6- Orange County Otters - The Dam in Anaheim, CA (Otters vs San Jose Sabercats)
(50/50 Icebear & Fronk)
Introduction:
Fronk:
Season 29 is upon us! Finally after that long hiatus, The Ultimate Fan Experience -ence -ence is set to start again as IceBear and I continue our exploration of the different host cities throughout the ISFL. Our mission is to explore all the host cities, sit in every seat inside every stadium, eat and drink all the concessions, and guide fans to the best experience they can get for any game. IceBear, are you ready to get UFEee Season 2: Electric Boogaloo started?
IceBear: I’m as ready as I’ll ever be. Excited to be back after our nice little break although we didn’t get the chance to actually take a break. We were lucky enough to be asked by the city of Perth, Australia to help with a bid for the Season 29 Utlimus. Such a fun trip, but now I’m ready for some football!
With the season kicking off I do want to quickly jump backwards and congratulate all of the DSFL and ISFL draft picks this offseason. The drafts are personally one of my favorite things about the league. Congrats and good luck to the new recruits!
Fronk:
Perth was great! Our league voters for the Ultimus location were not as great. I’m not too afraid to be in any heat from calling them out, as we all found out last week that the people voting don’t read much further than the logo and will never see this. Jokes aside, that Toronto logo was incredible and The Ultimate Fan Experience -ence -ence will venture to the north for our second Ultimus.
IceBear, let’s kick this season off.
IceBear: As Fronk mentioned we are on our quest to find the Ultimate Fan Experience. We break down the rankings into these categories...
Hotel / City / Commute / Local Bars
Tailgate Experience
Stadium Appearance / Seating / Views / Attractions
Field
Weather / Climate
Concessions
Conclusions and Game Results
Alright Fronk, we have our categories. What do you think we should rate these out of? Otters holding hands? I guess that can get a little dark with our partial points ranking.
Fronk:
Oh no, the OCO locker room is going to hate us, but let’s rate this out of 1-10 Mickey Mouse Ears.
Hotel/City/Commute/Local Bars:
Fronk:
At first IceBear and I were excited with the prospect of going to California, but then we started to get super pumped when we realized that The Dam was a feature at Downtown Disney located in Disneyland, California. We both enjoy going out and enjoying drinks and parties, but we also have an inner-child energy. Mrs. Fronk especially enjoys Disney as she’s been to Disney World over 13 times growing up. Neither of us have been to California, let alone Disneyland and I just could not leave her behind. So this is the first Ultimate Fan Experience -ence -ence work trip with Mrs. Fronk and Mrs. IceBear tagging along.
We booked (separate) villas at the Grand Californian Resort using the UFEee credit card and quickly got to work exploring whatever parks that Disneyland offered. It turns out that most of Disney is similar for both their locations, but we did not mind at all. My personal favorite attraction is actually my favorite thing to do in Disneyworld: Soarin’. This is probably the one thing that Disneyland has over Disneyworld. Soarin’ California is an amazing experience and reminds me why that ride is so good.
We ate some excellent food and had the excuse to go to nice restaurants without looking like we were on a man date. Even though we were in the (second) most magical place in the world, that did not stop IceBear and I from consuming copious amounts of beer and drinks. We had beers in hand walking around the entire place and at all opportunities we stopped at themed bars and pubs to try out any drink they had available. It just makes the place that much more magical.
Getting over to the game in Disney Springs was exciting too. Instead of taking the bus system from our hotel, we were in Cars Land and decided to ride the train to get to Downtown Disney. The stadium itself is kind of like a Disney ride. In order to get in or out of the area of the stadium, you have to pass through all the gift and souvenir shops along the way.
Rating: 9/10 Mickey Mouse Ears
IceBear:
To date this has to be the most excited I’ve been in anticipation for one of our trips. We are doubling down on experiences this week. Being able to hit up Disneyland and check out this week 1 matchup of Otters vs Sabercats has set a very high bar before we even got off the plane. This time we had to behave a little more when booking because of bringing the wives. Then again how can you go wrong with booking with Disney and with so much to do we figured the rooms didn’t need to be anything special. The separate rooms did eliminate our basketball beer game we play when we return from a night out. It’s just a clever fun way for us to clean up and wear ourselves out a bit before bed. I tried this with Mrs. Icebear and when I tried to draw the blocking foul on her, I quickly realized I had made a very poor decision.
