A few months ago we had the “genius” idea of celebrating my 3 year old’s birthday with a trip. We made it fun, sang Happy Birthday and felt like we gave her an awesome birthday.
And then, the questions started…
“When is my birthday party?”, “How come my friends are having birthday parties and I haven’t had mine?”, “I want a party!”
It was clear that my 3 year old was too young to understand that we took this trip instead of throwing her a birthday party. We made a mistake and knew we should throw her a party. That’s when Chuck E. Cheese’s reached out to me and asked me if they could sponsor our birthday party. The timing couldn’t have been better – what a blessing!
As someone that didn’t grow up in the U.S. I didn’t know much about Chuck E. Cheese’s. In fact, the very first time I went was at the beginning of this year for a friend’s birthday and within 5 minutes of being there my children were hooked! They loved all the games and had the time of their lives. So, I knew celebrating our daughter’s birthday at Chuck E. Cheese’s would be a success.
But I was worried about this party because it was going to happen during the worst possible timing – we were in the process of moving to a new home and consumed with packing and unpacking. In the past all the birthday parties we’ve thrown had required about a week or two of prepping – from goodie bags to cupcakes.
I simply didn’t have time to throw a party where I had to plan anything and that’s what made our party at Chuck E. Cheese’s so wonderful. I didn’t have to worry about a single thing because they take over all the planning and executing of the party so you can simply invite your friends, show up and enjoy!
The day before the party, I was still unpacking and arranging stuff in our new home. Had I done this party anywhere else I would have been baking, preparing goodie bags and going over all the details but instead I could focus on setting up my home and I even got to relax at nighttime.
This was the biggest blessing for me! I felt like for the very first time I was able to not stress about anything at all and enjoy the party.
What to expect during a party at Chuck E. Cheese’s
As soon as I arrived I told them it was my first birthday party and I had no clue what I was doing. I’m a perfectionist so letting go of control is not my strength. But soon after my host came and explained the whole process to me. The best part is that she was going to hang out at our table during the party in case we needed anything or had questions. That’s when I realized I could truly relax and enjoy my daughter’s birthday.
When you book a party at Chuck E. Cheese’s you have 3 party packages to chose from. Since I knew we’d be moving, I booked the Mega Super Star Birthday package, which is their most complete birthday party. This is the package that includes it all: 2 slices of pizza per child, Dippin’ Dots ice cream, drinks in a collectible cup, goodie bags and best of all, All You Can Play games for each child in your party at all corporate Chuck E. Cheese’s locations.
The unlimited play is so worth it! The party had mostly 3 year olds, which means they would start playing on one thing and move on to the next before they were done. So if we had booked a package that came with a set amount of play points, the kids wouldn’t have been able to try everything they did.
When your guests arrive they get a card with a bracelet. You swipe the card to play the games and the cool thing about it is that the 2 hours start counting from the moment you swipe the car for the first time. This means if someone is late to arrive, they can still enjoy the 2 hours of unlimited play.
At the beginning of your party, the kids get to play freely for about 45 minutes, which gives plenty of time for your guest that are running late to arrive. Then, it’s time to eat pizza! We kept it simple and also got pizza and drinks for the adults but there are plenty of other foods to chose from.
The pizza really surprised us! We were expecting average pizza but it was actually pretty tasty! It was so good one of our guests told me to make sure I mention it on my post.
After the pizza we sang Happy Birthday, had dessert and the Chuck E. Cheese mouse came out for a dance party and to greet the children. In the birthday party section there is usually more than one party happening at once so we get to sing “Happy Birthday” at the same time for everyone.
After dessert the kids went back to playing! Playing all the different games was by far the highlight of the party. The kids had so much fun! What I love is that they have games for toddlers all the way up to teenagers. Although we had guests ranging from toddlers to 9 year olds at the party everyone had fun! I have to add it’s even fun for the adults, my husband ended up getting his own play card and played for about 30 minutes with one of his friends.
The birthday child also gets to hop into the Ticket Blaster, which just shoots out air and tickets so the birthday kid can try and grab as many as possible. Every birthday child has a chance to win the Magic Ticket when they step into the Ticket Blaster and each Magic Ticket is worth 500 tickets redeemable for fun prizes at our merchandise counter. My daughter didn’t get the magic ticket but she still had a blast! It was so adorable to see my child and her friend so excited in the ticket blaster.
After that we had cake and the goodie bags came! I was so relieved when I saw the goodie bags. They were so good – with lots of little toys and very little candy! The kids were very excited about them and everyone got to take them home along with their Chuck E. Cheese’s collectible cup.
It was so nice, for one day, to have someone else take over and create a really fun party for my child while I got to enjoy it with her!
In all honesty, it made me rethink future parties. I really appreciated not having to worry about anything and I enjoyed this birthday so much than I had enjoyed other parties we’ve hosted!
Booking a party at Chuck E. Cheese’s is very simple
You can do it all online – which I love! All you have to do is reserve your birthday party date, pick out one of Chuck E. Cheese’s fun birthday party packages, invite your guests and show up!
There are 3 birthday packages to chose from:
Birthday packages start at just $14.99 per child and can be upgraded to All You Can Play for only $3 more per kid. My recommendation is to get the Mega Super Star package if you want to experience a birthday party like ours, where everything is included, even the All You Can Play, and you don’t have to worry about anything.
The only thing that is not included in the birthday packages is the birthday cake. You can either order it at the time of booking or bring your own. I was planning on bringing homemade organic cupcakes but ran out of time to make them so I ended up buying a cake somewhere else. In hindsight, I wish I would have booked the cake directly from Chuck E. Cheese’s.
Although we picked their most expensive birthday package, we ended up paying less than we would have at any of the other party places in my area – so it’s actually really affordable!
And, if you want to have the whole place to yourselves, you can do that too! You can book a VIP Party on Saturday or Sunday and get the whole party area to yourself. You have to book it at the earliest timeslot before the restaurant opens, and you get the entire place to yourselves for the first hour of the birthday party.
What’s inside Chuck E. Cheese goody bags
Days before our party I started wondering what the goodie bag was like but I couldn’t find much information about it. That’s why I wanted to share with you what the goodie bags look like and all the stuff they have inside.
The goodie bag is pretty big, it’s the size of a piece of paper and filled with goodies:
Inside each bag they were all these items:
This has more stuff than the goodie bags I usually give out! And I truly appreciate that most of it were toys and it only had 3 candies and a pack of gummies. After all that sugar at the party I didn’t want my kids eating more candy so I pulled them out. They didn’t even notice their goodie bags didn’t have candy because they were so entertained with the little toys.
After this experience, I am sure this will be the first of many parties at Chuck E. Cheese’s! I am so grateful, not only that my daughter finally got her birthday party, but that it was so enjoyable for everyone else in the family too!
Have you had a birthday at Chuck E. Cheese’s? What did you think of it?
This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Chuck E. Cheese’s. The opinions and text are all mine.
Dottie says
Excellent experience
Chuck E Cheese says
We’ve come back to a whole new remodeled space. It’s so much more open and clean. Glad they removed the animatronics since they were pretty old and broken. I noticed there were more employees on staff working to take care of any issues that would arise like needing to refill a particular soda at the machine to having to fix the tickets coming out of a game. There was always an employee at the front to take orders and to redeem ticket prizes. My kids mainly like to come for the little show and dance with Chuck e cheese, and we were not disappointed. He was much more energetic and playful than before. My kids were very happy.