Disney on Ice

The kids were definitely not as utterly blown away as Justin was when we took him to see Elmo two years ago... but I'd still venture to say that they had a great time. If the show was 2 hours, I'd say that they knew about 30 minutes worth of characters. Mickey's crew, Toy Story, The Incredibles, Aladin and Jasmine come to mind. As for the others... the kids didn't have a clue, and truthfully we didn't know 1/2 of them, either. I'm sure that some of that has to do with us not having cable television. And some of it can be attributed to our firstborn being a boy (plain ol' clueless on all that princess stuff... but working on it). And a lot of it probably has something to do with the age-appropriateness of some the Disney stories (For example, I've never seen Mulan before, but that particular skit seemed a bit out there for preschoolers). However, we did feel a hint of shame when the crowd erupted for Lion King and our kids looked at us like, "um... who's that? and why is everyone asking for hakuna matata? Can I have some?"

With all of that aside (pun alert) it was still a very cool experience. Memorable. Good family fun. And a whole lot cheaper than a trip to Orlando. I'll take it.