Character Caravan

[David]

I have seen lots of comments about the loss of EE, but so far have not seen anyone write about the Character Caravans. How are these being received? Do many guest take advantage of CC?

I really hated to see the end of EE and wish Disney would bring them back, but I know what the chances of THAT are.

 

[Buzz Lightyear]

I haven't experienced the CC yet. As a matter of fact, the last day of my Oct trip was the Last day of the EE and the first day of the CC. I don't see how the CC could replace the EE. Besides, my last two trips from last year, we saw more characters in the parks than we have ever seen before. So my kids got their fill of characters while they were at the parks. So I guess we will sleep in a little later next time.

We will be there next week, so I may take the kids one morning, but I WILL MISS EE.:brick:

 

[tinkrbel]

I saw post about the CC but I dont think it was on this board, I would like to know to what any one that took part of the CC thought .. as for EE .. I think I would perfer they gave disney guest free E-ride nights instead of EE. I dont think E-ride nites are just for resort guest are they? I like staying over later in the parks then getting up earlier :snore:

 

[ToTBellHop]

E-Ride Nights are only for Disney Resort guests and they cannot give them out for free because they only give out 5000 tickets...people would get into fights for tickets! I don't personally miss Early Entry...but I wish they would return Epcot and Animal Kingdom to their normal hours...

 

[tinkrbel]

so why not After Closing hours for the guest? I dont see why that would be any more trouble then E-rides .. just give the guest bands ..everyone else has to leave the parks. We only used the E-ride once ..it was just a bit too expensive to suit me, the major rides are the only ones open ..and you have so far to go in such a short amount of time.

 

[MarknSue]

Originally posted by David
I have seen lots of comments about the loss of EE, but so far have not seen anyone write about the Character Caravans. How are these being received? Do many guest take advantage of CC?


We had forgotten about the character caravan so we were surprised and delighted to see Pluto, Pinnochio and the fox (can't remember the name!) in the reception area at ASM. We were just on our way to get the bus to Universal and were a bit sad as it was our last day at WDW, it was great to get a hug from Pluto before we left!

 

[Invero]

Coming purely from a Cast Member perspective... I liked the Early Entry soley for the purpose that we always knew which park would be crowded on which day, and what days the park would be least crowded. It was like EE would guide the guests.

As for the Character Caravan, I personally like it. While arguably, it may not replace EE, it still is a nice little thing to have in the Resorts. The guests that I've seen all seemed to have loved it.

The other day I was working at the Grand Floridian monorail station, and Pluto (among others) were there for the Character Caravan... and he decided to come up to my station, and take a ride on my monorail. It was a lot of fun to pull into the MK and TTC stations and see everyone point, wave, and cheer for Pluto.

One of the biggest complaints that Disney used to get was that their families didnt see enough characters, or that they were hard to find. I think this is just how Disney is trying to make them more available to guests. Besides... the Characters are what Disney is all about! We wouldn't have anything without our pal Mickey!

 

[Pioneer Hall]

The Caravan is nice, but I have a feeling that guests didn't say that they would rather have CC than EE. I would rather have the EE anyday.

 

[jackjenson]

We just returned from a fabulous trip to CSR (which, by the way is great because there are less children there than many other resorts and less people on the busses and present for Character Caravans).

Anyway, on our Character Caravan day, we went to bus stop #1 to catch the first bus to the MK and waited exactly one minute for the caravan to arrive. We saw Rafiki, Goofy, Timon and King Louis (who can't write, so it was pretty funny when my 4 year old kept asking for an autograph) and we only shared them with 5 or 6 other kids. It was fabulous. We still got to the MK a half hour before opening and were set for the Tomorrowland rope drop and enjoyed almost 2 hours of no lines until the crowds picked up.

Yes, I do miss ee, but the cc was great.


Jen

 

[tinkrbel]

I am starting to look forward to the CC .. I cant count the times when the girls tried so hard to get close to a charactor for an autograph and photo and had adults jump ahead of them. It sounds like its a little more personal attention from the charactors then you would get normally .. ohhh I just had a horrible thought ... I sure hope this never leads to getting rid of the Charactor meals!!!!!!