Girl’s Trip: Disney on Ice Road Trip Adventures
Something my girls and I talk about ALL THE TIME is all the trips we want to take together.
This is something Britt especially is SO eager for. She’ll always say things about taking shopping trips or beach trips when she’s older with me and Tess and I love that!
I also always make sure to mention that we may get two extra girls someday to take with us when Kye and Spear get married, I never want my future daughter-in-laws feeling left out or isolated or not “part of” our crew 🙂
When we planned the trip to Great Wolf Lodge we had originally planned to do a day at the Coke Factory and visit the American Girl Doll Store.
But then we made the decision to include Spear on the trip (no regrets, SO glad he was with us!) and didn’t want to spend extra time driving or visiting places that would be tricky with a toddler.
So Zach and I discussed holding off on American Girl for after Tess’s 5th birthday when she’d have a doll of her own and then I’d do a girl’s trip with just Tess and Britt to go to the store with their dolls.
When I started looking at date options for our girl’s trip I realized there was a new Disney on Ice show happening in Atlanta in September!
We did Disney on Ice YEARS ago.
I just re-read the post and it was in 2015 so Tess was an infant and didn’t go and Britt was younger than Tess is now…so yeah a LONG time ago!
You can read the post about our first Disney on Ice experience here!
I felt like Kye is past the Disney on Ice stage of life and Spear is def too young to enjoy it so it’s a perfect girl’s trip event!
I invited Robyn and Lorelai to come with us and everything over this weekend flowed so, so smoothly.
We hit the road first thing Saturday morning (Sept 28) and made a stop at McDonald’s outside of Atlanta for lunch and then went straight to the show!
Disney on Ice was located at the State Farm Arena and it’s entrance was located inside CNN.
The parking and walk situation was SO SMOOTH and so easy!
I remembered from last time that it can be chilly in the arena with the ice so the girls and I decided to all wear Frozen style stuff and match and they even dressed their American Girl Dolls in their Frozen attire 🙂
Y’all know I love me a good theme!
Robyn and I learned a valuable lesson last year at the Taylor Swift concert...it’s worth it to pay for decent seats.
Robyn had some insider knowledge that the side seats were just as good, if not better, than front and center so we rolled with it.
We didn’t get the BEST seats. But we didn’t get the WORST seats either. And we got the closest we could in the medium level of price range.
And our seats were AMAZING.
We did NOT pay for the “Extra Magic Zone” but ended up being seated in the first row BEHIND that section.
And yall. I’m about to rant for a second.
You know I LOVE Disney. But I’m sorry. Magic is MAGIC. You should NOT have to PAY for it.
It really, really bugs me that these people paid a CRAZY amount of money (like twice the price of our ticket) and they paid that amount for a CHANCE at some magic during the show.
And that “magic”?
The boy in front of us got to stand up and show his muscles.
Some kids had their pictures featured on the big screen.
Some got to go sit down by the ice and wave at the characters.
Some got to ride in a truck on the ice.
Some got to see a character walk by and wave to them.
None of it was all that special and all of it was made LESS special when knowing it was pre-arranged, pre-paid for, and pre-planned.
The beauty of Disney Magic is that it’s random. It’s SPECIAL. And you just can’t put a price on that and you surely can’t sell it.
You guys know I’m authentic. I love love love Disney but they have a BIG FAIL when it comes to this Magic Seating Section. Big disappointment from me, for SURE.
When we bought the tickets we didn’t know that Road Trip Adventures is a BRAND new show!
Like brand new brand new. As in all recent characters and movies!
I am in a sweet spot of parenting with my girls as they are so into EVERYTHING but Robyn is at the pre-teen stage with Lorelai (she’s the same age as Kye) and I know it brought Robyn’s mama heart such joy to see LL embracing the moment and singing the songs and being SO into it!
Cling on to that sweet childhood as long as possible 🙂
The show was fantastic! We all LOVED it and Britt wanted me to promise that we’d come back 🙂
Moana was great, Frozen was great, Lion King was cool, and Aladdin was amazing!
