Have you wanted to go and see a new movie without feeling badly about if your baby or child makes a scene or has a melt down? Now you can with Cineplex Odeon’s Stars and Strollers! Most of their theater’s offer this service to moms, and dads alike, not to mention grandparents and family members who want to get out and enjoy a movie with the special “little” people in their lives.
Children under 3 are free, so all you have to worry about is a ticket for the adults or children that accompany you. They offer complementary Diapers and wipes (at least the location we went to today did). The only draw back is that there was only one changing station in the woman’s bathroom. They had one set up next to the complementary diaper’s but it is a little awkward changing your baby in front of 30 other strangers. But as an option (while the movie is playing) it is dark in the theater so provided that you need to change your little one during a show, it is dark enough to do so privately as long as you bring a change pad.
Stars and Strollers allows you to:
- Enjoy the latest movies in a Baby-Friendly environment at Cineplex Entertainment theatres
- Generally featuring a choice of two movies at every screening!**
- Screenings of the latest releases every week at your participating theatre
- Lowered volume levels
- Dimmed lighting
- Stroller Parking Available
For us we are given a choice of one movie per theater (i’m sure because it’s summer) and we chose to see Wall-E . The movie itself was not too bad, it started out pretty iffy as there was no talking for a good 30 minutes of the film, and only robot sounds, which get’s old to adults quickly. But the movie picked up and introduced the humans so if you do decide to go see it, it won’t totally bore you.
There was however the funniest short film i’ve seen in a long time. It’s by Pixar, and it’s called Presto. A tale of a rabbit and his magician. I laughed so hard for the whole time it was playing and my son was amazed at the huge animations on the screen.
The Bottom Line
If you are going to take your young baby, make sure you take a blanket as watching a movie, that size for a lengthy amount of time is quite stimulating. I was able to put up a “wall” in the line of vision so that he could try to nap. Amazingly he did well, he watched for 20 minutes, got fussy, I wrapped him up he slept for a good 40 minutes and then I was able to feed him in the darkness before the end of the movie. All in all successful trip!The movie is still loud, and may startle those babies who need absolute silence to sleep! For what it’s worth, I would not plan to stay for any length of time, you never know how they’ll react to the big lights and sounds.
Oh and as a side note, there was a shady character that came up to me after the movie, and while as a parent you carry a lot of things with you when you travel, my hands were full. So I opted to sit down and wait for my mommy friend to return (she went in search of a change table at the mall). Well I had the diaper bag around me and had placed my son on the floor (in his car seat with my purse between my feet). He came up to me and said cute baby, so being the nice person I am (LOL) I said thank you but decided not to continue the conversation. He proceeded to sit down, which made me uncomfortable (he sat at the table next to me) and I decided to nonchalantly pick up my purse and pretend to look for a baby wipe. He then asked me for spare change, to which I replied I had none, and then he said, i’m just looking for coffee, to which I still replied I had none. He sat there for another 5 minutes before getting up and walking away. Just as a warning ladies, with as much as you carry around with you are are a perfect target for criminals. I wouldn’t run after this creep if he had swiped my purse and leave my son unattended. So either don’t take your purse or strap it to yourself!
Happy viewing everyone!
For those of us in Atlantic Canada, here’s a link for the same thing from Empire Theatres. Here in Sydney, they only offer it once a month though:
http://www.empiretheatres.com/promotions/reel_babies.asp
We’ll have to go together one day Erin. Sounds like fun.
There are apparently is some creepy guy out there that stalks Moms with young kids. You are right to be careful around anyone you don’t know who comes up to you like that. I’ve noticed people do seem to be more apt for conversation when you have a baby…they are just drawn to them and maybe he was just honestly looking for change as well but better safe than sorry.
I used to be a real movie buff before I had my son, sometimes seeing up to 10 movies a month. Now the only time my wife and I get to go to the movies is during stars and strollers. I have to say i have been becoming increasingly frustrated and disappointed with cineplex odeon and their poor service. They claim that stars and strooler is to “Enjoy the latest movies in a Baby-Friendly environment at Cineplex Entertainment theatres,” but i argue that the movie selections are chosen by a very irresponsible person or complete moron. Last summer it seemed that week after week the selection were most certainly not suitable for babies or young children. My wife and I walked out a few, the like of Step Brother which is filled with profanity, female, and male nudity. The last thing I want to expose my son to is the constant use of the F-bomb among other profanity, a grown man pulling out his testicals and beating them on a drum, or female full nudity. He’ll have lots of time to try a sneak into movies like that when he’s an adolescent, he doesn’t need an irresponsible parent exposing him to that sort of trash that should never be targeted at children. After writing cineplex odeon to complain and ask them to give the viewer the choice to see more family oriented movies, i got nothing less than a brush off. They told me that it is the responsibility of the parent to decide if they want to take their children to the viewings or not, never acknowledging my request for family friendly movies. To top it off, the morons at cineplex in Ottawa had the brilliant idea to cancel the stars and stroller viewing during the Christmas holiday, a time when FAMILIES get a chance to spend time together. My wife and I have no family except for each other in Ottawa and were looking forward to taking in a movie together since our schedules rarely line up anymore.
I for one would like to tell cineplex odeon to screw themselves, I will be looking into taking my business to empire theaters or rainbow cinema or any other cineplex competitor that will come along. I will no longer put up with their crappy service and abuse.
What does it matter there a multi billion dollar company. You think they care if one person leaves lol