Rainbow Skateland

While we were at Rainbow Skateland two weeks ago, my oldest daughter asked if she could bring 2 or 3 friends there on her birthday. We hadn’t locked down any solid plans for her birthday gathering, and I knew we had spent everything we could on the experience gifts for Christmas and her birthday, so I said yes, we can do that, but I can’t pay for any friends to skate, just let them know that ahead of time. 2 or 3 friends turned into 10, as it does when teenagers make plans. I recruited a bestie to load her vehicle and accompany us, and after our dinner, gifts, and cake, we all headed to the skating rink. We know they don’t allow anyone in until the clock actually hits 7:30, so when that time came, we unloaded and walked into the entrance. I had all of the friends pay their way in and I went last with my three girls. There were 12 kids, plus 5 or 6 other girls who came to skate together. That was it. That was all who showed up to skate. Within an hour of arriving, another member of our group arrived and said the workers had been complaining about our group- that we all paid individually and didn’t plan a party package. From 7:30-10, there were around 20 others (not in our group) who came into the rink to skate. It was dead. The music was very low and hard to hear, which isn’t usual. The songs were all very dated and slow. I knew the songs, but the kids were all bored and wanting music they are into, so they started requesting songs. After 5 songs they were told this wasn’t their show and couldn’t request anything anymore. When they asked the DJ if they could say happy birthday to my daughter over the speaker, he said no because we didn’t pay for a birthday package. The people working at Rainbow Skateland were incredibly rude to these girls. They were rude to us. I don’t feel like it was warranted in any way, as our girls weren’t being rude, they weren’t disrespectful in any way. They were actually all having a lot of fun and being so sweet to each other, since a few were inexperienced skaters. They were sharing and helping each other in the arcade. I didn’t see anything that these 13 teenagers did that alerted me to step in or say something. For a business that is struggling, I’m really disappointed in our experience. Each girl paid $10 to get in and $4 for skates, three in our party of thirteen total had their own skates. They played games and used their money to get slushees, pizza, and popcorn. Most of the girls bought their own $4 blinking binky. They were the only ones buying any of those things. By my calculations of what a birthday package costs, the establishment made MORE money than they would have had I prepaid for a party package, and did less work doing so. From the time our group and the other skaters walked in, paid, and were putting our skates on was LESS THAN five minutes. And they all paid in cash. They refused to play any of the games we are accustomed to them doing every Saturday we’ve gone there, again, because we didn’t pay for a birthday package. We then heard about complaints over each of us paying in cash, individually. Again, I could not personally afford to pay for each to skate, they paid for themselves. And in the past when paying on cards, I’ve received complaints because there is an extra charge to use a card. Pick what you prefer. Or better yet, do your job with a smile and accept the business of children who just want to come to have fun. If this business wants to survive I think they need to take a hard look at 1) how they treat people and 2) their music selection. Unfortunately when I posted about this on my personal social media, a number of friends commented they had similar experiences over the last two years and won’t be returning. We won’t be going back.