That’s unfortunate to hear. I’ve got a free day between theme park visits, and was considering going. Are there enough of the 70+ pins in decent shape to justify $12 for two hours of play?

A little History:
https://www.orlandoweekly.com/Blogs/archives/2019/02/11/city-of-orlando-issues-stop-work-order-on-dezerland-action-park

Id raise a stink, first with your contact, maybe a certified letter to Mr. Dezer, and even to start a labor board complaint.
Some of these can be handled legally, I believe Pro-Bono, or Contingency.
(Note, an Opinion, I have no Legal Degree, or Holiday Inn Express education)

OK, not a good place to work, but is it a good place to play? They claim 150 games, but I don't see more than 75 listed anywhere.

Not quite sure if this person running this operation in Orlando was running another 'large' pin place
in N. Miami a few yrs back,but is now closed.

Anyone know???

Same owner. I don't know the whole story about Miami. It was closed, but appears to be open now, although it seems to have far fewer pins than Orlando.

My buddy went and said the pins were not in great shape, and the only attendant didn't have keys and couldn't pull glass. Out of all the places to play pinball in Central Florida this place is very low on the list.

I'd be happy to send a "F U" letter out for him, I practice in Florida.

I just went the other day; I live about 20
minutes away. Absolutely terrible condition of the games. They are in desperate need of another tech and I said that in my review. Balls were magnetized, some games would not start, flippers were not working or ridiculously weak, and others had misfiring solenoids. There were a couple games that weren't even locked down; anybody could come over and take the glass off (image below). It made me want to go and get a gift card for the local techs at Pinball Lounge and District Eat & Play as a grateful gesture for not letting their games breakdown like Deezerdump.

Jokes aside, they really just need some more help and they should wait until they have a tech instead of letting the games get worse or wasting people’s money on non-functioning games. It has potential for sure.

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Thanks for the feedback. For the same $25 daily rate you get 94 games at the Pinball Palace in Brunswick, GA, and 90 of them will be fully functional. It's close to I-95 for those driving down (or up).

Awesome offer!

Glad I didn’t waste my time or money by going.

Would love to know where all those “places to play in central Florida are”. I’m renting a house winter 2022 about an hour SE of MCO and was thinking about hitting dezerland but now I see that’s off my list.

This place is closer to Tampa but it is AWESOME

https://www.replaymuseum.org/

Some of the older games aren’t in great shape but the lineup is excellent and they do have some Sterns and JJP games.

Pinball lounge and Arcade Monsters are amazing. I've never been but I hear District eat and play is great, and those three are all right next to each other just NE of Orlando.

Tampa/St Pete have Lowry Arcade, and Reboot, and someone mentioned Replay up in Tarpon Springs.

Tons of good spots with good selections

Places to play near Orlando:

Arcade Monsters
District Eat and Play
Pinball

All in the Oviedo area.

D'oh, meant to write Pinball Lounge, and I hadn't seen attyrhodes' basically identical response.

Oviedo, Oviedo and Oviedo. NE of Orlando has THREE huge pinball attractions. Also The Keg Social. Look me up!!!

Plus 3 big collections, or more!

The Keg Social just opened in Waierford lakes, also suppose to have arcade and pins.

I live in the smack middle of all the places in Orlando so they are all under 20 minutes from me and the lounge/district are 5 minutes from work, so I go after I get outta work for about an hour to one of the places every other day. Heres my little overview:

Arcade Monsters: Well kept pins. A little under 20 in total maybe 15. The best part is pinball makes up only like 10% of its games. It has 2 floors full of arcade machines ranging from the 80s to contemporary. Amazing place to play and amazing bar. GOOD prices one time payment entry.

Pinball Lounge: Amazing place for just pins, very well kept with huge library little over 40? Friday nights one time entry payment for only $10! But other days can be expensive unless theres a deal cause its pay PER play. Host leagues, and serious competitions. This place is usually regarded as everyones favorite with good reason.

