Friday, November 23, 2012

The Wiggles- Celebration Tour

The Wiggles "Celebration Tour of Canada"

Essar Centre
Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario

October 20, 2012

At some point, I signed up to receive email updates from The Wiggles. In one of the emails, The Wiggles announced a final North American tour with the original four Wiggles. It was mostly across Canada with only a couple of northern cities in the U.S. I was immediately excited to see a date in Sault Ste. Marie on a Saturday afternoon. I never need a reason to head to the Northwoods. However, I would need a really good reason to pull the kids out of school for four days and seeing The Wiggles one last time was more than enough reason. We had just seen The Wiggles in Jacksonville. It was Kellisa's 6th or 7th Wiggles concert, but it was the first for Egypt and she had an amazing time. In fact, she will ask every so often about the next Wiggles concert. Since both kids loved the concert so much, it was easy to pull the trigger and buy tickets.

I went online as soon as the tickets went on sale and had the good fortune of getting 2nd row aisle seats:


The tickets were in the VIP section. We were told at the Jacksonville concert that The Wiggles did a meet and greet for VIP ticket holders. We didn't have VIP Tickets. In the weeks leading up to the concert, I was unable to confirm that we would be able to meet The Wiggles. The day before the concert, as a last ditch effort, I emailed a woman who works at the Essar Centre. I didn't mention anything about The Wiggles saving Kellisa's life years ago or the fact that Kellisa is in a wheelchair, I just asked if The Wiggles were doing a meet and greet for VIP Ticket holders. I did mention that we traveled from Jacksonville, FL for the concert. I wasn't expecting a reply, but I was hoping for the best. 

Kellisa met three of The Wiggles and Captain Feathersword before their August 13, 2010 concert in Jacksonville. I was hoping for another chance for Kellisa and since three of the Wiggles were about to retire from touring, this would be Egypt's last chance to meet them. I got a reply back, but it wasn't the best news. A meet and greet was not planned for VIP Ticket holders. The email did mention that they would pass on our information because we traveled so far (1,359.20 miles) for the concert. A couple of hours before the show, I received a phone call telling us to be at the "Will Call" area 1 hour and 15 minutes before the concert started and to let the workers at the window know that we were the Florida family. No promises were made, so it was hard to know what to expect, but I was very hopeful for the kids.

We arrived on time and were told to wait by an elevator. After a 15 minute wait (I was getting worried), a lady approached to escort us backstage. We were left in a room, still not knowing exactly what to expect. After another short wait, the three new Wiggles came in and we had a great visit with them. The kids had fun playing with them as the explained a little about the changes going on with The Wiggles. After about 5 minutes, this happened:


We had a great time visiting with The Wiggles. I was afraid both girls would burst from the excitement, but they held it together. I think there was some amazement that we traveled so far. Especially since we had just seen The Wiggles a couple of months before. Jeff was teased that he would look good with Egypt's hairbows because his hair was long enough to be braided. After our visit, we were lucky enough to meet the woman who made this all happen. Obviously, we couldn't thank her enough as she walked us to our seats before the doors were open to the public. She also helped us find a safe place to leave Kellisa's wheelchair during the show.

Since I can't top the pictures below with words...I won't even try.












































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