Accessibility Review: Orioles Park at Camden Yards

Parking at Orioles Park at Camden Yards was a little confusing, especially since we arrived very early in order to see the Sports Legends Museum, Babe Ruth Birthplace and Museum, and Geppi Entertainment Museum before the park opened for the game. However, the man running the parking area by the Sports Legends Museum was very helpful about getting on his radio to find out what lot was already open for handicap parking before just sending us to a possibly closed lot. Once there we were surprised parking was only $10 and it is right next to the park near on of the Eutaw Street entrances to the park.

The gates for the Eutaw Street entrance opened two hours before the game. You then can hang out in the Eutaw Street area until the rest of the park opens about an hour and a half before the game. This was kind of boring for us since we had walked Eutaw Street earlier in the day before they closed it to prepare for the game. The only potentially interesting thing is to watch batting practice, but this is not exactly accessible. The main area to watch is behind a wall you have to be standing to see over or down in the outfield seating.

There are a few wheelchair spots in the outfield seating you can get to and then view the batting practice, so we did that. However, these seats are horrible. The view is blocked by a wall to the left of the section. The blockage is so bad you cannot even see 1st base along with a good chunk of right field being blocked. Worst part is that the seats are almost right up against the gate that separates the section from Eutaw Street. I am sure the foot traffic here would be quite a nuisance during the game, as it certainly was at the beginning. Not to mention the path is barely wide enough to even get the wheelchair to the seating section. Boy I am I glad this is not where we had our tickets to sit.

Our seats were in section 78. The seats were at the top of the lower seating section. They were nice and close to the field, especially for only $15 a ticket. However, the upper deck ones would have been better. The issue with these lower ones is that they are not raised up above the seats in front anymore than a normal row. This makes it really hard for you to see sitting down when the people in front stand up, which happened a lot during the game we were at. For a regular physically able person this would be fine, as you could just stand up to continue to try and see the action. However, it is unacceptable in my opinion for handicap rows to be at the back of a section and not raised up above the row in front because many people in wheelchairs cannot stand up when they want to be able to keep seeing the action. I did notice that the upper levels of handicap seating were raised above the row in front. They are not that much cheaper and are farther from the action, but it would be worth it in Mik’s opinion to not have people standing up and ruining the moments he does watch the games.

Overall the game was not a horrible accessible experience, but it was kind of disappointing. However, Orioles Park being the first of the modern era of ballparks I can forgive it for not having worked out the best accessibility. They obviously cared and made there be a lot of up close handicap seating that is not under an overhang and that is rather rare in many parks other than right up on the field, which can be quite expensive. Since we did not sit in the upper sections I have no idea how the elevator situation is here, which often is an issue parks fail at. As for the cup holder issue that Mik always pays attention to, there are no cup holders anywhere, so Mik did not feel left out, but he still does not like not having a cup holder.

Day 53: Geppi’s Entertainment Museum

On July 10, 2009, we first went to the Babe Ruth Birthplace and Museum and the Sports Legends Museum, but from the start I promised Mik that if we had time we would also go to the Geppi Entertainment Museum. Of course, he was rushing us along all day, so he could see this museum, but we ended up with plenty of time here even though we did not really let him make us rush. The best part is the museum admission is only $1 on game days and it is located right above the Sports Legends Museum, so it was very easy to fit in time wise since we were almost already at the park by being in this building.

The museum starts with a room with the walls covered with comics on display and even more comics in display cases in the middle of the room. This room was enough to keep Mik’s attention throughout. Dad actually went back to check on him while Mik was watching a movie in here and brought Mik to near the end of the museum where we were. Thus this really is all Mik saw during our hour plus visit and boy was he not happy that Dad made him leave the movie. He was not exactly mad to miss the rest of the museum, but he was no longer motivated to see anything after Dad pulled him away from what he was enjoying already. Other than Dad being annoying, though, Mik thought this was an awesome museum or at least what he did see of it.

