Lord of the realm

Do you want to hook me? Refer to me as M’Lord when I walk over to the will call window. Ok, Medieval Times: Dinner and Tournament you've already won. That was how we were greeted when we arrived at the Castle in Lyndhurst NJ recently. From the instant you walk inside you are no longer ten miles outside of New York City, or a mile and a half away from the New York Giants playing the Pittsburgh Steelers in a preseason game, but you are in medieval Spain at the castle of King Don Carlos. 

The kids were blown away by the enormity of the main hall, with its shops, bar and staging area for King Don Carlos to perform a knighting ceremony. We had been to Medieval Times years ago and didn't remember it being this elaborate. But then again seeing it through the eyes of children makes the experience very different. 

We checked out the dungeon, which was a museum of torture devices. There were so pretty terrible ways to punish people back then. Soon they started seating people, we were sitting in the red section. The royal box was just to our left and infront of us was the indoor track where soon knights would battle as we feasted. 

The show was so entertaining and everyone let their inhibitions go as adult and child alike screamed and cheered for our champion the Red Knight and booed and hissed at his rival the Green Knight. It was so much fun. What was great was there was always something different to see, from the knights playing knightly games (basically trying to grab things with their lances at full speed), showing off of horse maneuvers, a live falcon flew over the crowd and lots of pageantry. 

They wove the story of the tournament to cue the servers when to feed the assembled lords and ladies. The food was terrific, tomato soup, garlic bread, roasted chicken, corn and potato. I had mentioned that there were no utensils here my kids looked at me side eyed. And low and behold no utensils. But surprisingly it ended up not being very messy. 

As the tournament went on the knights threw flowers to the ladies and little girls in their sections. My daughter nearly had a heart attack when a pink carnation ended up right in front of her. There was action, and comedy. It is a perfect evening for the entire family. It was never scary and not as crude as the renaissance faire can be. 

As the evening went on the Red Knight ended up victorious and led the charge to defeat some Northern invaders. The assembled crowd gave aloud and boisterous round of shouting HUZZAH! 

We left the show super happy. The kids talked about it all the way home. It was a really great experience. 

The staff at Medieval Times are first class, they stay in character and make everyone feel like they are the ruler of the realm. Huzzah to them as well! 

Click here to get a great discount for your visit to the Castle. 

Disclaimer: Medieval Times provided passes to me and my family, but as always all opinions in this review are all my own.