Luckily the miscue was followed by an amazing day at the hotel and the game. With already staying in the park we had many options of transportation to the game. Like Fronk mentioned, we took the train. I was personally pushing a safari ride to get us there, but as I was reminded of what was ahead I agreed on the faster option of the train. Who needs to see Lions when we are able to see some Otters and Sabercats duke it out?
By visiting disney all day we were able to basically live a full life in a single day. From our Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters to the Haunted Mansion. I went from boy to man in those experiences. I can’t say the same about Fronk. He went from setting high scores on Astro Blasters, to then throwing Mrs. Fronk at every little thing that popped out at us. Between that and my drunk basketball drive to the hoop, I’m assuming they won’t be begging to join us on our next trip.
Now what really moved me into that adulthood mindset of Disney was me trying to combat the Orange County heat with as many beers as possible. This time I have a chaperone I actually trust. My goal was to try as many different beers as I could without crossing the line and missing the game. I’ll say at points those lines got a little blurry. My saving grace for this was the many concessions that we hit one through the day. Some people say a glass of water between drinks, mine is just another food stand to balance it out.
The experience of having Disney right there with the stadium and having our lovely wives with us, made this such a fun trip exploring the “city” and creating a great experience.
Rating: 9.3/10 Mickey Mouse Ears
Tailgating Experience:
Fronk:
Surprisingly there was quite the tailgate going on in the vast Downtown Disney Parking lot. During game days, the Orange County Otters take the parking lot over and host a traditional parking lot tailgate with quite the twist. The Disney characters come out and roam around in their Orange County Otters jerseys and socialize with fans. It was actually pretty jarring. You can go from winning a game of beer die to getting photos with a disney princess. IceBear swears he saw Chip or Dale doing a kegstand, but I think that might have been just hairy Otter’s fan. Haha Hairy Otter and the Goblet of Beer.
This tailgate was fun and shockingly traditional for such a crazy place.
Rating: 6.9/10 Mickey Mouse Ears
IceBear:
After our day in the park and my beer hydration to battle the heat I was SOOOO ready to tailgate. I was super curious to see how this family focused location would handle their tailgates and I was pleasantly surprised. This was a tailgate you might expect at any major college football stadium. That tailgate itself had a nice support and was led by the man himself Mickey Mouse. Mickey was repping a #25 Anton Brucker orange jersey. The ears going with a rookie, Anton better have a magical season with that sort of pressure. In addition to Mickey, many different Disney characters joined the tailgate. I even got a picture with goofy. The problem is between the beer games and the sun’s glare you could barely tell who was who. I’m gonna have to double check that it didn't get into Fronk’s hands and can go right into the trash.
Super sweet tailgate. It was what you could expect from a tailgate but with a magical spin. I’ll say this was a 7 dwarfs shot ski away from the perfect tailgate (minus the heat). Maybe next time we can set that up, Disney?
Rating: 8.6 / 10 Mickey Mouse Ears
Stadium Appearance / Seating / Views / Attractions:
Fronk:
With being a part of Disneyland California, we were expecting something magical and The Dam came through. The exterior of the stadium has a modern touch to it with irregular shapes and supports to appear like a beaver dam of football proportions. Along the walls of the stadium on both the inside and the outside are the occasional waterfalls and interactive water features for both kids and adults to use.
On special game days (including this home opener of season 29) the stadium and park like to bring out their family of rescue otters that are being taken care of at their rehabilitation and habitat center. The Orange County Otters even hold a raffle every season for season ticket holders’ chance to name one of the new otters that was born in the facility. Last season’s otter was a feisty animal and the lucky winner named him “Tank”.
My favorite feature of The Dam is the part that separates the traditional football seating with the concourse. A LAZY RIVER. Fans can exchange their tickets on a first-come-first-serve basis for the chance to view the game from a lazy river pool that also has swim-up-bar type seating along the sides. This is where IceBear and I’s decision to bring the wives came back to bite us because we would’ve been in that river like otters for the entire game. Unfortunately, our whole party did not feel like walking around in wet swimsuits for the remainder of the night and so IceBear and I got in to float whenever we needed to cool down from the heat.
So the exterior disney parts of The Dam blends into the seriousness of Orange County Football as soon as you get to the seating sections. Everything is back to standard ISFL stadium seating with acceptable views throughout the stadium and no kiddie business like the Nickelodeon craziness other leagues have tried in the past.
