Chuck E. Cheese — Restaurant in Hialeah

Disorganized, staff doesn't communicate very well, poor management.. all of these describe a recent experience where I took my 3 children to this particular Chuck E Cheese. We were in Hialeah this past week, and my husband and I decided to stop in for a few hours for lunch and play. We purchased the 90-minute AYCP wristbands for each of the kids. The original wait time was moderate, no problem. From the line, two of the three kids bolted with dad to their favorite games, and the other remained with me. They ran and found me, "mom, the card isn't working." we tried for another 6 minutes, and "processing" remained on each machine we tried. Turned to get back in line, with about 9 other families, all for the same reason. Everything went out of order.. while at the register to get my money back and go somewhere else, the male manager there had "resolved the issue" and assured me everything was up and working again.. (During this time, the kids were waiting for their food to come out) Food comes out, we ate. My youngest (who was last before) was ready to play first. The first machine, "processing" second, third, all the same thing, fourth machine worked, but everything else after did not. The one machine that worked quickly built a line behind us and eventually stopped after 2-3 people later. I went back to the line, which was now filled with birthdays, new customers, and existing who were just as frustrated awaiting refunds. I found the manager who assured me the machines were working and requested a refund. He again, "promised everything was operating," and told a staff at the register to "make sure you process the birthday parties first." Another mother pushed past and began screaming at him that he lied to her, her entire party was there, and they couldn't get anything to work in nearly an hour of being there. The kids were bored, etc, filled with foul language. I told him, I didn't have any faith in him or his staff being honest or their ability to stand by their word with integrity we had originally hoped for and told him to refund me the price of the wristbands and the kids time in full (I paid for the food, obviously as we had already ate). Received the refund and left. Took the kids to "In the Game" at Sawgrass, paid less than half of what I did at Chuck E. Cheese and the kids each played for two hours and enjoyed a shake. Save yourself the headache, either go another location who can take pride in honesty about the machines being down from the beginning or just go to "In the Game." I understand things happen, and systems become overloaded.. my complaint is they were dishonest with everyone.. just explain your system is having issues and that you'll begin taking payments again once it's back up, but over an hour and a half, AT LEAST, you're aware of the issue, stop having people continue to buy time they will never see outside of "processing". Between the food, both lines, tracking the manager down who was in the very back, we lost over an hour and a half ourselves.. no integrity.. we won't be back. I'm only giving 2 stars because I felt bad for the remaining staff taking the heat behind miscommunication between management and "corporate" who were trying to fix an issue the staff believed had been...

I will start by saying that this makes the 4th time that i hold a birthday party for my children at Chuck E. Cheese's and usually the process is smooth... But not this time.

First of all, my daughter's table was not set up on the date/time of her party. There was an old table cloth left over from the previous party with garbage and sticky spills all over it. I was literally cleaning my own table as the party guests were arriving. Then, the drinks and tokens arrived more than 30 minutes late. Leaving the kids to sit and twiddle their fingers for a quarter of the time I paid to reserve. I had spoken to a staff member the day before when I specifically told her I wanted the drinks and tokens to be set out immediately for guests to have something to do right away before food, singing and cake, etc. I also asked for the cake to be set out as well just like it had been all the other times before. I don't know what happened, but they totally wasted our paid party time.

At the time of booking my bank card was declined 5 times for no apparent reason. I had 5 pending charges on my card. I called CEC Customer Service and was just told that I had to contact my bank. The bank then assured me that there was no problem with my card or my account and that it was some issue with CHUCK E. CHEESE'S system. Luckily the bank was willing to credit my account while CEC fixed their issues. We spoke to CEC Customer Service again and were told not to worry about the deposit, and that we just had to pay the total at the end of the party.

Well, Embarrassingly enough, that message was never relayed to the staff at CEC in Hialeah and they wee claiming that we never paid a deposit and making a big deal about it WHILE MY DAUGHTER'S PARTY WAS STILL GOING ON!!! They didn't even wait until the end to discuss it discreetly with us. VERY VERY UNPROFESSIONAL.

I had to reexplain to the manager what had happened and was even asked to show her my bank statement showing all 5 of the erroneous charges.

My daughter had a fun time at her party but overall it was a very poor experience for my husband and I. There were way too many issues which thankfully We were able to resolve on our own. But in my opinion, CEC owes us an apology and quite frankly, our money back for the terrible hard time they gave us.

I WOULD NOT RECOMMEND THIS HEADACHE TO...

It is a nice place for your little children to play and have fun. There is a lot of game stations, stimulating rudes, and mire. It is a smaller version like Dave&Buster which is located in Dolphin mall. But Chuck E Cheese is more for little ones. It was a to-go place for my kids to hang out there every weekend. Their fresh made pizza are delicious and chicken wings are the highlight! Which kid don't like that! Food and games together is a perfect family outing. They have other foods as well. Many people have their children's birthday party there. And kids get happy to get toys in exchange for the tickets they get from the games machines they play at. The facility also pays attention to safety one of the example is when you come in at the door the Associate will stamp your hand and your children's hand with an invisible code that can be seen under the blue light, and when you are leaving they will check the code to make sure you are leaving with your child not any other. Children gets happy when Chuck E Cheese waring signature costume comes out and do a signature dance and all the kids dance along. It is such a pleasure to see our little ones being so happy. Love to see how ther are having fun! Try it out at least once to experience it. I have to ask you yo be cautious of your purses, because there have been incidents when you leave it unattended some one will walk away with it. It has happen when I was there once. Hope you enjoy as I am sharing my personal experience of this place as I have spent many hours at this place with my little kids from two until now, they ate teen ages now and they go to Dave& Busters which is more for 17 and up. Have a...