So on the whole we aren't the wealthiest family, we're far from crying poor, but with all the nice things we have - comes a price tag. I'm constantly seeing on pinterest posts about family trips to Disneyland/Disney world and going on disney themed cruises, but i know for us its out of the question. The flights alone are $10,000 for our family! When i heard about disney on ice coming to town, however, i knew i could manage that.
There was no way Reindl man would come, so with it only being myself, Lexi (5yrs) and Ivy (6 weeks), I didn't want to go overboard. I figured that with a little bit of creativity and forethought i could make a cheap yet memorable experience for Lexi and I (Ivy slept most of the time anyway as i knew she would).
Step 1 - Tickets:
The tickets ranged from $25 (concession tickets for evening shows) through to $90 (front row seats). I rationalised that there was no point paying $90 for one ticket when i could get all three for under that price! Seeing as we were all going to be watching the same show and the arena couldn't be THAT big (it was!) the people paying for front row tickets, i was sure, were being taken for a ride.
Boy was i wrong! The seats we were given were the 16th row back on the highest section and were on the side of the stage. We could see the show but it was like watching the old 32cm TVs from 10m back. Given a do-over i would either pay the extra to get better tickets or do what a few of the american blog sites suggested and buy a pair of toy binoculars so lexi could see a bit better.
Step 2 - Preparation:
The day before the show i headed out with Ivy while Lexi was at school. As a lot of the posts i had read commented on how overpriced souvenirs, food and drinks were i wanted to limit spending as much as possible while still making a big deal out of the day. I grabbed some snack foods, a cinderella pez dispenser, some disney princess jewellery, leggings for each of the girls, a minnie mouse jumper for lexi and a minnie mouse squeaky toy for ivy.
Step 3 - Breaking the news:
i had planned to show a youtube video of the show, watch lexi get excited and then tell her we were going or just wait til we were at the arena to tell her but unfortunately i let it slip while she was with me... whoops! Regardless she was so excited and so i still showed her the video clips and talked a lot about it with her so that she would understand completely where we were going (didn't work she kept insisting that we were going to watch it at the movies -.-)
Step 4 - Packing:
I had originally planned to take everything we would need for the whole day but got spooked at the idea that i might be subjected to a bag check and have to throw out all our goodies (never got checked) so instead we just took enough food for the journey there. As it was a 2 hour trip for us and i knew we would be travelling just prior to lunchtime i packed us a sandwich each, a pack of pretzels, a pack of shapes, a pack of crisps and a container of lollies. To make it a bit special for her i drew mouse ears on some stickers but if i had of thought of it earlier i would have done something a little more special. I read online that a lot of people dress their kids up as disney characters but with us going to an Ice arena and the weather being so horrible i decided to dress the girls warmly instead. The arena was actually exceptionally warm, i really thought it would be colder to keep the ice cold, regardless it was cold, wet and windy outside so it was good that they were rugged up.
Step 5 - Transport:
As I don't currently hold a valid drivers license and Reindl man was working, public transport was our only option. We took the bus from the end of our street to the nearest train station, then the train into the city. It cost $4.60 for my all day ticket. Once we got to the city we had an hour to pass before the show started so we wandered the cbd and after buying a blanket for Ivy (i'd managed to leave hers at home) we stumbled upon the biggest and most famous truck, Mack. You should have heard the excited squeals from miss Lexi! i'd seen on a Facebook post a week earlier that he was going to be in the city but i had completely deleted it from my mind til i saw the huge big truck. Of course, especially because it was a disney day, we went over so Lexx could have her photo taken.
Step 6 - Showtime:
We had to check the pram in to a cloak room, so i nursed ivy on my lap for the first half of the show, then, just prior to the intermission i left Lexi in her seat (with strict instructions to not go anywhere or talk to anyone) while i went to change ivy's nappy and get food for us. I must have been psychic because just as i entered back into the arena, the voice over sounded telling patrons they had a 20 minute intermission before the show would resume. Once i'd returned back to my seat i gave Lexi her lunch and a special treat of a snow cone in a collectable cup (FIFTEEN DOLLARS!!!), breast fed ivy and then laid her on the empty seat beside me so i could be more involved in the show for Lexi.
All in all it was a great show and we all had fun. I'm really glad that in the weeks leading up to the show we had watched a fair few of the movies that were featured in the show. It made it more special for Lexi and i loved seeing her face light up as she jumped to her feet shouting "Hey mum! Look! Its the dwarfs from Snow White!!". Like i've said earlier if i could have a do over, i'd get better seats and pack all our meals/snacks plus i'd probably express some milk and get my mother in law to babysit Ivy so i could me more involved in it all for Lexi, but on the whole i loved the experience.
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