Reviews of Great Escape - The Ultimate Experience (Bowling Alley)

MAtt Dunlap

Referring to the front desk bowling staff as disrespectful and downright rude is an understatement. I would absolutely not recommend to anyone with a larger group or anyone ever in general Very disappointed.

S S

Awesome as always! :)

Brian Toppenberg

This place was great. I don’t even like bowling that much and a coworker reserved 2 lanes in the VIP section. Now I’m thinking about getting a ball and some shoes and a bald spot, quitting my job and joining the tour! Would bowl again!

Luke Veik

I wish I could give this place 0 Stars or better yet negative 10. Not only was I misinformed over the phone about their New Year's hours that I made reservations for and paid over $100 the service was terrible waited 5 minutes at the counter for someone to come greet me with the nastiest look I've ever seen in my life. I drove over a half an hour with a vehicle full of 4 kids that waited a week for this experience only to be let down because they miss informed me on the time that it started the only good thing I have to say about this place is they refunded me my money. I will never return, never recommend anybody to go, and discourage anybody that says they are going to even think about attending this low-grade establishment.

Teresa Gish

Very poor customer service by the manager. She argued with a customer in front of other customers. I have been in customer service for over 30 years and have never experienced anything like that before. It is not the first time I witnessed this with her.

Joshua Williams

Bettter than my birthday in a moist Cambodia evening with fried grasshoppers

Kathleen Nichols

Absolutely love this place recommend it to everyone

Sam Coleman

I bowl here in league weekly' and everybody who works here is the nicest I've ever seen.

Kimberlee Powers

Very nice staff and lots of games for the kids to play.

Dawny Valadez

Fun party place. Good food

Hannah Otto

The man who greeted us at the door was extremely rude and quite sexist

alonzo buckner

I had a great day and my games were great

Matt Proctor

Expensive food, too many TVs, staff not that helpful with kids... Bowling with fine.

mike artist

Great whole fam loved it thanks never received hospitality at a fun center b4 it made us feel welcomed!!!!!

Roshida Hernandez-Wells

Went to celebrate my daughter's 11th birthday. My family and I had an awesome time! Friendly staff, clean restrooms and facility. We will defineately be back.

Ronda Schiltz

Over priced.

DSM Iowa FPV & Bowl

Best bowling center in the Des Moines area, clean and friendly staff.

Curt Brooks

Have to do it!! So awesome!

Art Schramm

Great food and craft beer selection. Sometimes the service can be a bit slow.

Wowza Glasses

Our bowling lane froze up on us 6 times in an hour, had to go to the front desk to get them to fix it each time. Otherwise a great place for fun.

Natalie McDonald

Our work had a fun employee christmas party here

Chuck Grigsby - G Unity Worldwide

Fun time with Fam! People were nice

KT LS

What a clean and neat place. Good prices and great service

Tommy S

Page is a good waitress also food is way better than it was

Dewayne Hagan

Good time all around, but little agrivated after ordering 45+$ in food to have to get charged for 2 extra ranches. Guess we will eat somewhere else next time, for half the cost. Hope the ranch profit are worth it.

Einstein AF

Fun fun fun.

Jeff Gearhart

Great place to go with the grandkids and the device was very good and helpful. I would will plan a time to go again soon.

Jose Marquez

Staff were very friendly ! Had a good time

Kayla Rusher

Looked up price, over priced, tried to get a coupon, there was fine print, had to spend lots of money before it worked, then went to bowl and it was a 40 min wait to bowl. Never ended up bowling.

Dance Explosion

Terribly run establishment. A 0 star rating would be far more accurate. As we arrived, we were immediately treated negatively from the man working at the front counter, who was clearly not trained in customer service, as he was rude and disrespectful towards a customer. Terrible service, disrespectful staff, and overall a negative connotation towards customers who are willing to spend $25 per lane.

Durka Durka

Laser tag is amazing!!!!

