Saturday my family and I had the opportunity to attend Monster Jam in Tampa. My boys have wanted to go to Monster Jam for years and finally at ages 17 & 19 their wish came true. We arrived around 3pm, paid $15 to park at Raymond James Stadium and headed to the Party in the Pits. You can get free party tickets at the local Monster Jam sponsor, check the website for locations near you. The party was very crowded with families checking out the show vehicles, watching R/C car demonstrations and waiting in long lines to get their favorite driver’s autographs. We wandered the party for about an hour spending most of our time watching the R/C cars or the Fearless Flores family in the globe of death. For us, the Party in the Pits was not a comfortable place. For us “family friendly” doesn’t include alcohol or smoking and both of those were prevalent at the party.
(click on the photos to make them larger)
Party in the Pits
We headed back to the car to relax and eat the snacks we brought with us. We never buy food and drinks at stadium shows because the prices are outrageous. At Monster Jam a Sno-cone in an ugly skull mug was $15 and Cotton Candy with a foam Grave Digger hat was also $15! I actually watched a dad spend $60 on cotton candy, ridiculous.
We went into the stadium right after it opened at 5:00pm and I’m glad we did. I had no idea that there was pre-show entertainment. We got to watch some Tampa area Legends cars race and we saw heat races for the Demo Cross race that took place later in the Monster Jam show. If we had entered the stadium later we would have missed all of that fun!
The Course from our seats
The first part of Monster Jam were the races. There were qualifiers and then the trucks were put in brackets and they continued racing, two trucks at a time until there was a winner. The winner for Tampa #1 was Son-uva Digger.
Monster Truck Racing
After the Monster Truck racing there was some more Democross Racing and one of the big events of the night Tom Meents did a backflip in his Max-D truck!
After intermission was the freestyle event. Each truck is given 90 seconds to “showboat” on the course, if they survive the initial 90 seconds they get a bonus 30 seconds to continue performing. A panel of 3 judges score each performance each giving a rating on a scale of 1-10, If the drive completes the bonus 30 seconds they get an additional 2 points added to their score.
Monster Jam Freestyle
The freestyle competition is very exciting with huge trucks flying through the air, and not always landing on their wheels! Grave Digger even ripped of the skin of the truck and finished the freestyle with just the roll cage!
Max-D survived landing on his side and was able to right himself and finish his run!
Max-D Roll Over
In the end Son-uva Digger won the freestyle competition thus pulling of the double for the night!
Son-uva Digger Freestyle
We all enjoyed Monster Jam very much and we hope to come to another show in the future. When we do come back we will just skip the Party in the Pits. The Monster Jam show is very exciting. I do suggest you eat before you come to the show and bring earplugs for those with sensitive ears since the trucks are very loud. Don’t forget I’m giving away a 4 pack of tickets to the February 2nd Monster Jam show at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa. The giveaway ends January 26, 2013.
Disclosure: We were the guests of Feld Entertainment at the Monster Jam show. All opinions are 100% mine.
I’ve never been to a Monster Jam, but they have them near here sometimes. It sounds like good fun, especially for boys.
Lindsay recently posted..Weight Watchers Punch Fitness Kit Giveaway
The races look like fun. I’m still in shock about the prices of the snacks.
ConnieFoggles recently posted..Word For The Year is Determined #InspiringMoms
I’m with Connie. what gives with the food prices?
pammypam recently posted..Guest Post by Jesse Wilson, author of The Night the Moon Ate My Room
Great review! Love Monster Jam. I think that the concessions are how the stadiums make money on events like this. Good for them but it is tough on families to go to events like this.
Kelli recently posted..GIVEAWAY: Hip Peas Natural Kids Hair Care (NYC)
How fun! My boys would love to go to a Monster Jam. Ah who am I kidding I’d love to go too 😉