New Voice of Disneyland? Bill Rogers retiring?

[VJ]

So, when the Main Street Electrical Parade returned for its 50th anniversary earlier this year, I noticed Bill Rogers wasn't doing the preshow announcements - it was a new guy (who I still don't know the name of... if someone does know his name, please let me know!). Since then, Disneyland park announcements have been a mixture of legacy Bill Rogers announcements, live Bill Rogers announcements (where he sounds very hoarse and as if his voice is going away), and announcements from this new guy.

Considering Bill sounds very hoarse in the recent Candlelight Processional performance I linked above, and he seems to be lessening his workload overall in the last few months, I'm wondering if this is Disney's way of transitioning to a new Voice of Disneyland - the new guy, whoever he is.

At this point, Bill Rogers has been the Voice of Disneyland since Jack Wagner retired in 1993. If Bill is retiring, it's very well-deserved in my book.

What do you think?

 

[Rich T]

He’s done a great job. If he’s retiring, I’d hire Sam Elliott or J.K. Simmons.

 

[chadwpalm]

When you say a different person for the MSEP, do you mean the opening parade announcement or the "In just 15 minutes..." type of announcements? I just watched a couple of 50th vids and both had Bill's voice at the beginning.

Also, the link you gave for the opening night that you said was the other guy also sounds like Bill to me. As far as the Candlelight Processional vid he could have just been getting over a cold (or because it was cold outside). Not really enough evidence for me to conclude he's retiring. Too much inductive reasoning at this point.

What do you mean by "his workload is lessening"? Do you have inside info on his personal schedule?

I don't go to the parks as much as many of you do (only once or twice a year), but I don't recall anyone but Bill giving the announcements when I was in the park in both May and October.

 

[VJ]

When you say a different person for the MSEP, do you mean the opening parade announcement or the "In just 15 minutes..." type of announcements? I just watched a couple of 50th vids and both had Bill's voice at the beginning.

The "In just 15 minutes" announcements. The parade intro itself has Bill's voice. You can also hear the new voice in the preshow spiels for Fantasmic!.

Also, the link you gave for the opening night that you said was the other guy also sounds like Bill to me. As far as the Candlelight Processional vid he could have just been getting over a cold (or because it was cold outside).

It's a different guy, this new guy sounds a lot younger and has different vocal inflections but it's difficult to find videos of his announcements because people don't really go out of their way to record those, sadly, which is why I linked to live streams. To your second point, I agree that he could be getting over a cold, but then why hire an "understudy" to do most live park announcements for the last eight months?

What do you mean by "his workload is lessening"? Do you have inside info on his personal schedule?

I don't have any inside info (if I did I wouldn't be speculating so much), I'm just trying to get to the bottom of what's going on. I meant that he seems to be slowing down - the new guy is doing much of the new park announcements and Bill is seemingly only being used for special events or pre-recorded announcements.

I understand this is almost entirely conjecture, and I probably sound crazy, but I just know something's up - I just don't know what.

 

[Starship824]

Bill Rogers does the pre-show “in just a few minutes” announcements for “World of Color-One” and his voice sounds different, similar to the candle light video.

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[VJ]

Bill Rogers does the pre-show “in just a few minutes” announcements for “World of Color-One” and his voice sounds different, similar to the candle light video.

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seems bill is back full-time! very nice to see

 

[CaptinEO]

Bill Rogers does the pre-show “in just a few minutes” announcements for “World of Color-One” and his voice sounds different, similar to the candle light video.

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I thought his wife was the voice of DCA? I wonder what happened.

 

[Starship824]

I thought his wife was the voice of DCA? I wonder what happened.

I’m not sure

 

[montydysquith-navarro]

I thought his wife was the voice of DCA? I wonder what happened.

Is Camille (Bill's wife and voice of DCA) doing the narration for WoC: One? I could have sworn it sounds like her (and if it is her, it's probably the reason why Bill is doing the spiels instead alongside Yeni Alvarez), but I could be wrong.