District Eat And Play: Newly renovated pinball room & my personal favorite(ill get to why later). Library of over 35 games, well kept and a nice tech. Usually pay per play but they have free tournament days on Fridays AND they have a $35 month membership card. Its my personal favorite because the membership means FREE PLAY for an entire month and they let me use it with my girlfriend so we both play for free (10 second time delay between swipes). I go here every other day. They offer axe throwing , bowling, and ticket games as well.

Keg Social: Decent amount of pins, around 15. Decently kept, some games just had weak flippers last time I went but they offer different games then the rest of the area. Biggest con is pricing I think $15 or $20 for only an hour? Axe throwing,bowling,and contemporary games here too, also expensive.

Deezerland: big warehouse like setting with a bunch of activities. Games, bowling, car museum, trampoline place. The pinball palace has like 100+ Games of which you can play maybe 70 and of those 35 actually working correctly. Pay by hour of play.

I’ve visited the Pinball Lounge several times during the morning and have enjoyed it. Definitely a quarter eater if you’re not used to the newer games. I Like that you can sit down and order a beer. Hamburgers are decent, fries are good. (Bowling alley food).

So...it’s an arcade in a bowling alley? Like the kind that the operators want to make money on with coin drop?

Haha, I’m kidding. Pinball Lounge is a place I ALWAYS visit when I’m in the area or visiting family in The Villages area. It’s not hard to drop some serious dough in there, so I know where you are coming from.

I was there last year and absolutely loved going early the 3 times I went, definitely worth the extra coins to pretty much have the place to yourself, great lineup of well kept pins.

Duly noted. Thanks. @oldpinguy: I assume you meant Waterford Lakes.

I'm hoping Andy will build an Arcade Monsters on International Dr. with mostly pins. He has a business model that really works. Right now there is only a handful of machines along that area. Drop him a hint.

As for Pinball Palace: have the machines but they really need s qualified person to run the place. Dirty playfields, out of date code, and flipper issues get laughed at. As of March 25th it's still a joke. Good luck Mr. Dezer.

Oh the eyes are going too....Waterford lakes. Thank You!

In case people might wonder why all the pinball in the Oviedo area, a big reason is UCF, with 72,000 enrollment.
Full Sail University, and Even Rollins College.

I bet there is no other small town with that many pins, always the latest titles. Each of the three arcades has something special to offer and they all work together too. Hat's off too Kurt, Andy and Kelly and the UCF students. Pinball got me through college in 1976, it should work for them too.

Im one of those college kids youre talking about haha; living here has really made the hobby easier to get into ( that and repairing and selling arcade machines since i was 16 so kinda similar hobby) . In grad school now and got a great enough job out of my undergrad last year to be able to own a pair of pins now! Hoping more of my friends and people my age get into it. Already got my girlfriend hooked who cared nothing about any type of games before.

Well here is something that happened in 1974 junior college, I skipped class to go play pins. All the people I went to school the degree never helped them and they do something completely different....degree? career............ BUT I'm still good at pinball.

Glad to see all the younger people getting involved.

You should visit dezerland and tell us what you think.

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I have two posts above^ about my visit and thoughts. Was not impressed!

Sad to see. My last visit I had help people and reset games, the attendant was stolen from the snack bar and hardly ever looked up from her phone. Total shitshow, tech quit last week, sorry. I am truly working hard to make things better there because I love all the games at Dezer. Earth to Mr. D.....

I'm only 28 and own 6 pins myself. Good to see others around my age getting into the ownership aspect!

There are so many students from UCF totally transformed into pinheads. These youngsters are what will be pinball 2030. Rock on!

Expect things to get better at Dezerland, it will take time but people are working behind the scenes to make it right.

