First day in Dallas!

I have been to Dallas several times and I had never been to Medieval Times before. I knew this time I had to do it!

Alright, the price is very expensive IMO, so I thought it better be good. Fortunately they offered a discount on their website. The castle facilities are awesome. If you made reservations they have you in the invitees list and give you a color and a table number.

They recommend you to arrive one hour and a half in advance so you can enjoy the castle before the show. I found this is just a way of taking more of your money from you. I liked the whole medieval mood, but every little single thing you buy -a wood sword or a banner- costs you no less than 5 dlls, so if you add that to the $50+ price for the dinner and show you could end up spending around $100 if you have a few drinks, rent some customes and buy souvenirs and banners to cheer the knights on battle. I wasn't in the mood for spending that much, so we just visited the Torture Museum, which I didn't like that much. They charge you $2 to get in there, not that $2 is too much, but, couldn't they make it complementary since the price of the show is not precisely average?
So that is one thing I didn't really like about Medieval times. It seemed a bit greedy and touristy -at least the one and a half "tailgate"-.

However, the dinner and show part of it was excellent, and I would definitively recommend it to anyone. Food was delicious -a tomato soup appetizer, then chicken and ribs for main dish and pastry for dessert. I didn't understand the story of the show very well -part due to my poor english, and part due to the fake british accent of the actors and the microphone distortion. But the action was indeed very good! I certainly enjoyed the entertainment, and cheering our knight, who ended up losing anyway.

So, I think Medieval times is one of those places where you must go at least once. Now I can say I have been there. But if you arrive early, be prepared to spend twice as much as you planned if you are not careful.

The Dallas World Aquarium is a great place to go if you like exotic nature or if you are travelling with children. It's very conveniently located in Dallas downtown. The price is average, but you really get what you pay for.

The Aquarium is divided in three main sections: Orinoco Rainforest, Mundo Maya and the Aquarium. The Orinoco rainforest is a great adaptation of the Venezuelan jungle with many exotic animals including crocodiles, toucans and a lovely sloth (he is not very active, though, therefore his name lol).

The second section, and probably the one I liked the most was the Mundo Maya. They had an amazing performance of ancient mayan dances and burning of copal (the native american inciense). After that, they had children release Monarch Butterflies into the jungle. The whole place had a great Yucatan vibe, i really felt like in some of those wild life parks in the Cancun area.

The last section is the Aquarium itself, where you can obviously see a great variery of fish and sealife. The ones that impressed me the most were the dragon fish. Never seen such an amorphous fish before!

They also have an amazing restaurant, I ordered a ceviche, and it was probably the best I've ever had.

Overall it was a great tour, and definitively recommended for anyone.

The Old Park is a great place to start any visit to Dallas. It features many conserved buildings from times before the railroad came to Tx. You can get a feeling of how people lived back then, and you can get tours to the facilities and explanations of some of the buildings.

Another great think about it, is the great view of the Dallas skyline that you can get from there, and obviously amazing pictures.

It's not expensive at all, so I would recommend it for anyone looking for family fun in Dallas.