Chuck E. Cheese Hawai’i

If you haven’t noticed, my family is my priority, and creating memories and cultivating relationships are not only the most important, but the most special things for me to do. And, perhaps the only reason I’ll completely unplug from the ‘net. Flying in from Maui, and fresh from a muddied Punahou Carnival we gathered all of the grandchildren for an afternoon with Papa and Tutu at Chuck E. Cheese in Aina Haina.

In 2007, Chuck E. Cheese celebrated 30 years of being in the business of “where a kid can be a kid.” And, if memory serves me correctly, the Aina Haina location opened as Showbiz Pizza, if my memory is foggy someone please let me know. In 1984, Showbiz and Chuck merged, settling on renaming all of the locations after the mouse.

Does anyone recall when establishments began using tokens instead of quarters? When it began, it was a simple system each token functioned as a quarter, of course without having any monetary value. But, in our visit to Chuck E. Cheese I couldn’t determine if I was getting a “deal or no deal.” I know that it’s more economical to order the saver packages of pizza, drinks and tokens versus feeding your cash into the automated token machine; but is it now one token is actually a dollar? I believe so. All of the games and rides at Chuck E. Cheese cost one token, so it “appears” to be cheaper, unless if you’re an early video game arcade frequenter like myself. And me discussing this is an example of Lilinoe telling me I think too much, and I should just enjoy.

The most popular games for all of us were the Super Shot Deluxe Electronic Basketball and Dance Dance Revolution! At 2-years-old Taimane enjoys dancing, and no matter the genre she’ll always somehow incorporate her learned Tahitian moves into her choreography! Maiyah pretends to be shy, but once she hears the beat of the music she begins shaking her head, and even dragged Taylor up to the DDR stage! Chelsea accepted the Super Shot challenge from Tolea, and won three times in a row by double digits. Tolea couldn’t believe it, and spent most of the time seeking revenge. He finally won, only after logging a loss or maybe two to Lilinoe. Amu and Jayden were content in their own corners of the arcade spending their tokens evenly amongst all of the rides and games.

Chuck E. Cheese is a great arcade for children, and they still control the entries and exits of all adults and children. It’s a better atmosphere than the more popular Dave and Busters, but in D&B’s defense they do market towards the 21 and over crowd. There are only two in Hawai’i, and though we live closer to the Pearl City location, Aina Haina is in my opinion cleaner and overall friendlier.

From L to R: Chelsea (11), Amu (10), Tolea (9), Taylor (7), Maiyah (4), Jayden (3), Taimane (2), and missing Ghesiah (3 mos.)

More photos from our family day on Flickr.