And sometimes the party gods look down upon us and say “You may rest,” and we get to leave the details to someone else. This happened to me for Maui’s 5th birthday when he excitedly requested a Chuck E. Cheese birthday party. You bet, little one, you bet!
Of course, me being me, we had to be just a little bit extra. The amount of “Is that really the time?” texts I received after I sent out invites was almost equal to the amount of RSVPs. We celebrated our youngest’s 5th birthday at 9:00 A.M. on a Sunday morning. Why? you ask. Because Chuck E. Cheese offers early access parties! These are offered on Saturday mornings at 8:00 and Sunday mornings at 9:00 prior to opening to the public. We were the only guests in venue for the entirety of his party, and it was fantastic! The food was fresh, the restaurant was calm (well, as calm as it can be) and they had all the games to themselves. It didn’t cost any more than the regular package, we just needed to be up early. And five year olds are always up early, so it was absolutely a win for us!
In addition to having free run of the game room and Chuck all to themselves, they also take care of the set up, food and clean up. Heck, yeah!
Our Mega Fun Package included:
- All you can play arcade from 9:00 A.M. to 11:00 A.M.
- 2 slices of pizza per child guest plus unlimited fountain drinks
- Dippin’ Dots
- Bonus tickets
- Ticket Blaster experience for the birthday kid (or his sister if he was too embarassed)
- $28.99 per guest
We did end up adding pizzas for the adults and paying for a couple of extra siblings, but other than that, they were true to the quoted price. No hidden fees or surprises for us. Additionally, we left a 20% tip for our party host.
Once the party officially ended, we made our way over to a regular set of tables so Maui could open his gifts. Several of the kids also had some leftover time, as you can pause the play cards for pizza time (or any other time you won’t be playing games) and pick back up without losing any of the time you paid for (two hours worth).
All in all, this was an easy kid-pleasing birthday party, and I’d happily to it again if asked. 😉