A crown of a different color

I paid a hefty sum for our tickets to the Medieval Feast in Orlando, Florida, which I didn't begrudge at the time.
I remembered taking three kids to this joust and dinner about 15 years back and it was entertaining. (You're all shuffled into a long table/seating area and pretty much left to make your way through the chicken and soup and salad with your fingers while knights and horses square off in the sand in the middle of the arena. The King and his daughter choose the victor for the hand of the princess.)
My son remembered it too and he wanted his son to experience the drama, the adventure and the fun.
So we bought tickets well in advance online.

Our knight is the one in yellow and red

We talked about what knight we might get to champion.
On the night of the feast, we arrived an hour early so as to claim good seats and a clear line of view.
(Turns out we were roughly assigned seats depending on how much we spent for our seats.)
When I declined an upgrade, we were summarily handed paper crowns that were red and yellow striped and basically dismissed.
We gathered in the big room where there were drinks for sale and souvenirs with high price tags...chess sets, feather fans, masks and leather-bound journals.
We hung around there killing time until the master of ceremonies starting announcing our entrances.
"Those with VIP tags and gold crowns may enter through the gates!" the man said.
"Those with VIP tags and blue crowns may enter through the gates," he sang.
"Those with VIP tags and silver crowns may now enter through the gates," he continued and on and on he went, inviting those who had spent more money than we to go in first.
One group after another marched through the doors into the arena leaving us with the wrong color crowns standing behind.
It was somewhat humiliating.
We didn't have red crowns or green crowns or blue crowns or black-and-white striped crowns.
We were the lower caste crown folk and it became evident within minutes.
Finally, we were allowed through the double doors but not until we'd been shown the color of money and of the right color crowns and what that could buy.
We ate well.
We saw an impressive show.
My grandson loved the horses, the clanging swords and the colors.
It's an event to remember but you know, somehow I think there's a better way to have done this.