We just got back from a trip and while we were there we did a couple of shows that we hadn't done in several years... but unless everyone in the family is wrong some of the shows just seemed shorter than we remembered... Little Mermaid seemed shorter, Beauty and the Beast also didn't seem as long as I remembered.... and the Captain Jack Pirate Tutorial seemed no only shorter but very lame, I remembered the last time we saw it they pulled 6 to 8 kids from the audience, didn't have a stage and the kids used wooden swords... this time it was on a stage, they only pulled 4 kids and they gave them very lame foam swords, not to mentioned they seemed to only want 4 and 5 year olds to get involved... Anyone else notice that?
-
Welcome to the WDWMAGIC.COM Forums!
Please take a look around, and feel free to sign up and join the community.
Is it just me or have some shows gotten shorter?
- Thread starter thomas998
- Start date
Polydweller
Well-Known Member
It's well known that many shows have been trimmed by a few minutes (2-3 usually) but before someone says it this isn't about cost cutting. It's about two factors. First, audiences used to tolerate 15-20 minute shows but today's audiences generally will tolerate only about 12 minutes for most shows. This is the YouTube and on demand audience. Second, a couple of minutes trimmed means that they can put on more shows in a day and push more people through.
Same number of hours in a day to pay CMs so no cost cutting folks.
Same number of hours in a day to pay CMs so no cost cutting folks.
Tip Top Club
Well-Known Member
Little Mermaid and BATB are unchanged for a long time. Captain Jack goes back and forth from the stage when they do refurbishment work and the kids chosen is essentially the whim of whoever is there that day, so that could make a small difference but probably not a big one.
Chef Mickey
Well-Known Member
Country Bear Jamboree was shortened as well.
People have no attention spans and even in a 10 minute show, they can't help but look at their stupid phones.
People have no attention spans and even in a 10 minute show, they can't help but look at their stupid phones.
I just can't buy into the audiences wont tolerate 15 or 20 minutes... Audiences still go to movies that are 2 hours long... so I'm afraid your argument tells me what I feared - they are just trying to save some money.
While picking kids for Captain Jack is in the end up to the CM running it, the fact that they only had 4 swords vs twice that number in the past and have lamed it down with foam swords that look like they belong in a pre-k class kind of pushes any slightly older kid out of it by the virtue that it is now so lame even our daughter basically said s*&w that its for babies, and she's 9... I half expected to see Barney pop up when we saw the foam swords.
But how? The only daily cost is a CM's hourly pay and as Poly said, same number of hours in a day to pay CMs....
Cmdr_Crimson
Well-Known Member
MK's Tiki Room was cut as well. However the full version can still be seen at DL's Version...Let's just hope they never condense CoP that way...
SagamoreBeach
Well-Known Member
Everything is getting shorter or smaller, a pound of hot dogs now weighs 12.5 oounces, a 5 pound bag of sugar is now 4 pounds, and on and on, so only a matter of time before a 20 minute show becomes 16.4 minutes.
-T
-T
graphite1326
Well-Known Member
The Muppet 3D show is shorter. They took out the story line about the rabbit (can't remember his name), you know he runs away and they go looking for him. That is gone and the show doesn't make sense now.
ABQ
Well-Known Member
Are you kidding me? Really? So you no longer get Sweetums walking into the theatre with the flashlight?
Occasional Guest
Well-Known Member
When did they shorten Muppets? We were there last Wednesday (8 days ago) and it was the full version with the rabbit running away. Still had Sweetums with the flashlight also.
graphite1326
Well-Known Member
Really? There must be two versions then. We were there the week before Christmas and the show didn't have anything about the rabbit running away. Very confusing. There were no crowds so I figured they shortened it.
Goofyernmost
Well-Known Member
Let's see if I can reconstruct this a little. Younger kids? With wooden swords? That is a "snowflake" disaster waiting to happen. For sure, some little one got a sliver or hit by a sword and mommy and/or daddy ran to Guests Services to complain about the injury,
lament about a vacation ruined,
pocket a couple of Fastpasses
and just like the rest of Disney "Magic", we now have foam swords. 
Perhaps you fell asleep! Been known to happen.
Chef Mickey
Well-Known Member
No doubt...they are probably kind of stuck since it has to rotate and they are too lazy to change the programming anyway. Instead of shortening it, they'll just close it eventually.
ABQ
Well-Known Member
Reasons for those cuts are still hotly debated though, in some circles.
I would guess that they have some calculated cost per guest's entertainment... Or maybe they simply add up the total number of potential seats in rides and seats in shows and then divide it by the total number of guests to come up with some event per guest number and if they can cram in one more show by making them all a few minutes shorter it would increase the total number of rides or events by the size of the auditorium... So I could probably see some bean counter claiming that they increase total guest experience by .2 by shortening the show time... kind of reminds me of the last time I was in line at the Dumbo ride at DL, I timed the rides and they were under 1 minute in length... I just can't imagine that they were that short when I was going there in the 70's... But hey someone probably figured you take a 2.5 minute ride and make it a minute you've increased the guest experiences by more than 100%.
Susan Savia
Well-Known Member
The Muppets show was complete with the missing bunny and Sweetums going through the front of the seating area with his flashlight as of September.