Disneyland Characters Behaving "Badly"

AllyInWonderland

AllyInWonderland

Well-Known Member
Livialovesdisney said:
I love this video, hahaha! Alice and Mad hatter crack me up. I know that this particular hatter in the video is not "Grasshopper hatter", but does anyone know if grasshopper hatter still works at Disneyland?
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I heard from a friend of his(briberry, the girl who did the video) that he is not a hatter anymore, but I think he occaisonally is a hatter host at Mad T Party. I don't know if he still is or not.
 
JediMasterMatt

JediMasterMatt

Well-Known Member
This thread is another example of the differences between Orlando and Anaheim these days. Characters gathering in groups and entertaining crowds is something that is very rare in Orlando and happens frequently in Anaheim.

Orlando's "necessity" to put characters behind walls to cause guests to get in line (due to their need at the resort to have more attractions) really hampers the energy and magic that you experience while touring the parks. Even Anaheim's "unscheduled" character events like musical chairs with Alice and the Hatter help sell the guest on being in a magical place where you never know what or who you may run into around the next corner. At WDW, if you want to see a character - you best get a FP+ for it or get in line for one of the increasingly rare characters you will find in the street.

I've seen Alice on several occasions meeting guests at the front gate at Disneyland and then ask a child if they would like to ride the teacups. She then walks them hand-in-hand all they way down Main Street and into Fantasyland and rides with them. Talk about a magical moment for that child. A leisurely stroll through the park with a character and then a ride with them. Probably 20 minutes of interaction by the time it's all over. The crazy thing is that I've seen this happen and the character has had no "handler" from guest services. The world didn't stop. No mobs broke into pandemonium. People stopped and looked on. A few would ask Alice to get a picture or autograph and she would politely refuse. The closest I've seen to this happening at the Magic Kingdom is Alice meeting people right outside the teacups and then riding with someone. Quite the difference in overall experience in my opinion.

I took my 14 yr old niece to her first Disney Park this summer and made certain her first experience was at DLR. After I saw she was enjoying the character interactions, I made certain to be at the Coke Spot for when I knew musical chairs would kick off. She thought it as just a totally random thing happening and after I told her the truth, she thought she had the coolest uncle in the world. She "won" and totally loved the "prize".

In typing this up, I had to rack my brain thinking when the last time I saw multiple characters doing something "spontaneous" at WDW. The last time I saw anything cool happening was about 5 years ago. I was doing my normal late night photography at the Magic Kingdom on a extra magic hours night when the park closed at midnight in late January and found myself in Fantasyland. As the park got ready to close, I saw Goofy come out for a spin on the carousel with the guests. After that ride, Minnie showed up for the last ride of the night. Then after the park closed, the two of them loitered by the Sword in the Stone. Then Donald and Daisy showed up. The Pluto. Then Chip and Dale. Then Mickey turned up. They then proceeded to all take a crack at pulling the sword. All of this activity was done for like 20 people who were left in the park after close on a cold late January night. For no reason at all it seemed. I even discretely asked a few cast members who were standing around laughing at the site of it. They couldn't explain why either and hadn't seen anything like it. With my photography penchant, I've been back in Fantasyland many times after close and never seen anything like this before or since.

I really wish WDW could get back into letting the characters serve as a form of entertainment and not just another line to get in (physically or virtually). I would never wait for a meet-and-greet myself; but, I will certainly stop and watch characters put on a show for people.
 
Livialovesdisney

Livialovesdisney

Well-Known Member
JediMasterMatt said:
This thread is another example of the differences between Orlando and Anaheim these days. Characters gathering in groups and entertaining crowds is something that is very rare in Orlando and happens frequently in Anaheim.

Orlando's "necessity" to put characters behind walls to cause guests to get in line (due to their need at the resort to have more attractions) really hampers the energy and magic that you experience while touring the parks. Even Anaheim's "unscheduled" character events like musical chairs with Alice and the Hatter help sell the guest on being in a magical place where you never know what or who you may run into around the next corner. At WDW, if you want to see a character - you best get a FP+ for it or get in line for one of the increasingly rare characters you will find in the street.

I've seen Alice on several occasions meeting guests at the front gate at Disneyland and then ask a child if they would like to ride the teacups. She then walks them hand-in-hand all they way down Main Street and into Fantasyland and rides with them. Talk about a magical moment for that child. A leisurely stroll through the park with a character and then a ride with them. Probably 20 minutes of interaction by the time it's all over. The crazy thing is that I've seen this happen and the character has had no "handler" from guest services. The world didn't stop. No mobs broke into pandemonium. People stopped and looked on. A few would ask Alice to get a picture or autograph and she would politely refuse. The closest I've seen to this happening at the Magic Kingdom is Alice meeting people right outside the teacups and then riding with someone. Quite the difference in overall experience in my opinion.

