Disney on Ice presents Passport to Adventure at Manchester Arena - Review

Disney on Ice presents Passport to Adventure has arrived at Manchester Arena this week and we were lucky enough to be invited along to see the show on Wednesday evening. LM, especially, is a huge Disney fan so was so excited to put on her Belle dress and head down to the Arena.

We were greeted before the show with the chance to meet the stars of Zootropolis, Judy Hopps and Nick Wilde, who are this tour's Fit to Dance stars. The children were so excited to meet two of their recent heroes, and then have the opportunity to have a photo with the main man himself - Mickey Mouse before we took our seats close to the ice.

The Fit to Dance team took to the ice first, getting all the children hopping alongside Nick and Judy and a few of the skaters who were flying crazy helicopter boomerang hybrids around the ice. Make sure you take your seats on time to see these in action.

As usual Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Daisy and Goody are your comperes for the evening and the show proper soon took to the ice with a wonderful introduction from 'It's a Small World'. The skaters' costumes took us on a world tour and there were snippets of traditional music from a  range of countries with the skaters in the relevant costumes having their chance to shine.

From there we flew off to Africa and joined The Lion King. This is a real favourite in our house and the children loved seeing Simba and friends performing some of the biggest numbers from the movie. LM is currently dancing to 'I Just Can't Wait to be King' at school so was showing us some of her moves during that number. Bud and LM declared this section to be their favourite part of the show.

Next up we travelled to London and joined Peter Pan. This was a real spectacle with Peter, Tinkerbell and the Darling children flying at some height above the arena and Captain Hook, Smee and the rest of the pirates getting the typical boos from the audience. I think this was my favourite part of the whole evening, having not seen the film for some time it was a lovely reminder of the story and songs.

After the interval we headed 'Under the Sea' to meet Ariel, Flounder and Sebastian. The Little Mermaid is a DVD on general rotation in our house so we were all singing along. LM had to hide her face in my shoulder when a certain Sea Witch arrived on the ice. She really doesn't like Ursula!

Our next destination was somewhere we've visited on every Disney on Ice show we've seen - Arendelle. There's something about Elsa and Anna which really lends itself to the ice and the spectacle was the best I think we've seen. There was a real snow storm on the ice which made it really atmospheric. Ian and I commented that we really enjoyed the songs now we aren't watching the DVD every day!

The finale affords the opportunity to see all of the characters on the ice together and is a great chance to applaud the whole cast as the main characters and ensemble appear. 

We had a fabulous night at Disney on Ice as always, Little E really enjoyed the experience this time and it's the first show he's stayed awake all the way through. He was especially delighted by Sebastian and Flounder from The Little Mermaid, pointing and saying 'fish' whenever they skated by. 

There's a really nice mix of old and new in this show, and an effective blend of movies which will appeal to every Disney fan I think. It is really worth seeing if you can.

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Disney On Ice presents Passport To Adventure runs in Manchester until Sunday 15th October and tickets are still available, with prices starting at around £30 per person.

If you can't see it in Manchester then check out the rest of the tour dates:

Arena Birmingham - 18th -29th October

SSE Arena, Belfast - 3rd - 5th November

Citywest Hotel, Dublin  - 10th - 12th November

FlyDSA Arena, Sheffield 15th - 19th November

The O2, London - 20th - 30th December

For more information, and to book tickets visit disneyonice.com.

We were invited to see Disney on Ice Presents Passport to Adventure as guests of the show.