Jayme Hatcher

Fun atmosphere, friendly staff, and good food and drinks.

Jerry Stroud

If you are looking for a good time And a fun place that's the place to Go

Matthew McCleary

Great place with good atmosphere be prepared to drop cash, pricey

Dan Burch

Very pleased the food was excellent. So many fun things to do and many new exciting things coming. Love this place!

Travis Troy

Whitney was absolutely amazing! We hosted an event in their VIP room & they catered the food, we did bowling. It was a blast & the wait & bar staff was awesome! Thanks! We will certainly be back!

Dustalynn Durbin

We had a great time. They have specials regularly.

Candace Morrison

Family fun

Michele Carter

The kids had a blast! & the staff were very helpful and accommodating for our last minute Birthday gathering!

Becky Fuqua

So we took the kids to Great Escape bowling in Pleasant Hill IA. We called ahead and RSVP for the 4 of us. We get there and not all the lanes were busy. They put us on lane 11 which had a big family that was in the lane next to us that took up all the ball space on the ball return. So I ask if we could be moved. We got moved to lane 14. We were on our 8th frame when a lady asked us to move from the table we were sitting at because it belongs to lane 13. So we did move over not knowing the big family was moving to lane 13. In the middle of us grabbing our items man in the big family grabs all our balls off the ball return and puts the ball return for lane 12. That piss me off even more cause we are no where being done. We ask for a refund and was told no we can have coupons. We paid by the hour and only got 20 min of our time played. Very disappointed in this place and will never return.

Matt Petersen

Bowling is bowling, but the laser tag, while small, it's a lot of fun & a good value at $7/person.

Shawn Neat

The only thing this place is an escape from is fun and common sense. Idk what the hell happened to this place but I know I won't be going back again. What a waist of money. The bowling alley doesn't even function. Balls constantly stuck in return, pins not clearing properly. I've been to some pretty ghetto lanes before but never one with this many issues. And thanks for not asking how things were as you stood there watching me walk out the door 20 minutes before my lane time even ended. It's good to know you don't give a $#!+ since you got your money already. And btw I was one of 3 lanes being used so being busy wasn't an excuse for your lousy customer service.

Jan Jones

We WILL NEVER RETURN. Our 1st experience was at a birthday party where they booked 6 or 7 toddlers on each lane. That was terrible of them to do, but we gave them a second chance because they gave us 2 cards for a "free game". It is FALSE ADVERTISING. We come in and the lady says it is not for a game, it is for one person on one lane. Tom then interjects himself into MY conversation to say it is normally $5 per PERSON. I said $20 for ONE game on ONE LANE IS REDICULOUS. He literally continued to argue with me. I had to ask him to leave me alone as those prices are in fact rediculous. He has to get the last word in and said "not in other cities in other states". I tell him he is dead wrong, we are in Iowa, I've bowled league at several alleys and know pricing well enough to know this is rediculous. They knew I was with a 4 year old yet I had to go back to ask for bumpers and the dinosaur ramp. A waitress helped us who was kind. She had the food and beverage manager come to speak to me. He was also kind but quite unhelpful. He requested I relive this terrible experience once again to Whitney. I point out they have 4 lanes out of 24 occupied and no one to oversee all of the lanes nor realize they're completely overpriced, so my guess is me reaching out won't be the eye opener to all of these problems they've had before and since I've arrived. After researching further, I will correct this to read one game for 4 people is actually $24. If you have not reassess your pricing recently, I would suggest you do so now. That is nowhere near in line with other bowling facilities.

Emily Lo

Only been here once but will definitely return! Clean place and friendly staff. Great open bowling specials after 9 pm Monday-Thursday!!

Brian Blankenburg

Great atmosphere. Pizza was not very good, but the fries were great!

Jared Mellody

Staff where on average level of workers not chatty not engaging. Fin night with 3 other people cost around $40 for one hour with shoes. Decent place.

Barb Capron

We had a large group for bowling and Lazer tag. Ages 6 to 67 and they accommodated all of us. We had a great time!

