While the Disney Parks are filled with shows, characters, and rides, there is also A LOT to do outside of the parks, including quite a few things that you might now know about!

There are dinner shows at select Disney World hotels (though these are currently suspended), an entire shopping and dining district that is FREE to visit, and more. And, after a 19-month delay, there’s now a brand NEW show that you can only see if you’re visiting Disney World!

Cirque du Soleil has had a long partnership with Disney, with the former show, La Nouba, running for almost a full two decades in Disney Springs before closing back in 2017. Now Cirque du Soleil is BACK in Disney Springs with a NEW show, Drawn to Life, which debuts TODAY, November 18th, 2021!

If you’re not familiar with it, the new show has 10 different acrobatic performances that follow the story of a twelve-year-old girl who needs to finish an animation project left by her Disney animator father after his death.

To do this, she goes on her own animation-inspired quest (guided by a pencil!) filled with Disney childhood memories, imagination, and dreaming.

The show has an international cast of 62 artists who perform some seriously AMAZING feats.

During the show, you’ll get to see acts featuring some amazing performers on unicycles…

…a giant hand(!)…

…acrobatics performed in front of character designs (see Pinocchio behind?)…

…juggling…

…and MUCH, much more!

Drawn to Life is a Cirque du Soleil show that is exclusive to Disney World, so you’ll have to head to Disney Springs to watch it!  Tickets are on sale now and the show takes place most Tuesday through Saturdays evenings.

But let’s get to the exciting part: OPENING NIGHT itself!

When you enter the lobby, there’s a bar area where you can purchase alcoholic and nonalcoholic beverages.

The beverages with alcohol are generally served in this cute Drawn to Life cup!

There’s also a gift shop area to browse before you enter the theater.

The shop is filled with unique souvenirs, including glittery backpacks…

…colorful water bottles…

…and tons of apparel!

There are shirts and hats for the entire family!

You can even purchase a set of juggling balls so you can do some training at home after seeing some of the amazing performers in the show.

There’s also a variety of items themed after the Pencil characters in the show!

And, because it’s Disney World, you can also purchase a Cirque du Soleil-themed light up spinner.

Before we could decide which souvenirs we wanted to take home with us, it was time to head into the theater!

The stage sits empty for a short while…

…until performers start to appear!

During today’s opening night, there was little pre-show that took place before the performance officially began!

We were happy we arrived at our seats early so we could enjoy the show before the actual show!

There was lots to see.

In true Cirque du Soleil fashion, audience members were invited to participate.

Then, John Stamos appeared before the performance began to give a curtain speech! IT’S UNCLE JESSE!

You can check out his speech here:

John Stamos giving a speech at the opening night of Cirque de Soleil: Drawn to Life 🎨 (media event) #DrawntoLife @Cirque @DisneySprings pic.twitter.com/MaIUeUxcIl

— Disney Food Blog (@DisneyFoodBlog) November 18, 2021

 

 

The CEO of Cirque du Soleil, Daniel Lamarre, and the President of Walt Disney World, Jeff Vahle, also appeared before the performance to deliver brief remarks!

Then it was time for the lights to turn down low and for the performance to begin! To learn more about the show (and the merchandise you can get themed to the show) check out our links below:

• See 2 big changes made to the new Cirque show
• Go Behind the Scenes of the NEW Cirque du Soleil Show HERE!
• Learn more about the new show here

We’ll continue to keep an eye out for more new and returning Disney entertainment, so be sure to stay tuned to DFB for more!

Go Behind the Scenes of the NEW Cirque du Soleil Show HERE!

Have you ever seen a Cirque du Soleil show? Let us know in the comments!

Disclosure: In nearly all circumstances, Disney Food Blog writers and photographers pay full price for their own travel, hotel, food, beverage, and event tickets. We do this because it’s important to us as journalists to ensure not only that we give you unbiased opinions, but also that you can trust us to do so since we’re paying our own way. On rare occasions, when we are invited by a company to attend a preview as media, and when we choose to accept that invitation, we will always make you, our readers, aware of that situation. Today, we were invited by Disney World to attend their media preview of Cirque du Soleil’s ‘Drawn to Life.’ Note that when we attend events as media we are 1) Not required to review that event/food on any of our channels, and 2) Not required to review that event/food favorably. You can always count on DFB to give you a 100% unbiased and honest review of any event that we attend, food that we eat, or beverage that we drink. You can see more in our Disclosure Policy. Thank you for reading. — AJ