Medieval Times and Knights Orlando

Written By: Gail Clifford | Published By: Weekend Notes | February 2, 2023

Medieval Times and Knights, a castle-like dinner and show a la Renaissance festival experience provides festive meals served along rows of stadium seating with the arena forefront. It’s a large complex, easily seating hundreds. Everyone retains a view of the performances allowing them to cheer or jeer to their heart’s content. There’s a Queen, knights, squires, a dandy dastardly type, and servers rushing from plying dishes and drinks to running out for a brief appearance as assistant squires, at least I think I recognized some of them.

Popular across the country, the Medieval Times in Kissimmee hosted me during a trip through Visit Orlando’s VIP Media Passport. They generously provided us VIP access, placing us center court, part of the black and white festooned House of Santiago, whose horse was glorious but whose knight may or may not have lost his favored nation status after acting in what the Queen deemed was un-gentlemanly conduct during one encounter. He finished second in the competition that night. For competition it is.

The premise, to witness Medieval games as patrons dine on a simple but hearty meal, meant to be eaten with your fingers – drink your tomato bisque from the small cast iron skillet, have your hunk of chicken, an entire breast, I think, dropped on your plate, with a serving of a mini-ear of corn (no dental floss provided) and a luscious slice of potato plank ( I could’ve enjoyed more of those!) but the drinks, lemonade, sweet tea, water, or Pepsi, all pour in from the servers while the bar rushes to deliver the sangria or wine (pre-ordered from the bar area before the show).

The show begins with an introduction from the Master of Ceremonies, leader of the trusty knights who have assembled in honor of the Queen who holds court to see which of her tried and true knights can win her favor and designate the lay-Queen (an audience member bestowed the honor) of the night from his trusty and cheering crowd.

Games throughout the tournaments, from swiping flags from posts at a full-on 40 km/h (25 mph) gallop to putting a jousting spear through a small ring, to a spear into a target, to an actual joust with knights going against each other first on horseback, then on foot, with a choice of weapons – the sword, falx, morning star, or axe. You know they’re real when sparks fly as they strike.

Suspend your disbelief and enter the times of yesteryear when noble knights fought for the honor of their regnant, in this case Her Majesty, the Queen. She called for her knights to joust in her honor and rewarded the winning knight’s lady with special attention at the end of the evening.

First, as drinks were delivered to the thirsty crowd, the Master of Ceremonies introduced the premise and the eight knights who entertained the crowd. Crowds in each knight’s section waved flags in his honor. Cheers became rampant as the evening progressed. Leave two and a half hours for the event.

The horses are gorgeous, magnificent creatures, especially the silky white stars of the show. The trusty mounted browns are wonderful, and the blacks are beautiful, but the white, especially those that dance and do dressage, are phenomenal. Some bucked, all ran, some danced, some dressaged, and all were utterly stunning as they raced across the arena.

The knights, always identified by their colors: Red, Red & yellow, green, blue, black and white, or yellow, fought hard to win the night.

The falconer, Lady Ashley, and Lady Nicole who danced with her horse before walking backward. That is not easy to do. It was wonderful to have such powerful women featured in the show.

The falcon flew across the vast space, diving and soaring, never too close to the diners, though we’d been warned not to try to attract the gaze of this magnificent beast of prey. She wandered far and wide, following Lady Ashley’s directions, to confirm that her task was complete. She came to rest on the sand of the arena and gladly returned backstage for a meal and appropriate fuss for her hard work.

The squires took care of both their knights and the horses. One or two of them even had the honor of cleaning up after the horses, most important for when the knights dismounted – whether purposeful or because they’d been struck down in battle, you wouldn’t want them to be defiled by dung.

Dung defiled may be how the knights felt after being beaten in the dueling joust, but their intricate horsemanship with the crisscross patterns entering the arena, riding astride in a magnificent show of force, and independently as they sped across the space to reach their opponent, or, sometimes, their most favored Queen.

Were it not for the horse arriving from Valencia, we wouldn’t have heard about the dandy craving actual Valencia oranges. This reminded me of the Jaffa oranges we’d just learned about in Jordan and how much they were loved. Isn’t it amazing how travel brings the world to you sometimes?

The dinner complete, the joust won by the noble knight from the House of Red and Yellow, we learned how to tip our servers (they have a card holder where you can put cash or follow the instructions for a cashless tip, very handy).