Recently, my friends and I decided to splurge and check out Cineplex’s VIP cinemas.

What does a VIP ticket get you? Well, you get a special entrance to your theater area. For us at Marine Gateway, you can see the hallway to the right of the picture below. You also get ID-ed before entering, since you have to be 19+ to enter the VIP theaters.

We were led to a long escalator which took us up to the special VIP lounge/restaurant, as well as 2-3 VIP auditoriums for viewing the movies.

But of course, we knew we could order food inside the auditorium so we went in to find our seats. Seats are pre-booked, so you’ve got assigned seating that you’ll choose when you purchase your ticket. Of course, being VIP, you get a lot more leg/butt room. How much more leg room? Well, usually in the theaters, whenever someone  needs to pass by to go to the washroom and such, everyone either has to get up or awkwardly let themselves slip into the fold up seats. But you could easily walk by without any of that in these seats. You can also adjust your seats so they lean back more. The seats are leather (pleather?) and really comfortable.

We waved down one of the staff who takes orders (I think there was at least 3 walking around our auditorium prior to the show). He would come to our aisle and we’d let him know our order.

I shared popcorn and a pop with my boyfriend, and I also got a cocktail. So you’re never usually allowed alcohol in theaters so I knew I wanted something for VIP. But then I started regretting it when I really needed the washroom about an hour into the movie. Our food total came to about $25 with the drink.

Did VIP feel dramatically different? During the movie, not so much. I guess the seats were comfier, but I feel UltraAVX seats aren’t much worse. I did like the extra leg room and the ability to really lean back. You also feel pampered by having your food brought to you and that was nice.

In terms of price comparison, we watched Doctor Strange in VIP for $25/adult (non-3D). If you were to watch it in AVX, it would’ve costed $18.50 for an adult ticket. The difference isn’t crazy, and I wouldn’t mind treating myself (and my butt) to comfier seats every once in a while. But it’s not dramatically different enough that I’d want to do it often.