It was so fun seeing FORKY and neat to see Mary Poppins too!
All of the princesses came out at the end during a “Girl Power” song. Tess was so sweet and said “I bet there will be a Boy Power song next.” NOPE Babe – welcome to 2019 where only Girls Rule.
I knew Britt would really love the show because ice skating shoes incorporate SO much gymnastics and she is my gymnast!
I asked her if she wanted to do Disney on Ice someday as a gymnast and she said “Mom, you know I’m going to be part of the Lion King Show at Animal Kingdom” I love those Disney goals 😉
It was so fun watching the show but especially watching the girls LOVE the show like they did!
Robyn was sweet to get the girls cotton candy to share ($15 yall for cotton candy…the snow cones? $20!!!).
We saw the 2:30 show and it was over by 4:30. We were not in a rush so we just took our time getting back to the car.
American Girl Store isn’t actually IN Atlanta and is a bit north of downtown so we decided to book our hotel stay near the AG Store and decided to do a big special girl’s night dinner at Cheesecake Factory!
My girls have NEVER been to a Cheesecake Factory before so I was really excited to take them!
Britt is always very envious of any friend time I have with my girlfriends and is always, always wanting to be included – so this was her chance!
We had a bit of a wait but didn’t mind checking out all the cheesecake options!
Our service wasn’t very good at the restaurant but the vibe and food did NOT disappoint!
The girls got a little too silly but it was also cute seeing them in that silly girl stage as we all know when we get with our girlfriends we can get silly too 😉
I got a crab dip that was SO GOOD and then we got three cheesecakes to share: Celebration Cheesecake, Oreo Cheesecake and Hershey’s Chocolate Cheesecake!
SO YUMMY!
Notice the first picture of Tess…giving the thumbs up.
I asked her to move her hand from her face…and the third picture is what I got haha
Totally giving me the bird!!! Another big talk we had to have about how we don’t do that. She said she knew it was a “thing” b/c a boy at school did it but she didn’t know what it means.
Britt said it means “you don’t love God” not quite true but whatever at least she knows it wrong!
We got checked in at the hotel and Robyn and LL had their own room and the girls and I had our own room.
When Robyn mentioned getting her own room I said TIME FOR A KING!
Sleeping with the kids is SO much more comfortable in a king bed so we totally upgraded for that!
The girls and I had SO MUCH FUN before going to bed.
We had an epic dance party and just laughed and laughed together.
I love, love, LOVE quality time with my kids. I LOVE IT.
And the little moments of the sleepover in the hotel were one of those times I know they will always remember and I will too!
I loved learning more about them, their relationship, and their individual hearts.
Britt shared that when she grows up she plans to teach gymnastics until her belly is too big with her first pregnancy and then she will stay home with her babies and bake as a hobby, side hustle and service to others.
They also explained their favorite game to play together…they call it Lonely Girl and Britt is the lonely girl. People are mean to her and Lieda (Tess’s character) is the most powerful person in the world and saves Lonely Girl. Lieda has no children and can see dead people – apparently those are her two biggest traits.
We went to sleep at about 9:30 which wasn’t too bad.
But I was up all night moving Tess’s FACE off of MY FACE. Literally. She kept LAYING ON MY FACE.
Then Britt kept turning SIDEWAYS.
I had to physically pick them both up multiple times in the night and move them!
We took our time waking up the next morning and getting rolling for the second part of our fun weekend together!
A video should automatically play in this post – be sure to watch to the end to see the girls epic dances 😉
You already KNOW this and live it….that time spent with your children is never a waste and grab all you can now. Marriage, babies, and life changes things when they grow up…..you know that too. I am so happy I got to have my grands to make memories with them. I am sure I made memories with my boys, but I was not the self assured person I am today and it makes a difference. Enjoy each and every second…I am so proud of the mother you are and also the wife. You do all you can for your marriage and for your kiddos…They are very fortunate to have 2 God filled loving nourishing parents. That is all, carry on!!
Love and hugs, GiGi