Dianna Leib

Expensive!!

Chris Belcher

Love bowling there every week! Food is great but you get what you pay for.

Richard Klein

If you are looking to do some laser tag, but not willing to shell out a fortune for a tactical experience this is the place for you. They have a great laser tag room for a family outing.

Michael Norris

Nice clean affordable alley wish it had a pro shop I'll go again

Justin Portillo

Closed down the pizza thing too soon

Daniel Tague

Cool place to have some fun with friends.

Ray Strekal

Great facility great staff

Michael Miller

Nice place for family fun

Nicole's freebies,reviews & more

We had a great experience for my son's 13th birthday party. Our party assistant Abby was very helpful and easy going, we were late getting the party started and she allowed us extra time for our party ( note we were also the last party of the night, so I'm sure this played are part in it too!) All the staff was very helpful and friendly and made that party run smoothly. We did the Lazer tag party and the money we paid for the party was well worth the experience we had tonight. I recommend this place for kids and teens birthday party.

A J

The cook Mike i believe, rocked it on my nachos! Will def be returning in the near future!

Ashley Comito

They are working on making it right. I will make a better review once its made right

Joe Klein

Food and staff are awesome.Bowling games and craft beer what's not to like!

Ivan Guerra

Restaurant is good. Service was good. Nothing to brag or complain about. Bowling alley and beer are there for entertainment.

Bret DeVries

Good food and great service. Live music on a Fri night. Stop by if your on the bypass.

Ashley G

We did 2 rounds of laser tag and the kids (ages9-12) had a blast!

Jayden Graves

very good bowling experience but could be a bit bigger. good location also

Shirley Stalker

We had our own host, got a good package, and he got an bowling pin to take home.

Kathy Maxon

Always an enjoyable place to have fun at. Everyone who works there is very friendly.

Melissa Reyerson

I came here recently to go bowling with my family. We had to wait a bit to get a lane because it's very popular on the weekend but we went and had some beer while we waited. Really good selection of craft beer and the bowling alley was very nice. It was a bit more expensive than the other bowling alleys I have been to.

semour butts

Literally have been standing at the counter for 15 mins looking at 3 people working and no one will help us, what a waste of time.

Mike Eggers

Nice selection of Kraft beer!? Food was great??

Bryan Strait

This family really knows how to run centers and without a doubt sets the standard in town. Will certainly be back when I am in town.

Gerardo Hernandez

I love this place the bowling lines are great and the night specials are the best

Rhian Chamberlin

Started with four games, added four more and got charged for shoes again, not pleased with staff that and snacks are overpriced.

Mr Mark

Nice atmosphere... $30 for 2 pitchers of domestic isnoutbof line tho

Ryan Funk

Good prices during the weekday afternoons. 3 of us played 2 games for $20. Good way to beat the heat.

Todd Clewell

Very friendly staff in the bowling ally but the bar area had a guy that was disrespectful.

Kent Reed

We held a small charity event at the Great Escape today and their Hospitality was phenomenal! They are the Kingpin for local bags tournaments and leagues, and oh by the way, their food we enjoyed at lunch afterwards was fantastic! They're thin wedge type french fries are unlike any I've ever had with seasoning that made the pile go way too fast from my plate! Thanks Brandon and Whitney!

Jim Thompson

Was there for sons birthday 3hrs of bowling not once did waitress come to see if we needed anything!!!! Had to go to bar and get drinks bartender was awesome as usual! Go there often worse wait staff ever had!!!!! Not the first time this has happened with waitresses working tonight !!!!!!! Saturday 9/22 !!!!!!!!!

Charles Massey

Paid for two hours, but spent a good chunk of time trying to resolve issues. Staff seemed overwhelmed.

Shanae Demulling

Absolutely disrespectful and rude staff running the bowling check in! Would not reccomend!

