Member Night at Splitsville Luxury Lanes

[Julylady]

I just want to post a short report about our experience last week at Splitsville. I had called Member Services to book our reservation about 6 weeks ahead of our trip. We had 3 adults and 1 child in our party for a total of $179.

When we arrived at the bowling alley we didn't see anyplace to "check in", but did notice a paper with our name taped up at one of the lanes. We put our things down and immediately a waiter came and explained now things would work.

Basically, we were free to bowl for 1 hour, 45 minutes. He took all our shoe sizes and went off to get us shoes. He also brought over an assortment of balls. He asked if anyone in our group wanted to use bowling bumpers and set those up for us.

About the food/drinks. He explained that we could either have unlimited soft drinks using a Coke free style machine or a beer/wine. We all picked the soft drinks with the souvineer mug. He also showed us menus and said we could pick two appetizers for our group of four. We picked the cheesey fries and the chicken bites. They were yummy!

After about 30 minutes of bowling we ordered our dinner. We could pick anything off the menu except the signature meals which cost $5 extra. The menu is extensive. We ordered both individual pizzas and burgers. Both were great and we had a lot of leftovers which we boxed and took back to the villa.

We were able to bowl three complete games during our time allotment. I wasn't sure if the gratuity was included in the price we paid or not, so I asked our waiter. He said it wasn't and that he would give me an itemized bill. Our total bill came to $181 of food/drinks. I left a pretty hefty tip since he definitely earned it!

During the game he also came over with a coupon for a free T shirt for the next person who bowled a strike. Someone in my family won and she was able to pick out a nice shirt from the gift store!

Since I had paid $179 for our family and the food bill came to $181, we basically got to bowl for free plus got a free t shirt. Granted, if I was paying out of pocket we wouldn't have ordered appetizers, gotten the refillable mugs, etc.

Overall, both the adults and kids had a GREAT TIME! It was the nicest DVC event I have ever attended. And, I thought it was a great value compared to other things we could have chosen to do for about the same amount of money (Illuminations sparkling dessert party, for example).

The only thing I wondered about was that the DVC website says something about a special gift. I don't think we got one. Does anyone know what the gift was?

When researching this event, I didn't find too much information on it, so I wanted to post a review for others who might be considering it.

Donna

 

[roydavid7771]

Sounds like a blast! I'm looking forawrd to the bass fishing tournaments myself!

 

[darbry]

Someone told me it was a pair of socks. Lol. Thanks for the report. We are doing it in June.

 

[Meech Loves Mickey]

Sounds like fun! I'm tying to convince DH to do this. Just a couple of Q's...

Was it crowded when you were there?

Where there a lot of other members?

Were you in a "members only" section?

 

[Julylady]

We were in a section that only had 4 lanes on the main level. All four were dvc groups. On the other side there were about 8 additional lanes that had the dvc signs.

I believe they also have lanes upstairs, but we never got up there. We only interacted with the nice family bowling in the lane next to ours. It didn't seem busy to me at all.

I hope you have much fun as we did!

 

[stitch'sgirl]

Hi July lady, thank you so much for posting this. We were very curious but in the end decided to just eat at Spkitsville. We loved the food and thought the service was top-notch.

Can I ask you about your bill? I am coming up with a different amount. The 2 appetizers you listed were $10 each ($20), the most expensive hamburgers are $17 each ($68) and the drinks in the souvenir cup are $7 ($28). Total: $116. How was it $181? Did I miss something? That's why we decided on just dinner, I was not able to justify the extra cost because it was for dvc members. I was hoping it might actually be a deal.

 

[bonrea]

We were planning for this same great experience for June 18th.
Got a call from MS today and they were wanting to move our reservation to Thursday June 19th or cancel. That was our only choice. We have a full day on the 19th in the MK and didn't want to move nor cancel. MS could not give an explanation as to why Splitsville wanted to move it.

Our only guess is that someone rented out the lanes or some big event is planed for that night. Bummer! Another perk screwed by Disney again.

