Should the Castle Forecourt Stage be removed?

[Wngo905]

 

[JustAFan]

Oh, I completely agree. The last few shows have done nothing for me and it'd be nice to get the crowds out of the hub for most of the day. I would much rather see some dedicated theater shows again.

I like the 'get the crowds out of the hub' idea in theory. The problem is, if they're not in the hub, where are they? MK needs something to eat up a large crowd or Space Mountain is a 2 hour wait, Mine Train longer.

 

[MattFrees71]

I like the 'get the crowds out of the hub' idea in theory. The problem is, if they're not in the hub, where are they? MK needs something to eat up a large crowd or Space Mountain is a 2 hour wait, Mine Train longer.

I do have to agree- that is one plus to drawing crowds there for those shows/parades. Last week I went on Space Mountain at 3pm while the parade was going on and the line began past the star tunnel! Only about 30-35 minute wait.

 

[JustAFan]

I do have to agree- that is one plus to drawing crowds there for those shows/parades. Last week I went on Space Mountain at 3 while the parade was going on and the line began past the star tunnel! Only about 30-35 minute wait.

I love the parades, but not because I like to watch them. I like for everyone else to watch them while I go on rides!

 

[harryk]

How

I was recently perusing the Passport to Dreams blog, when I noticed a post regarding what the author believed were the Top 10 Biggest Design Blunders at the Magic Kingdom.

But however, out of all ten, one in particular stood out to me: the Castle Forecourt Stage. Here's what the author had to say about it:

This is one that seemed harmless at the time, but has grown and grown to the point where it's done real damage to the park it once enhanced.

The castle forecourt has always been used as a stage in one way or another. Originally the area between the forward sweep of the ramps into the castle was a mildly raised platform used for band performances. In the mid-70s, a small stage went up in that space, used for Kids of the Kingdom performances and marching band shows. Sometimes, it was used for a bit more. By the 1990s it would host the occasional special event show for the Christmas parties.

The first real change came in 2001, an elaborate stage show called "Cinderella's Surprise Celebration", which ran five times daily and featured permanently parked bright cartoon gifts on the stage. For a show introduced to celebrate the birth of Walt Disney, Surprise Celebration was a poorly written embarrassment. This was the one where Peter Pan defeats Captain Hook by dropping him through a hidden trap door on the castle parapet - and if that sounds intriguing to you, it was accomplished by having the Hook actor duck out of sight.

The show pointedly departed from its predecessors on the point of being loud. It could be heard from everywhere the the hub area and in most of the entrance areas of the various lands. For better or worse, this is the show which killed off the Main Street vehicles - guests were allowed to congregate on the road in front of the castle, and operations responded by simply deciding to stop using the vehicles instead of going up against the heavy-hitting Entertainment department for use of the tarmac.

The next show, Cinderellabration, raised the stakes by adding a taller, more elaborate stage, daytime fireworks, and annexing the entire Hub as the viewing area. This show was billed as a "gift" from Tokyo Disneyland to Magic Kingdom to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Disneyland (no, Disney couldn't explain this logic either) and Entertainment decreed that those huge trees in the middle of the hub must go because they interfered with sight lines for the stage. And so the beautiful original hub was paved.

Cinderellabration was mostly a crashing bore, frequently putting the tiara-ed kids it was directed at to sleep, and so was retired quickly. Dream Along With Mickey, the show which replaced it, returned to the basic format of Cinderella's Surprise Celebration, featuring an appearance by Captain Hook and Smee and having Maleficent crash the party. Mickey and friends originally wore blue and silver outfits appropriate to the Year of a Million Dreams sweepstakes promotion which coincided with its opening, and since Disney's newest hard ticket event was the Pirate and Princess Parties, the show dutifully broke down into Pirate and Princess sections. And it ran seven times a day, meaning the interior of the castle was inaccessible from 9:30 in the morning until 5:00 in the afternoon. There's people who have been to Walt Disney World multiple times and don't know you're even allowed to walk through the castle.

A show which has the audience shouting marketing slogans to defeat the forces of evil, Dream Along With Mickey is a show that could only be loved by a Marketing executive, but it's become a Magic Kingdom stalwart. It if makes it to Spring 2016, it will have been running for ten years, and of course the Hub being emptied of all features except standing room for the castle stage paved the way for such questionable features as the similarly disruptive Move It, Shake It dance parade.

This means that maybe the most important land in the Magic Kingdom - the first one - has been subjugated to a supporting role as the host for a variety of inappropriate parades and shows. No other Disneyland-style park has thrown the period atmosphere of their Main Street under a bus so thoroughly. Walking onto Main Street at Disneyland and Disneyland Paris is a joy because it looks and feels like what it's supposed to be - horse drawn carriages, the rattle of a vintage car, the calming music all contributes to the sense of this being a real city. Without the grace touches, including Center Street mentioned above, Magic Kingdom's street sometimes feels like a funnel towards a castle where Mickey Mouse is screaming at you through a bullhorn.

Now that the Hub is finally being rebuilt into something which better balances atmosphere and traffic, Magic Kingdom really needs to start assessing the appropriateness of what they're subjecting their paying customers to. Main Street doesn't need a blaring dance party, three parades, and an endless character breakdown, it needs to be allowed to be itself. Character shows can happen in other places, too.

The introduction of the stage to the castle in the mid-70s began a slow degradation and increasing disregard for the thematic authority of one of the few Magic Kingdom areas to have a valid claim to a connection with Walt Disney. If I could go back in time and prevent one thing from happening at Magic Kingdom, it would be this. A beautiful Main Street, twinkle lights in the trees, that view of the turning carousel through the arch of Cinderella Castle, and the ability to walk up to and walk through a fairy tale castle is a right you should have by paying your ticket to walk into this place. It's so important and I don't think most people know what they're missing by trading it for a poorly written character show or a better view of some fireworks.

So, what do you think? Do you agree with him or do you think he's just overreacting? Should the Castle Forecourt Stage be destroyed?

If possible, they'd have to find a new place to hold the shows at the holiday parties (besides, that new Hocus Pocus thing is freakin' awesome).

I don't think it'd be feasible for them to create a theater nearby the castle (a la Paris' Theatre du Chateau)...

...but would it be worth it to lose a soon-to-be 10-year-old stage show?

How many people even know that there are mosaic murals on each of the walls in the pass through of the castle? They were something not to be missed.