Firstly delta force:
Their reputation can be based on a couple of factors:
They are not too popular in the industry, but consider them as the Tescos of paintball. Buying up any available site and being a corporate giant. I have never played at a delta force site, but they seem to vary depending on the staff.
You may see criticism of their prices - but there are two arguments to this. I will defend them from people talking of high prices. If you look at the price the typical regular player on here would pay on a 'walkon', the paint price at an event or the price of paint on eBay then any sites 'punter' price will look excessive. But there are reasons for that, you can buy beer cheaper in supermarkets then in pubs or clubs, but you don't get the extra atmosphere of the pub, and they have to run the business, have security etc.
Paintball sites have to run a business, pay rent & tax, employ Marshall's for safety, provide equipment, maintain the site and get paying customers at weekends with lull periods.
The argument against delta force that I support isn't with the sites, but with the dodgy sellers (not delta force but IPG, even though they are the ticket branch of DF) it's the ones that don't tell you the truth about the cost - it's just £5 for a day with everything and a whole 100 paintballs..... Until you turn up and find out how for your £5 entry goes
Delta force do what they do very well - they provide a day out for occasional or one off players
My recommendation is to support a good local site, preferably ukpsf accredited (though Df are not)
http://www.ukpsf.com/accreds.php
This gives a rough guide to the cost of paintball. You will be looking for a good fun day out on a 'punter' day, but probably go for a half day which will reduce the amount of paint - say about 500 paintballs each, and some extra for any Rambos among you.
http://p8ntballer-forums.com/threads/what-paintball-costs.153010/
For stag purposes you will probably want a half days paintball. Check out sites and look up their websites for pricing and deals. Call the site and ask for a deal on your group. (But read on before going ahead though)
The alternative options:
Depending on your preferences you can book a custom stag weekend with an agency, or you can book everything yourselves
Last year for one of the team we had a stag weekend in Cardiff (no paintball involved actually!) it was booked through chill sauce, which gives you the choices of itinerary plus a website that manages the money. All you need to do is have someone make the selections and encourage everyone to payup - ideally planned in advance so those who need to do installments over a period can, and those who are admin nightmares have a deadline to payup or drop out.
Book it yourselves and somebody has to manage everyone and make sure they pay in time - or end up paying deposits etc themselves and losing out on those who don't come up with the cash
In our stag we had all the daytime activities at one site - Taff valley
http://www.adventurewales.co.uk/prices.htm
They do multiple activities but not paintball. They do have an arrangement with a local paintball site.
I can't comment on the paintball as we are paintballers anyway and wanted something different. We did clay pigeon shooting snd quadbiking.
I will point out something that should be obvious - don't arrive at daytime activites either drunk or hungover. You are putting in your money and time, if you want to be pissed all weekend then do that and forget the rest, if you want a mix then get the physical activities underway first.
We were not angels but arrived on time, sober and raring to go. Had a good shoot (quite surreal as you shoot over the head of cows which are either deaf or very accustomed to shooting. The clay pigeon element is actually run by a local shooting club so you use good gear and have people who know what they are on about - and are able to advise you and manage to make you hit the clays. (Clearly if you're in drunken states they are not going to hand you guns)
The quad biking was excellent - and this is where the state you are in realy comes into it. Everything starts easy going in circles on a mini course, then around some fields, but if you are capable it then ends up heading up and down steep hills - and for the locality hills are an understatement.
Then with the day complete that's when you let your hair down. If you've booked through an agent then they will get you on the lists so you can actually get in to places, if you're self booking then chat with each place for their recomendations and may get deals from referrals
Turn up without advance bookings and having yourself on the list can get you turned away just from not liking the look of you.
A good stag weekend plan is:
Friday all meet up, have a few drinks but don't overdo it
Saturday plan to be up reasonably early to get things done, but not scheduled too early as there will be the need to coax people to get them up & out
Saturday evening onwards - let hell break loose
Sunday - at some point people will recover conciousness (look into hotel late checkouts!)
