Andrew V.
Yelp
A friend of mine convinced me to sign up for AMC's movie subscription service, and yesterday was only my first day in the program. We went yesterday to see a "double feature" (MUFASA & Sonic 3), but I had to call ahead to make sure they had descriptive audio devices. They confirmed that they did, and when we got to the theater they said to just bring it back and swap it for a new one between movies. However, what the staff DIDN'T tell me was that their theater was VERY inaccessible for blind people... starting from even the parking lot (their entrance is on the side of the building for some reason, and there was a very narrow and weird path we had to walk to get there, with almost no lighting after dark). The lobby was not strditured very well, and the confessions cue was both confusing and narrow (my understanding was that you had to order different items at different doubters, then pay somewhere completely different, weaving through a maze of very tight walkways--I almost got ran over by other people at least once), so I decided to only get a soda. Then our seats were all the way in the back row, and I had to climb A LOT of stairs just to get up there (if sometime told me about this I could've switch to their accessible row).
The audio description device worked just fine for the fist movie, but when it was time to switch them and the second movie started, I noticed within two seconds that they set it up wrong, making it play ENHANCED audio instead of descriptions of what was on the screen. My friend left right as the movie started, came back five minutes later, and the device was completely non-functional. NOTHING was playing through the headphones, despite my friend seeing that it was turned on, so I basalt had to watch the rest of the movie and listen to what was happening... and it detracted from my experience since I had no idea what was happening other than the dialogue or the music.
I'm very frustrated that the staff did not seem very supportive, and when we were leaving there wasn't even anyone at the service desk I could speak to about the issues with accessibility that they clearly have at this location. I had booked to come back on Friday to see another movie, but I since cancelled that and am choosing to go elsewhere. Thankfully, I don't live close to this theater at all, so I have plenty of other options available.
Very distracting experience... if you're a disabled moviegoer, I'd strongly suggest NOT going here--especially if you're blind, or probably in a wheelchair, due to the layout issues mentioned above. Trust me, you're way better off going to another AMC slightly further away.