people, you wouldn't even be able to finish a game. We reserved 1 hour and then were able to buy another hour because it cut us off in the beginning of our second game (we had 3 people total). So it cost $106 + whatever tax, for 3 games of bowling. Then shoe rentals for $4 a person. I got 2 drinks, a beer and a brandy coke and that was $16 before a tip.

Other than the hella whack pricing and ludicrous business model they have going on-- the staff was ver6 helpful and friendly. A manager was prompt in calling me to confirm my reservation the day before (I had made the reservation only a day prior to our event so yes it was prompt). The inside of the establishment looked shiney and new, as well as clean. Sort of sterile feeling but they had TV's near the bar area and lots of seating for those who were watching sports. They have many Whirlyball rooms with big viewing windows so friends or whoever could watch you play. We did not pay for Whirlyball or laser tag so I cannot speak on that experience. However like I said, everything appeared to be in good, newer condition as far as I could tell. It's a 2 story/leveled building. Very open space with an open ceiling. There were kids, teens and adults all doing separate activities so it is definitely inclusive. As far as it being accessible for anyone who is handicapped/in a wheelchair, I'm not sure if they have an elevator because we did not venture upstairs.

Overall, it was okay. I will likely not return unless something changes with their pricing to be honest. Like have it be per game or something instead of per hour. I realize it's easier and more profitable for the owners or whatever to be able to just block chunks of time like that up but it is super lame to have the screens just blank out after an hour if you're in the middle of a game. So yeah, to me the experience I had was not worth the cost. If cost is not of concern I would recommend checking it out. It certainly was an easy experience setting up an event/get together there. Very straightforward....

We reserved laser tag for a team party. Per Whirlyball rules, in order to do the team booking, you have to have pay for 20 people to get a full hour of laser tag. When we went to play laser tag, they only had 17 working vests. So we had kids show up that couldn’t play. If you are going to have a minimum number of players needed to book, you should probably have the amount of a equipment needed to fulfill what is booked. Parents ended up having to police it so everyone got turns. When we arrived it was clear the person that made the reservation (Jen) did not communicate well with the staff. Be aware that when you call to make a reservation, you aren’t necessarily talking to someone at the actual location you are booking. The person I talked to works in Maple Grove and doesn’t seem to communicate well with the Bloomington location. The workers at the Bloomington location (multiple people) seemed frustrated from the moment we walked in because it was never communicated well how many people we had coming to the team party. It appeared this was something they dealt with regularly. They seemed to have only planned for the 20 kids playing laser tag but not for any families. When I made the reservation, I was told the price for the people’s families to eat, so assumed she knew adults and families would be there. Luckily, Sarah at Bloomington did everything she could to take care of us. She was friendly and helpful in getting us what we needed to at least have the team party we had paid for. We worked out the issues and everyone had fun- but I’m not going sure Whirlyball would be my first choice for a team...

I never plan on going back. The bartender either wasn't familiar with different kinds of state-issued IDs or thought what he ended up doing was a joke. I ordered and handed him my driver's license. It's a new license that I got two weeks ago at my local DMV in northwestern Minnesota. My friend lives two blocks away from Whirlyball and has a two year old license issued in the Twin Cities. His has raised lettering and a black-and-white photo in the bottom right corner. Mine doesn't have the raised lettering and has a colored photo in the bottom right. The bartender pointed out the differences, said mine was fake, and that he was going to cut it up. He walked away with my driver's license and came back a little later saying that he was joking. I don't know if he talked to someone else or if he was planning on it being a joke to begin with, but it was not a joke to me. I had to drive across Wisconsin the next day for a wedding in Michigan and very much needed my license for that and checking into a hotel. The panic I felt was not funny. It was a bad joke and definitely not...