Ringling Brother's Circus: Tips for Parents Heading to the Show

1. Don't mention to your child that you'll be getting cotton candy thinking in the back of your mind that it will only cost a few bucks. The cotton candy is only sold one way...with a huge circus hat attached to it. You'll pay twelve bucks for the candy and the cheap hat. However, I'm glad I bought it, the hat looks ADORABLE on our daughter and not too shabby on me! lol I had told our daughter that we would get cotton candy tonight but I really figured it be around four dollars...not twelve. She had her heart set on it and, well, I enjoy cotton candy too so we splurged and got the hat/candy combo.

2. They don't sell kid's cups or beverages. If you're planning on snacking or eating at all while you're there you will want to either pack a drink or juice box for your child (if your venue allows that) or be prepared to shell out another nine dollars for some lemonade. Don't do what I did...I bought a regular sized drink for her thinking there would be a lid and straw at the condiment stand. Nope...no lids or straws which makes carrying multiple drinks to your seat while watching your two-year-old quite a treat. Luckily my daughter stays with me but next year, we won't be going while her dad is out of town. We missed him and I really needed the extra hands! ANYWAY after I bought her the smallest size drink I saw some souvenir water bottles filled with lemonade. PERFECT! It was perfect for her but cost $9.

3. If you haven't bought your tickets yet and you're taking a newly potty-trained little one...make sure your seats are close to the bathrooms! We lucked out with this one, I bet we went potty 10 times in that three hours! On this note, there are constantly breaks in the show that are optimum for going potty. They have to reset the stage quite often so if your little one has to go in the middle of the elephant act or something just have them wait a couple of minutes because before long that act will be over and they'll be stalling while they reset for the next big act.

4. Cotton candy is as sticky as you remember it being!

5. The program bag that they sell outside is $12, you get a book that you can get autographs in and a red, light-up clown nose. Shockingly (because she doesn't typically like to wear things on her face) our girl loved the nose. To get it to flash simply put it on, don't spend several minutes trying to find the switch or banging it & twisting it like I did. lol It went well with the $12 hat and made for some great pictures. If you're not wanting to spend that much I think you can get a similar book inside for $4. The bag was handy to have, I used it to carry my purse, the hat and even her lemonade bottle by the end of the night...again missing my husband's assistance in carrying everything.

6. Go early if you can. Our show started at 7:30, we got there at about 6:15 but had we arrived even earlier we would've had time to see the animals outside prior to the pre-show inside. It's much like the zoo so I didn't feel like we were missing out on a ton but it would've been fun had we arrived a little earlier.

7. The pre-show is worth your time and effort to get there an hour early. You get to go down on the floor and take pictures with the circus stars, get autographs, pet the dogs, see other animals, try on clown outfits and even get pictures on some of the props if you're lucky!

8. Opening night, if it hasn't already come to your town, they sell tickets for lower prices. We got ours for $11 each and had GREAT seats. We were on the end but there was always something going on in front of us. It was a three-ring circus so we didn't see everything in the furthest ring but they had similar acts in all three rings going on simultaneously. For the big acts they would use the middle so really there isn't a bad seat in the house.

9. If you get a "circus celebrity" seat it means you'll be part of the circus. For our show they had the circus celebrities come out and dance. I won't give away any more details but if that's your thing then spend the extra money and you'll get to be in the show. :)

10. This may seem a bit silly to mention, but for any new parents out there, go with your instinct and feed the children BEFORE the show! I thought it
would be fun to get hot dogs and eat there. Umm, yeah, not so much! All she could think about was cotton candy and when I finally convinced her that she needed to eat her hot dog first I realized that it is not easy for a two year old to eat a hot dog, with ketchup on it...in the darkness of a circus! What was I thinking!? She ate about half of it and then I picked up some dinner for her on the way home.

Overall it was a fun-filled night. It's now 2:42am and my daughter just woke up and said, "I was in the clircus...and Dayana's camera scare me!" lol She's dreaming about the circus and her cousin who wasn't even there. Good times. It's a great show, full of animal acts and tons of trapeze as well. The people are talented and the animals are beautiful. Hopefully this will help you enjoy your night without the little glitches here and there that we ran into. More than anything, don't take the kids alone...if your spouse is out of town, go with some friends or someone! It's just hard to carry everything AND a little one all the while trying to get great pictures without spilling your drinks and getting your camera all sticky from cotton candy. Enjoy today...enjoy the circus!