Bowling – COVID Edition

With everyone being home for the majority of their days, sometimes a night out can be really good for morale and trying to maintain some type of normalcy. So this past Friday, we decided to have a family bowling night at Bowlero. I decided to share this experience with y’all because a lot of questions came up for me related to what can be expected during this time at places such as these. So I figured you might be wondering the same.

Clear signage? Yes I can definitely say Bowlero had clear signs on their doors and arrows on the floors to try and maintain direction and control of which way people walked. Fortunately, we got there around 7PM so it wasn’t full at all. One tip: check to see if there are any specials going on. This could either save you money if you’re interested or keep you from going at a time with way more people. That night specials started at 9PM and as we were leaving, you could definitely tell the parking lot was more full and more people were coming in.

Temp check? No, they did not do temperature checks at the door.

Face masks required? Yes face masks were required the whole time even while bowling. The face masks could only come off if you were eating. They definitely had this emphasized on their TVs all over the alley.

Food? Yes food service was available. They actually had it where a waitress would come to your lane or you could walk and place an order at their counter. This was different because they did not previously have waitresses. I am assuming this was done to keep so many people from walking back and forth and around the alley.

Bar? Yes, the bar was open but not packed at the time we were there.

Arcade? Now here is where my concern was. Some people were eating at the tables behind their lanes but also walking back and forth to the arcade so I did witness some people with their face masks down in that area.

Bathrooms? The bathrooms were not as clean as I would think. The paper towel was sitting on the counter over the sink so it was definitely getting touched by multiple people and also damp.

Sanitizing? This was also something that stuck out to me. This facility did not have any hand sanitizing stations. Most places I have been to recently either have hand sanitizer available at the entrance/exit or throughout their facility for easy access. This was not the case at the bowling alley. Fortunately we had brought our own hand sanitizer to keep in our area but it would have been nice to have it around considering the many hands touching the equipment and arcade games.

Overall, we had a great time. The kids really enjoyed themselves and I did feel pretty safe. I know everyone has their own boundaries regarding going out so if you are considering bowling as an activity I would definitely say check it out at a time that is not usually busy.

Stay safe!

•