Last week I took my 17 month old to watch Disney on Ice with my family. I found out about it thanks to a bunch of friends who shared their experience on Instagram stories, so I asked my sisters if they wanted to watch with me.
I bought tickets online using SM tickets but found it tedious that I still had to claim the actual tickets at the SM box office instead of just printing them at home, or presenting the barcode using my phone.
It was my first time to watch Disney on Ice as an adult, and it was a lot of fun watching my daughter react to the characters. We haven’t seen all the Disney movies yet but she was most amused by the Toy Story characters because of her time playing with the Apple Watch faces.
Overall it was a good family bonding activity. I also noticed how the show featured a tablet device that the hosts called a “Mousepad” and realized just how ubiquitous screen devices are and how difficult it is to go 100% screen free. I’m definitely screen lite. I carefully pick what she’s exposed to and rely on videos to keep her still during diaper changes now.
I wonder how much Disney assigns as customer lifetime value for kids nowadays, and I also wonder how much my parents spent on Disney-related stuff for us. We watched the movies, visited the theme parks, bought the merchandise, watched the plays, etc. I probably will be doing the same with my daughter. So for someone like me who was born in the ’80s, how much do they expect me to spend on Disney until I die?
Back to the show, I liked the aerial stunts and set design. The show is well paced with an intermission in between. Everything was going well until almost the end when my daughter threw up. I’m not sure if it’s food allergy related because we ate at a new restaurant for the first time before the show. She ate dishes without her allergens but I suspect that there was cross contamination because there is a lot of egg-containing items on their menu. I gave her antihistamines after I noticed hives, which disappeared and she napped before the show so I thought everything was okay.
We were lucky that she didn’t throw up on the people in front of us, that would have been such a pain. Most of it landed on my jeans. I’m glad I picked seats right by the aisle and near the bathroom so we rushed out and cleaned up as quickly as we could. My eldest sister carries a plastic bag in her purse for these types of situations with her kids, and from now on I will do the same. I had a change of clothes for my daughter, but none for me so I tried my best to wipe the mess off , but I should just have a lightweight dress in our bag just in case this happens again.
From now on, I’ll always pick seats near the exit because it’s so much easier to deal with these situations when you have easy access to the bathroom. This was her first food allergy incident this year, less than one week in, so it’s a reminder to keep constant vigilance and be extra prepared when doing new things.