Wednesday, September 10, 2003

King Richard's Faire is a rip-off, don't go!

This weekend we went to King Richard's Faire. My review:

Nickel and dimed at every corner:: It was quite a ripoff! You pay $21 dollars (incl. $1 discount) for the privilege of shopping at the expensive stores that sell Medieval merchandise. The offered merchandise was very good handmade quality (leather masks, carved staffs, fairy wings). However, for that amount of money, I would have expected that the shows were free. I mean, after every show the guy passes out his hat and you give extra money (on top of what you already paid). They heckle people too, to make them feel guilty. I was quite surprised the bathrooms were free.

Food::The second thing is the food coupons. You can't buy food with regular money. You can only buy food coupons of 50 cents each in $5 denominations. This is so that parents lose track of what they are paying for. We found a pork sandwich for 12 coupons ($6) and a large drink for 7 coupons ($3.50). This "meal" was worth $9.50-- and there were no fries included. The pork sandwich was also very sweet-- so sweet I couldn't eat my half. Anyway, with the bare necessities (tickets and food) being so expensive-- it was hard to have any money to spend on the things in the shops, even if I could afford any of the nice things... like a leather mask ($100 average, or wings $75 average).

Disappointments:: The Mud show was a BIG disappointment. This mud show didn't really get muddy (they had a handful of dirt at any one time, they didn't really get dirty, and the plot sucked!) The only part we really enjoyed was the joust, but that was kind of confusing and the plot wasn't that great. It was also the only show that we didn't get asked for money at...

Something nice to say:: I guess the thing with Medieval fairs are that there's some good stuff to look at. We took some cool pictures of the different garb people were wearing. That's about it all the nice stuff I can really say.

Recommendations-- go to the Renaissance Festival in Miami instead. Tickets are much cheaper (~$10), and you can spend your money on cool stuff, not feeling ripped off at every turn. Their mud show is a lot better, and funnier too! At that one, I was also able to buy an ocarina for $35, and a friend got a turkey leg for $1 (at deep discount on the last day)! Anyway, we got the impression that King Richard doesn't really care about the medieval stuff, he just wants to make a fast buck out of unsuspecting people. It could have been just a fun time, but King Richard is Greedy! I felt bad for the families who were trapped with the kids who wanted amusements/candy/toys. Be forewarned, there are better places to go for a medieval show (for starters, Medieval Manor...). I definitely won't go to this show ever again-- I felt burned.
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