I took my 14 yr old niece to her first Disney Park this summer and made certain her first experience was at DLR. After I saw she was enjoying the character interactions, I made certain to be at the Coke Spot for when I knew musical chairs would kick off. She thought it as just a totally random thing happening and after I told her the truth, she thought she had the coolest uncle in the world. She "won" and totally loved the "prize".

In typing this up, I had to rack my brain thinking when the last time I saw multiple characters doing something "spontaneous" at WDW. The last time I saw anything cool happening was about 5 years ago. I was doing my normal late night photography at the Magic Kingdom on a extra magic hours night when the park closed at midnight in late January and found myself in Fantasyland. As the park got ready to close, I saw Goofy come out for a spin on the carousel with the guests. After that ride, Minnie showed up for the last ride of the night. Then after the park closed, the two of them loitered by the Sword in the Stone. Then Donald and Daisy showed up. The Pluto. Then Chip and Dale. Then Mickey turned up. They then proceeded to all take a crack at pulling the sword. All of this activity was done for like 20 people who were left in the park after close on a cold late January night. For no reason at all it seemed. I even discretely asked a few cast members who were standing around laughing at the site of it. They couldn't explain why either and hadn't seen anything like it. With my photography penchant, I've been back in Fantasyland many times after close and never seen anything like this before or since.

I really wish WDW could get back into letting the characters serve as a form of entertainment and not just another line to get in (physically or virtually). I would never wait for a meet-and-greet myself; but, I will certainly stop and watch characters put on a show for people.
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Great points, I completely agree with you. I read somewhere that Disneyland is more laid back while most people going to DisneyWorld are going for an "experience". I don't know if that's true, but I really wish WDW will become more laidback concerning their characters. They are my favorite part! :)
 
RandomPrincess

RandomPrincess

Keep Moving Forward
Livialovesdisney said:
Great points, I completely agree with you. I read somewhere that Disneyland is more laid back while most people going to DisneyWorld are going for an "experience". I don't know if that's true, but I really wish WDW will become more laidback concerning their characters. They are my favorite part! :)
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I've read the same thing about a difference between the guests at DL vs WDW. I wonder if it's because DL has more locals who go frequently so they aren't trying to knock each other over to get their autograph books signed?
 
GiveMeTheMusic

GiveMeTheMusic

Well-Known Member
RandomPrincess said:
I've read the same thing about a difference between the guests at DL vs WDW. I wonder if it's because DL has more locals who go frequently so they aren't trying to knock each other over to get their autograph books signed?
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The guest culture is bred by management. TDO has made WDW into the nightmarish "experience" it now is by conditioning guests to pre-plan everything and reject spontaneous "moments." TDA hasn't done that.

It's not a clientele difference, it's just that DLR has maintained the operations standards that have served them well for 60 years.

It's happened here in small doses. The princesses used to be out in front of the castle all day. In 2006, they moved them to a structured meet-n-greet. Now guests are conditioned to expect princesses in a structured greet, and don't expect to just see them flouncing around Fantasyland like they did not too long ago.

Management shapes the experience, and one coast's management has done a better job overall than the other's.
 
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JediMasterMatt

JediMasterMatt

Well-Known Member
GiveMeTheMusic said:
The guest culture is bred by management. TDO has made WDW into the nightmarish "experience" it now is by conditioning guests to pre-plan everything and reject spontaneous "moments." TDA hasn't done that.

It's not a clientele difference, it's just that DLR has maintained the operations standards that have served them well for 60 years.

It's happened here in small doses. The princesses used to be out in front of the castle all day. In 2006, they moved them to a structured meet-n-greet. Now guests are conditioned to expect princesses in a structures greet, and don't expect to just see them flouncing around Fantasyland like they did not too long ago.

Management shapes the experience, and one coast's management has done a better job overall than the other's.
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100% correct.

The reason why something like character interactions happen differently at the two different resorts are due to the way in which they are managed. TDO needs “things” for guests to do, so character meet-and-greets have become another object that can be counted as a ride or attraction. This is especially true with MM+ and it’s evil offspring FP+. In order for the system to work in Orlando, you need to get guest out of line for popular attractions and put them somewhere else. If they aren’t lining up for Stitch, then maybe they would for Mickey. In Anaheim, character interaction isn’t needed to artificially increase the theoretical ride/attraction capacity. So, Orlando’s solution of sticking as many character moments at the end of a line behind a wall became their way to combat that their parks simply don’t have enough to keep guest busy.

Once characters started getting sequestered away, guest behavior modifies as well. Seeing a character out and about in Orlando is as rare as seeing a bigfoot. That’s why guests behave like they need to go out of their way to see them while they are there.

All it would take to change this is to have the characters out where people could see them and behavior would change. If you see Mickey out in the park all day, then you know you can stop by later if you want to meet him. It’s when you don’t see him that you feel like you have to hunt him down like bigfoot.
I don’t know, maybe TDO should treat him like they do with the other cryptozoological beast in the Yeti and put a strobe light on him?

Either that or simply hire more people to be characters and put them out in the parks more often and if you need more rides and attractions – build new or replace the ones that aren’t pulling their share of the load.
 

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