When we arrived at Timezone, AMK Hub yesterday, there was a long queue right out the entrance of the store. People were queuing up to hand over their money (usually around S$150 per person, if not more) as Timezone’s offering 2X credits plus a We Bare Bears plush (6″) for every $50 top-up, and naturally you’ll top up $150 to collect all 3 bears in the set. Tip: if you’re new to Timezone, just top up $200 so you get a Blue Membership card instead of the red “Welcome” card as the blue one gets you lower game prices. When you have spent $1000 *cough cough* you get their Gold card, which I’ve read can be personalized. 
I saw quite a few Gold cardholders yesterday.
Though it was their Opening Specials weekend, there was just one pathetic-looking balloon stand (behind the pram in the picture above) and little fanfare. Everyone somehow already knew about the promotions available. There was free ice cream though! We went at the right time because ice cream quickly ran out.
The machine we spent the most time and money at has to be the Willy Wonka one. Tip for the uninitiated: Instead of just tapping your card on the reader once and getting 10 play tokens, tap it 5 times and get 60 tokens (extra 10!) and it’s always a good idea to exchange the extra cards you get with other players so in the end, everyone gets a full set that much faster, ya?
I’m also terribly interested in this ball dropping machine at the arcade. Within that time limit you have to drop all 50 balls neatly into the moving buckets. There are 50 balls and the buckets end up in the right position around 12 times so you should aim for 4 balls per bucket most of the time, with 5 balls for 2 of them. I need a bit more practice with this one. 
*It does give a good number of tickets though.
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Interestingly, the ticket-accepting machines broke down (yes, imagine the number of people using them in order for them to break down at a new outlet!) The queue for those machines was also really long. I can’t believe there are just 3 when Timezone’s doing a roaring business.
The staff at Timezone are incredibly nice though. Come to think of it, the staff I saw yesterday are all either Indians or Malays. I hope they’re paid well because this weekend will be super taxing on all of them.
What was a real dampener on events was the fact that our expenditure at Timezone did not qualify for the redemption of freebies at the mall. Ordinarily, the amount we had spent would have allowed us to redeem a Pokemon Tumbler (Charmander this week), Pokemon plush toy and wrapping paper. I really do think the mall should allow Timezone receipts to be used for gift redemptions. After all, people really do spend a lot at Timezone and it’s very likely one of their crowd-pulling tenants.
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Timezone’s located at Level 4 of AMK Hub, next to Eighteen Chefs.