Games 38 - Orlando Magic

Orlando Magic vs. Washington Wizards @ Amway Center in Orlando, FL (3/14/2014)


In mid-March, the family went to Disney World for vacation.  On the last night of the trip, Ryan and I attended a Magic game in downtown Orlando.  After a full day at the parks, Ryan was a bit tired, but managed to make it through the game before falling asleep on the way back to the resort. 

Amway Center is a great arena once you are inside.  It is well designed, with plenty of room to move around, lots of shops and extremely clean.  As for the location, perhaps it is just my GPS directions, but on the way there we went through some pretty rough neighborhoods just a few blocks away.  This makes for a little nervous driving (especially when stopped at a light in the dark), on the way home.  I caution anyone going to keep this in mind.

The staff at Amway Center is by far the nicest / friendliest staff I have experienced anywhere.  Everyone we ran into was extremely pleasant and helpful.  The food....well, I wasn't impressed.  How could you not try something called the "OMG Hot Dog?"  It was a hot dog, wrapped in pastrami and covered in cheese, sauerkraut and potato straws.  Needless to say, I was not impressed.

The arena has an excellent "museum" area on the 1st level.  Ryan and I spent a good portion of the 2nd quarter checking out the history of the franchise, memorabilia and many other items on display. 

In addition, they offer a pretty incredible children's play area, complete with mini basketball courts and playground.  Ryan loved it and took some time to work on his dunking skills on the 5-foot rims.  The place was so popular, that we had to wait in line to get in, which we were used to by now from spending an entire week at Disney / Universal Studios.  Part of the entire experience of going to these games, particularly when I really don't care about many of the teams is to check out all of the ancillary stuff at the games.  I have not run across anything that tops the Pittsburgh Steelers Hall of Fame Museum, but this section at Amway was pretty cool.

Our seats were in the upper deck, but still a very good view of the action.  We sat next to an older couple that were extremely knowledgeable about not only the Magic, but the NBA in general.  They were very kind and friendly to Ryan.  The Magic is one of the worst teams in the NBA, but they put up a good fight against the Wizards, who are fighting for one of the final playoff spots.  The arena itself was rather empty as seen from the photo on the left, which was right before tip-off.  In the end, the Wizards prevailed 105-101 in overtime.  $206 more for charity!

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