Review of the Birthday Party Package at Jollibee Ortigas-Roosevelt Branch * * * Last December 2016, our unica hija turned three. This time, we chose to hold a birthday party at Jollibee because she asked for it. Months before her birthday, she's already telling us that she's excited to see Jollibee. (Yes, she's in that phase now.) Holding a party was also a good way to see some of our friends for the last time before leaving for Saudi. I chose the Jollibee Ortigas-Roosevelt branch because of recommendations from mom blogs and forums that this branch is one of the best. Here is my honest review of the place: Location. The location is ideal. It's close to Quezon City where we used to live, and it's in the middle of EDSA, so it's a good middle ground for our Bulacan and Cavite-based relatives, and our Manila-based friends. However, it's along Ortigas Avenue which can experience heavy traffic at times, especially since it's Christmas season and people flock to the Greenhills area to do their shopping. To avoid potential traffic woes, we chose to hold the event on the Sunday morning closest to her birthday, hoping there would be no traffic. We set it at 10AM, after morning church activities and in time for lunch. Facilities. There is ample parking space in this branch so we need not worry about our friends bringing their own vehicles. We also booked the combined Function Rooms 1 and 2 to accommodate more guests. We just needed to meet the required number of guests per function room. We set our guest list to 100. I liked that the function rooms were big, and seemed airy because of the windows so we did not feel cramped. Decorations. Elise adores anything pink so the Hello Kitty theme was perfect for us. Since my goal was minimal planning this time, we no longer hired an additional balloon supplier and just relied on the balloons and decorations provided by Jollibee. No table centerpieces, not even a customized background tarp which is so unlike me. Haha. I thought the decorations provided were pretty. We just brought a framed picture of Elise and displayed it at the entrance. That's it! My only DIYs for this event were the personal Hello Kitty lootbags. The party package already includes 10 (I think) lootbags so we just ordered an additional 20. We ordered the Jollitown lootbags (which includes a lunch box, spoon, notebook, and pencil case) so it's gender-neutral. For our personal Hello Kitty lootbags, we bought customized paper bags from a party supplier along Kamuning, Quezon City and bought candies, M&Ms, biscuits, and additional small toys as fillers. To seal the lootbag, I couldn't resist designing a Thank You sticker. That's the least DIY I did for any family event and I think my husband felt a bit relieved, haha.
After the program, one of the staff asked me for the guest headcount so they can start serving the food. This annoyed me because 1) I was busy entertaining our guests so I could not possibly do the headcount and 2) I thought it was their duty to do the headcount as I saw it done before in Jollibee E. Rodriguez branch where I attended a birthday before. So I asked them if they could just conduct the headcount themselves. When new guests came in and I asked the staff to serve more food, they told me they had already served the 100 meals, which surprised me because I was aware that there were still many people in our guest list who have not arrived. This could have been avoided if they had just given me a headcount when they started serving the food. Anyway, I just placed additional orders because I wanted to avoid bad vibes. Program. I have attended other Jollibee parties before and especially remember the program in the E. Rodriguez branch. The games there were new, challenging, and they gave away good prizes, even for the adults. Here at Roosevelt, I found the games usual like "pass around the balloon". The kids loved it, though. Even the adult game was fun. I just hope they can come up with newer and more exciting games in the future. During the program, we also rented a projector and played AVPs of Elise's pictures. It's an additional cost, but it was great because I got to choose the background music and it provided good entertainment while waiting for the guests to come in, and while the guests ate. The appearance of Jollibee is also included in the basic package, but we also decided to book the other four mascots - a gift from Elise's Lola Tess. It was great to see Jollibee, Hetty, Twirlie, Popo and Mr. Yum all at once. Kids and adults alike absolutely loved them! They did the routine Jollibee dance, stayed for the singing and blowing of the birthday candle, then a bit for some picture-taking. Honestly, I wish they did more, considering we booked the five of them and two function rooms. A friend also told me that she attended a Jollibee party once where the mascots joined the kids' games and gamely posed with the guests per table (I could not remember which branch). Anyway, it was still great seeing the Jollitown friends all in one room. Jollibee gift. Lastly, I also could not pass up mentioning the Jollibee birthday gift. Considering we ordered 100 meals, which is way more than the minimum amount required, they only gave Elise one free gift, the candy claw machine. I, not knowing the standards of other Jollibee branches, gratefully accepted the gift. But when my other mommy friends found out what we received, they were surprised because some of them had spent less and gotten more gifts. Upon further research in other mom blogs, I learned that given our food package, Elise could have gotten a kiddie bicycle. I really didn't mind the free gift, I didn't even expect it, but I didn't like the feeling of being neglected. I asked my husband to call Jollibee (because he is the calm one and I might get confrontational, hehe) to ask if we were supposed to receive a bigger gift given our food package. The party manager did promise to give us a kiddie sofa, which we got a month later. In the spirit of fairness, I hope they can be consistent with their gift policies for all branches. * * *
* * * For more pictures, check out the slideshow below. We hired the photo services of EGM Productions, upon Jollibee's recommendation.
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