Terra Stegall

Took our four year old here to go bowling for the very first time. The staff was super accommodating in figuring out little shoe sizes and even helped to make our single game played more affordable with a coupon. We didn't order any food, but spent plenty in the arcade, lol. This was a family friendly atmosphere with many entertainment options, and we will gladly return.

Derek Morris

This is a great place to take kids for an afternoon or evening of fun. After 3 hours they still did not want to leave.

Mahlon White

This place has been recently remodeled and it looks amazing. Very clean and the food is good too!!!

Brody The Movie Guy

Social's Food is amazing for a bowling alley. The food comes out hot, always good and cheap during the week. The bowling alley is fun too. A little expensive but I understand that. Its always packed and the arcade is a nice small arcade with a few claw machines and a basketball game. The only issue is that the laser tag arena is fun but really small. Its about the size of a master bedroom including the closet and bathroom. I think if they bought the empty building connected to the alley and make that the bowling alley it would make the laser tag way more fun and way more people would come on weekends. Still a fun and nice place.

Harvey Brandon

First time here very friendly staff and great service

Will Kaptain

Well all have things we'd like to escape. Perhaps it's the stress of our mundane, menial 9-5 jobs, or the obligation to cope with the state of our meaningless, devoid-of-prospects lives or the petrifying uncertainty of what is to come after death. It all seems hopeless... The void is inescapable. But hark! There lies a luminous beacon on the horizon, somewhere in Altoona, Iowa. At last, an escape... Nay, a GREAT escape! Emerge from the darkness, and engage in a jolly game of bowling, lazer tag or whatever the arcade offers! There is so much affordable fun to be had here, I would recommend!

robert caldwell

Nice alley, clean, polite and professional

David Huck

A over all great establishment. Great food and a very friendly environment. The entire staff is welcoming and inviting. If could rate this place high it would be 100/10

Michael Trogdon

The staff here are the best, food is awesome and the lanes during leagues really good.

Brian Crow

The bowling alley looks great as it isn't your typical old un-renovated bowling alley. We had reserved a few lanes for a large group and it was very easy to set up. Also, service there was great.

Terry Iverson

Good place for kids party on Saturday after 2 pm.

Cami Munger

They have a new state of the art arcade and laser tag opening in September. It is a great place for families, friends, or co-workers to have fun.

Linda Patterson

Awesome place for the whole family .. snow days would be a happy get a way .. day time cheap ..

David Meiske

Great family fun and entertainment!!!

Ricke Tim

Steelers club was rocking at the great escape! Good service!

Kelly Severeid

Had a wonderful waitress Elaine!!! And front desk gentleman was Tom he was also awesome!!

Aaron Swartzendruber

It has been a while since I have been bowling and was very pleased with my experience. There is a wait staff that comes to you while bowling and you can order food and drinks. The food options are that of a larger bar and grill (not just snack type food).

Lucinda Maxson

The atmosphere and staff were very pleasant and the food they served was good. However, the lane we were using kept getting stuck and wouldn't always return the balls.

Jacob Bianchi

Tough lanes

Aaron Houghton

Doesn't quite exist yet.

Todd Downing

Good food & great service from Jennifer at "The Social", she was excellent! As a local P-Hill business owner ourselves, we try hard to keep majority of our business in town but its not always easy. So it's great to have such a nice eatery for family outings as well as a place to refer all our customers to try. Thank you!

Kourtney Duffy

Fun place to bowl and play pool. Fair pricing, and a lot of food and drinks to choose from.

jessica pounds

Fun experience. Loved the pizza

Josh Holt

Clean facility, great lanes, slightly slow service.

Priscilla Post

My boys love Youth Bowling. It's a great experience for them! Reasonably priced and great service!

Kortni Stocker

Great place for a corporate outing. Easy, affordable and fun!

Lori Slings

Delicious lunch and excellent service.

Coley Monster

Little time for free bowlers. Good for kids and big families. Food is very very expensive!

michelle miller

Had a great team outing here for Christmas!! The VIP lounge was perfect and gave us just the right amount of privacy. Would recommend this to anyone wanting to plan a group outing!!

