My Adventure to Medieval Times

So last Sunday I got to go on a trip to Medieval Times, which I’ve wanted to see for a while. The trip was actually a Christmas gift from my sister that she planned to take me to in January, but we waited a bit longer for covid to go back down and it was definitely worth the wait. Anyway, here is my recap of the day and review of the Medieval Times show.

So, the day started with my sister and her boyfriend picking me up at noon. We drove to the Medieval Times located in Virginia, which took us about half an hour to get there from where I am. The first thing I noticed when we got there was the front of Medieval Times, which looks like a castle. We had some bumps in the road trying to find somewhere to be dropped off while my sister parked, and also with finding the entrance. The interesting thing is the interior of the venue is set up like a box seat at an Arena, which I didn’t think to expect. After we got our tickets, we found our way to the seats, which were conveniently just a couple of steps down from the main floor (I walk with crutches in case you did not know).

The dining experience was one of the most interesting parts of the whole thing. When you first sit down, the menu is served on top of a napkin and the server starts telling you about the show. We were served shortly after the show started, and I got tomato soup to start with a slice of garlic bread to dip in the soup. The main course was the large piece of chicken with corn on the side. Of course, they had the normal assortment of drinks to offer, so I chose Pepsi. One thing I will say is that I thought they would have had creative names for the food items they offer, like wench water or something for soda.

The show takes place in Spain in what I believe would be the 10th-century, and they did a great job at setting that stage with all the props and ambience. The characters of the show were the queen, someone who facilitated the sequence of the show who also showed up on a horse, and of course the knights (red, green, blue, and black & white) which contained a traitor. The knights fought in a tournament style, and they also sword fought on the ground after one got knocked off from jousting. I thoroughly enjoyed the acting from the cast, but also the showmanship from the horses was really good, too. They were able to do tricks like bowing to the crowd and standing on their hind legs. Side note, I also wondered where the horses like if they were kept in a nearby stable or something and how do the horses get into the arena. The other thing that I wondered about how long it took them to train was horses to learn all those tricks.

Anyhow, we ended up sitting in the section for the black-and-white knight. The green knight team had the most energetic group out of the whole arena, and he turned out to win. I think my knight won one of his duels, but I of course had to use the bathroom mid-show. I also missed out on who the traitor was, which is a bummer. The other cool animal they brought out was a falcon, which they had to fly around. I had to have my glasses on for this part especially because I wanted to of course see everything, and that bird was just so small in a big arena. The one downside of a lot of action was that it was hard to multitask and follow the underlying story or even eat because your brain is just mesmerized by the sights, and you don’t want to miss anything. I was very impressed with their fight and wondered to myself who would win if they were dueling for real there was a funny joke about Valencia oranges because the queen’s uncle was the Duke of Valencia, which is a popular region for Orange Grove, so one of the characters kept asking for oranges.

The show ended up being about 2-3 hours long, so I ended up getting home around 5. I thought everything was amazing—I did feel like I got to that period. I wish they had speakers in their bathroom, though, so I could hear what was going on. But the show, acting, animals, and food were all fantastic. I recommend going to Medieval Times if you can, especially if you’re a fan of history like me!