Zap Zone in Utica, Michigan is a state of the art laser tag facility featuring a huge play area and the latest in laser tag technology. Computerized print-outs track the stats of each round inside the laser tag arena. 

Birthday parties are a specialty at Zap Zone. They offer 3 different packages of varying costs. The upper packages include pizza, a free t-shirt for the birthday boy or girl and almost 2 hours in Zap Zone's party area.

Zap Zone Utica
7529 Auburn Road, Utica, Michigan 48317
(586)323-0030 

Click here for more Michigan businesses that offer birthday party packages and great ideas for birthday parties.

My family is no stranger to Zap Zone. I often take the kids to play or invite a group of their friends to come along so they can play laser tag and enjoy the Chuck E Cheese style games in the game room between rounds of laser tag.

My son and daughter have birthdays within a month of each other and both wanted to have their birthday party at Zap Zone. I found the prices relatively reasonable so we booked their birthday party at Zap Zone. Here is my Zap Zone Birthday Party review:

The Zap Zone Utica staff needs some training. We arrived a couple minutes late and our host hollered out to me that they would be getting started within 5 minutes for the first round of laser tag. I get it, I was late, but he never even said Hi before he started to bark out the orders. Next, instead of coming into the party room when it was time for us to play laser tag, all they did was make an announcement on the overhead speakers and hoped that all the kids heard it. It would have been nice if they came to the room and gathered everyone up and walked them over to the laser tag room. 

Once in the instructional room, the host spent more than 15 minutes explaining the rules to a group of 5 to 10 year-olds, who really cared less about how many points each target was worth, and more about getting inside to play. I have no problems with someone explaining the rules or safety precautions but the staff member was talking to 5 year olds like they were 18 years old and out to be the next Terminator. 3 Minutes would have been sufficient. The kids were getting antsy and just wanted to play. Anyone with kids knows you got to keep the action moving, and you can't keep them waiting so incredibly long for the fun stuff while you bore them with the details. Keep the safety specifics, ditch the rest. Obviously, the host has no kids of his own. At one point my husband raised his hand and said "with all due respect, it's just a bunch of little kids playing... Can we just get them in there?" 

The Zap Zone laser tag arena was sweltering. My husband asked if they could turn the air on and the woman at the desk snapped at him that she already did. Then the woman snapped at me that we were going to need another pizza now that a few more people showed up. (We ended up with one whole pizza left over). After the first round of laser tag was over, we had pizza (which we had to quickly serve ourselves). It was a bit chaotic. Then they played another round. The kids returned to the party room at 4:53. We had the room until 5:15, and we still had to do cake, open presents, pass out goody bags, etc. We had no help whatsoever, so we could not possibly finish on time. Instead, we left the party with no picture of the birthday group, presents that were opened so quickly we could barely remember what they were, and we hurriedly cut the cake, totally forgetting to sing happy birthday! 

All in all, the kids seemed to have a really good time. They love the laser tag experience at Zap Zone. I just wish the party planners at Zap Zone could take a few lessons about birthday party organization from staff members at Pump It Up or Chuck E. Cheese. The staff is good at what they do, I just don't think they're cut out for birthday parties where kids are younger than 13.