Natalie Thyne

I would give it 0/5 stars if I could. The bowling staff was very rude, would not serve a large group. Would not recommend to anyone due to their disrespectful staff and poor service.

Alyssa Miller

My husband and I enjoy the late night bowling here just by ourselves, but trying to book a party is a joke. My husband tried to plan his father's birthday here and was not treated very well. I booked a bowling outing with some friends in the Vip section awhile back for this Friday and paid a big deposit, and was told that someone else was going to be bowling there instead and that I would be bumped to either a super late time or just a regular lane. And I wasn't told until the day before. Although I got my deposit back I am very disappointed with how unprofessional their booking system is.

mitch vetter

Worst bowling experience I've ever had. Didn't know you had to pay hourly for bowling. Dumbest thing I've ever done was paying them for a a few games at a lackluster bowling alley. I do not recommend going here. So many better places in the metro.

Zachary Sherer

Fun time. My sister got the biggest kick out of it which was actually my favorite part.

Mike Cleaver

Great place for bowling and entertainment. Good food also.

Todd Hageman

Fun place! Bowl, shoot pool, play games. Food is basically 'bar food' and is hardly fine dining, but it's okay.

Crystal Conroy

Lots of great family fun.

Stephen Garrick

Its not Plaza but its the next best. Staff is awesome.

Micah Meyer

Food was decent, service was friendly, prices were moderate, location is close

Cael Tarbell

Very good quality. Best place to bowl in pleasant Hill and the surrounding areas. This place is pricier though.

rhonda zarr

Nice 0lace for our work Christmas party

Brandy Vanarkel

Its great a bit pricey but good

Brett Lippold

Always good food, lots of Tv's, drink choices, and family friendly atmosphere...

Pam Larson

Don’t order the pizza. Unless you want a frozen pizza and charged $16 for it. My Pazizz does better with Tony’s pizza. When we asked for a refill of Our pitcher of water but instead it was taken and we were told that the owner said we can’t have pitchers of water. I felt like a child being punished and had to eat the dry, not even hot pizza. Tom was fantastic! He gave a great 1st impression of the place. Too bad the whole evening wasn’t as much fun as Toms attitude.

K Ham

We went here for our son’s birthday because we were here from out of town to go to Adventureland but it was too hot!! Thank you for making our son’s day so special and singing happy birthday to him! He had a great time and was not phased in the least for missing Adventureland!!! The crispy flat fries are one of the best fries we have ever had! Perfectly crispy and seasoned. We also ordered pizza, burgers, nachos and cheese curds that were also good. My only small suggestion is to doctor up that pizza sauce. It tastes canned or bottled which we use on homemade pizzas but we add a little to it for better flavor! Your staff is amazing! Super courteous and I couldn’t say enough good about them! Thanks again!

Fred C.

Had my bachelor party here very fun. I love the VIP Lanes the drinks are good and the service is top-notch

Richard Thompson

Great Escape was terrific. I had never been there and the first thing in the door I was greeted with a friendly smile and my questions were answered quickly. The place was very clean and pleasing. I plan on going back to the facility.

Suzie Justo

We had a good time here on Sunday, arriving around 11:00. A tournament was finishing up, so it was crowded at first, but died down after about 1:00. We had 2 adults and 4 kids, paid per person/per game. Friendly staff. Waitress came and took our order and provided excellent service. The laser tag was a favorite of the kids. Arcade area was small but sufficient for a bowling alley. The only problem we encountered were the patrons placed in the lane next to us that didn't appreciate the lack of bowling etiquette from young children, other than that it was a pretty good day.

Troy Kleese

Friendly staff and very nice facilities. Plus, only metro facility that doesn't charge entry fee for high school matches.

Jordan Eshelman

This place sucks. Bowl somewhere else.

