Disney on Ice Celebrations

Sunday morning a week ago, Frank and I took Alex to the Disney on Ice show titled Celebrations. I am a stickler for wanting to get there early so we have time to use the bathrooms when not crowded, buy snacks without having to wait in long concession lines, and get settled in our seats soon enough to avoid having to climb over and around folks. I think I overdid it this time. We were the very first people entering the arena!

We were first in the arena and first to be seated.

We had good seats in Row 12, right next to the aisle. It was a win-win. We were close enough that Alex stayed engaged in the performance and not so close that the ticket price bankrupted us.

Let the show begin!

We bought Alex a program as we usually do. It costs $20 but is well worth it, not for the content, but because Alex loves to look through it. He relishes flipping through the pages again and again, mangling them for hours, and sometimes even days, after the show.

The cover of the program.

We get Alex a large tub of popcorn. Sometimes, if Frank and I are lucky, Alex shares a few kernels with us. It is mostly gone before the show begins but that is good, otherwise it majorly distracts Alex from watching the action on the ice. Frank and I joke that we do not know why we bother with tickets. We just need to drive to the arena and buy a program and popcorn. Alex loves the idea of an outing and the drive to it. The show itself is just a bonus to him.

Who needs a show when there's popcorn?

We were there sufficiently before the start of the show that Frank wandered the arena, leaving me to relax in our seats with Alex while he indulged in his popcorn and enjoyed his program. With my telephoto setting on my point and shoot digital camera, I could zoom in on Frank at the far side of the nearly empty arena, two levels up, chatting away with one of the ushers. Frank was soaking up background info on the arena. He learned seating capacity is about 13,000 for hockey games and about 8,000 when configured for an ice show. He also learned the expected attendance at our performance was around 5,000. Our 11:00 am show was the first performance of three that day.

Usher or docent? Frank whiles away the time in conversation before the show.

The theme of the show was "Celebrations" and a loosely woven thread took you from the introductory song Be Our Guest from Beauty and the Beast, to the tune A Very Merry Unbirthday to You from a tea party scene in Alice in Wonderland. My favorite performance of the show was a black light illuminated number where Mickey Mouse in his classic wizard hat and robe controls a sweeping swarm of brooms reminiscent of the scene from Fantasia. The fluorescent green and orange swooping brooms were quite mesmerizing to watch.

The brooms skated to the music of The Sorcerer's Apprentice made famous by the Disney movie Fantasia.

The show used the motif of travel as a vacation celebration to work in musical numbers from Mulan in Japan, and from Lilo and Stitch in Hawaii. It closed with Christmas as a holiday celebration.

The finale had a Christmas focus with added fireworks and snow.

I would not give this show a 4 star wow rating but it was an enjoyable low-key outing that Alex liked and was a nice change from the weekly Sunday bowling we typically do. At this performance they handed out discount coupons for the next ice show, scheduled in 2016. Its theme is that of the blockbuster movie Frozen.  We saw Frozen in the movie theaters with Alex when it first came out, Thanksgiving 2013, but Alex has not seen it since. New movies are sold only on DVDs now, no longer on VHS tape format, so Alex cannot watch them over and over and become familiar with them. (He scratches the DVDs.) Nevertheless, we will plan on catching the Disney On Ice Frozen show with Alex when it is in town. I am sure they will still have big tubs of popcorn and large glossy programs to please him.

We plan to go to this in 2016 when it is in our area.