Earlier last month I shared with y’all about our exciting opportunity to see Disney On Ice presents Follow Your Heart. After many weeks of anticipation, this week was Opening Night, and let’s just say I am so excited that I followed my heart and surprised Roo with her first ever Disney On Ice experience!
The show was themed Follow Your Heart and followed the journey of Riley from Disney Pixar’s Inside Out and her beloved Emotions as she played in the big hockey game. Disney Princesses such as Ariel, Tiana, Mulan, Cinderella, and Elsa & Anna had stories interwoven with Riley’s story. These stories highlighted the power of bravery, kindness, determination, and love.
Other Disney favorites such as Finding Dory and the gang from Toy Story made appearances and the kids were able to get up and jam to an interactive dance! The show was jam packed and had a lot of our favorite songs to sing along to, and our jaws kept dropping at the amazing acrobatics within the show. The performers are talented and it was a great night!
Here is a compilation of our Instagram Stories from the Disney On Ice presents Follow Your Heart show:
If you have a child who is on the spectrum and you are thinking about bringing your child, here are 5 tips for helping your Disney On Ice experience go as smooth as possible!
Table of Contents
Have a ticket plan!
Going to a live show is a much different experience than going to an amusement park, and depending on your child this may be a good thing or a place where you need to dedicate serious time for planning. Consider the time of the show and how your child’s temperament typically is around that time. Also consider your seating plans carefully. Our arena for Disney On Ice had many different options for ticket pricing, but also for where to sit. Two major things to have in mind when choosing seats for a live show is how sensory sensitive your child is, and whether they have other challenges such as ADHD or impulse control concerns. For example, let’s say your child is a die-hard Disney fan and has an easy time front row center for parades and fireworks. In that case, I would encourage you to grab those rinkside seats to give them a literal front row seat to the action. But let’s say your child has some challenges with sensory overload, ADHD, or impulse control; having a seat that allows your child to still see the show, but also have a quick escape route for breaks would be ideal. Studying your arena seat map can truly help save you time, tears, and frustration the day of the show!
Get your child involved!
Going to see Disney On Ice was a surprise for Roo, but that didn’t stop her from being involved in the fun! I brought her trusty Cinderella costume and even though adults aren’t allowed to wear costumes I donned my ears for that extra magical touch. If your child is not one for costumes, you can opt to purchase Disney themed ears or other awesome Disney merch at the arena! If we didn’t surprise Roo with the show I would have taken the time to prepare her for the show. This would include watching the promos for the show and YouTube videos so that she had a better idea of what to expect.
Bring your noise canceling headphones!
We didn’t bring our noise canceling headphones *insert loud GASP here* and boy was it a mistake! I don’t know if I was caught up in the excitement or from trying to keep the show a surprise, but I accidentally left her noise canceling headphones at home. Once I realized it, I thought that she would be okay because she is that die-hard Disney fan who loves being front and center for parades and the castle fireworks. This was not the case for the live show. She didn’t hold her hands over her ears like she typically does when she has too much auditory information, but I saw her wincing several times, and then when she eventually shut down and started to space out, and I knew it was too much without her headphones.
Take frequent breaks!
The show is almost 2 hours long which is a great value for the price of tickets, and I love that they have an intermission built into the show to allow for people to get refreshments and use the restroom. If you have a child on the spectrum you may need to plan for some additional breaks. I started noticing about 15 minutes into the second act that Roo had completely shut down. She stopped watching the show and was fixated on one spot that was in the other direction of the arena floor. I think this was because of excitement and sensory overload. Leaving the actual arena where you can still hear the show is a great option for a break. This allows for your child to have a bit of a reprieve from the visual stimulation and they can also dance and get out some extra energy.
Be Flexible!
As with all things when living life on the spectrum you have to be flexible and change the plan. This may mean leaving the arena area for a sensory break or even leaving the show early. Because Roo was so overstimulated we brewed the perfect storm for a meltdown, and as we all know meltdowns can sully the most magical of moments. Planning ahead of time and being flexible with what your child actually needs is so important.
