You are Never Too Old for #DisneyOnIce

Every year at this time we head to Budweiser Gardens in London to experience Disney on Ice. Last night we scheduled a night away from packing for our move and working (very busy month here) and we again went as a family to see Disney On Ice Passport to Adventure, playing through this weekend in London, Ontario.

I’ve written about the Disney on Ice show here before and how it used to reduce me to a blubbery mess of tears every time we went – especially those first years right after we adopted. Payton was 2 1/2 the first time we took her and it was magical. She was mesmerized the entire show that year and it was insanely rewarding to watch her joyful expressions as the characters came to life on the ice. She’s 12 now and was barely able to squeeze the time in to join us because she is rehearsing to play TinkerBell in an OKTC play this March Break. Also, she’s 12 now, so I should be over this blubbery business. But Disney is still magical to me and it holds a very special space in my heart. I grew up watching Disney. My kids are growing up watching Disney and Disney on Ice is a night where we take a moment to celebrate being family and for a short amount of time we are all kids again.

This year the show started with Mickey and Minnie touring the world. First stop the African Pride Lands with Simba. From there, it was on to the Little Mermaid which every little girl in our row was ecstatic to see. The props and costumes during this segment of the show were fantastic. There were some tiny cast members this year filling out the shark costumes and the starfish and jelly fish were really well done and imaginative. I loved all of that and I initially thought that Lilo and Stitch, done every year, would be anti-climactic. But then the messaging around families all being different started to resonate again with me and I remembered why I love this part so much. Lilo and her sister adopt a strange dog Stitch and they have no family until they create their family out of two sisters, a dog and a boyfriend. That is a great plot line because families are all different. Moving out of that skit, then the amazing ice dancers glided into England for Peter Pan. 

Peter Pan was the portion of the show I was most looking forward to because we wanted to see how they staged it again. Costumes and special effects were well done although there appeared to be a tiny glitch at one point when the cables weren’t working for Wendy. Peter Pan is a classic and Payton is a cast member in the Original Kids version of the play this March break. She was again mesmerized by the staging, the songs, the performers and the spectacle itself. Ainsley meanwhile was dancing in her seat and waving at all the characters. And when Wendy started singing to the Lost Boys about mothers I was searching for my Kleenex again. My kids are tweens now but I swear to you their only complaint at the end of this show was that they wished it could go longer because they weren’t ready for it to end. Just goes to prove you are never too old for Disney on Ice.