Book a Party

You get 2 hours for your party, with 30 minutes set up time prior to party start time for 4 or less people to enter to set up.

For example:

10am parties: 9:30am 4 people or less enter to set up. Guests arrive at 10am. Party hosts walk to front door with Decades Staff to greet their guests at party start time, or if they are set up early, hosts can ask staff to be let back outside to gather with guests outside shortly prior to party start time. If you plan lunch and/or dessert, we recommend eating between 11-11:45am. At 11:50am staff will give a 10-minute warning for everyone to play their last games and for hosts to clean up their food and decorations. At 12pm, both hosts and guests exit. Goody bags can be placed in the Party Room in front and children corralled into the Party Room to assist with the exit process.

Your rental includes up to 50 attendees. If you would like to have up to 110 attendees (our max capacity for private events), each additional attendee over 50 people is $10. Our booking system will calculate it for you, just enter in the number of attendees when booking.

Please ensure your number of attendees for your booking is correct so that we can staff appropriately. If your attendee count changes to over 50 attendees between booking and time of event, communicate this via email to info@decadesarcade.com at least 3 days prior to your party. The “surprise overage” price for attendees over 50 people is $15 per additional attendee at the door. We care about giving our staff a healthy workplace and providing a quality experience for all guests, and parties who have surprised us with more than 50 people the day of the event make those goals difficult to acheive.

Yes! The Party Room has tables and seating for 35-40 and a central serving table with storage shelves underneath. The room is separate from the rest of the arcade to allow you a private space to eat and open presents. There is also a minifridge for some storage of cold items. You may enter and exit the room throughout your 2 hours to go play in the main arcade, just make sure to keep the food inside the Party Room!

Keep in mind that no food or candy is allowed while actively playing games. You should be in the Party Room and at least seated / not playing a game when eating. Use hand sanitizer or wash hands after eating and before touching games. You may have drinks as you walk around the arcade, but no open cups. Drinks must be placed in cupholders or the floor, not on top of any machines. Adult chaperones ensure that children follow these guidelines to ensure our games are not damaged!

You may bring your own NON-GLASS legally-purchased beer or wine pursuant to VA Code § 4.1-200. No glass containers or liquor will be allowed on the premises. Anyone drinking alcohol in your party must be of 21 years of age and must drink responsibly. Party hosts are responsible for all guests following our house rules + all applicable VA ABC laws.

Coolers should be placed in the party room, not near any games or electronics. They must have one side 32 inches or smaller to fit in the door. No hand-held ice bags are allowed – coolers should be packed with drinks and ice already to prevent ice and water spillage. Due to extensive electronics throughout the arcade, we cannot risk excess water on floors anywhere.

Any child attending a party must be supervised by an adult chaperone attendee of the party. You as the party host and the other adult chaperones who are attending with you should arrange to meet with all your party guests in front of our location shortly prior to your party start time. If a child arrives after party start time and their parent is not staying with them, an adult chaperone from the party will need to meet them at the front desk to transfer adult supervision from the parent dropping off to the adult party chaperone.

We require a ratio of 1 adult per 3 children for their safety and to ensure rule-following: no running, abusing games, hiding, eating while playing, spilling drinks, or other misconduct. Adults are responsible for the children in your party. For children 6 & under, we recommend 1 adult per 1 child as they require direct supervision.

For more than 10 children, 7 adults is the *minimum* chaperones needed since we have 7 areas of visibility in the arcade.

For example:
5 children? 2 adults required
7 children? 3 adults required
12 children? 7 adults required
25 children? 9 adults required
36 children? 12 adults required

Please do not plan less than the required number of adults per children – if you do, we will contact you ahead of time to adjust your numbers. Responsible teens 16 & up can count as chaperones as long as at least 2 adults over 18 are present.

If chaperones stay in the Party Room while children are in the main arcade unsupervised, our staff will kindly ask the chaperones to find the children to supervise them. There should be an adult in every area of visibility to chaperone children during your event.

You may have tableclothes or other table decorations, and may hang banners but must do so with painter’s tape only. You must remove all decorations by the end of your event. Glitter and confetti are prohibited. No decorations are allowed outside of the Party Room. No tents, folding tables or chairs, helium tanks, or other equipment is allowed. We do allow 2 wagons (we recommend them!!) to bring in your supplies.

“The Usual” for hosts:

1. A wagon loaded with
– a banner
– a dessert: usually cake or cupcakes for the birthday celebration and candles (we have a lighter if you forget yours for the candles!) Ice cream cakes not recommended – we do not have a freezer large enough to store them and they’ll melt.
– sometimes tableclothes, sometimes other small decorations
– sometimes goody bags to hand out at the end of the party

2. A cooler packed with some ice, juice boxes and canned drinks (we do not allow open cups or glass containers)

3. Order pizza to be delivered about 30 minutes into party start time (go by 1-2 slices per kid, 2-3 slices per adult) OR bring platters of sandwiches or veggie or fruit party trays

No, we have non-alcoholic drinks in our drink machine.

In addition to tables and chairs for 35-40, there is a main serving island with plenty of storage space underneath. There is a mini fridge for cold storage of small items. There are 4 electrical sockets at the island if you have something like a crock pot you’d like to plug in. We do not allow sternos due to open flame. There are a few pinball machines in the front window, a few arcade cabinets, and a home console setup so that you can play games in the Party Room! Please keep food and drinks off the games.

Decades Staff wipes down tables, sweeps, and collects trash and recycling for you. Please place all trash and recycling in designated bins by the end of your party slot time, and gather your supplies you’re taking home for ease of carrying out at your party end time.

We have hand sanitizer in every room, UV light sanitation every night and a robust air circulation & purification system. Read more

No, all 120 games are on free play! You would only need money for the toy crane (1 quarter per play) or the drink machine ($1).

Yes! Our main entrance is on the pedestrian side of the Downtown Mall and is accessible. The main floor has our ADA bathroom. While we don’t have an elevator inside, our basement level is accessible via our back entrance via alley on Heather Heyer Way. We have a map here. Please inform an Arcade Guardian that you are heading around the block to the downstairs, and we will be at the back door waiting for you!

No, Public Hours are separate from Private Events.

We don’t allow bicycles, strollers, large bags/bookbags inside the main arcade because we have to ensure walkways are clear in case of emergency. Guests with strollers can park them in our front hallway. If you as the party host are ok with strollers being in the party room, we will allow that as long as it does not block any doors or walkways.

We do not allow anyone to enter who is visibly under the influence. If a guest becomes very inebriated during the event, we will ask the host of the event to arrange for their safe departure.

There is strictly no smoking of any type anywhere inside our property or within 25 feet of any of our doors or windows. This is a family-friendly organization that values health and safety for all.

We reserve the right to ask anyone to leave if they have broken any of our arcade rules.

We do not allow fireworks, explosives or weapons of any kind (including anything with a blade or any gun), even with a concealed carry permit.

You may take photos for personal use, but commercial use is prohibited without our written consent.

Certain medical conditions can be triggered by excessive exposure to fast, flashing lights, which some of our games have.

If you or a guest has a severe allergy (such as peanuts) let us know in your booking notes to ensure none of our staff brings in the allergen on the day of your event.