Although the facility has only recently opened for real, most of the games have been sitting in it for two years. The management had all that time to get them fixed up but waited until AFTER opening to get serious about it?

archimandrite, you are spot on correct. I try to keep a positive attitude about this place but it's really hard. I visited again today and can't begin to tell you how far behind the tech is, at this point the number of playable games has been going down. 81 a month ago down to 74. They have one (and only one) tech and the guy is SO dedicated and works hard . It's like be the single mechanic at an auto repair shop with 23 cars to be worked on, three more coming in today. Please don't blame him, as a matter of fact, if anyone wants to help get these 40+ games back up and running he could really use a little support. (PM for more). Today I was shown so many cool games in need of repair, I almost cried. Just like those junk cars I referred to ^ and FOUR more are coming in today.
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The pinball lounge is my favorite and its due to the range of games, friendly atmosphere and half way decent drink and food prices. Friday nights are the best if your looking for something to do.

Love that place, spent so many Friday nights there! Check the national survey:
Favorite Pinball Location

Logan Arcade - Chicago, IL 14.72% 435
Old School Pinball Experience - Sao Paulo, Brazil 14.64% 588
Pinball Palace - Brunswick, GA 13.49% 479
Jackbar - Brooklyn, NY 12.25% 363
Sunshine Laundromat - Brooklyn, NY 11.52% 291
The Pinball Lounge - Oviedo, FL 7.61% 206
District 82 - DePere, WI 7.48% 241
Mom's Organic Market - College Park, MD 6.58% 202
Fort Wayne Pinball (Wizard’s World Arcade) - Fort Wayne, IN 6.10% 169

Can anyone explain the discrepancy between the 150 pins advertised and the 75 in online listings? I realize there are some display-only games, but AFIK it's a fairly small number.

Basically this once fantastic collection is rotting away, damn shame. The one over worked tech (bless you ****) will never catch up, period. They just don't care. This complex is beyond huge so maybe it's just a loss leader attraction. Send them any suggestions [email protected]

https://dezerlandpark.com/orlando/

Seems like they have a lot more than pinball there, so maybe they're concentrating more on the other amusements. We had (maybe still have) a amusement place like that with go-carts and rides, but also some pins. The pins were always in poor shape so I stopped going.

Spot on observation poppopin. Bottom line is the income from Pinball Palace will never make or break D-land. They own it, they have the right to do anything they want regardless of some pinsiders complaints. I visit once a week and can tell you they are ramping things up and spending tons of money on the complex. PS to Mr. D: LED bulbs have come way down. 46 cents OK?

Visiting Disney soon and planned on heading to Dezerland to get away for a few hours. Glad I found this thread. Looks like I'll be trying one of the others mentioned. It's too bad because it is much closer to where we are staying.

Please try it out. This place is WAY cool and a major attraction, everyday something new opens. Pinball is one of the smaller venues is this complex. Go visit and I promise you'll have fun.

Is what you're saying "Overall, it's worthwhile, just not the pinball"? Nine days ago, regarding the latter, you were saying "Basically this once fantastic collection is rotting away".

Sorry, I was just trying to help. Over 70 machines are still playable at Dezerland but if you want near perfectly maintained games, Oviedo. I'd be happy to show you around.

Thanks. I've been to the three main Oviedo locations. I'm planning to get my fix at the "original" Pinball Palace in GA as I'm not seeing anything of interest in Orlando that I can't play up there.

Just went there last week, while on a road trip to Atlanta. Owner was really awesome, we talked for a few hours and exchanged numbers to keep in contact about some homebrews we’re working on. Great games, kept in good condition!

There was a thread on another pinball forum from 2018 where the tech who helped move those machines from Miami was screwed over.

Dezer is a real estate developer. He bought that dead Orlando mall that houses all of this stuff. If he can make the property look "exciting", he can flip it. If it also generates enough income to cover property taxes, until then, it's even better. Look at the sheer size of the property, imagine all the outparcels that could be built in that parking lot. It's brilliant. Pinball is an afterthought on this play.

I'm still trying to get my head around the 150 games they've been advertising since they opened and the 75 games that have been consistently reported.