Mickey coming to a city near you?

Our favorite columnist (Jim Hill) says Mickey might be dining in a city near you.

http://jimhillmedia.com/blogs/jim_h...-getting-ready-to-take-on-chuck-e-cheese.aspx

A whole chain of these would dilute some of the character experience that exists in the Disney parks. I hope Jim is wrong.

Ausdaddy said:

A whole chain of these would dilute some of the character experience that exists in the Disney parks. I hope Jim is wrong.

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I agree. That being said though, if they were to do it around me I probably would go.

I to hope this is wrong, not a good idea at all. Ever hear the saying... "To much of a good thing" I think it applies in this case. It certainly will help cheapen and diminish the experience when visiting the parks. Just my two cents.

Carolwood said:

I to hope this is wrong, not a good idea at all. Ever hear the saying... "To much of a good thing" I think it applies in this case. It certainly will help cheapen and diminish the experience when visiting the parks. Just my two cents.

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I can agree with that.

Well, with a Chicago test market there's always the hope it won't make it through getting piloted.

While I agree with most of your comments, I, on the other hand, can see some upsides to this as well.
1)At least it's a little slice of Disney Magic for those who can't afford a trip to The Disney Parks.
2) It might bring back popularity to Mickey and friends, who seem to be suffering lately from being pushed to the back row by Pixar Characters.
3) It might inspire those who eat at a Disney themed restaurant, who don't normally take Disney Park week long vacations to consider it.

In this day and age, I wouldn't be too surprised about how much children can influence their parents vacation decisions.

The part of me that needs instant-gratification would *love* to have a Disney restaurant nearby. The part of me that loves planning and looking forward to vacation thinks this is a really bad idea.

Character dining outside of the parks only gives people one less reason to visit the parks.

Finally Disney cashes in on the Coffee Craze. That's $10,000,000 (just a guess) they are leaving on the table for no reason. FINALLY!!!

My problems are the fact that I would care less to visit character meals there, and what would the restaurant look like? Part of the fun of going to character measl are the different locations you go to eat (Cinderella's Royal Table, Garden Grill, Akershus, 1900 Park Fare). There all different. But if a generic character design was made for all the chain locations, I would be dissapointed. The only way to fix this probalem would be to have different themed rooms to eat in (castle, pirate ship etc.). And would these places be buffet or family style? And would the charge more? I'd rather they just build the whole hotel/attarction that way i could spend a whole day doing different activities (shoping, dining and even sleeeping) and feel like I am at the World. Plus what if you met a character who you recognized the person playing him/her? That would spoil the fun.

Animaniac93-98 said:

My problems are the fact that I would care less to visit character meals there, and what would the restaurant look like? Part of the fun of going to character measl are the different locations you go to eat (Cinderella's Royal Table, Garden Grill, Akershus, 1900 Park Fare). There all different. But if a generic character design was made for all the chain locations, I would be dissapointed. The only way to fix this probalem would be to have different themed rooms to eat in (castle, pirate ship etc.). And would these places be buffet or family style? And would the charge more? I'd rather they just build the whole hotel/attarction that way i could spend a whole day doing different activities (shoping, dining and even sleeeping) and feel like I am at the World. Plus what if you met a character who you recognized the person playing him/her? That would spoil the fun.

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That would be such a cool idea. I know that I would frequent a restaurant like that and probably have my birthday dinner there, every year, until I'm..well, not having anymore. It would be so cute, and as all Disney is, very well-themed.

I love the idea (I can't get into the blog at work for some reason)

But based on the discussion here, I love it

That being said, they should rotate characters around, using terms like... Visiting from Disney World this week is Mickey or Minnie or whoever. I know my daughter will ask why Mickey is here, rather than WDW.

I don't know... I mean, Mickey lives in ToonTown, and you know, he just came up to meet you for breakfast. Cindarella lives in the castle, and you are visiting.

I just think this is a bad idea. Going to one of those meals is not going to feel special to guests anymore when they can just go to "Disney down by Macy's, near that Chili's we ate at the one time."

