The Birthday That Almost Didn't Happen

My Birthday Boy

I don't know about anyone else, but this

has been one of the longest weekends ever and I am not talking about the time change.

 

Seriously glad it is Sunday today.

Yes, I still have meals to make, chores, laundry and get the fam bam ready for Monday, but compared to Saturday, this will be a breeze.

Let me elaborate....

 

My son's birthday was November 1st.

Unlike other years, I decided to do something completely different this year by hosting his birthday party at McDonalds instead of dealing with the fuss of doing it at home.

I was super stoked and two weeks before his party, I had went down to our local McDonalds and put our deposit down to hold the party room. I had reserved it for November 1st, from 1:30-3:00 pm.

The way I looked at it was, this is going to save so much time and money and stress.

For a little under $100, you get a decorated party room, your own party host, or hostess, 10 Happy Meals, 10 Goodie bags, 10 Ice Cream Cones, Balloons, and a Birthday Cake.

The kids can be loud, play hard and you don't have to worry about a thing.

 

SOUNDED GOOD UNTIL I ARRIVED

 

The kids and I showed up to McDonalds at 1pm (30mins until party time) to check in with manager and pay the balance of party costs.

 

As soon as we walked in, I noticed the party room was not decorated, and I went to the front counter to check in. I told the cashier I was here for the birthday party, she said she would get the manager. I watched her go in the back and speak to the manager. I saw Miss Managers face then turn white.

The cashier then came back and told me Miss Manager would be out in a few minutes.

I then knew something was wrong.

10 minutes go by, I'm still standing there waiting. I asked again to speak to the manager, I was then told she was getting everything ready. By this time, guests are starting to arrive and I am fuming, but still doing my best to maintain my composure.

It is now 1:30, most of my guests have arrived.

Finally at 1:40 Miss Manager comes out and tells me there was a few set backs, and they would be more then happy to give us an extra hour for the inconvenience.

I asked her what was the reason for the inconvenience?

I never got a straight answer. I asked her if they at least had the cake ready? I never got a straight answer. Now, remember I am hosting a party, I paid a deposit, my party room is not decorated, I have no host/hostess back helping me, I'm not sure if there is even a cake, I'm missing most of the party trying to discreetly handle this without my kids knowing anything is wrong, and you want to fix the situation by giving me an extra hour of free play time, that is basically already free.

Finally at about 2pm the manager brought out about 10 small plain balloons. She then asked if I would like to please come up to the counter and finish paying for the party?

"Party? What Party? "

As far as I knew, by this time, we were just a big group of people going to eat at McDonalds.

I had officially had it by now.

My so called party is already half over, and I missed half of that. I went to the counter and asked for my deposit back.

I was very surprised that they refunded my money without a hassle, but they knew they were in the wrong.

 

I then ordered 10 Happy Meals.

Luckily for me, we had also ordered an extra cake from our local grocery store just in case any of our guests had food allergies.

I took the Happy Meals back to the party, where the kids ate, sang Happy Birthday, had cake and opened presents.

We did all of that in the last 30 minutes.

 

My son and his friends did have a good time, even though it was pretty rushed in the end.

The cake that I brought from Raleys Supermarket was the absolutely best tasting cake I have ever had. I received so many compliments and it was decorated beautifully.

 

I was so relieved when it was over, it was a super stressful situation that left me with a terrible tension headache for the rest of the day.

I don't think we will be going back to that McDonalds for a long, long time...

 

Do you have any birthday party horror stories or even maybe a McDonalds horror story you would like to share?