Having blown our budget with our Disneyland weekend in December, Dan and I were on the hunt for an inexpensive way to ring in the New Year. I've not had the best track records with NYE. I always seem to spend them with people who just don't like to go out. I get it, there are a lot of drunk drivers out there and going out can be expensive, but it's just not the same to watch the ball drop on TV. it always feels like a downer. Luckily, Dan agreed that we needed be somewhere other than home at midnight.
If you don't know about Goldstar, you should. Goldstar is an absolutely awesome discount event ticket service. The best thing about them isn't necessarily the discounts (sometimes free tickets too), but that they alert you to unique local events. i love them and have done so many things because of their site. Medieval Times is hardly a unique event, but had it not been listed on Goldstar, I would never have realized that they were doing something special for New Years Eve. Goldstar rocks, make them part of your New Year!
Medieval Times is like Bed, Bath and Beyond...don't ever enter without a coupon. Seriously, M.T. is always running a deal. Always. We paid a total of 105.68 for two adults, which included the 12.50 Goldstar service fee. We thought this was pretty good for dinner, entertainment and NYE festivities, including a mini- bottle of champagne for a midnight toast.
We arrived at the Buena Park castle, approximately an hour prior to the nine-thirty start time. The tickets state to arrive no later than fifteen minutes prior, but the house opens an hour and a half early. You'll want to get there early. The parking lot was jammed full for the sold-out night and we waited in a long line to get our tickets sorted. This being said, the staff at M.T. has crowd controlled worked out and they are very efficient with the tickets and seating.
After moving through a queue to get our seats, crowns and pictures with the court, including a very unconvincing king, we were fed into the torture chamber. Here's a tip, you can actually bypass the torture chamber and go straight into the bar area, it only looks like you are being forced to walk through it. I thought that the chamber was fun, but it was overcrowded, making it difficult to really read the info cards or see the objects. We kind of peered over people's shoulders and rushed through it.
It's fairly gruesome for kids or people who might be sensitive to that sort of thing. Unfortunately, the picture didn't turn out, but there was a serrated sword that was used to slice people from the crotch up, while they were held upside down to prolong the agonizing death. Lovely.
After the torture chamber, we headed to the main hall, where we waited to be let into the arena. They had a knighting ceremony for birthday people and other assorted celebrants. My favorite part was a section where you can view the horses in their stalls. Dan is a trained equestrian and I had been wanting to do M.T. for awhile, because I knew that even if the show was cheesy (and oh boy, it is) the horses would still be magnificent.
Once in the arena, everyone is rushed into their seats, in what only can be described as organized-chaos. As you pass other color sections, the servers from that section boo and hiss you along towards your section, making everyone move fast and get in their seats and reinforcing your hatred towards other sections. Nice.
Let's talk about the food and service. Go in with low expectations and you will come out on top. It's not terrible and for the price, a good value. There are three choices for drinks, Pepsi (diet not available), iced tea or water. I think the limit in choices, makes it easier for the servers, as they are hustling the entire show.
The starter is a watery tomato soup and garlic bread. The soup is okay, if eaten on dunked bread. Our server accidentally spilled a bit of scalding soup down my back. Tip, if the servers are serving behind you, make sure to watch them, so that they move the plate away from you when pouring, so accidents don't happen. The soup was very hot!
Speaking of the soup, they call it Dragon's Blood. The half chicken breast that you get, is called a Baby Dragon. The dragon theme is carried on nowhere else in the castle.
The chicken was the best part of the meal, really good actually. We were also given one pork rib (Unicorn rib???) and three pieces of a potato wedge. It was a sticky mess! Luckily, they were quick to follow with wet naps to clean our hands, as at M.T., all food is eaten without utensils.
Dessert was an apple strudel and coffee. Good. One big negative with the meal service, is the cocktail waitress never walked over to our part of the green section. We had wanted to have beer and wine with dinner, but it didn't happen. On the upside, this saved us a lot of money, as we didn't spend any other than the tickets and tipping our server. This was a big miss on their part, as we were ready to spend.
The show began shortly after our drinks were served. They like to do a lot of filler with smoke and laser light effects. It's kind of cool and then grows old fast. The music is very dramatic throughout.
The starter is a watery tomato soup and garlic bread. The soup is okay, if eaten on dunked bread. Our server accidentally spilled a bit of scalding soup down my back. Tip, if the servers are serving behind you, make sure to watch them, so that they move the plate away from you when pouring, so accidents don't happen. The soup was very hot!
Speaking of the soup, they call it Dragon's Blood. The half chicken breast that you get, is called a Baby Dragon. The dragon theme is carried on nowhere else in the castle.
The chicken was the best part of the meal, really good actually. We were also given one pork rib (Unicorn rib???) and three pieces of a potato wedge. It was a sticky mess! Luckily, they were quick to follow with wet naps to clean our hands, as at M.T., all food is eaten without utensils.
Dessert was an apple strudel and coffee. Good. One big negative with the meal service, is the cocktail waitress never walked over to our part of the green section. We had wanted to have beer and wine with dinner, but it didn't happen. On the upside, this saved us a lot of money, as we didn't spend any other than the tickets and tipping our server. This was a big miss on their part, as we were ready to spend.
The show began shortly after our drinks were served. They like to do a lot of filler with smoke and laser light effects. It's kind of cool and then grows old fast. The music is very dramatic throughout.
Dan took a video of the introduction of the Green Knight. The best part of the video, is the very end, when you can hear the rowdy group of single women seated next to us.
The knights actually a decent job of getting the crowd going and are interesting to watch, especially once they get into jousting and sword combat. By far, the worst part of the of the show is the king and princess. They have terrible dialogue and spent most of the show looking utterly bored. I'm sure that they are bored, having seen the show a million times, but if they manage to muster up some enthusiasm, they should be replaced.
The dialogue is very difficult to understand over the loud music and bad PA System. It's okay though, as there doesn't appear to be a very intricate storyline, they just seem to throw a few medieval sounding key-words around and at some point, there is a bad knight that must be defeated.
wah wah wah Brave wah wah wah wah wah Fair Princess wah wah wah wah wah wah Chivalry wah wah wah wah wah wah wah wah wah Honor wah wah Joust wah wah wah Brave (again, cause they love to throw that word around) wah wah Mead wah wah wah wah wah wah ...
Dan took a video of the epic battle where our knight was victorious. My favorite part is the guy behind out, loudly yelling "Get up and fight!". People really get into the spirit of things.
Bottom line, Medieval Times is a fun night out, if you don't pay full price and if you go in prepared to embrace the cheese and actively participate. It's also something that you do once or with many years separating your last visit. The only other time that I have been was back in the late 90's, so it felt new and I didn't remember most elements of the show.
Before we left our seats, we were given a mini bottle of champagne and a little bag with a souvenir cup, New Orleans style beads and a noise maker. NYE was on! We had about twenty minutes before midnight, so we grabbed a great spot on the edge of the dance floor, close to the balloon drop.
Here is the video Dan took of the NYE countdown and balloon drop.
Although we likely won't spend a future NYE at Medieval Times, I'm glad that we went. It was silly, made us laugh a lot and good value. I can't remember the last time that I had this much fun on NYE.