as a public service...

We looked into taking the boys to Medieval Times for a treat last year and found they charged a ridiculous amount of money for their meal and show...we opted to do something that didn't cost us a car payment instead. Cut to last Wednesday when Lynn was driving to work. While listening to his sports radio, he heard a commercial detailing a kids eat free special at the Medieval Times and called me to check out pricing again. If it wasn't TOO much, we'd make reservations and surprise the boys. Well I called, it was still expensive, but not AS expensive. Since we were saving $72 plus tax with the kids eating free, I bumped for the royalty package (preferred seating [near as I could tell there were no bad seats in the house], Knights cheering banner [cheap little flag thing they were selling for a dollar], Medieval Times souvenir DVD [Caleb has watched this a couple times already, but did we really need four?], and
commemorative program [meh.] for each member of the party! [A complete waste of money!]).



Part one of this public service announcement: if you absolutely have to check out Medieval Times, save yourself some money and pass on the royalty package. Bottom line: you get nothing special and you end up with more stuff you'll more than likely just throw away the minute you get home.

Part two of this psa: In an effort to save you from spending a ton of money on a sub par meal and mediocre show I offer this: to experience the meal (and I do mean experience it identically) you will need to swing by your local grocery and pick up a couple cans of Campbell's vegetable soup (everyone gets a bowl), a couple roasted chickens (each person will get one half of a roasted chicken), a box of Pepperidge Farm garlic toast, a bag of potatoes (that you will cut in half, coat with oil and herbs and bake...each person will get one half of a potato), a half rack of spare ribs (each person gets one rib). On your way home swing by McDonald's and pick up as many fried apple pies as there are guests in your party. Don't worry about brewing a big batch of iced tea because you only need enough to fill an eight ounce mug twice. This is plenty of food for any one person to eat, but my point is the meal is unimpressive to say the least and certainly not worth the money charged for it. Once the meal is ready, feel free to peruse the photo set I put together on Flickr. You're actually getting the better end of the deal here as you don't have to hear the painfully trite dialogue. In fact, you could watch A Knight's Tale (or your favorite Robin Hood-type movie) on dvd and probably have a better time.

I will say this: the boys had a great time. Lynn and I? We laughed at the hokiness but choked on the fact that we spent a ton of money without much return on our investment. I think we would have had a better time and spent less money roaming around a Renaissance Faire.