While, these days, most character meetings take place at either a character meal or a formal meet and greet location, that wasn't always the case at Walt Disney World.
There was a time when you could bump into a character just about anywhere. Walking through Fantasyland you may come across any of the Seven Dwarfs...
or while passing through Cinderella's Castle you may stumble upon Robin Hood and his Merry Men...
how about walking past your resort pool and stopping by to have a chat was Pinocchio himself?
Those were the days!!! While I can, half-heartedly, force myself into understanding the fact that the parks and resorts are far busier than they were in those days, I do so miss the "spur of the moment" meet with the characters we all know and love.
One thing that I do miss, even more than where we met the characters, is just who we met. Most of today's character interactions are with the Fab Five, of course the princesses, and a few of the more popular, recently introduced characters.
Once again , I can most certainly understand the laws of supply and demand, but I will always miss the surprise of not knowing just who will be waiting for you outside the tunnel to Main Street USA...
or who could be wandering around Adventureland...
or perhaps, even a chance meeting down at The Lake Buena Vista Village (now I know, I am REALLY dating myself with this one!!!)
But I think you guys get my point!!!
With such a rich history of fantastical character creations...I would love to see a greater variety of walk around characters, I long for the days when you could meet just about any character from Disney's long list of Classic Films...just about anywhere!!!
I am always looking for New, OLD photo's of the "LOST" Characters of Walt Disney World.
If you are ever digging through your own secret stash of Vintage WDW photo's, and would not mind sharing, please shoot me an email...I am sure there are plenty of others here on The WED Page, who would love to see what kind of MAGIC you have to share!!!
Until next week....
~Tony
Those were the days!!! While I can, half-heartedly, force myself into understanding the fact that the parks and resorts are far busier than they were in those days, I do so miss the "spur of the moment" meet with the characters we all know and love.
One thing that I do miss, even more than where we met the characters, is just who we met. Most of today's character interactions are with the Fab Five, of course the princesses, and a few of the more popular, recently introduced characters.
Once again , I can most certainly understand the laws of supply and demand, but I will always miss the surprise of not knowing just who will be waiting for you outside the tunnel to Main Street USA...
or who could be wandering around Adventureland...or perhaps, even a chance meeting down at The Lake Buena Vista Village (now I know, I am REALLY dating myself with this one!!!)
But I think you guys get my point!!!With such a rich history of fantastical character creations...I would love to see a greater variety of walk around characters, I long for the days when you could meet just about any character from Disney's long list of Classic Films...just about anywhere!!!
Maybe even playing back up The BIG CHEESE himself...
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I am always looking for New, OLD photo's of the "LOST" Characters of Walt Disney World.
If you are ever digging through your own secret stash of Vintage WDW photo's, and would not mind sharing, please shoot me an email...I am sure there are plenty of others here on The WED Page, who would love to see what kind of MAGIC you have to share!!!
Until next week....
~Tony
This is so great -- I love seeing all of those old costumes. I'm a little weirded out by pinocchio's "real-boy" legs by the pool, though! :-)
ReplyDeleteWow, those were GREAT pictures!! I think I might have a pig one...I really don't remember characters @ LBV Village, outside of the Empress Lily character breakfast, which we did do and I think the Big Bad Wolf was there. Love these!!
ReplyDeleteTerrific post. I love seeing all those great pictures, and I too would love to just "happen" to bump into one of the classic cartoon characters like Robin Hood while wandering around the World. And you just have to love the oversized dwarves! (Hey, I think that might be an oximoron...lol.) Thanks for the great post.
ReplyDeleteChristi
Hi Tony,
ReplyDeleteGreat "vintage" photos! I think we might have a few of those ourselves from trips to both DL and WDW in the '70's. You are probably aware that Lou Mongello at WDW Radio was asking a couple weeks back what characters we would like to see in the parks either returning or for the first time. This dovetails very nicely into that. I miss the days of the character "happy surprise" meeting. Like the time, for example, we ran across Brer Bear and Brer Fox wandering through New Orleans Square. That would be great to have back.
Oh my gosh...I remember the pig...I have photos of me as a little kid with him! this post makes me want to dig through my parent's boxes of photos and find all of our old disney pics and make an "old time" scrapbook! thanks for the inspiration!
ReplyDeleteTony, did you ever think of writing actual letters to WDW, letting them how you feel about this? After all, Disney always reads their letters and takes such feedback to heart.
ReplyDeleteIf not, then I think you should, IMO. Letter-writing and telling the company directly about how you feel is the most productive approach to take.
And while I agree that some more variety and a few extra unexpected surprises would be nice with the meet-and-greet characters and that they should be allowed to be free to run around loose and play a bit more frequently, I too understand the laws of supply and demand and why they now have formal queue lines set up with most of WDW's characters these days, since it can be difficult to get pictures with your favorites if they're being mobbed (people cutting in and pushing their way past you to get to the character in question, etc.) and unattended.
Just to the side of the Toon Town train station, you can sometimes find one-off characters. About a year ago, we saw Miko (from Pocahontas) and Darkwing Duck!
ReplyDelete