Camping World Stadium :-(

The Spousal Unit and I are on a mission at our 50+ stage in life to do as much as we can, while we can, so that when we are stuck in our rocking chairs at the retirement home, we will have our memories of good times to entertain us.  Visiting college bowl game stadiums is one of those bucket list items.

The old Citrus Bowl, now Camping World Stadium, was on the list.  Where to park?  After a long search of the internet, the Geico Garage, next to the Amway Center looked to be a good choice, a mile or so away from the stadium, but free shuttle service, which was the absolute bomb!

The stadium was rebuilt last year.  They kept the upper decks, but ripped out all the lower sections and rebuilt it with chair back seating, to bring it up to NFL standards.

We were not allowed to enter the stadium at any gate but the one on our ticket.  Really?  At least they had escalators to the upper levels.

We arrived at our seats, to discover the metal bleachers (yep, upper deck) still had standing water in them.  Plus, these wet spots were full of mold.  Attendants were cleaning them one hour before kickoff!  I can understand the water, but why were they still lined with black mold???

Since we had arrived early, we could relax and get a bite to eat.  Off to the concession stands I went.  I look at the menu boards, most of which are covered over with a paper sign indicating the only items available were a hot dog and an Italian sausage.

All of the attendants were Hispanic.  I asked for "two hot dogs and a sausage dawg".  They just looked at me, like "huh???"  I said it again, very slowly.  It did not register.  I'm thinking, you have got to be kidding!  Finally their supervisor walked up and said something in Spanish.  They then handed me two hot dogs.  No sausage dog.  Our bottled water was handed over with no top.  Dang, what kinda place is this???  I attempted to ask for "mustard" and got more blank stares!

I gave up, and went to the next concession window for maybe some better luck.  Whew! There were two English speaking workers and they had mustard at the end of the counter!  Got my sausage dawg and we were on our way!

During the game, we saw a popcorn vendor one time.  There were plenty of "ice cold beer" vendors throughout the game.  Most of the beer was served in 24 inch cans with the top popped, which was understandable.

At halftime, the concession lines were backed up to the airport.  All the food items were gone long ago.  Beer and water were being dropped into one end of these troughs and being served out of the other.  I ordered two waters and a diet pepsi, total $15.50 and paid with a $20.  I was given $4 and the gal went looking for quarters.  I'm standing there with $4 and no drinks .  I ask the other attendant, "can I have my drinks?"  I get that look again,  "no habla English".  The first attendant finally returns, no quarters, and I ask her for my drinks.  She replied "but I don't have the rest of your change!  I just replied "keep the change, drinks please!"  The people behind me can't believe what they are seeing either!

Game over, time to leave.  We reach the escalators, which are now all moving downward, thankfully!  The attendants are only allowing ten people at a time to get on these escalators.   Really???  They just revovated this stadium within the past nine months, but the escalators can't handle the weight???

Once you reached street level, you could not see where the streets were because of all the people leaving at the same time.  All of the fans had only one route back to the parking lots and shuttle buses!

Thankfully they knew what they were doing at the shuttle bus station.  It only took us about 30-45 minutes to board.

Lots of people came by Uber, including some of our friends.  Even back at the parking garages they were not getting through on the Uber app on their phones.  Just too many requests for their system to handle in Downtown Orlando.

We can mark off the old Citrus Bowl off our list.  On a scale of 1 to 10, they get a 4.  The atmosphere was great, the FSU fans in our section were great, but this newly remodeled stadium did not deliver.

Time for the next bucket list item!