Rating: 8.3/10 Mickey Mouse Ears
IceBear:
A LAZY RIVER! Come on, what else is there to say right? Wrong! As Fronk mentioned the Damn itself is so cleverly built with some many cool and unique features. One thing I thoroughly enjoyed was a wing they had dedicated to the most important play in every ultimus victory. It was like walking through a history book of the ISFL. I just hope to see some Honolulu stuff there someday, someday soon!
The lazy river for an entire game is now a dream of mine. We will be back to Orange County, “no girls allowed” style. That way we don’t have to “be an adult” and we can get the Tarzan themed room. We may end up coming back next week! Maybe we can luck out and be in charge of that otter naming. I’m thinking Crodyman would make a wonderful Otter name.
A very neat thing we noticed that we have yet to see in any other stadiums was a retired number among the banners. Marc Spector #32 - after talking to one of the ushers we were told this was in remembrance from the passing of his user. We think this was a very awesome touch to the stadium and was a class act by the organization. It's the small things like this that make me really appreciate the league and all the great people we have met along the way. Out of everything in the stadium this has to be one of my favorite things we got to learn about. It’s great that his legacy will live on in this ISFL.
On a lighter note, I was on the hunt for my swag grab for the week. This was a much tougher choice than I thought. As I mentioned earlier, orange is my favorite color, so I thought my only debate was gonna be which player’s jersey I’d be getting. Bender Rodrigues? Goat Tank? Follow in Mickey's footsteps and go with Brucker? But after this week’s fantasy draft I thought I might as well support my RB and go with Goat Tank. Plus you can’t beat that name.
But on top of my jersey choice, there was an overwhelming amount of fans with what seemed to be the shirt. “We are Despacito” written in orange across the chest of a black shirt and a single otter logo on the back. So apparently that was a must have. So after negotiations with my wife, I got both the jersey and the new t-shirt. By the end of these stadium visits I’m gonna have a whole new wardrobe.
This was a different stadium experience and design. With the Disney magic feel this made for a great experience.
Rating: 8 /10 Mickey Mouse Ears
Field:
IceBear:
Set in such a cool stadium, I am disappointed in the field. This is a very basic field and no big wow factors for me. Orange does happen to be my favorite color, but that wasn’t even enough to save this ranking. I do see the problem of “Orange County” and “otters” being very different in size making it hard to have the endzones reflect each other. But the addition of the helmet on the Otters side, didn’t do it for me. I can’t help but see Harley Davidson branding as I read the “Orange County” endzone.
I will say that something super incredible they do that doesn’t show up on their stream, is they have again paid homage to Marc Spector and turned the 32 yards lines orange. This is such a cool honor that we hope to see remain with future field designs.
Rating: 3.2 / 10 Mickey Mouse Ears
Fronk:
Uh oh. IceBear is upset again. But to be fair, I saw his first draft of the field redesign and it was pretty similar in design so maybe the blandness of the field is kind of inevitable. Nothing special with the endzones. Just some general black outlined white lettering on an orange field. I’m not even sure the font matches from the west endzone to the east. There definitely needs to be some retooling. Mrs. Fronk did comment that she likes the logo, but I think it gives me some Backyard Football vibes. Like this team could’ve been the Orange Wombats starring Pete Wheeler, Pablo Sanchez and the gang and been very similar.
My positive for the field: DAT GRASS DOE. Best looking natural grass in the ISFL. Such green. Such texture. Whoever takes care of that turf needs a raise.
Rating: 4.1/10 Mickey Mouse Ears
Weather/Climate:
IceBear:
Does heat bother normal sized people too? I again think I’d rather be cold and add clothing than trying to walk out of the way so I can get a few steps in the shade. As I mentioned I try to combat the heat by downing as many cold beers as possible. I think this just ended up being a circle of drinking because of the heat, sweating the alcohol out, and repeat.
The lazy river at the stadium was this week’s ultimate experience with the perfectly timed river float after a long day of walking the park. I don’t think after the full day of making our way around Disney, I would have been able to sit on some metal bleachers and watch the game.
The heat ended up being perfect once we got to our floats. Was it worth the hours of misery before getting to that point? I’ll let you be the judge of that.
