Last night I got the chance to go to my first ever Disney Parks Blog Meetup. It was at Splitsville, the new luxury bowling alley that opens in Downtown Disney tomorrow. Last week they posted about the meetup at Splitsville on the Disney Parks Blog and I was lucky enough to get myself and a guest on the list. Last night we found out the event filled up in 9 minutes.
Check-in was supposed to start at 7:15 pm and the event was supposed to start at 7:30 pm. Unfortunately they didn’t start checking people in until 7:30 so we got a late start. BUT, they did a great job of getting everyone checked in and through the doors quickly. You were handed a raffle ticket and a drink ticket (if you were over 21) and ushered upstairs to the 2nd floor of the complex. On Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights the 2nd floor becomes 21 and up, a great selling point (in my opinion) to get the locals out there.
When we got upstairs they told us to stick around the dance floor until everyone was inside and they could make a couple announcements. While we waited some wait staff walked around with trays of sliders – pulled pork, burgers, and turkey clubettes. We decided to hit up the bar before the place filled up, which turned out to be a stellar idea. While we were waiting to be served a waiter walked up and asked if we had placed our orders yet. When we told him no he said there was no wait at the bar outside. We were just about to follow him out there when they started making announcements. At that point he asked us what we wanted and went and got our drinks for us. Super awesome service!
Once they made all their announcements we started to wander around. In addition to the passed sliders they had food stations set up around the venue. At first we saw a pizza station, which really caught my eye as it looked a lot better than the pepperoni pizza you are used to seeing at bowling alleys. I was all ready for pizza until I realized what was on the next station… sushi! And let me tell you, it was DELISH! My favorite thing I tried was the Crab Rangoon Roll. Once I filled my plate with sushi we had a seat one of the many booths and relaxed for a bit.
The line to get a lane to bowl was still a little long, so we decided to play a game of pool. Unfortunately I sucked even more than usual and my friend beat me badly. Oh well, I’d make up for it on the lanes. Or so I thought.
When we headed over to the line to get a lane we realized it wasn’t moving at all. Finally a couple big wigs came over and told us that we wouldn’t be able to bowl. What? With the late start and then the amount of time it finally took to get everyone on the lanes there was no way they would be done with their games (each lane was limited to one) before the event was over. Bummer. They apologized over and over, and I understood the issue, but it was a big bummer that we weren’t able to bowl at a bowling alley.
After that we decided to head out to the outside deck & patio to check out the view of Downtown Disney. While we were out there another guest gave us his drink ticket. Score! So we ordered two more drinks and headed back inside. Even though we were able to bowl, we still had a great time. It is quite the venue. At the end of the night one of the big wigs caught site of me and we ended up with our own Goofy and Figment ears (they were set aside for kids but they had more ears than kids’ heads to put them on).
As everyone was heading out for the night we were handed goody bags. Hooray for free stuff! The bags included a Vinylmation figurine or ornament, a pair of Splitsville socks, and a Disney Parks Blog pen/tablet stylus.
Kudos to the Disney Parks Blog for a killer event. We had a great time and can’t wait until the next one!
**Meghann from Meals and Miles was also at the meetup. You can check out her rundown of the event here.
