Little Star presents...Vue cinemas Kids AM Barbie screening

We were lucky enough to be invited to a Vie Cinemas Kids AM family & teen screening at Vue Piccadilly to watch Barbie the Pearl Princess. A very pink and princess-y event, complete with princess face painting, glitter tattoos, princess cake pops and bags full of goodies for little princesses, who had dressed up in their fineries for the occasion ;-)

For more details on Kids AM screenings, visit www.myvue.com/offers-savings/kids-am

What is it?

Vue has a range of family and child-friendly morning film screenings at weekends and during school holidays in selected Vue cinemas. The Kids AM deal offers screenings with tickets costing from just £1.75 for 2D films and from £3 for 3D films for both the children and accompanying adults. [Given that I am sometimes paying over £8.00 for a ticket to the cinema these days, that seems to be pretty good value to me – Helen].Other offers available are Super Tuesday, where every Vue cinema gives fans a third off cinema tickets to family members (text SUPER & email address to 51055 for a membership number and full details) and Teen Tickets, with teenagers saving up to 20% off all tickets.

What did Mummy think? 9.5/10

This was a lovely opportunity to spend a day out with my youngest daughter, aged 4 1/2, taking a trip to London for a special day with just the two of us :-) Sparkly dress was selected at least a week before (Phoebe’s, not Mummy’s ;-) ) and she was ever so excited and looking forward to our special time together. After a train & tube journey (which is exciting anyway when you’re that age), we arrived at Piccadilly Circus early enough for it to still be pretty quiet and enjoyed looking at the tourist shops and making sure we had a special pastry and a few photos at the Statue of Eros before heading to the cinema!

The stairs and entrance area of the cinema had been decorated with suitably pink and princessy balloons, with exciting lighting too, so Phoebe was immediately enthralled, not to mention the goody bag with popcorn, princess tiara and wand (supplied by http://www.fancydressball.co.uk) and then even better was that we were only about the third person there, so barely any queue for the face painting and glitter tattoos :-) After the requested rainbow mermaid facepaint and gold sparkly butterfly tattoo (one of which was grudgingly taken off at bedtime and the other of which is still proudly displayed a week later), we found complimentary drinks and very beautiful and tasty cake pops courtesy of @KimberlyCakePop

Following the twirling to the music, and a very clever mermaid making flowers out of modelling balloons (which yes, we did carry all the way back on tube and train without popping – procuring lots of uncharacteristic smiles from other London travellers!), the film was ready to start.

After three girls, I must admit I have had my fair share of Barbie and the story was your traditional Princess-gets-taken-as-a-baby-by-nasty-people-but-lady-can’t-bear-to-kill-her-so-raises-her-only-to-be-found-17-years-later-and-reunited-with-king-and-queen-via-traditional-adventures-on-the-way… ;-)

Clearly though, this is right up the street of a twirly 4 year old who wants to be a princess when she grows up!

In other words, Phoebe thoroughly enjoyed it. Mummy was pleasantly surprised by huge, comfy seats. It has clearly been a long time since I went to any cinema more mainstream than our great local, voluntary one. The seats were more than big enough for sitting and cuddling on Mummy’s lap while eating popcorn, holding a flower balloon and watching the film at the same time. Luckily we made it to the middle of the back row, so no balloon-obscuring for anyone in rows behind ;-).

There were a few treats left over, so Phoebe was thrilled to be able to take some popcorn home for her sisters (which we found afterwards they’d all scoffed for ‘breakfast’ the following morning without us knowing! No wonder they hadn’t wanted cereal til midday!)

We made a lovely day of it and pottered back along Regent Street and Carnaby Street, before heading back home for tea :-)

What did Phoebe think? 100/10 ;-)

Great! Fantastic! My favourite part was watching the film and the glittery butterfly tattoo. I called my butterfly “Sparkle”. I loved having my face painted as a rainbow mermaid, it was really pretty. I wore a lovely dress and got a great tiara and wand and popcorn and delicious cake pops.

Overall score 9.5/10

While the film wasn’t the type Mummy would necessarily choose to pay to go and see, Phoebe thoroughly enjoyed it and the screening and event were a great reason to plan a lovely special day out. Obviously not every Kids AM screening is going to have face painting and goody bags, but I will certainly now look up what’s showing at our nearest Vue cinema and make some trips with any or all of my children. I may even look gfor myself and hubby, though probably not to a Barbie one! ;-).

Thank you to everyone involved in making a lovely special event for lots of little princesses :-)

Helen

Helen is a mum to two, social media consultant, and website editor; and this site is (we think) the only Social Enterprise parenting magazine! Since giving up being a business analyst when juggling travel, work and kids proved too complicated, she founded KiddyCharts so she could be with her kids, and use those grey cells at the same time. KiddyCharts has reach of over 1.1million across social and the site. The blog works with big family brands (including travel) to help promote their services, as well as offering free resources to parents of kids under 10. It gives 51%+ profits to Reverence for Life, who fund a number of important initiatives in Africa, including bringing running water and basic equipment to a school in Tanzania. Helen has worked as a digital marketing consultant (IDM qualified) with various organisations, including Channel Mum, Truprint, Talk to Mums, and Micro Scooters. She loves to be creative in the brand campaigns she works on. Get in touch TODAY!