Jess Gabe

Review of Dover Caterers

Whatever you do, DO NOT host a party here (or prob...

Whatever you do, DO NOT host a party here (or probably at any County Park). If you want to bring in ANY entertainment from a DJ, to catering, a magician, blow ups, etc...you are required to use one vendor only. The County parks are all "in bed with" the Dover Group who provides kickbacks for every service you pay for. The owners of The Dover Group understand that THE COUNTY PARKS are their customer....not the consumer paying for their services. So don't expect too much customer service.

If you have ever thrown a kids party, you know its pretty inexpensive to get magicians, face painters, balloonists for 2-4 hours. With Dover Group, the prices are inflated 2-3 times. It is $375 for an hour w/ a magician. A Face painter is $295 for an hour. Blow ups are there for 4 hrs and start at $595 and go up over $1000. You cannot bring ANY outside entertainment in, so you are stuck paying inflated prices. Nassau County goes to bid on these things with companies and usually picks the company that will kick the most back to the county so.... spare yourself the price gauging. And forget the cost to cater, your better off cooking on the grills provided or cooking at home and lugging it in.

As if it wasn't bad enough that you spend $1500 on 1 face painter, 1 magician and the cheapest bouncy house you can find.....if Dover Group messes up your reservation and puts the wrong date on your contract, you are out of luck! Your party has a disaster start when people show up and the kids you invited have no entertainment, so they leave early. If you are lucky, the onsite staff might search for entertainment in the park and send them over to your party when they become free. But don't worry, Dover Group will NOT refund you a single thing because "you signed the contract" and they "accommodated you".

Maybe these were all just hard learning lessons for me, but I could have thrown the same party in my yard for 1/4 of the cost, stress and tears that I spent on the party I recently did with The Dover Group. Lesson Learned.