Chuck E. Cheese — Restaurant in Ocala

Chuck E. Cheese has changed a lot since I was a kid in the 90s, and mostly in good ways. We went there for my son's birthday recently. Booked their ultimate package (or whatever the top tier is called) for 6 kids. It was a great time!

Positives: The staff were great, especially our host, Caroline (at least I think that was her name). Full disclosure: she apparently knows our family through a church, so perhaps we're biased. But I hadn't met her prior to this and she was very professional, supportive, and clear in how things would proceed. The food was also surprisingly good. Even as a kid I remember not being all that impressed with their food. But they've definitely done a lot to improve on it. The entertainment was also fun/cute and the ticket whirlwind thing was fun. Oh and I'm pretty sure my son utilized the trampoline area for more time that day than all the other kids there combined lol.

Negatives: food selection. Quality is better, but it's not broad. My partner has food allergies they couldn't really accommodate, which was frustrating (but also not unexpected considering, again, this is Chuck E. Cheese). Their play area doesn't exist anymore. Yeah they had trampolines, but literally that's it. I know it's been a long time since I've been to such places, but where's the net climbing and tunnels and all that?? Finally: the games don't pay out for $×@7 lol. I get the cards are mostly done by time slots now and I kind of pride myself on being able to really exploit games for tickets, so I get why they wouldn't let you get much from the games. But they're downright stingy. Ain't no way you're getting big prizes without paying through the nose.

I'd say it was a really fun time. There's some downsides, but overall it was pretty great for us and the kids, and the...

Awful. Will not be back. Me and my mother took my niece today(shes 2 1/2). When we got their the girl working the front was very cold and uninviting. I get it, you hate your job but guess what your still at your job so you need to be professional. My mother inquired about the buffet and how late it was open (we had read online till 3, and it was 1:50 when we Arrived) the girl said no its done at 2. So no biggie we were going to order a pizza for us and chicken nuggets for my niece. Well on the menu it does state its till 3, and we heard multiple times from their own radio it was open till 3. Thats not a big issue but one that needs addressed. The employees are not keeping up with what is being advertised.

Moving on, when Chuck e Cheese came out and was supposed to dance and have fun with the kids...well the person in the suit absolutely hates their job, they barely took the time to wave to the kids, I don't expect disney level of professionalism but come on, these are kids! Atleast have some enthusiasm! Then the helper took a handful of tickets and threw them in the air and said in the most unenthusiastic way 'here whoever wants these....' then Chuck e Cheese walked to the back and that was it. Im glad my niece is young enough to not understand the attitude these teenagers have with their job. But its not acceptable!

The only nice person with a personality we met was when when we were leaving and it was a new employee for the night. She helped my niece pick out a prize and even helped me out with a bag to carry all of our items since our hands were full. I wish she would have been there during the day and not the handful of disrespectful teens who clearly...

Chuck E. Cheese has been the biggest disappointment to date of any establishment I have visited. The establishment is annoyingly loud, not loud because of the kids, but loud because of all the background noise. The speakers are blasting music at what I would guess is full volume along with every game in the arcade seems to have its volume jacked up to the max. It is so obnoxiously loud in there, that just exiting the establishment was the best part of the visit. The food was mediocre at best. A pizza, 4 drinks, and a thing of wings (glorified chicken nuggets) was a charge of 50 bucks. To top it off, the pizza wasn't even thoroughly cut thru. Then you have to purchase a card to load time on that starts at 17 bucks and goes on from there for your kids to play the games and ride on stuff. Some of the ride on stuff takes pictures with your kids on it. Unfortunately, not too many people knew this judging by the stack of photos that other kind parents had put on top of the machines. I don't see how this place gets 4 start reviews unless parents just drop their kids off, leave them there and return to pick them up at a later time. Back to the time cards for playing games it states you need to put your playing on pause on the back of the card, but the employees told us that it only uses minutes when the card is swiped. This brings us to the headache of using this card to activate the machines. If we were lucky we were able to get the arcade machine going by the 3rd try. Some didn't work at all. The best part for my son was the minion whack-a-mole. May try it again, but this experience was a...