March Madness basketball at Walt Disney World

If you are at all a college basketball fan, like I am, your brackets for the NCAA basketball tournaments are already filled out and ready to go. This year there is a new offering at the ESPN Club at Disney’s Boardwalk for VIP seating during March Madness. Beginning March 20th guests have the ability to book reserved seating area. Prices vary based on the portion of the tournament they are attending. For the elimination rounds (March 20 – 23) adult prices are $50 and children are $25. The Sweet 16 Round is $65 and Final Four is $75 for adults and both are $25 for children. During the basketball tournament there will be two sets of seating times, one from 12 – 4:30pm and the other from 5 – 11pm. ESPN Club’s hours of regular operation are from 11:30am – 1am, but are subject to change during March Madness.

From the ESPN Club website: “ESPN Club VIP Premium Club Seats are available for $50 per adult and $25 per child, and include all food and beverage orders up to those amounts; additional charges will apply for orders exceeding the cost of each individual Guest’s admission. Tax and gratuity are not included.”

If playing is more your style, Walt Disney World has several locations on property where you can shoot hoops. At the Walt Disney World Dolphin you can find an outdoor court near the lap pool. Equipment can be checked out at either the Swan or Dolphin health clubs. The court and equipment rental are exclusive to guests staying at the Swan or Dolphin. The Campgrounds at Fort Wilderness also have six quarter quarts located in different loops throughout the resort. Balls are typically available in a box located adjacent to each court. In addition to these, a few deluxe villas properties have courts at Animal Kingdom Villas – Kidani Village, Saratoga Springs Resort & Spa and at Disney’s Old Key West Resort. Balls are usually available at Community Hall. When it opens in August, the new Four Seasons Orlando will also offer a basketball court in their recreation area Explorer Island.

basketball

For those looking to be completely immersed in a basketball theme, you may want to check out Disney’s All Star Sports Resort and check in to the Hoops Hotel section. This value resort is one where you can surround yourself in all things basketball with larger than life icons outside the buildings and the theme carries over to the room decor. Pennants decorate the outside of the building featuring college basketball teams from around the country. Basketballs also adorn the exterior of the resort buildings that are more than five feet in diameter and number more than 70. The megaphone giant icon is 45 feet tall and the whistles are 60 feet long and 20 feet tall. If you, or any family members, are fans of basketball, this is a fun resort to enjoy great sports theming in the rooms and throughout the lobby area.

hoops hotel baskets

hoops hotel whistle

Are you all geared up for March Madness or are you just a basketball fan in general? If so, I hope you’ll check out these resorts to live, eat, sleep and breathe basketball at Walt Disney World. Shout out to your favorite teams you’re routing for in the NCAA tournament in the comments. Go Vols!

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Join Us On The Amway Center Fan Tour!

As most people know I am a Twitter fiend, says the girl with 103,880 tweets! Twitter is my drug of choice! I am forever tweeting about lots of things that usually aren’t important but a lot of time those silly things have paid off!

The Amway Center here in Orlando is home to the Orlando Magic, The Orlando Predators and my person favorite the Orlando Solar Bears. They are a huge concert and sporting venue. Beautiful new facility that replaced the old Amway Arena a few years ago. They were running a Twitter and Facebook ReTweet/RePost contest for all their followers for a chance at a behind the scenes tour of the facility! Well, I was one of the lucky ten winners!!! So this past Wednesday me and my favorite +1  Shelley Caran took a trip to see this beautiful facility!

Do you see that 46 foot Jumbo tron???? Yeah Buddy! It is the Biggest in the USA!!!! We learned so much about the facility and what goes into making it from a basketball court, to a hockey arena, into a concert venue and into a Circus Tent!!!! We also learned that the Amway Center is the FIRST NBA facility to earn Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design new construction certification from the U.S. Green Building Council. The arena uses 20% less energy and 40% less water than arenas of similar size.

Amway Center “green” features include:

  • Preferred parking for hybrids and other energy-efficient vehicles
  • High-efficiency heating and cooling systems
  • Ultra-low-flow toilets
  • A reflective and insulated roof that reduces cooling costs
  • High-tech monitoring systems that shut off the lights when a room is empty
  • Bicycle racks, showers and changing rooms for workers who bike to work
  • Systems to treat storm runoff before it can pollute nearby lakes
  • Recycling bins for fans and concertgoers
  • Additionally, many of the points toward LEED certification for the Amway Center were earned during construction. For example, of the facility’s building materials, 15 percent are recycled and 20 percent come from local sources. About 83 percent of the wood, concrete and steel construction waste has been recycled rather than sent to a landfill.
This is ONE beautiful facility! They took us on a tour of everything, we got to meet Stuff (Orlando Magic Mascot) and Shades (Orlando Hockey Mascot), we got treated to an amazing dessert spread and they even did a few giveaways and of course, me being Princess Luck won a Orlando Magic Jersey! We also got a swag bag at the end that included tickets to an Orlando Predators game and an Orlando Predators shirt to wear! They treated us like royalty! Big Huge Shout out to Jen at the Amway Center who was the young lady who set up our tour and is the face behind their twitter account! I can not wait to go to a Preds game and I am SO SO SO SO SO SO SO Excited for the upcoming Hockey Season! See you all on the glass!!

 

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