Ice Skating in Cancun

After seeing some posters this week promoting a "New York Ice Skating Show" my friend and I decided to investigate. There was a big tent set up in the lot next to the soccer stadium where all the signs were centralized. We drove over and she went in to check it out since she speaks better Spanish than me. Turns out the show was running all week this week, twice a night 6:15 and 8:30. We decided to buy tickets for last night. There were different levels (prices) of tickets to be had even though after entering the tent any seat was pretty much the same view. We paid for front row, but the farthest seat couldn't have been more than 50 yards away from the block of ice the skaters were performing on. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

First of all, I wondered how they could manage to have ice inside a tent in Mexico. Was there some sort of secret refrigeration technique? No, turns out the "rink" was barely larger than the 18 yard box on a soccer field and it was encased and elevated and I assume refrigerated in itself. We had all brought hoodies, but 10 minutes in the kids were sweating and I was a little warm myself...and we were within arm's length of the ice!

The show promised some showgirl-type routines as well as Barney and the Disney princesses. Overall the almost 2 hour show was pretty entertaining, but not unlike attending a 12 year old's ice skating recital. How else can I put it?

The costumes were great and the music was entertaining, but between some of the burlesque moves the girls were doing (in a hoop well above the ice), the magician, and Barney falling flat on his back because he couldn't stay on his skates, I noticed that the ice skating show was a little light on the actual ice skating.

I'd say only 2 of the 10 skaters actually could do what you'd typically expect of an ice skater. Those two did have solos and a pairs routine, so that was good. At least someone could do the spins and jumps. The rest of the skaters at least could stay on their skates (except for Barney), go backward, twirl and do the rest of their dancing. Although one poor girl was a little lost in the choreography. For her sake I hope she was an understudy.

A couple other funny things about the night:

-I couldn't tell if the magician was a man or a woman.

-In the Tarzan section of the show the skater playing Tarzan was supposed to go up in the air in arm straps, but the pulley was not moving. You could see Tarzan getting pissed that his routine was ruined. 

-One of the male leads was wearing hockey skates.

-What does hula hooping have to do with ice skating? Yeah, I don't know either but there was a whole routine of a girl doing her stuff with hula hoops.

All in all a fun night out for me and the kids, but definitely not a "New York Ice Skating Show"