When I told my mother I was taking my 19-month-old to see the Disney on Ice: Princess Wishes, she laughed. I'm pretty sure she thought I'd lost my mind.Honestly, I questioned my own sanity. Let's do a sanity check, shall we?
- The show has a start time of 7:30 PM (um, yeah, that's toddler bedtime) -- hmmm. Playing with fire.
- Depending on where our tickets were, I could literally be trapped in one of those oh-so-comfortable plastic stadium-style seats with a melting down mini-me. PDT (public displays of tantrum) is not my idea of an enjoyable evening.
- Lights, cameras, sensory overload!
- $12 boxes of popcorn with princess-clad buckets and my kid can't eat that yet...
The Bug LOVED it.
We made a girls night out of it. My friend Bridget and I took the Bug and Bridget's almost-four-year-old Ellie to the show (thanks to Amanda at Parenting by Dummies who supplied the tix!). Dressed in their tutu finest, the girls donned crowns, danced in their seats, munched on jelly beans and oohed and ahhed over their favorite princesses.
Some highlights of the show? The Be Our Guest number with an ice rink full of skating silverware and a spectacular Under the Sea performance. My favorite part of the show was the seven dwarfs. They whole audience cheered loudly when those beloved characters hit the ice.
In the spirit of full disclosure, the Bug was a bit disappointed there weren't more songs with Belle (from Beauty and the Beast). Ellie, our resident princess expert, thought that the fireworks during the grand finale were way too scary. The fire-breathing dragon from the Sleeping Beauty? Apparently not scary at all.
We had a BLAST; however, we made some ice show rookie mistakes. Luckily, you get to learn from them:
- Do NOT by any means park in the 1st Mariner Arena garage lot. Park 2-3 blocks away. You will be snarled in a 45 minute gridlock trying to get out of the garage after the show. Young, tired, crashing from sugar high kids strapped into their carseats in a non-moving car WAYYY past bedtime is a recipe for disaster.
- Be prepared for marketing insanity and not so much variety in terms of concessions. Snow cones (which only come in a commemorative cup) are $12. Popcorn is $7 (not $12 as I was fearing). Pizza ran out before intermission. Never saw a juice option. When I went to nab drinks for our crew, my options were water, soda and beer.
- Patience, patience, patience. You will be in a mob of pint-sized princess dresses. They don't sit still. There isn't much foot space. You will be kicked in the head by the tot behind you. Despite your best efforts, your tyke will kick the kid or mother in front of you. Don't have a meltdown. You're all in it together.
- Make friends with your neighbor. You never know who might have string cheese in their purse that they're willing to trade popcorn for. (The giant sized popcorn was too much for Bridget and her kiddo; there was plenty to share!) NOTE: Not in a creepy, do-you-want-candy-little-girl way. Just moms all working together. String cheese was wrapped in it's original packaging and sealed.
- No need to work out the day you go to the show. You'll get to carry a 26 pound toddler up 5 flights of stairs afterward because the line for the garage elevator will wrap around the building.
- Wear sensible shoes.
- The show is a bit on the long side. We didn't get to our car until 9:35 PM. The second half of the show is great -- but we probably could have left at intermission and the girls would have been none the wiser. For older kids, this won't be a problem at all.
- Bring cash. Don't worry. The roaming popcorn guy CAN break a $100.
(cool) tip: Check out the Economom's post on how to score discounted tix to the show.
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2 comments:
Eeeee! So much fun. We went when the little one was 5 to see Nemo on ice. I LOVED it.
So glad you guys had such a good time!
Thanks, Adryon! Nemo sounds like so much fun! When Flounder came on 'ice,' the Bug kept shouting "Fish, fish, fish..." I'm sure she'd love Nemo, too. :)
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