Wednesday, April 9, 2014

Medieval Times Chicago!!!

We were treated to the most amazing opportunity this past weekend! The lovely people over at Medieval Times Chicago (in Shaumburg) contacted me and wanted to give my family tickets to come and enjoy the show! So I made plans for the first night of spring break for the 4:30 show. I have been there once before when I was in middle school (22 years ago, how can that be????), and absolutely loved it. I just knew that Adam and the kids would love it too, so I jumped at the chance to be able to take them. We had lots of fun on this trip to Chicago, but that will come in another post later.

We arrived a little later than I wanted to for our dinner and show, but once we were inside we could feel the magic to begin. Adam had printed out our tickets for me, and we were wonderfully upgraded to the royalty package! The line was long but fast moving. At times, because there were so many people, it was slightly confusing where we needed to go. At the first check in station, we were given a pick VIP ticket, and the kids thought that was super cool. We headed in and were given the option for our photo to be taken.






 Because we had the royalty package, we were guaranteed at least seats in the first three rows. We headed to our table and seats, and found that we would be cheering for the Yellow Knight. There were paper crowns, small flags, and programs waiting for us when we got there. We all immediately put them on! Adam had been a bit leery of the whole concept until we arrived. He just wasn't sure what to expect having only watched commercials. (Afterwards I asked him what he thought, and he was just as excited and mesmerized as the kids were!)



 The show actually began shortly after we arrived, and the kids were happy to not have to wait terribly long. The Herald came out to announce that the show was beginning. He introduced all the knights to us, and then brought out the Royal Court including the King and the Princess!






 They also brought out many of the horses to show off special tricks! The Falconer came out next. The falcon was let loose to fly around the entire arena and got about 8ft away from us in our seats. This picture was D's reaction to when the Falconer got the falcon to come back to him. I think it is my favorite picture from the entire day!


The games then began! There were races, jousting, and hand to hand combat. It was amazing to see, and L loved that real sparks came off of the swords! D got a little freaked out when she heard the Herald say the knights would fight to their death. She really thought they were going to die, and didn't quite get that it was more like a play than anything. She jumped right up in Adam's lap and began to cry. Poor thing! After a bit, she was fine, especially after we explained what was really going on. Our knight, the Yellow Knight, ended up winning all the contests against the other knights. It was very very exciting!!!


Then out came "the bad guy" and he challenged our knight. D really lost it again for a few moments, and L was so excited he was bouncing in his chair. At one point, L even bounced himself right out of his chair and onto the floor!  Our knight was the winner once again, and everyone was happy again.


The food was fantastic as well!! Garlic bread, tomato soup, half of a baked chicken, BBQ ribs, potato wedge, drinks, and a warm apple turnover for dessert! Adam and I both ate everything we were served, but both kids had left most of the chicken behind. We were able to take home any of the leftovers, which was really nice and came in handy the next day for lunch! After the show and dinner were over, we wandered around the shops area. You can buy all sorts of neat things from key chains, flags, wooden sword and shields, to princess crowns, and beer steins. With the packaged we had received we were to get a behind the scenes DVD, so we headed to the counter to retrieve that. We didn't know that we were suppose to get that before the show, so just a head's up to anyone else. They couldn't find our names in the computer anymore, and we no longer had our tickets since it was the end of the show, but they were able to get the paper list from the main counter, and were fantastic about getting it for us!

We all had a wonderful time, and I highly recommend it to anyone that is headed to the area! It is a bit pricey for our budget, but I would love to save up and go again in a few more years!!!

http://www.medievaltimes.com/chicago.aspx

This post has been sponsored by Medieval Times Chicago.

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