The Fabulous Disney Babe
Page 2 of 4
Alice is no longer a baby, she's going to be nine in March. We're going to have her birthday party at Farrell's this year - yeah, Farrell's, with the sirens and the San Diego Zoo. We checked it out last night and it's very much like I remember. I know they're experimenting with a counter-service version up in Santa Clarita, but this is the old-fashioned sit-down version. The meals at Farrell's are still mediocre, but the ice cream is still fantastic. And the player piano is still a quarter. The jawbreakers have doubled in price, but are still good. If you're in San Diego, it's worth a peep - but get lunch or dinner elsewhere.
(c) Feld
After dinner, we drove down to the San Diego Sports Arena to see Disney on Ice: Toy Story 2. Disney on Ice is operated by the Feld corporation, the same company that brings us the Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus. I paid the 35.00 for VIP seats through Ticketmaster a few weeks ago and was able to print up my tickets on the computer, which was very handy. The merchandise from Ice Shows is expensive, but very cool. There's an electronic Buzz Lightyear glove, and glow swords and wands featuring Bo Peep, Woody, Buzz and Jessie, and glow spinners - which I hate inside theme parks - ESPECIALLY IN THE HAUNTED MANSION STRETCH ROOM, but don't mind elsewhere. There were blue Buzz Lightyear t-shirts for 15.00, neon green Jessie ones for 12.00. Large PVC dolls ranging from 12-24 dollars, some softie dolls, and Buzz and Jessie with Velcro hands - on the displays, they had them holding hands, which Alice thought very cute indeed. We got a program, not a bad deal for ten dollars as it had photos and some nice character art, and a holofoil cover. They had Jessie and Woody hats - Jessie's came with a braid, and they had about ten Jessie hats for every one Woody hat. Vendors sold popcorn in a Woody/Jessie/Bullseye box for 4.00 or a large Buzz Lightyear box for 6.00, and snow cones in character containers with lid heads/hats: an alien for 7.00, Jessie for 8.00 and Buzz for 10.00. You could only get Buzz inside the arena. For the less expensive ones, you had to go outside to the vendor booths, which we did. They also had a photo booth, where you stand next to a mannequin of Buzz Lightyear on an alien surface. It was about $24.00, if I recall correctly.
(c) Feld Entertainment
"It looks like he has a rainbow brain." Alice commented as a vendor passed with a tray of the Buzz Lightyear snow cones. "No, no," I told her. "See, in the show, Buzz comes out in a rainbow wig, holding a sign that says ZURG 3:16 ." She didn't get it, but the dad next to me laughed. Thanks! I'll be here all week! Try the veal!
The VIP seat tickets said row B, so I expected to be in the arena seats, second row. Nope. We were right on the floor of the arena, only two rows of chairs, and six feet or so from the front of the stage. There was a ton of interaction with the characters, which surprised me and delighted Alice. At one point in the show, someone who had gone for popcorn returned to their front-row seat and Rex followed, begging silently with gestures for some popcorn. The whole audience broke into laughter at this.