And the food better be worth the price.

I see it.

Wisconsin Dells have been building mega water resorts with all amenities enticing million of people from Chicago’s suburbs to take mini weekend vacations. The current trend of Chicago suburb’s hotels is to build water parks into existing hotels to get people not only to take mini weekend vacations but mini weekday vacations. Some of these hotels are offer birthday parties at these water parks and game rooms to fill the weekdays banquette rooms ala chuck e cheese style with class. Some of the Chicago finest restaurants are in hotels which are only open in the evenings. Nearly every hotel has a coffee shop in it around here.

I could see Disney following the same trend with a hotel in the suburbs of Chicago with a water park, family play area, restaurant (which offers character dining during the day and fine dining at night), banquette rooms (Mickey birthday parties during the day and weddings at night), and of course a Hotel wouldn’t survive in Chicago without a coffee shop.
Schaumburg, the same place as Dreams to Doorways, is a great demographic for Disney travelers looking for an all amenities resort for a weekend and weekday trip between trips to WDW or Disneyland.

In the 80's didn't Disney have a plan to open a fast food chain? I am sure I read this a couple of years ago.

I would assume there has to be some kind of market research to back this up, as there is with any major decisions or new developments. I know for a fact that the theme parks division of TWDC (not sure if they were from DL or WDW) held a focus group here in Buffalo, NY a few months ago, as my mom was supposed to be a participant (she was sent home and paid, as focus groups often recruit more participants than necessary to ensure enough people show up...I worked in market research for more than 5 years, so I know weird things about surveys and focus groups ). Who knows what they discussed in the group? Could have been about this very topic!

Now, as the thread suggests, "Mickey coming to a city near you?" I actually have firsthand experience with this idea, as about 5 years ago or so, Mickey Mouse made an appearance in Niagara Falls, Canada. It was on the news, and my brother (a former CM) insisted we go meet Mickey, despite the fact we visit WDW more than 3x a year (at that point) and DL once every two years. We HAD to meet Mickey on OUR turf.

Apparently, other people had the same idea. I'm sure many were also tourists, as NF has more than 10-12 million visitors per year, but this was the week after New Year's, there was snow on the ground and it was about 15 degrees Fahrenheit, and we waited an hour and a half to meet Mickey! Yes, that many people lined up to meet Mickey mouse in the dead of winter! He was only there for a few hours, and we almost missed him, that's how long the line was (I didn't have a digital camera then...wish I had the picture!).

I have a friend who is "friends" with Mickey and travels all across the country (and Canada) for corporate events and such, so I can definitively say that the Mouse travels everywhere for the right amount of money. I actually don't see any harm (as a matter of fact, I would love it near me) in this idea.

Oh, and there is a character experience at World of Disney in NYC, operated by the theme parks division...as long as it was still operated by the theme park division, I think it could be very well done (just please, for the love of all that's holy, don't go cheap!).

Anyway...just my thoughts.

Oh, and 4 and a half days until my trip :sohappy::sohappy::sohappy:

Sorry, I can't help myself

hmm

the first place a disney hotel or restaurant should be built is in NYC. You have the world of disney and all the disney broadway plays right there. disney could make packages or dvc packages with a hotel stay,dinner, and play packages.

It makes too much sense though and will never happen.

uklad79 said:

In the 80's didn't Disney have a plan to open a fast food chain? I am sure I read this a couple of years ago.

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Not the 80's, the 90's. They were going to be attached to Disney Stores and designed to make maximum profit by having the tables look out onto the store. But McDonalds and Burger King didn't want to have compitition fom someone who already hasd stuff in their stores, so only one location lasted one year. Jim Hill posted the article.

Also, I do remeber the character breakfast at the Hilton(?) in Niagra Falls, since the city also had the Disney Christmas stage show (and all the character costumes of course). Do they still have the show?

Ausdaddy said:

A whole chain of these would dilute some of the character experience that exists in the Disney parks. I hope Jim is wrong.

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i agree...but just like Disney MDACK said id probably still go

I am sure I would go too but it would not be the same as WDW.