Rating: 5.9 / 10 Mickey Mouse Ears
Fronk:
We ended up not seeing a cloud in the sky during our trip to Orange County. The good news is that back home it was raining for the majority of our time there. The bad news is that walking around the park and the way that The Dam was set up caused IceBear to almost have a heat stroke. Honestly, we all were finding ways to keep as cool as we can during the day.
In comparison, night weather was actually very comfortable and once the sun set onto the stadium, the weather was perfect.
Rating: 6.4/10 Mickey Mouse Ears
Concessions:
IceBear:
I’m not sure which I had more of throughout the event - concessions, beers, or warnings from my wife of how miserable I’d be later. Like I said, earlier my concessions plan was to battle against the amount of beers I was having to avoid dehydration from the heat.
Now I thought this was something dreams were made of but there was a corndog TRUCK! This thing drove around like an ice cream truck, and the moment I figured out what it was I went full Linebacker and chased that puppy down. On top of the corndogs, we also made stops at: Soft frozen lemonade cart, pretzel stand, and a popcorn stand. There was also a turkey leg stand that we again vetoed on going to (It’ll be my first stop when we return).
Overall the concessions were okay. It was what you’d expect from a theme park. I will admit, we didn’t venture much into the stadium's concessions as we were pretty full from the day and spent a lot of the time exploring the architecture and wings of the stadium.
I look forward to trying out some more of the stadium when we return. Until then I’ll base concessions on our day at Disney.
Rating: 6.4 / 10 Mickey Mouse Ears
Fronk:
Concessions were just okay here. I probably would not call them traditional stadium concessions as much as I would categorize them as carnival/fair/theme park food. Lots of gimmicky stands of fried food, burgers, pizza, and sweets of all kinds. I’m a sweet boy and had little interest in some of the food options so I planned on replacing any notions of eating actual food and going straight for the fresh carmel corn, cotton candy, and Mrs. Fronk’s favorite: Dip-n-Dots.
Our sweets-only plan did not last long once we saw that the stadium did have it’s own In-N-Out Burger right behind one of the endzones. I love trying out new-to-me fast food chains and did not think twice about jumping in line to try out one of the greats for the first time. I regretted not thinking twice after it took me almost a half hour to get through the line and finally get my food. I want to say it was worth it, but I still haven’t made up my mind on the experience. I got my burger and fries both animal style because I listen to enough food chain podcasts to know what to do, but I was not blown away by the burger or the fries. I think I was led astray with the hype all the locals have on the place and fronkly don’t quite understand.
We topped off our meal with the array of beers that were available throughout the stadium. Disney knows how to supply beer!
Rating: 5.8/10 Mickey Mouse Ears
Conclusions and Game Results:
IceBear:
What a trip. This was such a unique experience all around. It was lovely having the ladies join us and to have a little get away with them. I cannot think of a better trip to have them join us on. A trip of fun and nostalgic feelings as we ventured through the park. We then were greeted by an amazing stadium with surprises and history around each turn.
The Otters were able to pull out a win vs the SaberCats, picking up on their hot end of S28. With high hopes for the season they are off to a wonderful start. I look forward to following the Otters this season as they have earned a spot in my heart with the great memories made this weekend. Otters are just a lovable team and easy to root for.
This was a magical experience and I look forward to returning!
Overall Rating: 9.3/10 Mickey Mouse Ears
Fronk:
So the first Ultimate Fan Experience -ence -ence +wives went pretty well. Did I miss not sharing a room with IceBear? Maybe, but I would not have felt right experiencing Disneyland without Mrs. Fronk.
This team and stadium are really magical and not corny at all (besides their corndog truck). From what I know of the team themselves, the locker room has some great personalities and even greater characters. Orange County is a cool place with lots to do and I enjoyed my first limited time there.
I’d have to check our records, but this could be the first game we attended where the home team ended up pulling out the win. This could be a brand new streak for UFEee. Seemed like the Orange County Otters were in trouble after the first quarter with San Jose going up by two touchdowns. The Otters quickly responded in the second half with three touchdowns of their own. I’m expecting big things from Goat Tank this year and hope that this first game was just a warm up.
Well there we have it. Ultimate Fan Experience -ence -ence has kicked off 2044 with a great stadium and a really hot team. We’ve got big plans for this season and this is just the beginning.
Overall Rating: 7.65/10 Mickey Mouse Ears
Thanks everyone for reading and best of luck on the season!
