We visited Hollywood bowl, based in Ashton, with “State of the art lanes, a restaurant and arcades”. Normal pricing for a game for 2 adults and 3 kids, is from £24.69. However, keep your eyes out for vouchers as we went on a bank Holiday Monday and found a half price voucher online so paid £12.50 for two adults and three children for one game. We chose an early slot booking in at 10am.
There are really easy transport links to here, including tram and bus, however, we travelled by car on this occasion. On arrival there are a number of disabled bays available directly outside the front of Hollywood Bowl which is where we parked. There are then dropped curbs either side and flat entry directly into the venue.
There are both steps and a ramp up to the reception area, and also a dropped area in reception where if you are in a chair you are able to see over the counter which was really good for Charlie. No need to change your shoes anymore like the old days, as you now bowl in your own shoes, saving us about 45 minutes Haha! The lady was a little short with us when we explained we had a wheelchair user with us, and said that we need to make sure that we inform them prior to booking in future. That is not mentioned on the website anywhere so please bear this in mind when booking.
To get to the actual bowling lane there is a small step, however there a number of movable ramps which the staff kindly put into place for us and were easily negotiable. There is table service at the lane available and we were offered drinks within 5 minutes (2 large diet cokes and 3 fruit shoots – £9) which they brought them over for us along with a card machine, so we didn’t have to leave the lane!
Bowling was great fun for all and all the usual aids were available such as the bowling bowl ramp which all the children used. The game took just over an hour which we felt was great value (especially considering the 50% voucher).
The staff at the time we went (two younger girls) were incredibly attentive, friendly and genuinely seemed to care about their jobs, going above and beyond to make our trip enjoyable.
After we had finished bowling, they brought the boys over to a leader board and got them to write their names and scores on there. The boards were magnetic, so Charlie was able to reach to write his name and then the board was moved up into place. George was crowned champion scoring an impressive 106 and Jo lost scoring a less than impressive 66, however being 8 months pregnant I suppose we will let her off!
After bowling we went and utilised the arcade. There is probably a 50% mix of things which Charlie could and could not access, but this is to be expected with the nature of an arcade, and those he could he really enjoyed. The disabled toilets are also located here and were of a good size, well equipped, clean and did not require a radar key. A lot of the prizes are via token which you can then exchange at the reception. Again, the staff were fantastic at this point sitting with boys to help them choose their gifts and making sure that they went away happy (even rooting in the stock room when Thomas wanted a different colour Lightsabre Haha).
There is a restaurant within Hollywood bowl which is in the style of an American Diner, offering a full bar, Shakes, burgers, hot hogs etc. This can be eaten in the restaurant or on the lane of you prefer, however we chose not to eat on this occasion as we were there early morning so can’t comment on the food!
Overall
We all enjoyed a really nice couple of hours which felt really easy-going and relaxed. We would have no hesitation in recommending this to anyone and would also recommend going early like we did as I think this contributed to the overall laid-back feeling, and not being rushed in anyway. We will be back.
For more information head over to the website: https://www.hollywoodbowl.co.uk/manchester