Cristy Mccombs

Great service and food

denise haws

Clean and friendly place. Bowling is fun.

Joanne Webb

good bar food family friendly we had a fun family outing!

Sharon Bakley

Had a great time here...

Laurie Eshelman

Awful.

alexander capps

I had a great time with my freinds

Dani Robinson

I bowled on Friday night's women's league with mom and sister... Love it

Adrianna Yugovich

Awful. Came with family while visiting. Manager was rude, staff are clearly untrained, bowling lanes had many issues. I have been to older alleys with way better service and never have issues with balls getting stuck. WAY over priced for what you get. My advice, find another bowling alley. The arcade & arcade manager are just as bad.

Amber Nelson

Just called to get a reservation as we have 2 boys with autism and I was told that they need 48 hours notice for a reservation. We are visiting from Cedar Rapids so this wasn’t a planned event. Very disappointed.

Mark Warson

Pretty good food, and the bowling was a great time, take your own shoes though, theirs don't allow your feet to slide on the floor.

Walter Perez

Awesome place, 2nd year we have had a bday here and it never is dull

Kari Aswegan

No Corona Light all season after continued complaints = EPIC FAIL

Meg S

The food was good. Games ranging from bowling to Lazer Tag to arcade games. A nice array of options.

Larry Weilbrenner

Very expensive to do anything there! They also water down their alcohol! We ordered shots of crown apple and you could barely taste any alcohol. Won't be back there anytime soon!

Aileen Hunnell

Clean. Friendly staff. Accommodating to large crowds. Organized. Affordable.

chuck barnes

Rhis place is off the hook

Cathy Baker

Great food and wonderful friendly service.

Nick Souza

Good food and bowling. They are also a great supporter of the city!

David Van Vugt

Went here for a child's birthday and was quite pleased. The facility is very clean with friendly and helpful staff. Food was above average with a nice separate party area.

Dawn Cook

Great friendly staff!! Nice to get away and have fun with the family!

Trent Frohock

Great bowling alley and great service.

Dani S

Front desk employees were FANTASTIC and accommodated my group perfectly. Busy place, but beyond worth the wait. Servers were pleasant and quick. Mechanics do great work keeping lanes oiled and running, no problems for us! Couldn’t be happier with our service! Will return!

Dallas Moorhead

We went in on a Saturday night expecting to not be able to get a lane at all; we were pleasantly surprised to find an open lane with a reasonable rate for unlimited bowling plus our shoe rentals!

Armando Rodriguez

Kids had fun, which is what’s important. What upset me is that we came in at 8 and signed up for laser tag and we’re told an hour. Great. I had a 4 year old and a 10 year old. At 9:00 a group came in that reeked of weed and alcohol and I overheard them say our wait time is an hour and a half let’s go talk to the girl at the counter and see if we can go sooner. Wouldn’t you know they go before us, who have been waiting so long with young kids. Not very considerate. Will not be back just due to that. Also, when I asked the girl at the counter she made up an excuse on how I wasn’t around for our turn.. I was waiting in front of the door since 8:45.

Derek Quintus

Nice, clean place. Staff was friendly. I really appreciated that they had a baby changing station in the men's room.

Katie Philip

We had a wonderful time Cosmic bowling! It was great to see our daughter getting better at bowling.

Morgan Halverson

Fun. Clean. Nice bar.

Haley Gallardo

It was a good time I recommend the blue bowl drink to share and their fries are pretty good.

Lisa Kelderman

This is such a beautiful facility but SO overpriced. They often hand out “free game” coupons but what they don’t say is you only get the second game free and the first game is $9 pp and shoes are $4. They also would not honor the $10 off coupon THEY emailed me for signing up for their list only because they said it needed to be printed!? Staff is not friendly or helpful. They seem more interested in nickel and diming people instead of keeping customers happy and coming back. On. Sunday afternoon it cost us nearly $40 for two 8-yr-olds to bowl.

Jack Harris

Good price, good service. Priced right