During my recent vacation to points South, I mentioned that I would be attending JoeLanta as a civilian. I took a few photos, more of which you will see over the next week, but I didn’t shoot any video, as I have at previous JoeLanta and ToyLanta conventions for more than a decade.
However, I did have my handy Kodak Zi8 with me. And it came in very handy indeed.
When we got to Atlanta (actually the suburb of Duluth/Lawrenceville), we stopped at the Sugarloaf Mills Mall and wandered around. While turning down one hallway, after the disappointment of discovering that one of the cool stores listed on the directory was no longer open, we stumbled across what looked like a castle, taking up quite a bit of space.
It was Medieval Times, a theme restaurant that has been mentioned or parodied many times in pop culture over the years. We didn’t even know there was one in Atlanta, let alone in the shopping mall we were visiting. They offer “dinner and a tournament,” which sounded a bit intriguing. When we got back to the hotel, we looked it up online and decided to go see what all the fuss was about.
It was a “What the hell, why not?” sort of decision.
So Saturday evening, after making our photo rounds of JoeLanta and doing some more shopping (It’s a big mall), we went to Medieval Times, and had loads of fun. And I took my little video camera with me and shot a few minutes worth of the action, which is what you see above, set to some music from Rick Wakeman’s The Myths and Legends of King Arthur and the Knights of The Round Table (which I managed to misspell in the on-screen graphics at the end).
Because the whole idea of going to JoeLanta as a civilian was so that I wouldn’t be burdened with tons of video edit when I got home, I have to admit that this video was slapped together in twenty minutes while I was snacking on Goldfish crackers. It’s just my impressions of a fun time.
As for the whole Medieval Times experience, the show was terrific. There were no signs of animal cruelty (the show includes live horses and a falcon). The food was not horrible. Choices were very limited (available drinks were Pepsi, Sweet Tea or Water…with water being the only diet option). You are not given utensils unless you ask for them, and if you do ask for them, they are hilariously flexible, like prank items. The service was top-flight (and in-character), and they did offer a vegetarian option, in case you weren’t in the mood to eat half a chicken.
But the overall experience was a tremendous amount of fun. It was kid-friendly. There was lots of merchandise you could buy,including replica swords and also sparkly light-up weapons. The storyline was fun, pro-wrestling-level entertainment. And we’re still trying to figure out where they keep all the horses when the show isn’t going on.
I don’t know if we’ll make a repeat visit, but it was a lot of fun to go to at least once.
PS: We did get cardboard crowns to wear. There are photos. No, you can’t see them.
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