During our last few visits to Florida we have tried to do more and more different things to add variety to our time there. During our visit in August 2008, we fancied doing something genuinely American, so we investigated going to a live baseball game. We figured our ' local' team was the Tampa Bay Rays.
Once we started to look into it we got more and more excited about the event. It turned out that the Tampa Bay Rays were playing the Detroit Tigers on the second Saturday of our stay. There were tickets available and they seemed a bargain at $11 each. We booked online and arranged to collect the tickets at the gate – all of this was very easily done.
The Tampa Bay stadium was a very easy drive from our villa in Kissimmee and we easily found free parking a short walk away. The atmosphere even before we entered the stadium was really exciting and as we did enter the vast dome, we were stunned by the size, the noise and the colours of the venue. We arrived there at about 6pm and the game was due to begin at 7pm. If there was one downside to the whole evening, the food available to buy within the stadium wasn' t great so we were glad we had spent the day in St Pete first and gone to one of our favourite restaurants there.
Long before the game was due to begin we were entertained by music, colourful characters doing all sorts of crazy things in the seating area, and watching the players warming up. When the game finally got underway we were hooked from the first minute. The game lasted a long time, compared to the sports we are used to in the UK, but there were plenty of breaks with small elements of entertainment thrown in. The whole atmosphere was fun, lively and very, very family friendly. Our five year old son enjoyed it just as much as my 64 year old mum, and all of us in between! The game was over by about 10pm and we strolled back to our car and were home at our villa, tired and exhilarated, by 11. 30.
All in all we felt the evening was excellent value for money, fun for all the family and we really felt that we had experienced a true American evening out. It is definitely something we will do again when we are in Florida this year.
Once we started to look into it we got more and more excited about the event. It turned out that the Tampa Bay Rays were playing the Detroit Tigers on the second Saturday of our stay. There were tickets available and they seemed a bargain at $11 each. We booked online and arranged to collect the tickets at the gate – all of this was very easily done.
The Tampa Bay stadium was a very easy drive from our villa in Kissimmee and we easily found free parking a short walk away. The atmosphere even before we entered the stadium was really exciting and as we did enter the vast dome, we were stunned by the size, the noise and the colours of the venue. We arrived there at about 6pm and the game was due to begin at 7pm. If there was one downside to the whole evening, the food available to buy within the stadium wasn' t great so we were glad we had spent the day in St Pete first and gone to one of our favourite restaurants there.
Long before the game was due to begin we were entertained by music, colourful characters doing all sorts of crazy things in the seating area, and watching the players warming up. When the game finally got underway we were hooked from the first minute. The game lasted a long time, compared to the sports we are used to in the UK, but there were plenty of breaks with small elements of entertainment thrown in. The whole atmosphere was fun, lively and very, very family friendly. Our five year old son enjoyed it just as much as my 64 year old mum, and all of us in between! The game was over by about 10pm and we strolled back to our car and were home at our villa, tired and exhilarated, by 11. 30.
All in all we felt the evening was excellent value for money, fun for all the family and we really felt that we had experienced a true American evening out. It is definitely something we will do again when we are in Florida this year.