Thirdy's third birthday party at Jollibee Eton Centris

04/18/2015. We're celebrating Thirdy's 3rd birthday at Jollibee Eton Centris. Chea wanted Thirdy to experience a Jollibee birthday party at least once in his life.

This jollibee mascot is very friendly.

The party's scheduled at 10am, but we managed to leave home around 9:15am. There was a little bit of traffic along the way, but we were able to park inside Eton Centris mall at around 9:45.

But when I got to the entrance of the mall via the carpark, I was told by the guards that the mall is still closed. I informed them that we were having a party at Jollibee and I was lugging around a heavy package with party favors. I was still told to go around outside to the main doors of Jollibee. I was pretty incensed as I had to carry the package back to the car, and we had to drive outside again.

When we parked right in front of Jollibee, even in a clearly defined parking slot, we were acosted by the mall guard and asked us to park elsewhere. What the hell? Chea told the guard that we were dropping off some stuff at Jollibee for a party. The guard grunted a "Bilisan nyo lang" to us. These guys should be taught some manners. Should've asked what agency they belonged to and make a complaint. But it's supposed to be a happy occasion as it's Thirdy's party, so I just carried the stuff into Jollibee.

The main party area. Still preparing. Ouch.

I carried the stuff to the second level, and found out that they're still finishing their decorations. Really? I thought we said that the party was at 10am.

Some of the decorations

The birthday boy!

Our photographer, Mang Jimmy, was already there. Gelo, Thirdy's godfather, was there too along with his daughters.

Our stuff.

The rest of the 2nd floor.

A bit later, Lys, another one of Thirdy's godfather arrived, followed soon after by Carlo, a high school classmate of mine. That was already around 10:30am, and the staff are still doing some decorations. Really.

The other party section

A wider view.

Good thing most of the guests didn't arrive until it was close to 11am. At that time, Chea had asked the staff to serve the french fries to tide the guests over.

The party hats and place mats.

We reserved two slots, 10am-12nn and 1pm-3pm, since we felt that two hours is too short. The 12noon-1pm is usually set aside to clean  up the previous party, and prepare for the next one. But we opted to let go of that, so our party was from 10am-2pm or a total of four hours.

The party cake is provided by Red Ribbon. 

Bayoons as Thirdy used to say it.

Ceiling decors

What's Hello Kitty doing here?

We wanted to start at around 10:30am for the games, and start lunch at 11:30am-12nn. We could finish eating by 1:30pm and rest until 2pm.

Thirdy with his first gift. I think this came from Gelo's kids.

We also managed to reserve the entire 2nd floor, since we were expecting more than 70 guests, as the main area for birthday parties can only hold around 30-50 guests. So we had the entire floor to ourselves.

The camera boxes are left overs from Thirdy's first birthday. The pails are from Divisoria.

Laying out the prizes

Party favors

After most of the guests arrived, we started with a prayer. Then proceeded to some kiddie games.

Thirdy wanted to join in on the games.

A variation of the musical chairs game. They used party hats instead of chairs. 

A variation of the Boat is sinking, Group yourselves game.

I remember only two of the kiddie games. The first was the musical chairs game, but instead of chairs, they placed party hats in the middle. And kids had to scramble to get a hat when the host gave the signal.

The other game was a variation of the Boat is Sinking game. But they were asked to shake their hands first, turn around, and given a signal to group themselves.

Then, we had a couple of adult games. First was a race to run around a chair, but with cardboards clipped between their legs, armpits, and the neck, while holding card boards in each hand.

Shimmying around the chair

The other one had them running towards a chair, and building a pyramid from cups, going around the chair, get the cups and run back to their group and hand the cups over to the next person.

By that time, food wasn't finished yet, as we were told that food was scheduled at 12:30 pm. I didn't know that, which is why Chea, as she told me, asked that the fries be served by 11am.

I said that the food should have been served a little before 12nn, since people would expect the food at exactly lunch time, when your invitation states that the party starts at 10am. Good thing that they were able to cook most of the food a little before 12noon, as I was already hungry by then, which I assumed were the same for the guests.

As the food wasn't ready yet, the kids played another couple of games. The first one, again a variation of the musical chair, they passed a balloon around until the music stopped. The person caught holding the balloon gets eliminated.

The last game, was the longest line of coins so the parents had to participate as well since they had all the money. Lol. I have to say that most of the parents were into it as they really helped their kids out.

The hosts threw the coins later for the kids to pick up. Sorry 'rents. 

Soon after, the adults were served a 1-piece chicken joy with rice, 1 regular sized drink, a regular burger, and a sundae in a cup.

Jollibee party favors.

These are what you get as part of the party package.

The children had a different meal which had the spaghetti instead of the rice since kids love those.

The birthday cake

We didn't want to spend too much on a Jollibee birthday party, so we didn't want to order a big menu for our guests, and end up with too much food.

In a previous birthday party that we attended, our friends' served meal for adults were two piece chicken with rice, large fries, large drinks, and sundaes. For the kids, it was chicken and spaghetti, along with fries and sundaes too. Chea and I ended up sharing the 2-piece chicken meal, and Precy (Thirdy's yaya), ended up eating Thirdy's leftovers since it was a big meal too, and we didn't touch the other two 2pc chicken meals, which we ended up taking home. Not to mention, our friend told us later, that there were still a lot left over for some of the guests that didn't arrive, that they had to take everything home.

