Mommy dressed Madison in her Belle dress, and soon after, we went down to Philip's Arena to catch this year's production. Hundreds of little princesses descended into the area - we were surrounded by all the royal court, from Aurora to Cinderella to Snow White. Many, many little girls were dressed up for the evening, so we were glad we had Madison's dress with her. We were also glad that she had something on beneath it too - it was kind of cold in there. Of course, that makes sense, as you need it to be cold for the ice.
Anyway, our seats were a little further back, but that's because we saved a whole lot, getting a good deal for the opening night performance. Though last year's seats were nicer, we still enjoyed the show very much.
It all started where it should: at the beginning. But in that beginning, there's always Mickey Mouse. He, along with Minnie, Goofy and Donald usually start things off with a big introduction - and today was no different. You can see from the lighting and atmosphere in the photo above that they are in the French Quarter, which means that the first story told was "The Princess and the Frog."
These shows are always a lot more elaborate than you expect. Although... we tend to expect a lot more as each year passes. You can see here that the costumes were fun, and also plentiful too. Princess Tiana had about four wardrobe changes or more, and I'm sure the supporting cast had plenty more. It's amazing that they can tell an elaborate story with music and so forth - all on the ice. And yet, they do this once a year. It's a simplified version from the movie, but it still hits much of the highlights, including big musical numbers with a fairly large cast, each wearing some very unique costumes.
The costume for Ray was pretty fun, as was the costume for Louis the big alligator that wants to be like Louis Armstrong. All night long, we were impressed with some neat costume ideas for characters - most notable was the costume for Maximus, the horse from the movie "Tangled." I couldn't get a picture of that because by that point Madison was on my knee watching intently. Oh yes, her focus was really on this - but you could see all the kids watching each story very closely. Of course, they all know these stories by heart. And yet they still can't look away.
This was particularly the case for "Cinderella." Here's a movie Madison just watched again this week. And just one month from now, she'll be meeting Cinderella inside her castle as we have a very special day at the Magic Kingdom. Madison is still quite enthralled with the story of Cinderella, and you could tell this very easily when the story began on the ice in front of us. Madison got very still! She was still smiling though - and laughing each time Anastasia and Drizella fell down on their bottoms.
It was wonderful - Madison was giddy like on Christmas morning. She practically hopped all the way from the car to Philip's Arena. And once there, she wouldn't stop smiling. She gave Mommy a huge unexpected kiss, and then planted one on Daddy too. Of course, we had to buy her some cotton candy - it came with a princess crown to wear. But all the little princesses had one, and Madison was going to have one too!
As a side note, do not eat at Philip's Arena, unless you like wasting money. A burger, fries and water cost us $16.50. You can feed three at Chick-Fil-A for that price. You can go to Olive Garden and get something really nice, and still have some change left for a tip. I'm convince the only people who eat at Philips are those that are desperately hungry and have no choice. The next time we are over
there, I'll remember!
Back to the show: this was a very impressive segment here. Yes, even more impressive than the zamboni at intermission, if you can believe that! It was the part dedicated to Disney's newest princess, Rapunzel. Here she is, soaring through the air - by her hair. Of course, that's not really her hair. But the imagery was really neat. What's amazing is that she and Flynn Rider were able to swoop about on those ribbons while wearing ice skates. I can't even skate backwards, and these two are seriously about twenty feet off the ground - maybe more. And swinging around in circles! Madison's eyes were glued to the performance - but so were everyone else's. This may have been the highlight of the night.
The story from "Tangled" was done very well, and with a big finish: Rapunzel, now a princess, was off to the castle where she'd meet all the other princesses. Madison cheered with everyone else as Belle, Aurora, Mulan, Jasmine, Snow White, Cinderella, Tiana, Ariel and Rapunzel skated about in fancy white dresses for a big finish.* Mickey and Minnie were there, and everyone was cheering because they had a good time.
It was a great night for Madison, who was unbelievably happy the entire night. That's what we were hoping. It's so magical to see our little princess join the others for a night, a dream come true.
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* No Pocahontas! She may have been out, stuck in traffic. It was crazy out there in Atlanta tonight!
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