Before and After
I visited a couple of tag centers both before arriving and after leaving Baltigeddon. On the heels of my Actual Reality experience I headed off to Jay Lanes Bowl TNT Laser Tag in Douglassville, PA. I've got to say, these were some of the NICEST people I have met. When I arrived there was nobody around for tag (which happens sometimes on a holiday weekend in the summer), but the friendly guy at the counter upon hearing about my travels let an employee do a one on one game with me and it was a great time. Thanks for playing John!
Played a little Zone with Helios in a bright and colorful arena with a medieval theme.
It was a good wind-down to a full day of driving. Then I headed to my hotel for the night before playing Baltigeddon the next day. For now let me skip over the main event and get to where I went after the tournament. On my way to my next destination I drove through Feasterville, PA to Brunswick Bowl XL.
Let me preface by saying they are transitioning and will soon be known as Bolero. They were kind enough to invite me to come back and blog about them at that point, so I may have to head back that way soon.
I walked in to see a counter under a wall mural declaring Urban Mission Laser Tag.
A group of young women were headed in so I bought my game and joined them. Even after a full day of tournament play I somehow got a second wind and went in with way more energy than I expected since this was literally the 25th game of laser tag I had played that day. I just ran the arena and had a good time. But first we had to watch a briefing video...let me say, while nothing I've seen tops the briefing video at Adrenaline Zone in Missouri, this one has to take the prize for this year. It was the best briefing video I've seen in awhile. It seemed specific to this center and was original, campy and very funny all while hitting the points it needed to. Once we went into the arena the game was on. They were using Rift equipment and it played very smoothly like butter. It's always interesting for me to play with newer Rift phasers because frankly the ones I use every weekend are pretty beat up and it's a big difference when you compare with another center. I really liked this arena. It was bright and artistic...genuinely a "pretty" arena with a colorful mix of grotto meets industrial. I was especially impressed with the structures housing the bases.
When the game was done I collected my scoresheet (I was playing for accuracy this time) and then asked if they had any t-shirts or logo merch for sale. Since they are changing their name soon I was told they didn't, but that there were some hacki-sack type prizes in the arcade that I could try to win. So I bought an arcade card, played a couple of rounds of Go Fish just to try for quick points and with exactly the amount of games I had on the card I earned exactly the number of points I needed to take home my souvenir.
That worked out well! Then I was off to New Jersey.
Bonkerz Fun Center in Princeton, NJ was not far from my hotel, so I finished off the day with a game of Blast.
It appeared to be an older arena. The base towers were a little sparce...
...but that didn't matter to the game. I took my base points, then explored the rest of the space.
I honestly wasn't playing full out, but I had the advantage of being the only one who seemed to know what to do (although everyone still seemed to have a good time)...but I enjoyed realizing at the end that I had a pack called Power House.
And after this I realized I was thoroughly exhausted from the full day of tag (more in my next post about the tournament experience) so I just headed for the hotel and was ready to crash.
The next day I woke up tired, but with nothing particular to do until later in the day. I had to be in Staten Island by 3:00, but in the morning I had no plans. So I decided spur of the moment to (you guessed it)...play some more laser tag! I went to Funtime America in Eatonville, NJ where I have played before. However, I had not brought another change of tag clothes. Instead I had to be a little dressier for the show I was going to later in the day, so...
I wore a long skirt and dressy top and ballet flats into the arena!
Bear in mind that this is at about 10:00 in the morning and I am just killing time, so there was nobody there yet. I played against the game master, Brittany.
I just considered this a warm-up to jump start my day, but I sure don't get pics that look like this most of the time.
So it was a good side detour before making my way over to Red Bank (can't go to New Jersey without stopping into Jay and Silent Bob's Secret Stash) and then continuing on to Staten Island. What an awesome and incredibly full weekend!
Comments or questions?
Contact: tivia@tiviachickloveslasertag.com
Websites: www.tiviachickloveslasertag.com and www.photonforever.com
