When I saw the ad for Monster Jam in December, I thought that it might be a cool thing for Mason to experience. I couldn't really recall whether I had been to one in my youth so I assumed not.
I had a choice of going to the show in Vancouver or try to align our Disneyland trip and Monster Jam when it was in Anaheim. I figured we had enough to do on our vacation so I deferred to going until we were back in town.
I invited everyone at work who had a little dude (not saying little girls wouldn't want to go but I figured it wasn't as big of a deal to them). Soon we had over 6 families all wanting to go so it ended up being a corporate event but paid out of our own pockets.
The tickets ended up being $42.85 (per seat, no cost reduction per age). My coworker was nice enough to lend us ear protection for Mason from their event last year.
So the day arrived today and I was surprised the show was so late (7pm start). So I picked Mason up from his Dad's just before six and headed straight downtown. I shouldn't have been surprised by all the traffic, there was an accident and a police incident so that slowed us down a bit.
From my last experience at going to Roger's Arena, I figured out parking before we left the house. The lot I chose was fairly close to BC Place and a heckuva lot cheaper. $6.30 vs $20.00. [535 Richards].
We quickly walked to BC Place (after I had to figure out where we were lol, it was dark and I lost my bearings). Once we got on West Georgia, every man & woman with their child(ren) were walking in hoards to the stadium.
There were ticket scalpers everywhere offering tickets and ear protection. I also stopped at Shoppers Drug Mart hours earlier to buy my own ear plugs. (2 pairs for $3.99 to 30 decibels),
Once we got inside, a quick pee stop and off to our seats where my coworkers were already settled. From the minute we got into the arena, the engine noise was overwhelming and I immediately put on Mason's earmuffs. As soon as we were seated, I put mine in and handed the spare pair to my coworker who didn't bring anything for herself.
The show was about to start!
*Jigsy's photo editor is down so I can't add any pics at this time*
We headed to the concession for some water (I was going to bring some but I didn't think they'd let me bring a water bottle in for some reason). I was instantly brought back to overpriced California! $4.50 for a bottle of Dasani or Gaterade! and $3.00 for a small bag of chips. Yikes!
When an hour passed, Mason started to get restless and want to leave. The trucks were in a competition and were racing around in circles more than anything, getting some air. I was thinking it was more of a 'crunch' old vehicles kind of show so I didn't blame him for being bored :( Finally with about 1/2 hour to go, my team and I decided to leave and back home we went. By the time we got home it was almost 10pm which is incredibly late for the little gaffers.
All in all, it was a $104 night and we probably wouldn't go again.