I went to Cinemark Woodland Mall on its opening night witha group of friends, eager to check out the new cinema in town. I left pretty disappointed. The letdown started as we pulled into the Woodland Mall parking lot and discovered that there are only about 20 parking spots anywhere near the entrance to this theatre. Most of the parking has to be around back of the theatre, and results in a pretty long hike from the car to the door, especially in the brutal Michigan winter wind. I don't understand why they didn't just flip the orientation of the theatre so that the entrance could be actually close to the parking lot. That would have made more sense!
Once inside, we almost ran into the ticket booths - that's how close they are to the door. They are situated in this little cold alcove thing, not even really inside the theatre itself. The floor is a glazed concrete and very slippery when wet, which will be all the time during the winter. There is little to no room in front of the two ticket booths, leaving me to wonder what customers have to do when there are lines (as are inevitable at movie theatres). Really, the only option for them is to wait outside, which is quite inconsiderate to the customers. It almost looks as though the ticket area was an afterthought, which, again, does not make any sense to me.
Inside the theatre, I settled into the nice, but nothing-fancy seat and the movie began. We saw "Walk the Line," which is not a particularly soft movie, so I was dismayed to discover that we could hear very audibly the sounds from "Harry Potter" next door. That was very distracting all through the movie. I do not understand why a movie theatre wouldn't take great care to ensure that their theaters are soundproof! That was perhaps the worst part of our experience there.
Long story short - you can do better, especially here in Grand Rapids with the influx of family-run movie theatres. I might go back to Cinemark Woodland, but only if they had a good deal or an exclusive engagement that I couldn't see anywhere else.
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