The rest of the museum is organized like a timeline. It begins with the Pioneer Spirit exhibit representing 1776-1894 continues to the Extra! Extra! Exhibit representing 1895-1927 and so on. Honestly, the first two parts were not all that interesting to me. It was just a confusing representation of things that were not exactly historically explained very well or at least I could not notice the signs that really explained what the heck was on display and why adequately. Not that I really tried that hard, as I kind of quickly went through these two to get to the somewhat more modern stuff. I like historical stuff great and small and all, but I was kind of in a rush to get to the Orioles game and wanted to make it to the Wizard of Oz exhibit near the end.

I spent some time in the When Heroes Unite exhibit (1928-1945), as they had a display of Mickeys and such, but I did not get a chance to linger because they had to kick everyone out of this exhibit in order to fix a Minnie doll that fell down and I forgot to go back to the exhibit. The American Tunes In (1946-1960) exhibit was kind of minimal and was mostly just about Howdy Dowdy. There were, however, some baseball souvenirs, such as a Jackie Robinson game and about 40 little ballplayer figurines.

The next exhibit is called Revolution (1961-1970) and has a giant Batman as the centerpiece. The displays here include Flintstones and Pez dispensers. The next room is called Expanding Universe (1971-1990) and has things like McDonalds toys and Star Wars collectables. The final timeline exhibit is the Going Global one that is in part of the gift shop and has things like Harry Potter figures and the 25th Anniversary Care Bear.

Before getting to that final exhibit and the gift shop, though, there is a special edition exhibit room. Currently the exhibit is on the Wizard of Oz. It had some Wizard of Oz series books on display, but I was actually quite disappointed in the exhibit. I really thought there would be more to it, especially with all the rooms leading up to it being so full of items on display. This one ends up looking extremely bare in comparison.

Overall it was a worthwhile museum to visit, especially since it was only $1 a person. I am not sure it would really be worth admission otherwise, but Mik thinks it would. I know I would definitely think so if the Ducktales exhibit that opens later this week was on display.

Day 57: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

Today we went to see the latest Harry Potter movie. Mik was extremely disappointed because they basically changed everything and it is almost just a movie based on the characters of the book or inspired by the book. Mik said he would have rather gone to the Civil War sites we originally planned for today before the movie release got moved from Friday to Wednesday. It was not horrible in my opinion, but it was not very good either. I really think it left a lot of important things out and added a lot of crap comedy.

Almost as soon as we got back to camp it started to rain, so now we are sitting in the Rec Room for a few hours until it closes and hopefully the rain clears up entirely. I am going to try to catch up on posts from the last five days or so, as I still have things to post about from July 10 through July 14. It would be nice to catch up before we begin going to games again tomorrow.

Car Sticker Update: Baltimore Orioles

The American League side of the car is getting very full even, as only two more of the six remaining ballparks we need to see are American League ones. The one Dad got for the Baltimore Orioles says Orioles and has the Orioles bird above the team name.

Kj’s Baseball Collection: Camden Yards

I was able to find a pretty interesting Camden Yards ballpark baseball at the Orioles game. One strip has a brick background and says Camden Yards in big orange letters on it. The other strip is a view of the Orioles Park at Camden Yards outfield with the unique warehouse and Eutaw Street in the background. Actually it really is not a view of the outfield and really just of view of the park behind the outfield wall. Anyways it is a view that makes it quite clear that it is none other than Orioles Park at Camden Yards.

Kj’s Baseball Collection: Babe Ruth Birthplace and Museum

At the Babe Ruth Birthplace and Museum I got a souvenir baseball with the museum’s logo. The logo features an image of Babe Ruth at bat and says Babe Ruth Birthplace and Museum. The baseball also has an image of Babe Ruth’s signature. The other side lists Babe Ruth’s records such as home runs, walks, home run titles, and mutli home run games.

Mik’s Mini Bat Collection: Orioles Park at Camden Yards

Mik choose a mini bat of the ballpark as his Orioles mini bat. He actually got it at the Sports Legends Museum, but they ended up having them at the Orioles game as well. The mini bat is natural on the bottom and has an orange background on the top. There is an image of the ballpark as a sort of aerial view on the mini bat. It says Orioles Park at Camden Yards about the ballpark image.