A Hot Mess

That was the only way the employee at the Guest Services counter could describe our recent movie experience. Here's what happened:

We go to see Toy Story 3. We did not see the IMAX version (we couldn't find a time to fit our schedule) but we did opt for the Disney Digital 3D version. Naturally you expect the regular Friday night busy-ness and add to that the "brand-new, everyone needs to check it out" factor because it's a brand new theater. We get our tickets early, grab some dinner, and head back to get our munchies. The line was ridiculously long because the theater was handing out coupons for a free small popcorn and small drink with every paid admission. Naturally that's what EVERYONE'S going to get. I wanted to take the kids and grab some seats but Jason needed help carrying all the stuff back so we all waited in line.

We get our stuff and head in only to discover the theater was PACKED. The only available seats were directly in front of the screen and when it's stadium seating, you know that just won't work. We saw almost a whole row of seats that had signs on them saying, "Reserved for birthday party". We also saw one seat here, two seats there.... You know, scattered seats throughout the place. We can't find 4 seats together at all. Jason is scrambling around to no avail. The kids and I are standing around, looking like idiots. He finally grabs an usher to help out but either people were "saving" the seat or they were just plain rude. Finally I took Jorden and sat somewhere and Jason and Chase sat somewhere else. (As the movie progressed I noticed that the reserved seats stayed empty except for maybe 4 or 5 of them.)

Now by the time we get a seat it's almost 20 minutes into the movie. I'm carrying Jorden's drink to our seats and all of a sudden the lid pops off and spills on the floor, my shoes, and all down my pantleg. It was a full drink, too. She and I sat down and I'm just ready to cry, especially since we waited a half hour in line to get that drink. I had to spend the whole movie with a soaking wet pair of jeans. Jason didn't have it any easier. Apparently the guy sitting next t0 him had put away a few because he reeked of beer and snored the entire time. Then about midway through the movie Jorden manages to lose her shoe somewhere down in the row in front of us and we couldn't find it until the end of the movie.

When it was all said and done we left the theater and told one of the managers about our experience. We said the movie was great (which it was). The theater as a whole was great and we do plan on coming back but this particular time was just not fun at all. So we got 4 free admissions to see another 3D movie. Not bad for enduring our "hot mess" of a movie.