Location: Sheraton National Hotel 900 South Orme Street, Arlington MD
Event Time: Saturday, January 9, 2010 from 9pm-2am
Cost: Admission: $10 – Cash Bar: $4-$10 (various drinks)
Description: DC area's first game night for adults mixed with a party atmosphere! Relive some of your youth as attendees will be able to enjoy games, drinks, discounted rooms, and a live DJ in a fun and relaxed environment.
Critique: For the last few months, I been meaning to get around to this event but for reasons beyond my control I could never make it to Recess...until now. Originally, a couple of staff members were suppose to accompany me to help with the coverage but they were unable to attend so I decided to take that trip by myself.
It took me about 15 minutes to arrive at the Sheraton National Hotel. The hotel was pretty easy to find. Next was parking...oh yes, parking. To my satisfaction, their garage had FREE parking! This was the first plus of the night. I truly dislike having to find parking on the street. From the garage, I made my way to the lobby area of the hotel. Once there, you could definitely hear the festivities at hand – music, laughing, talking. I was greeted at the entrance by Rashad “Mayor” Wilson one of the Recess hosts. This was my 1st time meeting him in person but we had been connected for over a year. From there, he walked me to the greeting table where I met Diego aka “Mr. Burns” who is a member of the Recess welcoming committee. Both men were very informative, charming & approachable. After a brief conversation with them, they presented me with my name tag in which I was asked to write my Playground name but of course I choose to be me. Nice touch though. I also was given a notepad and pen (Thanks guys!). It’s like they knew I forgot mine at home...LOL! Now time for RECESS!
Upon entering the spacious ballroom, the 1st thing I noticed was the diverse crowd. There were numerous ethnicities in attendance getting their mingle on...CHECK PLUS! The lighting was slightly dimmed but it added to the stimulating atmosphere in which ALL the tables were FULL with people “getting their Recess on”. Recess games consisted of: Scrabble, Monopoly, Life, Scattergories, Uno, Spades, Checkers, Operation, Wii Bowling, Trivial Pursuit, Charades, Gestures, Yahtzee, Bingo, Clue, Battleship, Twister, Hungry Hippos Chinese Checkers and Taboo. I NEVER in my life have seen so many games in one place that were ACTUALLY being played. To me this was mind-blowing! There was a nice sized dance floor in front of the DJ table where DJ Adrian Loving was doing his thing. He played such songs as” “Diva” & “Video Phone” by Beyonce, “Oh Sheila” by Prince, “I Know” by JayZ along with other artists such as Frankie Beverly & Maze, A Trible Called Quest, Rihanna & more. Most folks hit the dance floor when the classic tracks came on.
There were 2 reasonably sized cash bars conveniently located in the left and right corner of the ballroom. Drink prices ranged from $4 - $10 w/ Specialty Drinks: Twistertini (10 cane rum, ground cinnamon, apple juice), Monopolized (premium belvedere orange, x-rated fusion, triple sec, orange juice), Boardwalk Smash (makers mark, muddled lemon wedges, mint, simple syrup). The bartenders were courteous and worked well together. The bar area was also neatly kept. When I asked for a drink recommendation, one of the bartenders recommended the Monopolized. I’m not a fan of citrus anything but I enjoyed this drink even though it could have been a little stronger.
The nights festivities started to die down around 1:30am which was perfect since the ending time was 2am. I took this time to head out to the lobby area and get some audio feedback from participants and interviews from Recess contributors which will be aired on W.O.W Radio the week of January 18th.
Key points of the night for me were 1] the fact that there we absolutely positively NO altercations or BS, 2] there was something that appeared to be an overflow area positioned behind the welcome area, 3] everyone meshed together so greatly 4] The hosts worked the room and interacted with the guests so professionally and smoothly.
Special thanks to Rashad “Mayor” Wilson who was such a gracious host and made sure that I was comfortable and taken care of the whole time. I send him this shoutout not because I got “special” treatment but because I feel that he did & will do this to ALL the guests.
Five words that describe Recess in my eyes: Phenomenal engaging CLEAN adult FUN!
Rating:
~ Caribgem, Program Director
I agree with all except the Free parking??!!! My friend and I had to pay $10...Did we get got?
ReplyDeleteWhere exactly did u park? In the garage?
ReplyDelete