People Are Reminiscing About McDonald's In The ‘90s After Photo Of 2025 PlayPlace Goes Viral
Some people couldn’t believe what they were seeing.
I had my 6th birthday party at our local McDonald’s, and it was an absolute banger. We had burgers, fries, and even those old-school McDonald’s sheet cakes! There were party hats and an appearance from Ronald himself. After singing “Happy Birthday,” all the kids ran into the giant PlayPlace (my mom used to call them “fart tunnels”) and we’d play for hours.
There was a time in history when having your birthday party at McDonald’s was the be-all, end-all. Obviously, things with birthday parties have changed a bit in the last couple of decades, but it was a magical time.
I am not the only one who feels this way, and when one woman shared a recent photo from her local McDonald’s “PlayPlace,” people were aghast.
X user Nancy French wrote, “This is so heart breaking. I’m at a new McDonalds in Franklin, TN and look at their ‘play place’ for children. Two screens/two chairs.”
She shared this alongside a picture of just that... a dim annex of the fast food restaurant with two tiny screens in the corner and two tiny chairs. The words “PlayPlace” are painted on the wall alongside a Happy Meal box with giant, weird eyes.
“I hope that’s only temporary! We still have the play equipment at my local McD’s,” one user said.
Another said, “This ruined my day”
She updated the post later writing, “I went back in to make sure I didn’t miss something. There was this column thing that might be for getting kids to exercise. But I don’t think this is temporary. I think this is it.”
The video she shared shows the updated space with an apparatus known as a JumpPad tower, where four kids can take a spot and jump as much as they can to get their lights to the top of the tower.
After her video went viral, several X users began reminiscing about old-school McDonald’s.
“The shift in McDonald’s vibe from 90’s to today captures everything wrong with society,” one user wrote.
Another said, “Remember having birthday parties at McDonalds? And they had actual party planners on staff? They were fun times.”
One X user explained that this change might be due to the bigger overhaul McDonald’s restaurants have been going through. “That’s one of the new ones. They’ve reworked their entire design to reflect less employees and more screens. ‘Automated McDonalds’ bc employees are only cooking. There’s no playground. Just places to wait for pickup,” they said.
In her latest update, French shared an old photo of what the Franklin McDonald’s used to look like before a fire.
“Hey guys! This was the previous McDonald’s structure that had to be replaced due to fire. The new ‘kids play place’ I posted below is to replace this enormous kids area,” she wrote.
Is it liability issues? Cutting costs? Is it corporate feelings uneasy about the idea of moms finding hours of reprieve in these kinds of places for a $5 Happy Meal? In any case, this two-screen “play place” definitely seems like an overcorrection.
