Leading up to the annual senior field trip to Dave and Buster’s arcade, my expectations were low. All I had heard from past seniors were complaints about how quickly they ran out of money for games, how gross the food was and how boring and expensive their day off was. Nevertheless, at Langley field trips aren’t a regularity, so I didn’t want to miss out.
When we arrived in Rockville, Maryland after a fifteen minute drive and pulled up to the giant complex housing the arcade, I was pleasantly surprised. It was massive. Walking up three escalators was worth it, and once we were given our swipe card with a pre-set amount of money the games finally began.
Dave and Buster’s is essentially a glorified Chuck-E-Cheese, except for adults. Needless to say, we seniors went crazy. We had the entire game center to ourselves, and it felt like there was an unlimited amount of options – we didn’t even know where to begin.
After making rounds through the entire place, playing everything from skeet ball to Tootie-Fruity, we took a break for lunch. Nachos, mini pizzas, chicken tenders and fries awaited us in an all-you-can-eat buffet style format. I wasn’t crazy about the food, but it was definitely edible.
And back to the games we went. Unfortunately, one of my friends lost her swipe card in the commotion of moving all around. I shared mine with her for the rest of the afternoon, and between the two of us we still didn’t run out of money. I still had 60 points left when it was time for us to leave.
A ton of people surrounding me had amazing luck, spinning a wheel and winning 1000 tickets in one turn. Many people collected tickets in an “every man for yourself” fashion, but I pooled mine with some friends so we could win big at the end.
Once teachers started coming around warning us to turn our tickets in, it was a mad-house rush to the weighing station, where tickets were turned into buying points. My friends and I managed to rack up 6,678 points, which we split among us.
Our prizes consisted of one giant giraffe, four teddy bears, one angry bird, six bracelets, and one giant slinky. Quite a successful day if you ask me. I saw other students dragging giant bananas, panda bears, disco balls, and other random prizes onto the charter buses taking us back to school.
Overall, Dave and Buster’s was not a bust. It was a fun day for seniors to take a break from college apps and bond with their fellow classmates.