(50/50 Icebear & Fronk)
Introduction:
Fronk:
Season 29 is upon us! Finally after that long hiatus, The Ultimate Fan Experience -ence -ence is set to start again as IceBear and I continue our exploration of the different host cities throughout the ISFL. Our mission is to explore all the host cities, sit in every seat inside every stadium, eat and drink all the concessions, and guide fans to the best experience they can get for any game. IceBear, are you ready to get UFEee Season 2: Electric Boogaloo started?
IceBear: I’m as ready as I’ll ever be. Excited to be back after our nice little break although we didn’t get the chance to actually take a break. We were lucky enough to be asked by the city of Perth, Australia to help with a bid for the Season 29 Utlimus. Such a fun trip, but now I’m ready for some football!
With the season kicking off I do want to quickly jump backwards and congratulate all of the DSFL and ISFL draft picks this offseason. The drafts are personally one of my favorite things about the league. Congrats and good luck to the new recruits!
Fronk:
Perth was great! Our league voters for the Ultimus location were not as great. I’m not too afraid to be in any heat from calling them out, as we all found out last week that the people voting don’t read much further than the logo and will never see this. Jokes aside, that Toronto logo was incredible and The Ultimate Fan Experience -ence -ence will venture to the north for our second Ultimus.
IceBear, let’s kick this season off.
IceBear: As Fronk mentioned we are on our quest to find the Ultimate Fan Experience. We break down the rankings into these categories...
Hotel / City / Commute / Local Bars
Tailgate Experience
Stadium Appearance / Seating / Views / Attractions
Field
Weather / Climate
Concessions
Conclusions and Game Results
Alright Fronk, we have our categories. What do you think we should rate these out of? Otters holding hands? I guess that can get a little dark with our partial points ranking.
Fronk:
Oh no, the OCO locker room is going to hate us, but let’s rate this out of 1-10 Mickey Mouse Ears.
Hotel/City/Commute/Local Bars:
Fronk:
At first IceBear and I were excited with the prospect of going to California, but then we started to get super pumped when we realized that The Dam was a feature at Downtown Disney located in Disneyland, California. We both enjoy going out and enjoying drinks and parties, but we also have an inner-child energy. Mrs. Fronk especially enjoys Disney as she’s been to Disney World over 13 times growing up. Neither of us have been to California, let alone Disneyland and I just could not leave her behind. So this is the first Ultimate Fan Experience -ence -ence work trip with Mrs. Fronk and Mrs. IceBear tagging along.
We booked (separate) villas at the Grand Californian Resort using the UFEee credit card and quickly got to work exploring whatever parks that Disneyland offered. It turns out that most of Disney is similar for both their locations, but we did not mind at all. My personal favorite attraction is actually my favorite thing to do in Disneyworld: Soarin’. This is probably the one thing that Disneyland has over Disneyworld. Soarin’ California is an amazing experience and reminds me why that ride is so good.
We ate some excellent food and had the excuse to go to nice restaurants without looking like we were on a man date. Even though we were in the (second) most magical place in the world, that did not stop IceBear and I from consuming copious amounts of beer and drinks. We had beers in hand walking around the entire place and at all opportunities we stopped at themed bars and pubs to try out any drink they had available. It just makes the place that much more magical.
Getting over to the game in Disney Springs was exciting too. Instead of taking the bus system from our hotel, we were in Cars Land and decided to ride the train to get to Downtown Disney. The stadium itself is kind of like a Disney ride. In order to get in or out of the area of the stadium, you have to pass through all the gift and souvenir shops along the way.
Rating: 9/10 Mickey Mouse Ears
IceBear:
To date this has to be the most excited I’ve been in anticipation for one of our trips. We are doubling down on experiences this week. Being able to hit up Disneyland and check out this week 1 matchup of Otters vs Sabercats has set a very high bar before we even got off the plane. This time we had to behave a little more when booking because of bringing the wives. Then again how can you go wrong with booking with Disney and with so much to do we figured the rooms didn’t need to be anything special. The separate rooms did eliminate our basketball beer game we play when we return from a night out. It’s just a clever fun way for us to clean up and wear ourselves out a bit before bed. I tried this with Mrs. Icebear and when I tried to draw the blocking foul on her, I quickly realized I had made a very poor decision.
