Raleigh Grande 16

Reviews 4

LE

Lee White

The new owners clearly do not have it together yet. It took 40 minutes for the pizza and salad my son and I ordered. Even then the salad was wrong, which I paid more for, and came with no dressing. Although it did come with a extra helping of rudeness and unhelpfulness from the male manager on duty. At the 40 minute mark after we ordered our friends went down to ask where their food was; so much for getting to the theater early to order food. They were told the staff would bring the food up to them (we were on the top row of the largest theater) and the manager gave them 5 free movie tickets for the inconvenience. Good service recovery for them. However, I did not get the same experience. I had to get my food, which is not a big deal, but as I started eating the in the dark, now that the previews were underway, I noticed my spinach salad did not taste right. First, there was no dressing on it. Second, it was not a spinach salad, which actually costs more than the field green salad. So I trekked back down from the top row to the concession stand. I went to the side where a male manager was at the register, thinking he can help with this. I told him I ordered a spinach salad, but there was no dressing. Without looking up, and being very dismissive, he said that’s funny, they didn’t have any spinach. He never looked up or said anything else before he ran off. The attendant beside him did offer me choices and gave some dressing. The attendant was very helpful and looked very sheepish, likely because he saw the chaos around him. The female manager was going through the order tickets trying to sort out what was going on and how to fix things, I presume. Until they fix things, CineMark should empower their servers and attendants to make things right. But judging by the attitude and lack of customer service training the managers have had, I think that is unlikely. Now for the theater itself. I like the partitions in front and back of the rows. It limits your view to your row and the screen. You forget how many people are in there. I like that better than the openness of Frank’s Theatre in Cary. The recliners are comfortable. Now the food. The options for food here are limited and you have to basically pick it up yourself, as opposed to the delivery at Frank’s. The flatbread pizza my son had was very good. It looked like quality ingredients for the salad, but it’s hard to speak to the quality since I didn’t actually get spinach or the correct dressing. Oh! And apparently I was supposed to get pita with the salad. That sure didn’t happen. I didn’t want it, but still, it speaks to the fact that these guys have a long way to go. Additionally, the beer selections are nice. I don’t really want to drive to Cary, so I hope CineMark gets their act together soon.

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DA

Daniel Blevins

As a fairly new resident to Raleigh, I have really enjoyed the abundance of choice in the area with regards to food and entertainment. Unfortunately, tonight I was utterly disappointed with my experience at the Raleigh Grande theater. My date and I arrived about twenty minutes early for our five oclock 3D showing of The Hobbit so that we could purchase concessions and reserve good seats. The theater was empty, but I attributed this to our early arrival. I immediately became wary when I could not locate a single seat in the first row we entered that was not stained, torn, or worn out in some way. Nonetheless, we picked the cleanest seats we could find and settled in for the show. At five minutes past the scheduled start of our show, the theater was still empty except for us and we were beginning to wonder at the late start. An usher came in to sweep and while he was there he informed us that the theater was experiencing some technical difficulties and that our show would be starting "within the next five minutes." We smiled and told him that we understood and would wait patiently. Twenty-five minutes later at 5:30, a manager came in to inform us that our show would not be playing tonight as the "theaters projectors had become infected with some sort of virus". However, we could stay until 6PM and watch a 2D showing of our film if we liked. There was nothing wrong with the theaters facilities, they simply did not want to divert the personnel and resources to our theater to hold a private showing of our film. Fair enough, though I did not appreciate the deception. Secondly, to not immediately offer a refund of our ticket purchases, but instead to suggest that we should wait another thirty minutes for a 2D version of the same film fails all tests of proper customer service. I will not be returning to the Raleigh Grande after tonights poor performance.

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K

K Hah

I really love this theatre and this is the place my family and I will be going from now on. We dont even live in Raleigh but will make the commute for a big movie! (We dont watch movies in the theater much.) Assigned seating can be a double-edged sword - its great not to have to rush to get to the theatre early for a good seat and guarantee the ability to sit together, but last minute decisions to see a movie can be tricky if you have a large party and everyone wants to be together. This is a theater for plans made in advance unless youre flexible. I DO NOT recommend aisle seats in the front row. The seats are way too close to the screen so you literally have to move your head around to see the screen and theres a weird distortion effect. The seats are VERY comfortable and I love the fact that they recline! Only problem we had with the seats is whatever cleaner they use(d) on the (p)leather creates a bit of a squeaking problem whenever someone adjusts their chair - like when they need to get up to use the restroom. And since the controls are electronic, it takes a few seconds to put the footrest down. SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK. Cant really hear it during an action movie but if theres a quiet moment...Hopefully this is no longer the case as thats a pretty simple fix. I havent tried the food yet since we always go in the morning and the kitchen isnt open then. I have been offered free refills for my soda, but I cant remember if this is only for certain sizes. I usually order a small and I know I was told refills are free and you dont have to wait in the concession line - theres a soda machine to the side. Prices are comparable to other theaters, especially if you go during matinee hours.

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JE

Jeff Riffer

This theater building was originally part of a commercial chain before it was bought by a different commercial chain, and eventually became independent. This explains in part why the theater may seem worn in areas. It was not, for example, originally a stadium-seating theater. Ive been seeing movies here for over 12 years. The current management and staff is the best Ive dealt with. Not only was everyone honestly friendly and helpful, my wife and I made fast-friends with some of the concessions staff thanks to our awesome T-shirts. We were seeing Iron Man 3 and I noticed an impressive collection of Iron Man memorabilia in one of the display cabinets. I got a beer that was reasonably priced when considering a) Its a movie theater and b) it was Fullsteam local brew not budweiser crap. Did I mention they made their own custom Star Trek prop out of the BUILDING ITSELF over the concessions stand? Yeah. Awesome. A very pro-geek environment. Soundsystem and projection system is great. It IS digital and some people will find that unacceptable. It didnt impact my experience of Iron Man 3 at all. Did I mention they have beer? Good beer? Oh and wine too if you want. You can even get a bottle and two glasses and down it during a movie.

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