Having a Few Blacklight Adventures

One of my favorite arena visits this trip was to Blacklight Adventures in St. Cloud, MN.

I walked in to find a bright, contemporary entrance with vivid purple theming that impressed me right from the start. The woman behind the counter (who I would later learn is one of the owners) got on a walkie talkie and requested the marshal hold the start of the game so that I could get into the next game right away with the group going in. Thank you!

I hurried back to the vesting area and put on a glowing Laserforce Gen 7 pack as I joined the other players.

From the talk in the vesting area, I knew what everyone was expecting. This group included a couple of big-talking young guns who were completely confident that they had this game won. I sized them up as pre-teen video game experts. I’m pretty sure they sized me up as “that old lady with the hat”. :) One declared he’d have the red vest (the indicator or first place in G7 color ranked solo) for the entire time and he entered the game with some swagger, certain he and his brother had this in the bag and the rest of us would be no competition. So, once again, I apologize for what I do when I am hungry, lol. I decided to surprise them and play for real.

We entered a nicely done, 3200 square foot, single level CW arena. I must say, the colors really popped under the black lights and the additional lighting effects that really looked great.

I could not use my membership, so instead I figured I’d see how far I could level up using the in-game battlefield promotions (the answer for this game was level 4) and I do believe I showed those younger players a few things they were not expecting. It’s important to pay attention during the briefing for tips about bases, beacons and targets.

This arena had all of the above, so plenty of opportunities to maximize your score. However, props to all the players for a well-played game. Everyone had a good time…even if a couple were bewildered by what just happened.

At the end I admitted to the mom of the group that this was an atypical situation and that I am a blogger who plays a lot of laser tag, to which she smiled and gave me a nod like she knew something was up.

I was surprised that the word had gotten back to the owners, Jay and Tina, that I was a blogger (remember, I was hungry and running on low energy, so I completely forgot I asked the game master for the ok to take pics at the end).

We had a wonderful chat afterwards and Jay gave me a thorough tour of the arena and answered some of my questions. I am thoroughly impressed with this facility which also offers an escape room, VR and Bazooka Ball (which I tried for the first time at this past year’s Amusement Expo).

I thank them for sending me home with a really cool souvenir as well. This is now officially one of my favorite T-shirts!

I thoroughly enjoyed my visit to Blacklight Adventures in St. Cloud and would love to return again. Who knows, maybe a Tag 4 A Cause could be in the future? Regardless, if you find yourself in Minnesota and want to visit a top quality, locally owned arena, I definitely recommend Blacklight Adventures.