Luckily the miscue was followed by an amazing day at the hotel and the game. With already staying in the park we had many options of transportation to the game. Like Fronk mentioned, we took the train. I was personally pushing a safari ride to get us there, but as I was reminded of what was ahead I agreed on the faster option of the train. Who needs to see Lions when we are able to see some Otters and Sabercats duke it out?
By visiting disney all day we were able to basically live a full life in a single day. From our Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters to the Haunted Mansion. I went from boy to man in those experiences. I can’t say the same about Fronk. He went from setting high scores on Astro Blasters, to then throwing Mrs. Fronk at every little thing that popped out at us. Between that and my drunk basketball drive to the hoop, I’m assuming they won’t be begging to join us on our next trip.
Now what really moved me into that adulthood mindset of Disney was me trying to combat the Orange County heat with as many beers as possible. This time I have a chaperone I actually trust. My goal was to try as many different beers as I could without crossing the line and missing the game. I’ll say at points those lines got a little blurry. My saving grace for this was the many concessions that we hit one through the day. Some people say a glass of water between drinks, mine is just another food stand to balance it out.
The experience of having Disney right there with the stadium and having our lovely wives with us, made this such a fun trip exploring the “city” and creating a great experience.
Rating: 9.3/10 Mickey Mouse Ears
Tailgating Experience:
Fronk:
Surprisingly there was quite the tailgate going on in the vast Downtown Disney Parking lot. During game days, the Orange County Otters take the parking lot over and host a traditional parking lot tailgate with quite the twist. The Disney characters come out and roam around in their Orange County Otters jerseys and socialize with fans. It was actually pretty jarring. You can go from winning a game of beer die to getting photos with a disney princess. IceBear swears he saw Chip or Dale doing a kegstand, but I think that might have been just hairy Otter’s fan. Haha Hairy Otter and the Goblet of Beer.
This tailgate was fun and shockingly traditional for such a crazy place.
Rating: 6.9/10 Mickey Mouse Ears
IceBear:
After our day in the park and my beer hydration to battle the heat I was SOOOO ready to tailgate. I was super curious to see how this family focused location would handle their tailgates and I was pleasantly surprised. This was a tailgate you might expect at any major college football stadium. That tailgate itself had a nice support and was led by the man himself Mickey Mouse. Mickey was repping a #25 Anton Brucker orange jersey. The ears going with a rookie, Anton better have a magical season with that sort of pressure. In addition to Mickey, many different Disney characters joined the tailgate. I even got a picture with goofy. The problem is between the beer games and the sun’s glare you could barely tell who was who. I’m gonna have to double check that it didn't get into Fronk’s hands and can go right into the trash.
Super sweet tailgate. It was what you could expect from a tailgate but with a magical spin. I’ll say this was a 7 dwarfs shot ski away from the perfect tailgate (minus the heat). Maybe next time we can set that up, Disney?
Rating: 8.6 / 10 Mickey Mouse Ears
Stadium Appearance / Seating / Views / Attractions:
Fronk:
With being a part of Disneyland California, we were expecting something magical and The Dam came through. The exterior of the stadium has a modern touch to it with irregular shapes and supports to appear like a beaver dam of football proportions. Along the walls of the stadium on both the inside and the outside are the occasional waterfalls and interactive water features for both kids and adults to use.
On special game days (including this home opener of season 29) the stadium and park like to bring out their family of rescue otters that are being taken care of at their rehabilitation and habitat center. The Orange County Otters even hold a raffle every season for season ticket holders’ chance to name one of the new otters that was born in the facility. Last season’s otter was a feisty animal and the lucky winner named him “Tank”.
My favorite feature of The Dam is the part that separates the traditional football seating with the concourse. A LAZY RIVER. Fans can exchange their tickets on a first-come-first-serve basis for the chance to view the game from a lazy river pool that also has swim-up-bar type seating along the sides. This is where IceBear and I’s decision to bring the wives came back to bite us because we would’ve been in that river like otters for the entire game. Unfortunately, our whole party did not feel like walking around in wet swimsuits for the remainder of the night and so IceBear and I got in to float whenever we needed to cool down from the heat.
So the exterior disney parts of The Dam blends into the seriousness of Orange County Football as soon as you get to the seating sections. Everything is back to standard ISFL stadium seating with acceptable views throughout the stadium and no kiddie business like the Nickelodeon craziness other leagues have tried in the past.
