Lawd! De people!  Caribbean Cinemas on Friar's Hill Rd. opened to the general public on Thursday night and if the huge crowd is any indication of things to come, the newest entertainment hotspot in Antigua is sure to be a success.

We got to the cinema at 5:00PM and already the lineup was into the parking lot. The box office opened promptly at 5:30PM,  but the sheer number of folks in line gave me pause for thought - were they going to be able to get through the line in time for me to see Will Smith's kid kick some a** in Karate Kid?.  

*** interlude *** You can learn a lot about Antiguan culture listening to unsolicited comments in line.  Said the tall voluptuous woman with three impatient children to the young usher, "Why don't you separate the line so that the Karate Kid people go in one line, the Shrek people go in another…and so on?" The poor befuddled youngster shyly shrugged his shoulders in the classic "Hey, I just work here, lady." look.  She was not having it.  "You can't be pulling that in Antigua, we won't stand for that. We won't come back, you know." ***

Don't know if she ever made it in, but we sure did, and I was immediately overwhelmed by the sheer size of the place.  Roomy, spotless bathrooms? Check.  Packed to the gills arcade with air hockey, House of the Dead 2 video game and that crazy dancing-on-the-spot game? Check.  Friendly, uniformed staff with pleasant smiles and an eagerness to serve? Yup, it was all there.  But of course, this was just the appetizer.  The main course was Shrek in 3D!…a last minute change of plan due to late starts due to the long lineups. Oh well, Will Smith's kid will have to wait.

And if you didn't read about the start time in the paper this week, and couldn't get through the very busy phone line, you were still at a loss to the movie start times because there was no schedule behind the ticket counter.  They could work on that one.

For $23EC (adult) and $16 (child), this was no cost-effective night out.  Throw in the $17 drink and hot dog combo, $5 for a small bag of popcorn, $5 for a chintzy bag of Raisenets, $5 for 8 tokens at the arcade and we're looking at a serious cash outlay.  Oh, and a tip for the management, a $5 small popcorn and a $5 small drink cost $10 separately, but the children's combo, consisting of the exact same items costs, you guessed it, $10.  That's pretty lousy math in any cinema.

Costs duly noted, we will definitely return to the Caribbean Cinemas to enjoy the newness of the place.  It's nice not having to fight for parking in town, and it's lovely to have the arcade to keep the youngsters occupied while waiting for the flicks to start.   The food, though pricey, was tasty and the choice of movies varied and were relatively new. There are no annoying insurance commercials before the movie starts (this will probably change though), there were lots of neat hints about theatre etiquette - i.e. pick up your trash on your way out, and wow! booster seats for the little ones! 

We're not sure how these folks plan on putting enough bums into the seats on a day-to-day basis but Caribbean Cinemas is certainly off to a solid start.