 

[Jonell]

Sorry, but $181 for burger, pizza and less than 2 hrs of bowling is CRAZY!! No Thank You

 

[DumboFan]

What was the price breakdown per person? I tried to find out via the chat on the member site, but they "don't discuss pricing in the chat". I didn't want to wait 20 minutes on hold just for a price! We have 2 adults & 2 juniors (ages 15 & 16).

Thanks!!!

 

[stitch'sgirl]

What was the price breakdown per person? I tried to find out via the chat on the member site, but they "don't discuss pricing in the chat". I didn't want to wait 20 minutes on hold just for a price! We have 2 adults & 2 juniors (ages 15 & 16).

Thanks!!!

It is $47 plus tax for anyone 10 years and up.

 

[rpk1951]

any minimum number of people needed to reserve it?

 

[chateau]

Those must be some "socks" gift!

 

[stitch'sgirl]

Totally not getting it! I looked up the cost of evening bowling, it is $20 per person which includes shoe rental. So if my husband and I paid for bowling, shared the most expensive appetizer, ordered a $17 burger and paid $3.50 for a soft drink (in a glass, but refilled by the waiter as needed), it comes to $48 per person.

When we were there, lanes 15-18 were rented out by a private party and they had a pizza buffet. I could see that with maybe trivia questions or something for prizes every half hour, as a member event. But this kind of sounds like you are on your own, are there no DVC event people there to make a party or gathering-type atmosphere?

 

[stitch'sgirl]

Forgot to add - we were so hungry when we were there, we ordered one serving of the loaded fries (2 adults and a tween). They were so generous, we could have done without dinner. Why does Disney always want you to eat so much food that you feel like you have to roll out of the restaurant?

FWIW, my suggestion is to go either go during Early Bird pricing which is $10/adult and $5/child, M-F, 10:30-12:30; or M-F until 4pm which is $15 per person. Then choose an appetizer or sandwich (not both!) and take that extra few dollars and splurge on one of their delicious adult beverages!

 

[disneynutz]

DVC pricing on anything is usually more expensive than what the general public pays.

Bill

 

[Julylady]

Hi. OP here. I was handed an itemized bill that added up to $181. Three of us had pizzas and one had a burger. I didn't look at the bill too closely to be honest. We ended up taking two whole pizzas back to our villa and ate them the following day. Since we returned to the villa right from the bowling alley, this worked out fine for us. And the pizza was great reheated!

I agree that I would not consider this event as a value in the "real world." However, we were deciding between this bowling event and the Epcot Sparkling Dessert Party. Both events were around $50 per adult. In my opinion after reading the reviews of the EPCOt party on line, I was happy with our choice.

Additionally, my 9 year old was originally scheduled to go to Bibbilty Bobbelty Boutique (spelling!) that same afternoon (Yes, I think she is too old at 9, but she had wanted to do it one last time.) I told her she had to choose between bowling and BBB and she picked bowling. So I saved that money as well!

Everytime we visit WDW we plan 1-2 special events. In the past we have done LaNouba, Hoop De Doo, Pirates party at the Contemporary, the Luau at the Poly, archery at Ft Wilderness, Wishes Dessert Party. These all cost about the same amount of $$. In my family's opinion, this evening at Splitsville bowling was at the top of the list! However, I agree that a night bowling with pizza/drinks in my home town is much, much cheaper!

To answer one poster's question. This event was set up in such a way that there was little interaction with others who were participating. We did interact with the family bowling on the lane adjacent to ours, but that was it. I was a bit surprised that there was no DVC cast member there to greet us, check us in, explain how things worked, ect. Maybe there is supposed to be someone and he/she didn't show? Maybe that's why we didn't get the socks either!! LOL!

 

[emilyyvic]

We have this event booked in a couple weeks and I just read this review from allears.net and instantly had regrets in booking.

http://land.allears.net/blogs/guestblog/2014/03/ready_member_magic_at_splitsvi.html

Julylady your review is responsible for us keeping the reservation! We originally had ADRs at BOG this evening but my mom really wanted to go to a Members event so I caved and cancelled our dining reservation to do the bowling event. My main concern is that our family of 3 will be required to share a lane with another family (as experienced in the allears revew.

Fingers crossed it's a good experience!

 

[bonrea]

Sorry... Didn't realize this was the same thread I had already posted in.