We didn't want to end up the same way, hence the 1pc chicken meals. At the end of the party, there were still some food left over for guests that failed to arrive, but at least we didn't get to overspend.

Here comes Jollibee!

While we were eating, Jollibee arrived. For every party, he gets to hang around for 30 minutes. I think the way it goes is that, 10 minutes is used up for the introductions and a little picture taking, another 10 minutes for the dancing, and another 10 minutes for the birthday wishes and pictures.

Thirdy enjoyed having his picture taken with Jollibee.

Additional mascots can be hired for 1,000 pesos each. But since we reserved two slots, we get to have Jollibee for one whole hour! We opted not to get the other mascots, as Jollibee would be enough. The place is too small anyway for more than one mascot walking around.

Thirdy couldn't get enough of Jollibee.

So while most of us were eating, some of the guests had ample time having their picture taken with Jollibee. He posed gamely with all the guests.

High fives all around!

In other parties, especially with the 30 minute allowance, guests barely have time getting their pictures taken. Not to mention, in some of the parties that we've seen, since the areas are a bit small, people couldn't get a decent picture of themselves without other people getting in the shots.

Thirdy was ecstatic with Jollibee. He kept hugging him all over and stayed with him for a long while. He even sat on Jollibee's knee while having pictures taken with other guests.

It actually felt like a really private party with Jollibee hanging around and taking time with us. Very much unlike the other parties, where I always feel that his participation is rushed. Have you been to one of those? The mascot gets introduced, he waves a bit, people rush to him and try to squeeze in a picture or two? Then he does his dance moves, then some birthday greetings using hand signals, then leaves, pausing along the way while guests try to get a picture or two?

Well, it's different here. Jollibee went around, posed with people in their tables. He even did a fist bump ala-Baymax with me while I was sitting near the birthday cake as he walked passed by. I didn't know he'd do the finger wave, but that's how I do the fist bump with Thirdy, so I was amused we ended up doing the same thing like we scripted it or something. I even heard some of guests laughing because we did it out of nowhere. Funny guy.

After about 15 minutes or so, Jollibee started his dance show, with the two hosts dancing along.

Jollibee strutting his stuff.

After that, he then went around and posed with the people.

He then did a second dance (Hey, two party slots remember?) later, then had that hand signal birthday wishes for Thirdy and some final picture taking.

When he was leaving, he stopped by me, we shook each other's hand, and we did that Baymax fist bump, all in one continuous motion like a best friend secret handshake. Lol. That guy in the suit and I are on the same wavelength.

After that the kids queued up to greet Thirdy and were given loot bags.

There were a few left over food that we gave to some friends and family. But we basically ordered the exact amount of food.

After that, our friends and some family bid goodbye, and we packed our stuff and brought them to our cars. Chea's parents along with Cedric and his girlfriend, Rose, went to our house to help drop off some of the packages.

I asked Chea how many guests arrived, and she said around 72 guests. Not exactly the 100 guests that we were expecting, but it was just perfect for the size of the place, with a lot of space to move around.

Chea shelled out around 12,000 pesos on top of the 5,000 pesos she paid previously to reserve the place. She told me that she also spent around 4,000 pesos for the things she bought at Divisoria. So Thirdy's party cost us 21,000 pesos or around 290 pesos per head.

At that price, you could probably opt for Meryendad's. But that won't come with the things we bought over at Divisoria. Other eat all you can options could have been Tramway, as they have function rooms.

But still, Chea really wanted a Jollibee party so those two aren't really options. We considered a McDonald's party before especially with banners around their places that you can have parties for as low as 165 pesos per pax, if I recall correctly.

McDonald's may be the better option as they have themes  (for boys) like Ben 10, SpongeBob and Adventure Time. Whereas Jollibee only had Jollibee Best Friend, and Jollitown. They used to have Batman, which would have been perfect, but not anymore. Not to mention, some of the freebies and treats looked better with McDonald's. Jollibee also charged everything on a per piece basis, such as party hats and placemats, which aren't free. You have to separately order them with the idea that you'd only get them for kids, so you'd only pay for exactly what you need, and same money in the process. Sounds reasonable enough.

So if you're really penny pinching and want to really get down to the smallest details to try and get the most of your money, then Jollibee is the way to go. But if you don't want to be bothered with too much planning, then McDonald's it is.

Our final decision went down to just one question: "Do you want a Jollibee party or not?". So despite the arguably better option from McDonald's, we went with Jollibee.

I do have complaints with Jollibee Eton though. Such as that issue with the mall security. Then the preparation was still ongoing 15 minutes before the party starts. Then there was an issue with their ceiling mounted AC unit as it was broken and only the fan worked. Good thing the other cabinet type ACs were functioning and it was enough to keep the entire 2nd floor tolerably cool. Another complaint, was that they only had comfort rooms at the 2nd floor so some of their patrons would walk through our party. Then there's the issue that some patrons would also go up to the 2nd floor looking for seats, when it's obvious that the upper floor is closed for a party. I think that's because they didn't put a chain blocking the way up the stairs, and just placed a stand sign that got pushed aside at times.

I still feel that we made the right choice about having the party at Jollibee though. Especially with reserving two slots as we had Jollibee for one entire hour. That really made the difference for me. Thirdy had a grand time. In the end, that's all that matters.