Rating: 8.3/10 Mickey Mouse Ears
IceBear:
A LAZY RIVER! Come on, what else is there to say right? Wrong! As Fronk mentioned the Damn itself is so cleverly built with some many cool and unique features. One thing I thoroughly enjoyed was a wing they had dedicated to the most important play in every ultimus victory. It was like walking through a history book of the ISFL. I just hope to see some Honolulu stuff there someday, someday soon!
The lazy river for an entire game is now a dream of mine. We will be back to Orange County, “no girls allowed” style. That way we don’t have to “be an adult” and we can get the Tarzan themed room. We may end up coming back next week! Maybe we can luck out and be in charge of that otter naming. I’m thinking Crodyman would make a wonderful Otter name.
A very neat thing we noticed that we have yet to see in any other stadiums was a retired number among the banners. Marc Spector #32 - after talking to one of the ushers we were told this was in remembrance from the passing of his user. We think this was a very awesome touch to the stadium and was a class act by the organization. It's the small things like this that make me really appreciate the league and all the great people we have met along the way. Out of everything in the stadium this has to be one of my favorite things we got to learn about. It’s great that his legacy will live on in this ISFL.
On a lighter note, I was on the hunt for my swag grab for the week. This was a much tougher choice than I thought. As I mentioned earlier, orange is my favorite color, so I thought my only debate was gonna be which player’s jersey I’d be getting. Bender Rodrigues? Goat Tank? Follow in Mickey's footsteps and go with Brucker? But after this week’s fantasy draft I thought I might as well support my RB and go with Goat Tank. Plus you can’t beat that name.
But on top of my jersey choice, there was an overwhelming amount of fans with what seemed to be the shirt. “We are Despacito” written in orange across the chest of a black shirt and a single otter logo on the back. So apparently that was a must have. So after negotiations with my wife, I got both the jersey and the new t-shirt. By the end of these stadium visits I’m gonna have a whole new wardrobe.
This was a different stadium experience and design. With the Disney magic feel this made for a great experience.
Rating: 8 /10 Mickey Mouse Ears
Field:
IceBear:
Set in such a cool stadium, I am disappointed in the field. This is a very basic field and no big wow factors for me. Orange does happen to be my favorite color, but that wasn’t even enough to save this ranking. I do see the problem of “Orange County” and “otters” being very different in size making it hard to have the endzones reflect each other. But the addition of the helmet on the Otters side, didn’t do it for me. I can’t help but see Harley Davidson branding as I read the “Orange County” endzone.
I will say that something super incredible they do that doesn’t show up on their stream, is they have again paid homage to Marc Spector and turned the 32 yards lines orange. This is such a cool honor that we hope to see remain with future field designs.
Rating: 3.2 / 10 Mickey Mouse Ears
Fronk:
Uh oh. IceBear is upset again. But to be fair, I saw his first draft of the field redesign and it was pretty similar in design so maybe the blandness of the field is kind of inevitable. Nothing special with the endzones. Just some general black outlined white lettering on an orange field. I’m not even sure the font matches from the west endzone to the east. There definitely needs to be some retooling. Mrs. Fronk did comment that she likes the logo, but I think it gives me some Backyard Football vibes. Like this team could’ve been the Orange Wombats starring Pete Wheeler, Pablo Sanchez and the gang and been very similar.
My positive for the field: DAT GRASS DOE. Best looking natural grass in the ISFL. Such green. Such texture. Whoever takes care of that turf needs a raise.
Rating: 4.1/10 Mickey Mouse Ears
Weather/Climate:
IceBear:
Does heat bother normal sized people too? I again think I’d rather be cold and add clothing than trying to walk out of the way so I can get a few steps in the shade. As I mentioned I try to combat the heat by downing as many cold beers as possible. I think this just ended up being a circle of drinking because of the heat, sweating the alcohol out, and repeat.
The lazy river at the stadium was this week’s ultimate experience with the perfectly timed river float after a long day of walking the park. I don’t think after the full day of making our way around Disney, I would have been able to sit on some metal bleachers and watch the game.
The heat ended up being perfect once we got to our floats. Was it worth the hours of misery before getting to that point? I’ll let you be the judge of that.
