California Vacation: Medieval Times

Medieval Times (http://www.medievaltimes.com/) has many locations throughout the United Sates. Many years ago my husband and I attended the one at Excalibur in Las Vegas. Although we really enjoyed that, this one (in Buena Park, California) was a much nicer overall experience.

Like most of the locations, they have a nice exterior to the building so we stopped to take some pictures before entering.

When you pay for admission (or handover your prepaid ticket) you are assigned a color. That is the "team" you will be part of for the night.  They give you a paper crown with your color to wear.

A group picture of my family with one of the main characters (in our case it was the princess) was taken shortly after paying for our admission. This picture was presented to us during our meal as an option to buy. I think it was in an acrylic frame and cost $20. We did not buy ours since it wasn't a great picture but if you do decided to buy it be prepared with cash since they do not have access to a credit card machine in the show area (at least that was our experience).

Once we entered the main lobby there were a ton of picture opportunities we took advantage of with our own camera.

You can also purchase a variety of items from kids play swords, flags to cheer on your assigned color/team, costumes, and even higher priced items like real swords and deluxe "costumes".

Some of the higher priced items

They also had the show horses in an area where you could look at them from a small distance.

Purchasing alcoholic drinks in the lobby was an option. A couple of times they performed small skits to get our attention and prepare us for the show that was to come.

To be seated we were called in by our color. Basically you try to be the first in the door and you run to your colors seating area. You then get to pick from what seats are left. We were able to get right in front! The seats are kind of tight together so it was hard to find a spot for the gadgets we bought the kids (light-up swords and flags).  It's theater seating with the table area in front of you so, unless you are on an end, you have to climb over the back of your seat to get out during the show.

We were "blue" which was located at one end of the arena area (directly across from the stage where the king and princess sat). it was nice seating but would have maybe been better to sit a little more to the side since we ended up with horse butts in our face a lot!

It's not very often that I say this but they had a GREAT vegetarian meal! If you look under "Bill of Fare" on their website you will see a picture. I was very happy!!! My husband also enjoyed their regular meal. Be prepared to eat with your hands just like they did during that time period. Although I did get a fork for my meal. Once you see the picture of the vegetarian meal you will know why.

There are portions of the show where your assigned knight will throw some "lucky ladies" carnations. Thankfully one of the employees at check-in told us about this so my daughter knew to shout for one. She got the first flower of the night and at the age of 4 she was instantly in love with him ;-) In her opinion, that was better than Disneyland!

My daughter with our knight and the carnation he gave her!

The show was great!  After the show there is a big party. You can dance and drink. We of course didn't stick around since it was late and we had the kids with us. But I did sneak some pictures of my daughter with some of the main characters before we left.

Tips:

We purchased flags for our kids at $5 each to cheer on our assigned knight. I did read in a blog before going that you can ask for a cheaper flag that is only $1. I saw many of them being used during the show. It's smaller but still very effective! We decided to go with the $5 flag because it was similar to another show we went to which I will blog about later. My kids still have their flags and love using them as part of their role play!

If you have allergies be prepared - there is a lot of sawdust flying around! The ventilation was good but my husband made sure he was prepared so the rest of our trip wasn't spent with him not feeling well.

You will need cash to tip your wait staff. I believe a 20% tip is recommended. Again, there was no credit card option.



I mentioned that a few years ago my husband and I visited the Medieval Times in Las Vegas.  There we were given assigned seating and our group picture was taken at our seats (not with a character from the show).  I don't recall a big area to hang out before the show started but I'm sure they would prefer that guests were at the casino gambling!