Disney on Ice! Just the name got my inner child excited; the magic, the fairy tales, the dreams.
To say my expectations were high is an understatement. I longed to see the acrobats, the costumes, the whole glittering spectacle. You can only imagine my disappointment when Princess on Ice delivered only one of the three: costumes.
It started with the tickets. MobiNil is the main sponsor, so I had go to one of their outlets, choose the seats from the elaborate seating chart, and voila, my access to magic.
To avoid the usual swarming masses the organizers decided to hold two shows per night instead of one.
I decided to go to the 10 pm show hoping to find the minimal amount of children. So I was pleased to see that the audience barely covered one quarter of the available seats. Being a Disney fan, I decided to splurge on an LE 300 ticket to be near the skating rink. I still can t decide whether this was a wise decision or not, perhaps from a distance I wouldn t have seen the mishaps.
The surprise came with my discovery that our expensive seats were actually padded funeral seats with no arms. Throughout the show, you had to balance yourself against the person on the next seat.
One of the main features of Disney on Ice shows is the trail of goodies, booths surrounding the skating rink entrance filled with overpriced Disney merchandise that make children go nuts and parents bankrupt.
But I was hugely disappointed to find a limited amount of products. The Disney mugs were either Mickey or Cinderella and the glowing torches were either pink or blue. The ice slushies came in three different colors, which according to one vendor, taste exactly the same. That would be the taste of cough medicine. Thankfully, the cotton candy and popcorn were good.
Getting seated was another ordeal, with the ushers clueless as to where the seats were. They were still seating people an hour into the show. Angry howls of Sit down! We can t see! were frequently heard throughout the event.
Apart from a few flips and twirls the show itself failed to impress. The dancers didn t go out of their way to dazzle the audience. The shows theme was Princesses, giving synopses of the various Disney fairytales. But most were yawning performances of lone princesses skating around the rink.
The exception was the Little Mermaid, which featured vibrant acrobats and a hit sketch by Sebastian, the ever-loyal crustacean.
Prince Ali and Jasmine were impressive, and the massive elephant on skates had the children roaring with laughter.
The real downfall came with the 40-minute-long Cinderella. With the exception of the carriage, it was pretty boring. The Prince was skating exceedingly slowly and almost made Cinderella lose her balance. Oddly enough, the best things about Cinderella were the ugly stepsisters.
I expected a feast of sights and sounds. What I got was a lame portrayal of the World of Disney. The kids may still enjoy it, though. After all, they ll get to shake hands with Mickey.