Rating: 5.9 / 10 Mickey Mouse Ears
Fronk:
We ended up not seeing a cloud in the sky during our trip to Orange County. The good news is that back home it was raining for the majority of our time there. The bad news is that walking around the park and the way that The Dam was set up caused IceBear to almost have a heat stroke. Honestly, we all were finding ways to keep as cool as we can during the day.
In comparison, night weather was actually very comfortable and once the sun set onto the stadium, the weather was perfect.
Rating: 6.4/10 Mickey Mouse Ears
Concessions:
IceBear:
I’m not sure which I had more of throughout the event - concessions, beers, or warnings from my wife of how miserable I’d be later. Like I said, earlier my concessions plan was to battle against the amount of beers I was having to avoid dehydration from the heat.
Now I thought this was something dreams were made of but there was a corndog TRUCK! This thing drove around like an ice cream truck, and the moment I figured out what it was I went full Linebacker and chased that puppy down. On top of the corndogs, we also made stops at: Soft frozen lemonade cart, pretzel stand, and a popcorn stand. There was also a turkey leg stand that we again vetoed on going to (It’ll be my first stop when we return).
Overall the concessions were okay. It was what you’d expect from a theme park. I will admit, we didn’t venture much into the stadium's concessions as we were pretty full from the day and spent a lot of the time exploring the architecture and wings of the stadium.
I look forward to trying out some more of the stadium when we return. Until then I’ll base concessions on our day at Disney.
Rating: 6.4 / 10 Mickey Mouse Ears
Fronk:
Concessions were just okay here. I probably would not call them traditional stadium concessions as much as I would categorize them as carnival/fair/theme park food. Lots of gimmicky stands of fried food, burgers, pizza, and sweets of all kinds. I’m a sweet boy and had little interest in some of the food options so I planned on replacing any notions of eating actual food and going straight for the fresh carmel corn, cotton candy, and Mrs. Fronk’s favorite: Dip-n-Dots.
Our sweets-only plan did not last long once we saw that the stadium did have it’s own In-N-Out Burger right behind one of the endzones. I love trying out new-to-me fast food chains and did not think twice about jumping in line to try out one of the greats for the first time. I regretted not thinking twice after it took me almost a half hour to get through the line and finally get my food. I want to say it was worth it, but I still haven’t made up my mind on the experience. I got my burger and fries both animal style because I listen to enough food chain podcasts to know what to do, but I was not blown away by the burger or the fries. I think I was led astray with the hype all the locals have on the place and fronkly don’t quite understand.
We topped off our meal with the array of beers that were available throughout the stadium. Disney knows how to supply beer!
Rating: 5.8/10 Mickey Mouse Ears
Conclusions and Game Results:
IceBear:
What a trip. This was such a unique experience all around. It was lovely having the ladies join us and to have a little get away with them. I cannot think of a better trip to have them join us on. A trip of fun and nostalgic feelings as we ventured through the park. We then were greeted by an amazing stadium with surprises and history around each turn.
The Otters were able to pull out a win vs the SaberCats, picking up on their hot end of S28. With high hopes for the season they are off to a wonderful start. I look forward to following the Otters this season as they have earned a spot in my heart with the great memories made this weekend. Otters are just a lovable team and easy to root for.
This was a magical experience and I look forward to returning!
Overall Rating: 9.3/10 Mickey Mouse Ears
Fronk:
So the first Ultimate Fan Experience -ence -ence +wives went pretty well. Did I miss not sharing a room with IceBear? Maybe, but I would not have felt right experiencing Disneyland without Mrs. Fronk.
This team and stadium are really magical and not corny at all (besides their corndog truck). From what I know of the team themselves, the locker room has some great personalities and even greater characters. Orange County is a cool place with lots to do and I enjoyed my first limited time there.
I’d have to check our records, but this could be the first game we attended where the home team ended up pulling out the win. This could be a brand new streak for UFEee. Seemed like the Orange County Otters were in trouble after the first quarter with San Jose going up by two touchdowns. The Otters quickly responded in the second half with three touchdowns of their own. I’m expecting big things from Goat Tank this year and hope that this first game was just a warm up.
Well there we have it. Ultimate Fan Experience -ence -ence has kicked off 2044 with a great stadium and a really hot team. We’ve got big plans for this season and this is just the beginning.
Overall Rating: 7.65/10 Mickey Mouse Ears
Thanks everyone for reading and best of luck on the season!