Dear, David Duffy.
Hey! Yes, you David!
Since you are VP of WDW Live Entertainment, let's talk.
David, you have a good track record. Some of your projects have been great. Some have been not so great. I will leave it at that.
But you certainly know, the Disney fan community knows and all of WDWMagic knows that WDW Entertainment offerings have been downgraded year after year. Daily parades at Studios and Animal Kingdom are gone and have been for years. Magic Kingdom's night parades are gone. Characters that were out for years at WDW are gone and rarely seen and when they do, it causes mass chaos. Citizens of Hollywood and Main Street are gone. Animal Kingdom has an unused amphitheater that is dark. When something new was placed in it (a kite show that lacked production value) guests left confused and perplexed. Both of Magic Kingdom's hard ticket offerings have grown stale. We finally saw a few different characters out (White Rabbit, Toy Soldier, Stitch) which was a good step. The Tomorrowland Christmas show was closed and replaced with a dance party. A dance party no one cares about. Then at that dance party, Nick and Judy were added-characters guests would actually like to meet. Make it make sense, David!
Speaking of hard tickets, Not So Scary is the same year after year. Characters are cut, no villains or anything different. It's an endless cycle of mediocrity. I think you care, David. I think you do, at least. There have been several improvements. Fantasmic's production value and Luminous are steps in the right direction. Both are much improved, core nighttime offerings. With that being said, there are so many things that have went away and will never be seen again. Did you know there is a large number of characters that used to appear at hard tickets? Characters guests enjoyed meeting and seeing? Did you know there are characters the company could literally use and make millions of dollars off of? Literally, make millions off of. Such wasted assets. I was at Villains Unleashed. I know what happened. To continue to use that as an excuse for not allowing other rare characters is lazy. This is Walt Disney World Entertainment we are talking about. It's supposed to be the cream of the crop. It was the cream of the crop until some in higher management stripped away what WDW Entertainment was and should be.
David, I beg you along with many others, please work some magic and make WDW Entertainment special like it used to be. I think you are up to the job. I hope you are. I pray you are. I believe you can and hope you will. I know there are many wonderful hard-working people amongst WDW Entertainment. I especially like the blue-sky entertainment ideas for AK your team has. Those would be wonderful-especially if/when an entire land goes away for years.
Anyways,
Save us, David. You are our only hope.
Sincerely,
Humanity
PS: David Duffy, I wouldn't mind if he did the following:
-Put the Rescue Rangers back on Echo Lake daily by the start of 2024(when Jollywood Nights wraps up), and end Chip n Dale's sighting near the Brown Derby that made sense between 2021 and the start of 2023, but made no sense when they bought back that spot
-Retire Vampirina and Fancy Nancy from DHS, because their shows rarely air on reruns on the Disney Channel morning block or the DJR channel anymore(this is especially the case for Nancy), and bring out Mira and Eureka(sure the former may have the same reason as Vee and Nancy, but she's newer compared to those two), and replace Timon in the DJR stage show bc Lion Guard got cancelled and no longer airs on TV(there's no reason for TLG to be represented when the show is barely that popular nowadays) with Sofia the First(it's not the same without STF)
-Replace Chewbacca at Launch Bay with another character like Ashoka, Chewie has no purpose of being at both SWGE and SWLB at the same time, if LB is willing to remain indefinitely
-Phase out Elena of Avalor from the parks for good(if there's no intentions of bringing Sofia back), her show has ended, they don't air it anymore, not even on reruns on both Disney Channel or Disney Junior, Elena's hardly that popular nowadays, outside those who watched the show, and yet they phased out characters like Vanellope and in Disneyland's case, Moon Girl instead of taking out an unpopular princess/queen(spoilers from the finale) who legitimately has little to no merchandise of her sold anymore in the parks
-Speaking of Vanellope, bring her and Ralph back to Imageworks taking over the other Melody Maker station(which shockingly still runs on Windows 98, and I don't think it would last any longer with that outdated technology), since the Play pavilion is officially canned for good, which was supposed to be their forever home
-Regain the Brave unit in the Festival of Fantasy parade within 6 months and have Merida no longer take part of the Adventure Friends Cavalcade, as she had little to zero purpose of being in that cavalcade(FoF was her home), and how was she still riding on the small float, while a more popular character like Moana gets to walk when Raya joined this cavalcade unannounced last November(why not put Buzz Lightyear to join his love Jessie and Buzz's best friend Woody)
-Replace Meeko on the Steamboat Willie finale with Mirabel, add Rapunzel and Flynn to the princess scene(not unlike DL's show), and add Anna on that same boat next to Elsa to re-solve that distanced stuff for the DHS version of Fantasmic
-Discontinue the flotillas at DAK permanently, they don't serve that much of a purpose going into 2024 other than guest reactions
and Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party for hopefully next year will be more unique with major changes: Christmas party would also apply here
