Chuck E. Cheese - Rocky Mount, NC

A nostalgic childhood adventure that still brings the fun with updated, modern features!

Chuck E. Cheese

Location: 730 Sutter's Creek Blvd, Rocky Mount, NC 27804

Price: $32-$50 for family of 4 for adventure zone and arcade tokens

Ages: 2-10

Recommend: YES!

Safety: Solo Mom and kid day/night approved

Must-knows: grippy socks included for the kids, changing tables, the height of the playplace makes it easy for 2.5 years old and up to get into, highchairs available, a little overstimulating so bring kid headphones if sensory issues

If your anything like me, you probably thought Chuck E. Cheese was a thing of the past. Think the ancient ways of Blockbusters and AOL chatrooms. However, I'm here to tell you that not only is it still going, its more fun than ever! Afterall, it is the place "where a kid can be a kid" as is their slogan.

10 AM Saturday is the time to go!

I took my two toddlers, age 2 and 3, on a rainy Saturday morning around the 10 AM opening to the Chuck E. Cheese located in Rocky Mount, NC. I took the backroads for an easy 20 minute drive with light traffic. A nice traffic light on the main road will help navigate you to the small road where its at. Its located near the main shopping district by the big Target, food chain restaurant area. A big spacious parking lot added to the ease of the journey, which was a little dirty, but I'm more surprised if any are clean with all the litter bugs here in the South.

Let me tell you, 10 AM is the time to go. We walked in and there was only one other family in attendance. We stayed for about 2.5 hours, and it was picking up by the time we left to about 6 families, but nothing overwhelming. You got a glimpse of how it was going to pick up in chaos later in the day, as they had all of the birthday party tables set up and reserved.

Walking in, your led to the counter where you can pick your adventure of the day. We purchased a pass for the trampoline adventure zone indoor playplace, as well as the arcade zone. For a family of 4 that came to $32 with the trampoline grippy socks included. Honestly, the pricing is super confusing. Like all things now, they're trying to push their monthly membership Fun Pass. The pass looks like a good deal since its discounts on admission, arcade, and food court, but doesn't seem to include the adventure zone, which is the main draw for me and mine.

Padded Adventure Zone Playplace

Its very unclear online and in-person what your paying for if you wanted to do just a general one time visit. The attendant was super unhelpful about explaining the different rates and tiers so I can't tell you if I got the best deal for my day there. (that's the end of my "you can't find good help these days" grumble lol). But $32 for a family of four morning out, I'll take.

Now, in terms of the Chuck E. Cheese of today, what a difference! When I was a kid, the centerpiece was the creepy animatronic band on its own stage in the food court zone. Now, its a huge projector screen in the birthday party zone that has music videos featuring an animated Chuck E. Cheese band and preteen kids singing there own songs. Very Disney Channel vibes, which I was digging. They also have a animated dance floor by the projector, and this is where Chuck E. Cheese himself will come out for appearances about every 30 minutes. Small TV screens line the arcade zone so you can watch and listen to the band wherever you are at and learn when Chuck E. Cheese himself will come out. He's a lot more friendly looking of a mascot then days past, so no nightmares for the kiddos with his visit.

Chuck E. Cheese himself on the dance floor!

The heart of the place is the arcade of course. What's really cool is the arcade pass system. You can get one of the credit card style passes and either load up "tokens" or you can buy an unlimited block of play time in 30 minute increments. If you go the block of time route, you can actually pause your play time at the machine where you purchase the pass. So if your kid has to go to the bathroom or whatever randomness comes up, just pause, then reactivate for your time.

Arcade play pass - tokens or unlimited 30 minute timed play that you can pause time if needed

We spent about $27 on our arcade pass, which was plenty and then some enough tokens for the toddlers. You might be thinking, an arcade pass for a 2 and 3 year old? Yes! As they have little toddler ride-ons that the kids can do with it. Think like the old pony ride machine in front of the grocery store type vibes. They also still have the Chuck E. Cheese in the car ride, that I have a picture of myself on as a kid! And then you can print your souvenir picture that uses the arcade pass.

Make sure to snap a picture with the Chuck E. Cheese car, a staple since the 90s!

The games all cost about 1 token. So you can really play so many! The "gotcha" is that they at most give 5 tickets that are loaded onto your arcade pass. Even the large gambling style games where you could win 100s of tickets, have maybe a 20 ticket jackpot. A bit lame but its cool the kids can just play a ton without having to spend a bunch of money/tokens. So you will really need to play the games repeatedly before you have enough tickets to really get anything worthwhile from the redemption counter. But if you have the monthly membership, it would give you reason to keep coming back so you can load up your ticket bank.

Classic arcade games for kids and toddlers all cost about 1 token!

They have a food counter you can have your classic pizza meal at. The new twist is you can order beer as a parent! About 4 domestic beers on tap. I didn't see any parent partaking, but then again it was 10 AM. The seating is mostly booths, or high-top tables. Honestly, I wish they didn't have the high tops. My kids tried to climb the seats and knocked themselves off a couple times. Not really safe or family friendly for all the young ages in attendance, and of course that was the closest type of seating next to the adventure trampoline zone.

Menu is pizza, and you can order beer!

Speaking of the Adventure Zone, so cool! There are 4 trampolines surrounded by netting and soft padding, which have a height limit of under 56". A staff member oversees this area to maximize safety and to eliminate any unsafe chaos. The playground is completely padded and soft, and leans into the mouse theme with the blocks looking like cheese. Its a lot smaller of an area than the Chuck E. Cheese of my childhood past, but I'll take it. Its pretty funny because of a few years ago, Chuck E. Cheese took out all their playgrounds and now the "big new idea" is to start putting these adventure zones playgrounds back in. Nothing new under the sun going on here.

Soft padded trampolines for 56" and under, monitored by staff.

Overall, it was a pretty fun time! I do have to say its definitely overstimulating with all the flashing lights of the arcade and the music. Your kids (and definitely mama) will probably last about 2-3 hours max before tapping out and needing quiet. However, I would still recommend this. Its fun to share my childhood haunts with the new generation!