Review: Disney on Ice and Sky Backstage at the O2 Arena, London

Back in the summer, an advert caught my eye for the latest Disney on Ice tour 'Dare to Dream'. I did a little research and knew that our little man would love it so managed to convince my husband that it would be a lovely family outing for the three of us.  The nearest show to us was at the O2 Arena in London and was on in between Christmas and New Year, which I thought would be perfect - lovely way to get over the Christmas blues and carry on the magic from our trip to Disneyland Paris at the end of November..

Little man had no idea that we were going and my sister and brother in law decided to also come as a surprise for their four children.  So on Saturday afternoon my sister's family 'went for a drive' and we told little man that we were going to 'the river' for dinner - I love surprises like this, the anticipation of seeing their little faces when they realise what's happening is just priceless!  Well, we 'bumped into' the rest of the family there and still the children had no idea what was happening - they thought we'd just come for a look round! I was bubbling with excitement at this point, so much fun! 

Anyway, we all had an early dinner and then decided that we would head off to the Sky Studios to look around.  It is situated to the left hand side of the atrium, next to the arena entrance doors 'B'.  The Sky Studios experience is free to everyone so you can browse around, sit in a 'real' Sky News studio and read from an auto cue whilst being filmed, play games, watch Sky Sports News etc 

View of the O2 Arena atrium from the Sky Studios

Unbeknownst to the others, I had booked us 'Sky Backstage' passes.  This is a free service available to all Sky TV customers who have an arena event ticket and I had discovered it quite by accident whilst trying to view my bill online one day!  

You access the backstage area from the second floor of the Sky Studios and this is your way into the arena so you can't exit once through.  Security check your tickets and bags before giving you a 'Sky Backstage' wristband, which caused much excitement with the children who felt like VIP's! We were then shown along a red carpet and upstairs to the welcome area.  We were met by a lovely lady who explained the experience and she then showed us where we could have our photo's taken against a Sky backdrop - little man loved this as there was a wall of 'Paparazzi' with flashing camera lights and cheering etc  You get given a card so you can view and download your complimentary photo when you get home but it's immediately shown up on a screen so you can see it straight away.

Our complimentary photo!

After this we were free to roam around and it was a fantastic experience - free face painting with dressing up for the children (we skipped this bit as the queue was long), a huge tv screen showing clips / songs from well loved Disney movies, a sound booth where you could sing karaoke and they film / record you to view when you get home, a large pool table and lots of colouring / stickers for the children.  There's also a large bar serving drinks and food plus lots of plush, comfy sofas with tables, chairs and stools too.  

Sky Backstage - bar area

About 25 minutes before the show was due to start we headed back downstairs and we were on the right level to access our seats - perfect! It was a really lovely, relaxing way to start our evening, it was quite quiet although I suspect that was mainly because it was a family event - I would think for concerts it gets very busy but I will definitely do it again if we go to another event at the O2.

We were sitting in different areas of the arena so we separated and headed for our respective blocks - me, hubby and little man were in Block 107 and were sitting in row FF, which was about 7 seven rows back from the ice.  Great view but if we were to go again I'd probably sit a little bit further back as the big spotlights around the 'stage' did obstruct our view occasionally. We had a look around trying to spot the others, who were in block 111 and cue lots of mad waving when we located them! I could see the excitement on the children's faces now they knew what was happening.

The show started a few minutes later and the first characters to skate out onto the ice were Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Donald Duck and Goofy - little man was over the moon and couldn't contain himself, cheering and clapping as they came nearer to the front of the ice.  They were joined by numerous other skaters who performed a group number to one of the songs from Princess and the Frog.

Dare to Dream is split up into sections with scenes from some of the best known Disney princess movies being performed by the ice dancers.  The interpretation of the films by the professional skaters and the costumes were just mesmerising - they really looked like the genuine thing. 

After the traditional characters left the ice the first scene started and it was Snow White complete with Wicked Queen and a moving magic mirror - little man was a bit nervous of these as they were a little bit scary but he soon forgot that when the dwarves arrived, my goodness they were adorable! 

The next scene was Cinderella and I knew little man was going to love this one in particular as he had taken a real shine to Suzy and Perla (the girl mice) when we were in Disneyland Paris. He was speechless when they came onto the ice and thought they were there especially to see him!  Again, the costuming was superb and the story was condensed really well into a twenty minute section with some stunning skating, spins and jumps (I know they have 'proper' names but no idea which ones they were!) and a little slip from Prince Charming during one particularly tricky jump, which landed him on his bottom - ouch!!  The most spectacular bit for me during this scene was the horses and carriage - the horses were performers in beautiful costumes but the carriage was just stunning, very fitting for a princess.

A quick intermission, where you could buy merchandise, ice cream (very rude female seller in our block, would have been furious if she'd spoken to me like she did to some of the customers!) etc and then back to the action with my favourite scene of the whole show; Tangled!

Anyone who has seen this film, would be blown away by the magic which lasted for the whole of the second half of the show.  It started with Flynn Rider dropping in from the ceiling to steal the crown, just like in the film and also featured Mother Gothel, a tower, yards and yards of 'hair', the infamous frying pan and my best bit, flying lanterns.

The 'I've Got a Dream' scene in the bar with the 'thugs and ruffians' incorporated most of the cast and was just magical, really had the audience singing and dancing along with it.  There was even Maximus the horse who was scarily realistic and portrayed really, really well by two skaters who must have practised for hours to get their legs so coordinated and synchronised! 

Perhaps the most incredible section of the whole show was when Flynn and Rapunzel were running away from the guards and they flew, literally flew, on her hair around the arena whilst spinning and twisting high up in the air.  Amazing!! 

A little bit of artistic licence in changing the timeline, the penultimate scene from Tangled saw Flynn cut Rapunzel's hair and it fell from the tower and the ceiling; the whole crowd gasped! They both then lit a lantern with the help of a little girl from the audience and set it free before lots more of them appeared up at the ceiling bringing a lump to my throat just as it does in the film, it really was fabulous

The show finale included all of the characters from the show in their 'royal' outfits and they got a rousing ovation. The skill of these skaters / dancers / actors is just indescribable, I wish I could take you all so you could see it for yourselves!

The whole show, including the intermission, lasted approximately two hours and really was worth every penny - I'm sure it will be something all of the little princes and princesses present will remember forever and I hope we can go to another one some day soon.

AFUK x