Please help me book a killer company outing

August 22, 2012 1:06 PM

Where to take a company group of 18 people for a 3-hour activity in Seattle?

I am to book an activity for coworkers on a Wednesday or Thursday afternoon from approximately noon to 3pm. The budget is $1000, but that includes transportation and food/beverage.

We are travelling from downtown. Bowling is out.

posted by herbplarfegan to sports, hobbies, & recreation (17 answers total)

Museum of Flight?
posted by primethyme at 1:10 PM on August 22, 2012

My husband's company booked one of those Lake Union --> Lake Washington --> Lake Union cruises for the entire staff once, it was about the same as your group size. No idea how much it cost, though.
posted by rabbitrabbit at 1:11 PM on August 22, 2012

Go-karts? There's a place near Redmond and another near Tukwila. There are likely others.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 1:11 PM on August 22, 2012

I've never been to this gym, but what about rock climbing? Stone Gardens is in Ballard, and has group events.
posted by athenasbanquet at 1:20 PM on August 22, 2012

How far ahead is this event?

My team at work is going to do the Redhook Brewery Tour next week.

While looking that up I found Kayaking trips from Redhook to Redmond that look really nice.

A friend of mine took a group cooking class with his work, which he said was fun. I don't know specifics of that though.
posted by jacalata at 1:32 PM on August 22, 2012

You go to Whirly Ball. We used to do this as a sort of staff meeting for The Priceton Review when I worked there and lived in Seattle and it was pretty good provided that people enjoy friendly competition and looking a little dorky. Food is pretty standard snack stuff, may want to look at other pre- or post-game options.
posted by jessamyn at 1:47 PM on August 22, 2012

Sail aboard the Lady Washington / Hawaiian Chieftain. They're in the Seattle area this week. Going sailing aboard an 18th century tall ship is fun.
posted by phoebus at 1:53 PM on August 22, 2012

If the egyptian exhibit is still going on at the seattle center that was pretty cool.

The adverts really play up the stuff on display from Tutankamuns tomb but the exhibit as a whole has artifacts ranging from suprisingly early in the Old Kingdom on down to Roman times.
posted by Riemann at 2:00 PM on August 22, 2012

Seconding jessamyn's Whirlyball recommendation! My office recently went, and had a great time. The staff can set up a tournament rotation for your group, so you could potentially rent one court (to hold ten people) and have teams rotate in to play each other.
posted by copperdrake at 2:06 PM on August 22, 2012

GameWorks?
posted by bookdragoness at 2:15 PM on August 22, 2012

GameWorks was the most miserable company outing I've ever been on. Go-karting was not so horrible and even mildly fun. Given the data point that I hate company outings and I hate games and competition, I think this means that go-karting is a big win.
posted by matildaben at 2:18 PM on August 22, 2012

Lady Washington is here ? Oh heck, yeah, take the group out aboard her, if you can swing it.

It's not "games and competition" but ten people hauling on halyards and sheets is definitely co-operation, and sailing ships are all about organizational efficiency.

Plus if you have any Trekkie nerds, the Lady stood in for Enterprise in one of the movies.
posted by Kakkerlak at 3:56 PM on August 22, 2012

Kayaking and a meal at Agua Verde near the UW campus.
posted by jennstra at 4:21 PM on August 22, 2012 [2 favorites]

The aquarium, zoo, Museum of Science and EMP are all pretty darned great. On the arty front, there is SAM and the Wing Luke museum (which is also in the International District, home of the best Asian food in town.) You might also want to think about the Tukwila Family Fun Center.

Also, if everyone's reasonably fit, a hike around one of the parks, like Discovery or Carkeek or Lincoln, would be great. Or a group bike ride, accompanied by a bring your own group picnic, would be a blast. You could rent at any of these spots.
posted by bearwife at 4:30 PM on August 22, 2012

You could rent two or three electric boats and motor (buzz?) around Lake Union for a couple of hours.

They are safe, fun, easy to pilot, and there's plenty to see -- the Space Needle, houseboats, seaplanes arriving and departing, Gas Works Park, and more. Each one will seat 10 people.
posted by jeffbarr at 6:48 PM on August 22, 2012

We were at Sky High Sports in Bellevue and there was a work group there. Giant, wall to wall trampolines! Super exciting. The group looked like they were having *a lot* of fun and it seemed the staff treated them well too. I still can't do the linkies but it's http://sea.jumpskyhigh.com. They got their own area to do dodgeball and it was nice to see a work thing look like so much fun.
posted by 58 at 8:48 PM on August 22, 2012

Indoor skydiving down at Southcenter? You might need to call and see whether they can accommodate a group that size, though.
posted by kindall at 10:08 PM on August 22, 2012