Review: Pirate’s Dinner Adventure, Anaheim, CA

Last Saturday for my 31st birhday, my wife, 25 friends, and I visited the Pirate’s Dinner Adventure in Buena Park, CA. It is located just North of Knott’s Berry Farm and Medieval Times on Beach Boulevard in Buena Park. The building that it is located in used to be Wild Bill’s western dinner show, which apparently went by the wayside with the recent surge in pirate popularity.

Each ticket was $47 with the group rate, which included admission, hors d’ouvres, dinner, and two complimentary beers for those over 21. We arrived around 6:30, and met the rest of our group outside. We entered the building around 7:00, and enjoyed hors d’ouvres and drinks in the pre-show/lobby area. Unfortunately the pre-show snacks were better than the actual dinner itself. The dinner wasn’t bad necessarily, but wasn’t exactly good either.

The pre-show that took place in the lobby/bar area was pretty amusing. The best part of it was that it was heavily centered around audience participation. Even better was that three of my best friends (two others who were also celebrating their birthdays) got up on stage with me, and we proceded to make a drunken spectacle of ourselves. In hindsight, I have a feeling that everyone in the room was thinking “crap, I hope those guys aren’t sitting near me.” More on that later.

After the pre-show, we entered the main showroom. We met our designated pirate, Samson the purple pirate, who turned out to be a great guy and very tolerant of our drunken silliness. Samson chose me to be the “Stevedore” (I think that’s how you spell it). I won’t tell you what the “Stevedore” does, but I will tell you that I won. HA!

During the show, the pirates sang, battled, did some other stuff, and had some contests involving the audience. Unfortunately I don’t remember a whole lot of the show, but all of us had a good time cheering for Samson and making a ruckes.

Mid-way through the show, just when we started to have a really good time, a security guard came up to our group and informed us that we were being too loud and were disturbing the group in front of us. Now I may be wrong, but when you go to a pirate show, not to mention a pirate show on a Saturday night, you are asking for rowdyness. Isn’t that what pirates were about? Being drunk and rowdy? And every part of this show from the very beginning encourages audience participation. We all thought it was pretty ridiculous, and I can’t tell you if we even piped down or not.

Based upon my experience, I would definitely suggest a visit to the Pirate’s Dinner Adventure. They put on a good show, and the actors work hard at what they do. Sadly, I think that Medieval Times puts on a more elaborate show in that there is a better story behind it, and you just can’t beat the real jousting. All in all though, it was a worthwhile trip, and a great way to spend my 31st birthday.