This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Chuck E. Cheese’s. The opinions and text are all mine.

I live about 45 minutes from Portage, Michigan but when we heard the Chuck E. Cheese’s there recently partnered with Tesser to remodel, we decided to check it out with our nephew Gabe. We attended the grand re-opening event on October 18th. This is just one of many remodels going on across the country at various Chuck E. Cheese’s locations. They are being redesigned to give more focus to their fresh foods, to add cool new features like illuminated dance floors, and to focus on fun for the whole family. The dining area feels more like a restaurant, but there is still plenty of game-based fun that the kids will adore! The restaurants now feature warm wood, neutral tones and streamlined graphics to make the area feel calm and inviting for adults.

As part of the grand re-opening, we got to watch Chuck E., Mr. Munch and Helen Henny cut the ribbon, which quickly turned into a dance party on the new illuminated dance floor.

We took a tour of the place and spent a few hours playing, eating and enjoying the place. We had a really great time. I thought I would share the top 10 reasons we love Chuck E Cheese’s!

1. Fun for the whole family. Remember the slogan “where a kid can be a kid”? Well, I think it’s a place where adults can be kids, too! Ryan and I enjoyed playing the games too! At our location in Portage, Michigan there is a section of games and rides that are aimed at toddlers or preschoolers. Many of these games have a ride-on feature to help little ones stay engaged. Others get played by standing in front of them, but they are closer to the ground and are designed to hold focus of little ones. How cute is this ride-on train?
2. Delicious, fresh food. I often feel like thin-crust pizza is lacking in both flavor and texture. but Chuck E. Cheese’s pizza has so much flavor! Chuck E. Cheese’s pizza has so much flavor that I don’t mind how thin it is! The pizza looks good but tastes GREAT. Their toppings are cut fresh daily and they even shred their own cheese and make their own dough from scratch. The new renovation moved the food bar closer to the kitchen. We were there in the evening so it was set for a salad bar. 
3. The new illuminated dance floor! None of us had ever seen a dance floor quite like this. It cycles through patterns most of the time, but will take pauses where it goes blank until you step on it and then it will react to your feet. It’s really entertaining to watch how it reacts to dancing or just walking, even! It makes dancing along to the music even more fun. There are hourly live shows that take place in the dance floor area! 
4. Play passes. Remember the days of getting your little paper cup of tokens? Remember spilling your cup of tokens or misplacing it, or your brother or cousin sneaking some of your tokens while you weren’t looking? Yeah, those days are over! Play passes look like debit cards and they get loaded with points. Most games are 1 point. They get scanned on the front of the game machine and will update you with your remaining balance as you go. If parents want to load more points on after the card is empty, they can do so at a kiosk. 
5. New games! Our Portage location had signs hanging from the ceiling showcasing which games were new. There were a handful at our location. My favorite of the new games was Ice Man. On the screen zombie-like guys come at you. You have to point your blaster at them to keep yourself safe! You turn in both directions to direct the camera because they can attack you from the left and right off-screen if you don’t keep turning. The blaster really squirts water right in front of you, and steam/fog comes up at times too.
6. All you can play bands. I remember being a kid and hearing parents debate how many tokens we would need for a two-hour birthday party. It was tough to judge how long tokens would last in actual minutes. That’s why I love the all you can play bands. These get loaded with a set amount of time instead of points. For example, for $9 you can get a 30-minute all you can play band. Then your child can play as many games as they can fit into 30 minutes! If they want to stop to eat, or use the restroom, check out the dance floor, etc, go up to a kiosk to pause the time on your band, and then reactivate it once they are ready to go back to playing. Like the play passes, if you decide you want more time after your initial allotment has run-out, they can be reloaded at a kiosk. These also just swipe up against the touchpad on a game machine. 
7. The lunch buffet! We didn’t get to try this out because of the time of day we were there. But if you stop during lunchtime (11am-3pm Mon-Fri) the salad bar will be converted to a buffet. They will put out new pizzas every 30 minutes. If you have a family where everyone likes different pizza toppings, going for lunch is a great way to allow everyone to get the type of pizza they like!
8. Birthday parties. I loved going to birthday parties at Chuck E. Cheese’s as a kid and they have only gotten cooler. Here is an example of how a birthday table might be set up for a birthday party, depending on the party level that the host chooses. In this one, kids get play-bands, reusable take-home cups and goodie bags! We were told that the Portage location handles birthday parties as small as 6 kids, and as big as 100! The birthday kiddo gets to go into the ticket blaster! Gabe got to try this out. There are normal tickets blowing around, but also larger tickets that have higher values including some that are worth 500 tickets! While the child is in the ticket blaster, the TV screens all throughout the building will switch over to showing the video stream of him/her in the blaster so everyone gets to see the star as they try to catch as many tickets as they can! 
9. Nostalgia. Chuck E. Cheese has been around for over 40 years, so many adults (myself included!) have happy memories from being at Chuck E. Cheese during their own childhood. I love that they have upgraded so many things, but it’s also neat to see what hasn’t changed. The characters, some of the old-school games, even the photo machine! I was tickled to see that you can use the sketching machine for just 1 point like most of the games!  
10. Everyone wins! While I think the games are fun on their own, its also fun to turn in your tickets and get a prize. The Portage, Michigan location has a bigger prize wall than any other Chuck E Cheese’s location in Michigan! Some items on the prize wall are listed as a set amount of tickets, while others are listed by price. However, tickets can be converted for 1 penny each, or items that are listed as a ticket-cost can be purchased with cash instead. So an item that says it costs 250 tickets could be purchased for $2.50, or an item listed as $5.99 could be purchased with 599 tickets. Down in the lower display case there are items that just take a few tickets (such as individual pieces of candy) so everyone should earn enough tickets to get at least one prize. Gabe ended with a little over 1,000 tickets and chose a ball, a slinky, three toy snakes and a top! 

We had a great time and we all left happy! It would be a great way to spend a rainy day, a hot and humid day in the summer or even just to have a little extra-fun after dinner in the middle of a school/work week!

Have you been to a Chuck E. Cheese’s restaurant recently? What was your favorite part?

Emily

Hi there! I am Emily Evert, the owner of Emily Reviews. I am 28 and live in a small town in Michigan with my boyfriend Ryan and our two pugs. I have a large family and I adore my nieces and nephews. I love reading memoirs, and learning about child development and psychology. I love watching The Game of Thrones, Teen Mom, Sister Wives and Veep. I like listening to Jason Isbell, John Prine, and other alt-country or Americana music. I created Emily Reviews as a creative outlet to share my life and the products that I love with others.

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