If you would like a taste of ‘real’ American life what better a place than at an American Football game at the Citrus Bowl in Orlando! We took in our first visit in September at a college game with the Orlando Knights against their nearest rivals the Miami Hurricanes.
We found tickets easily with the official supplier, Ticketmaster. Do note that tickets sold by other agents may be at highly inflated prices. If you plan to go during your trip to Orlando it’s probably best to have a look at the schedule and book your tickets in advance. Buy them online and then you can collect them on the day from the allocated collection office at the Stadium.
Now for the hard part! As we all know public transport in America is very limited and certainly there was no sign of any near the stadium so you have to go by car. We followed directions from the website for the Citrus Bowl and ended up lost in a one way system – hire a sat nav for your trip and use it to get there! Oh and do set off with plenty of time to spare as the traffic is fairly chaotic around the stadium.
As you approach the stadium you will start to notice signs at houses and businesses advertising parking at $10 or so. You have a choice – either dive into one of these or keep on going until you get on the road in front of the stadium. If you turn left here you can pay to park in a local school along the road on the left. This seems like the best option. The only other option is to see if you can buy into premium parking and you get to park in a near by field where everyone turns up early and has a picnic out of the trunk of their cars.
They are very strict about what you can take in to the stadium – no backpacks or bags so be prepared to travel light. But once inside there is no sign of any security and there are children of all ages. There are plenty of outlets to buy drinks and snacks inside the stadium but we found them very busy. There seem to be no rules about alcohol but absolutely no trouble either!
Seats are not comfortable – simple bench seats and you are there for a long time! But the atmosphere is electric! All over the ground there are things going on. Cheer leaders, knights on horseback, advertisers, people throwing freebies into the crowd. Great fun even if you don’t know what is going on on the pitch!! We would thoroughly recommend going to a game.
We found tickets easily with the official supplier, Ticketmaster. Do note that tickets sold by other agents may be at highly inflated prices. If you plan to go during your trip to Orlando it’s probably best to have a look at the schedule and book your tickets in advance. Buy them online and then you can collect them on the day from the allocated collection office at the Stadium.
Now for the hard part! As we all know public transport in America is very limited and certainly there was no sign of any near the stadium so you have to go by car. We followed directions from the website for the Citrus Bowl and ended up lost in a one way system – hire a sat nav for your trip and use it to get there! Oh and do set off with plenty of time to spare as the traffic is fairly chaotic around the stadium.
As you approach the stadium you will start to notice signs at houses and businesses advertising parking at $10 or so. You have a choice – either dive into one of these or keep on going until you get on the road in front of the stadium. If you turn left here you can pay to park in a local school along the road on the left. This seems like the best option. The only other option is to see if you can buy into premium parking and you get to park in a near by field where everyone turns up early and has a picnic out of the trunk of their cars.
They are very strict about what you can take in to the stadium – no backpacks or bags so be prepared to travel light. But once inside there is no sign of any security and there are children of all ages. There are plenty of outlets to buy drinks and snacks inside the stadium but we found them very busy. There seem to be no rules about alcohol but absolutely no trouble either!
Seats are not comfortable – simple bench seats and you are there for a long time! But the atmosphere is electric! All over the ground there are things going on. Cheer leaders, knights on horseback, advertisers, people throwing freebies into the crowd. Great fun even if you don’t know what is going on on the pitch!! We would thoroughly recommend going to a game.