Date Night In Box is a subscription service that sends you a complete date in a box each month. Date Night In also offers Faith Night In and Kids Night In box options.
My Subscription Addiction paid for this box. (Check out the review process post to learn more about how we review boxes.)
This is a review of the $34.99 a month Date Night In Box.
About Date Night In Box
The Subscription Box: Date Night In Box
The Cost: $34.99 a month + $7.00 shipping (less for longer subscriptions)
The Products: A complete date in a box including an activity, snack, and other items to create a sense of ambiance to bring you and your partner closer together.
Ships to: the US, Canada, and select countries
Date Night In Box March 2018 Review
When your box ships, you receive an email with tracking information as well as a link to the website featuring a menu designed around your date theme. We didn’t use the menu this time, but had I known more about our date, I probably would have tried to incorporate some of it into our date because I feel it would have enhanced it, but I’ll get to that.
I like how the menu includes drinks (alcoholic & non-alcoholic suggestions), an appetizer, main course and dessert all based on the theme for the month. They include a complete shopping list to print out which is very convenient, but the whole idea of making these meals is pretty time consuming. If you have the time though, it is really nice to have this option.
The box was a lot smaller (and lighter) this month and the included card was very cryptic. This was much different than February’s box which included a pretty thick booklet with information and a ton of materials. The card directed us to visit the link to their date website for this specific activity.
Once I typed in the link, this is all there was: a series of audio files for us to listen to either through the browser or through SoundCloud, an app we could download. We just stuck with the browser and it worked fine.
The first track was an intro from our date guide telling us how the audio tracks would introduce an activity and then they would be followed by our “soundtrack” for the evening.
Since this was a “Blind Date” we were given blindfolds to wear for various portions of our date. Just a spoiler alert: this date felt very short to me and lacking in the activity department, so this is why I wish I had known more ahead of time so I could incorporate some of the menu into our evening as a way to enhance the date.
I think it would have been fun to get different drinks and make an appetizer plate like this to use as a sort of guessing game as they suggest. It would have started our evening off in a fun and playful way, but since I didn’t know enough about the date ahead of time, we missed out on that opportunity. However, it still would have been pretty time consuming and costly to get all of those together and since I was the one who would do the shopping, I doubt the guessing would have been much of a challenge for me.
The first activity on our date required one of us to wear a blindfold and draw an ocean scene using the enclosed mini whiteboard and marker (no eraser). After the instructions were given they play some “music” to give you some time to complete the activity. Here is the first place this date went wrong: the music was simply really boring instrumental music that was something you’d hear on a gameshow. Except it wasn’t even as fun as humming along to the Jeopardy music! It was more like the music that plays on game apps on your phone if that gives you any idea. They could have had a much better soundtrack to make things interesting, relate to the activities themselves or to give us something to sing along to.
After he drew his wonderful beach scene the next part was an exercise in communication. I was allowed to use verbal communication to help him draw a new beach scene.
Next it was my turn to draw, but this time I was to draw a portrait of him. Then the second time he could give me verbal clues and use touch 3 times to direct my drawing.
The activity itself was fun because we enjoyed being playful and teasing each other, but they could have taken it further or had a few more drawing options. Maybe even a part where your partner directs your whole drawing and you have to figure out what it is? It was a great start, but it really was so simple and didn’t give any ideas for ways to extend it further except for saying that “you can customize any of these activities,” but isn’t that part of why I got a Date Box? For someone to do that for us?
They finished with some advice and really emphasized that this was about using touch in the relationship and asked us to discuss ways we can use touch more in our relationship. While I understand what they were trying to do, it came across more as a therapy session and didn’t feel very organic to our date flow.
The next part of the date was to blindfold your partner and then create an obstacle course in the room that you will lead them through using verbal communication. They wanted us to use the roll of tape to put on the floor as a guide path for our blindfolded partner to follow. That didn’t really make any sense to us- we didn’t understand the purpose of the tape since our partner was blindfolded. Also, I am currently 9 months pregnant and was really looking forward to one last date night before baby comes, but unfortunately this was not something I was interested in doing as a tired pregnant woman with a huge belly.
I understand it could be a good exercise for communication and trust, but we didn’t really feel prepared to do this- there wasn’t much we could use in our living room as an obstacle course other than putting the coffee table in the way or throwing toys on the floor, which seemed dangerous. This felt like a really strange idea and maybe it could have been fun, but to us it felt more like an activity you would do at camp as a kid. It also felt like a little too much effort on our part.
Okay so here’s where the date took another turn. First step, both you and your partner are blindfolded and you are supposed to feed your partner a small piece of cotton candy and then describe to each other “City of Angels style” how the cotton candy tastes. It was just basic, sugary cotton candy. Nothing special, not even flavored so there wasn’t much to describe. This is where they could have done something so much more creative! Why not have envelopes with mystery foods inside and then do a guessing game? Also, this wasn’t much of a snack- this little puff of cotton candy for two people.
So after feeding and describing, then you are supposed to feed them a piece WITHOUT USING HANDS. This really only leaves your mouth or your feet to feed each other. Cotton candy melts pretty quickly so mouth is difficult and I love my husband but I do not want to eat cotton candy off his toes…
The last cotton candy adventure was to put the piece of cotton candy on your body anywhere (this depends on your comfort level with your partner) and then they have to “discover” it blindfolded without you giving them any verbal communication or physical commands. This was silly and a little bit fun, but it also felt really forced as most of the cotton candy activities did.
The last step in the date was a series of questions that they would ask and then give some wait time with their “soundtrack.” This was probably the best part of the date just because my husband and I were having a good time reminiscing over our 10 year relationship, but I don’t think these questions were anything groundbreaking.
Some examples included: What is your first memory of your partner? What makes you attracted physically to your partner? Describe your perfect Saturday together? And what does your life together look like in 10 years? Again, great questions, but I’m sure these are something we could find online or in a book on relationships.
The last track of our date was basically a commercial for this Moroccan Magic chapstick. They tied it in by using it as a reminder to show physical affection to your partner.
The chapstick itself does make your lips feel smooth, but I wasn’t a fan of the coconut almond flavor. And that’s it. End of date.
Verdict: This was our second Date Night In Box and my husband and I were both pretty disappointed at the lack of effort that was put into this box. The only pro was that my husband and I had fun being silly and the questions were great conversation topics that did make me feel closer to him as we discussed them. But is that worth the $41.99 ($34.99 + $7.00 shipping) for the “date?” I’d say definitely not. The snack was lacking, the playlist was made of gameshow instrumental music and while the idea behind it was good, the execution was very poor. I almost feel like they just threw a box together last minute and sent it out. The tape didn’t make sense and the chapstick seemed like it was just a promotional freebie they included. The whole date probably lasted a little over a half hour for us, and had we done the obstacle course I can’t see it adding more than a half hour to the length. I’m really hoping that they make up for this next month!
To Wrap Up:
Can you still get this box if you sign up today? No, you'll receive the April box. Boxes ship on the 16th of every month so in order to receive that month’s box, you need to order by the 13th.
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