Help! Chuck E Cheese Birthday...yuck..

[fakereadhed]

Thanks all! You are making me feel better. The prices here are 12.99 for the Star party. You only have to have 4 children to get the party and he gets the crown and the ticket thing. So what do you guys think if I book that for 4 kids and then use the coupons and stuff for all of the other kids and use my own table cloths and plates etc? Do you think that would work? I know I can get pizza and tokens way cheaper but I do not want him to miss out on what he is looking for. Maybe fakereadhead you could ask your daughter if this would work? Thanks everyone!

She said DIY is no frills so if you want your child to have the whole experience do the party. Each child would be part of the party if seated at the table. She said if you want to have the hostess run the party for you, serve your cake, entertain the kids, etc, book a party. If you are a control freak DIY. I told her I already said that!

It sounds like CEC will be a one shot deal for your DS, you might as well do it up right. Darn those birthday commercials that are on cartoon network every 10min.

 

[dvcnewgirl]

She said DIY is no frills so if you want your child to have the whole experience do the party. Each child would be part of the party if seated at the table. She said if you want to have the hostess run the party for you, serve your cake, entertain the kids, etc, book a party. If you are a control freak DIY. I told her I already said that!

It sounds like CEC will be a one shot deal for your DS, you might as well do it up right. Darn those birthday commercials that are on cartoon network every 10min.

Thanks! Yes, I hate the commercials! Thank you!

 

[JamesMom]

My DS had his 7th b-day there and we DIY on a Thursday night. I saved up coupons from the Sunday paper for pizza/4 drinks/100 tokens for $30 (at the time) and bought pizza's as the guests arrive. I brought the cake, table cloth and confetti and set up at a long table in the 'party' area. The 7 kids had a great time with their parents and it cost me about $120. Party favors were left over tokens and the stuff they bought with the tickets.

 

[jcemom]

Thanks all! You are making me feel better. The prices here are 12.99 for the Star party. You only have to have 4 children to get the party and he gets the crown and the ticket thing. So what do you guys think if I book that for 4 kids and then use the coupons and stuff for all of the other kids and use my own table cloths and plates etc? Do you think that would work? I know I can get pizza and tokens way cheaper but I do not want him to miss out on what he is looking for. Maybe fakereadhead you could ask your daughter if this would work? Thanks everyone!

You'd have to ask your Chuck E specifically and see what they say, but at ours the party area is separate from the rest of the seating, and they set up more than one party at each table (on different ends, separated by some empty chairs) at a time. So, if you had a party set up for 4, and 12 showed up, they probably wouldn't be able to sit together.

Personally, I'd just go with the party package for all the kids, and buy pizza and tokens separately for the adults, using email club coupons. I don't think the price is really all that high, compared to anywhere else, for what you get. Yes, you can have a much less expensive party at home, but if you want to have it anywhere else, especially somewhere with entertainment built in, it's not cheap.

 

[fakereadhed]

My DS had his 7th b-day there and we DIY on a Thursday night. I saved up coupons from the Sunday paper for pizza/4 drinks/100 tokens for $30 (at the time) and bought pizza's as the guests arrive. I brought the cake, table cloth and confetti and set up at a long table in the 'party' area. The 7 kids had a great time with their parents and it cost me about $120. Party favors were left over tokens and the stuff they bought with the tickets.

That's what we did, but wanted to stress to others that was a Thurs at a nonbusy time. If your CEC is a busier location the tables may be booked already for parties. I recommend calling and asking ahead of time(week or so) to see if they are booked with parties. It is a gamble. Also my DD told me things have changed and they requires a deposit for a group rate. Not sure what they're charging now, but was slice, drink, tokens for one price per person walk in. Now it's by booking only.

Just don't want any disappointed kids! Call your location ahead of time to make sure you have a possibility of a party table.

 

[Iri920]

My one tip is book the earliest party you can, I think they start at 10 am .. but if you book a 9:30 party sometimes you they will offer 100 extra tokens to do it that early... DO IT !!! It is almost like having the place to yourself .. the public isn't up and heading out that early . Pizza for breakfast , can't be it lol.

Ditto! With 4 kids we've had plenty of parties at Chuck E Cheese and we've always had a good time. I always book an early party on a Sunday and it's never been crowded and a lot of times we are the only party there. At the time our party is over is when the place starts to get crowded. As a bonus I would get 100 extra tokens for booking on a Sunday, I don't know if they're still doing it though.

 

[labdogs42]

BTW, my CEC location lets you purchase things like the crown and the star bank separately outside of a birthday package. We did that for DS last year. I'm not sure if the ticket blaster is available outside of a party package, though. Although, I wonder how many tickets kids really walk away with out of that thing? I bet you could get him more tickets with a good token coupon and strategic game playing!

 

[mrssmith06]

My DS just turned 4 in May and had his party at CEC, he loved it!! All of the kids there loved it!! The money spent was about the same as it would have been if I had done it at home.(Because I usually go all out lol)

 

[dvcnewgirl]

Thanks again! I never do the party at home, hate dealing with the stress. We usually do it at a local pool with pizza and cake etc. It does add up.. guess I need to bite the bullet. lol

 

[Magic Mom]

I always like CEC parties because I didn't have to plan games or activities, I didn't have to set up or clean up, I didn't have to super clean my house because guests were coming over, I didn't have to cook, and I didn't have to have goodie bags. All of that makes the extra expense worth it to me.

 

[harpetj]

We did a CEC party when my daughter turned 3. Our Walmart sells CEC brand string cheese, which is the only kind my kids will eat. On the back of each package is a coupon for 12 free tokens. I saved up a bunch of these and redeemed them. You can redeem 3 coupons per person. We also just printed off a few coupons for pizza from CEC site and there are also some of these on the cheese packs. We just arrived early on Sunday afternoon and get a bunch of tables together, ordered a few pizzas, and gave each child a cup FULL of tokens (they were free ). As long as you have at least 1-2 tables next to each other for the kids to sit together to eat pizza, cake, etc.., you should be fine. She loved the party and the other kids loved being given so many tokens! We didn't do any gift bags, because the kids were able to redeem tickets for prizes. We even brought our own cake, a large cookie cake from our local grocery that cost $8. Very budget party