1. Permanently retire the annoying and overrated ZOMBEATS Dance Party in Tomorrowland, because the Zombiez franchise has little cultural relevance and has no right to be represented in the parks when they just ignored other stuff that were seen in Disney Channel(both past and present) like Big City Greens, The Owl House, etc that deserve to be in the parks more, and instead, they should debut a new Stitch themed dance party in its place, featuring Sparky, Angel, Lilo, and of course, Stitch himself(which would have him to abandon his meet and greet spot), if they can't bring back the Monsters Dance Party with Sulley and Mike
2-Do something with the Cosmic Ray's Dance Party:
The DJR Dance Party would change up the character selection, as Doc McStuffins would stay, as Pluto, Mira Royal Detective(despite not being that relevant in 2024, but she’s newer than both Fancy Nancy and Vampirina), and Eureka(the cave girl) would join the Dance Jam(Timon would relocate to Adventureland for a meet and greet(and it’s crazy that he was still represented as a DJR character even though the show he represents(The Lion Guard) was cancelled in 2019(and the show can only be seen on Disney Plus), while Nancy and Vampirina were cut)
3. Revamp the character greetings lineup to feature "new for 2024" additions that are fan favorites, fit the theming, or crowd-pleasers:
The following that would have to be eliminate for budget/addition reasons(previously seen in 2023):
-Queen of Hearts and the Tweedles: cut to make way for the Cheshire Cat and the March Hare(QOH needs to be a face character moving forward if she does return her costume head reminds me too much of Helga from Hey Arnold, Disney should update that costume head if QOH continues to be an atmosphere character)
-Anastasia & Drizella: They would be cut for Foulfellow and Gideon
-Jafar: cut to make way for Raya
-The regular Princess Fairytale Hall lineup(Cinderella & Elena, Tiana & Rapunzel): One, there's nothing unique at this spot during the Halloween party(I'm not the only one), two, Elena of Avalor isn't as popular as she was in 2016-17(and her show ended in 2020, yet the parks don't know that fact(it's starting to be noticed as she wasn't listed for its sister party(Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party) in 2023), as the show no longer airs on reruns, it hardly becomes a chart topper on Disney Plus, and there's legitimacy little to no merchandise sold with her likeness in the parks(no pins, no Funko pops, just her dress), and third..., they can just transform PFTH into a treat trail for the 2024 party
It would also add/change for the following for the 2024 event:
Changes:
-The Dumbo queue would no longer have Minnie Mouse, Donald & Daisy Duck meet in the same queue, as instead Minnie Mouse, Daisy Duck, and Clarabelle Cow as the Sanderson Sisters would make their first meetable appearance at WDW at Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party in this same spot
-Donald Duck would exchange his pumpkin costume for the heavily advertised candy corn costume(which was previously seen at Disneyland), and now would appear near Casey Jr's Splash n Soak(without the Splash n Soak), right alongside Goofy(now ditching his pirate costume for his batastic new costume(pun not intended)
-The Big Cheese himself would FINALLY replace his neon purple, Green, and orange vampire costume for an all-new "to WDW", black and orange costume
-Rapunzel would now be joined by Flynn Rider, but this time now appearing in the Tangled rest area
-Tiana would relocate to Liberty Square, now joined by Prince Naveen(just like its sister party, Very Merry Christmas)
-Gaston would rejoin Belle, after not being there in 2023(as Belle met by herself for that year)
NEW Additions:
-Molly McGee(and her crush, Ollie Chen) from The Ghost & Molly McGee would appear near City Hall on Main Street USA
-Appearing inside the Enchanted Tiki Room, would be some classic Disney jungle pals from The Lion King(Rafiki & Timon) and The Jungle Book(Mowgli & Baloo) appearing in the same room(in one line, two separate photos, with four total characters), a throwback to the Adventureland Treat Trail that existed in the 2000's
-Raya from Raya and the Last Dragon would make her first MNSSHP appearance, near the Swiss Family Treehouse, the location previously held by the Tarzan trio pre-pandemic
-Bruno would join Mirabel at the Fairytale Garden, Mirabel's normal home(it would be inevitable)
-King Magnifico from the newly released animated feature, Wish would appear in the Castle Walls across from the Friar's Nook
-The Cheshire Cat and the March Hare would join Alice and Mad Hatter respectively near the tea cups
-On the Fantasyland Station, residents of the Boiling Isles would join the festivities(despite the show having ended a yr 1/2 prior), Luz Noceda would be joined by Amity Blight(plus King), while Willow Park would be joined by Hunter(who would all appear in their epilogue appearances from Watching & Dreaming(as Luz, Amity, Hunter, and Willow would all be face characters not unlike the princesses, Aladdin, Asha, Bruno, and Mirabel)
-Honest John/Foulfellow & Gideon would be greeting guests near the Village Haus
-Cruella de Vil would be meeting in the gazebo on Liberty Square(the spot where Jack and Sally used to meet prior to 2018)
-Captain Hook and Smee would both take the spot of Jack Sparrow on the pirates stage for the party
-In Tomorrowland, the stars of Pixar's fan favorite, Oscar nominated 2022 animated feature, Turning Red in their WDW debut, the red panda herself, Mei and her best friends, Abby, Priya, and Miriam would all be appearing near Space Ranger Spin(in the spot where Buzz Lightyear used to meet)
-Inside the former Mercury of Mars(which is being used as seating for the moment), Ember Lumen and Wade Ripple from Element City, seen in the 2023 Pixar movie, Elemental make their very first Magic Kingdom appearance
Mr Duffy has always been the king of entertainment in Paris, he needs to oversee those flaws and review them going into 2024
