Last night we loaded the kids in the car and headed off to the Richmond Coliseum for the opening night festivities for Disney on Ice present Let’s Celebrate! My 4 year old daughter had a thousand questions about which princesses would be there and if they were the ‘real’ princesses, while my 2 year old son just wanted to go ice skating. He wasn’t too happy when we explained that we were going to watch, not skate!
But once we arrived, they were both mesmerized. The show was classic Disney, very professionally put together. Disney on Ice present Let’s Celebrate! is being billed as “One big colossal party on ice!”, which is an apt description. They presented a great mix of the younger character set – Mickey & Minnie and the whole Mickey Mouse Clubhouse crew; but also sprinkled in plenty of other favorites. The opening act featured the “Very Merry Unbirthday” with Alice in Wonderland accompanied by the Mad Hatter, the White Rabbit, Tweddle Dee and Tweddle Dum. A set with Jack from the Nightmare Before Christmas was my husband’s top pick and my son loved the brief appearance from Captain Hook.
If you have a princess lover in your family, she will not be disappointed! There were several scenes with Jasmine, Snow White, Cinderella, Tiana, and Ariel. And the princesses certainly stole the show when it came to the quality of the ice skating – Princess Jasmine and Prince Aladdin were particularly amazing! But I have to say that I was happy to find something for everyone in this show…it wasn’t all about the princesses!
Then came the intermission, which I’m convinced was created to provide a time for children to plead for every flashing toy and bag of cotton candy in sight. The final sets included an action packed performance with Lilo and Stitch, which received rave reviews from the whole family! The kids immediately recognized the music and I was impressed with the skaters flying across the ice on a surf board! The evening ended with a holiday themed celebration complete with Santa coming down the chimney and a massive snow fall cascading down over the skaters. It was a beautiful finale!
The entire show lasted about 2 hours, including intermission. It will appeal to both boys and girls, since it’s not all about
the princesses, and my 2 & 4 year old made it through the entire show even though it was well past their usual bedtime. Very engaging.
Disney on Ice present Let’s Celebrate! will be at the Richmond Coliseum through this Sunday September 22 with available showtimes as follows:
Friday, Sept 20th @ 7pm
Saturday, Sept 21st @ 11am, 3pm and 7pm
Sunday, Sept 22nd @ 1pm and 5pm
Tickets are available now and can be purchased at all Ticketmaster outlets, online at ticketmaster.com or by visiting the Richmond Coliseum box office. You can learn more about all of the Disney on Ice shows at www.disneyonice.com.
A big Thank You to Feld Entertainment for gifting the tickets to me and for producing such quality shows. All opinions in this post are my own.
About Christa Donohue