Today we went to the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus at the Lucas County Arena in Toledo. If you missed the circus in Toledo, it will be at The Palace of Auburn Hills next week.
This was our first trip to the Lucas County Arena and I will definitely be checking there for events in the future. It is closer to our house than the Palace and if we were to attend on a weekday, there would not be as many commuter traffic issues as if we tried to get to the Palace. Parking was relatively easy and inexpensive ($7). We were in a garage connected to the arena by the citiwalk so we did not need to go outside. We saw street lots ranging from $5-$8. The Arena itself was quite nice and smaller than the Palace, so the crowd was more manageable.
We had a wonderful time. The gates opened an hour before show time and you were able to go down on the floor and interact with the performers. There were clowns on stilts, dancers, and an area where clowns were juggling and acrobats performed tricks. My daughter loved watching the clowns juggle.
 |
| From Ringling Brothers Circus |
The main concourse was filled with circus vendors selling all kinds of goodies – clown hats with cotton candy, light twirlers, stuffed animals, lemonade in sports bottles, sno-cones in mugs, DVDs, and even a Wii
or DS
game. The grandparents bought my daughter a program and a light twirler. My husband and I opted for the more practical lemonade in the sports bottle.
We left for our seats about 10 minutes before they closed the floor to beat the crowds to the bathrooms, merchandise, and concession stands. The concession stands is one area where Lucas County Arena falls behind the larger arenas. There were limited options available for lunch, a hot dog, bratwurst, or turkey wrap. They also were selling soft pretzels, nachos, peanuts, and I believe the ice cream/funnel cake stand was open. We were sitting in the 200 section ($15 tickets), and there was a concession stand open upstairs so we did not have to cart our food up. However, the upstairs concession stand was not offering the child’s hot dog for $2 that was being offered downstairs. We decided not to run back downstairs and just got our daughter a $3 regular hot dog.
The circus was a lot of fun even for the adults. I had not been to the circus in about 23 years, so I enjoyed it. As mentioned we were in the 200 level, so we did lose the effect of some of the show because of the screens and equipment blocking our view of the motorcycle on the tight rope, and some of the flying trapeze work. But, for the cost differential, we were happy with where we sat. The show included elephants, tigers, horses, and dogs doing tricks. There were motorcycles that rode around and went in a steel globe and circled the inside of it. There were several aerial acrobats who performed and of course the clowns.
 |
| From Ringling Brothers Circus |
The show went from 1-3:15 with a 15 minute intermission. At intermission, we bought a sno-cone in a clown mug. We were sitting near the bar area on the second level and ended up sitting at one of the bar tables overlooking the arena only one section over from our seats. We watched the beginning of the second act from the bar table. This was nice because it gave us a place to eat our sno-cone and the ice that spilled out made a mess on the table instead of our clothes. The sno-cone spoons came pre-wrapped with a long spoon, a straw, a napkin, and a wet-wipe – very smart move.
 |
| From Ringling Brothers Circus |
