Collared Disney Characters

Collared Disney Characters

So.....what is everyone's thoughts on this? I had noticed these changes slowly taking place, especially with the villains. They used to roam a lot more, but now they are contained in one spot. Same with the princesses. Even Mickey now stays in one area. I personally don't like this. It takes the fun away of the Disney parks being a magical place where you can see your favorite character just roaming around. Now they will be contained in certain areas like animals in cages at the zoo. It also sounds like they care more about making money off the pictures with the photo pass. *shakes head and sighs* How sad and disappointing....

Are a good fraction of my WDW hopes and dreams shattered now?

... Yes. Yes, they are.

I don't have a problem with chars being assigned to certain spots for meet and greet, at least you know where they will be and if you have children with you who want to see, for example Buzz or Stitch, then you have a fair chance of meeting them because you know where to seek them out.

Saying that, it would be nice if in addition to these character spots, Disney put out extra surprise characters that popped up from time to time or roamed about because it's enormous fun to interact with them when they have 'free rein' so to speak & watch them occasionally react / argue to other chars in the parks.

I think that the Tremaines, Fairy Godmother, Mary Poppins etc still roam Fantasyland in the mornings at MK (is this still the case, Kat?) but I wonder if at busy / peak times it's just not feasible from a health & safety pov to have furs wandering around or even face chars due to the number of guests in the park (didn't poor jack sparrow get mobbed by women?) O_O The few chars that were roaming at Halloween party nights at MK were actually hard to get pics with as they simply kept moving around and we saw a lot of disappointed people who didn't have the nerve to jump in next or who were shoved aside by ruder people who wouldn't wait. This happens all the time at Disneyland Paris where the chars minders just stand miles away and it turns into a scrum for who gets to actually see the character, you get tears, you get squabbling (and that's just the adults and annual pass holders who seem to think they have fastpass priviledges with chars) kids very often are left standing and upset and it just doesn't feel like Disney.

So IMO, while it's fun to have them trotting around (the char bus at Epcot used to be great) it's not entirely a bad thing for them to be at a pre-determined spot either, and to be honest I've never once thought of them as being 'confined' like animals. Yes, money is of course involved and PhotoPass photographers are waiting at these char spots but you can still take your own pics, they'll still take pics with your camera for you and you don't have to buy their pics either so that's okay too.

Ideal solution would be char spots plus surprise appearances roaming about the place too but either way whenever I'm lucky enough to be at Disney I'm just happy to meet n greet chars wherever they are. =)

Oh, yes, it would be good if they kept the designated areas, but also still let them roam as well. There could be set times for the photo areas, just like how the parades have set times. People would know when the characters are definitely available. Watching the characters roam and play is very important as well. So far a lot of people are not happy with this, Disney should just leave things as they are. I wonder if this means they will also be limiting the time you spend with the character for the photo as well?

I would hope not but even in busy places like meeting Sorceror Mickey in Hollywood Studios, the fairies / princesses at MK or the fab 5 in EPCOT's character spot you do still have time to talk to the characters and interact with them and take your own pictures although of course you can't hog their attention too much as other guests are waiting their turn and everyone should get an equal slice of attention.

I've found that the characters themselves are always great at judging how much time to 'give' you, some people don't want to interact at all but only want an autograph and a quick photo and then they're are off again but when someone wants to interact (or a char sees a chance to interact with you) you bet more time, exactly how much depends on who else is around and the quieter it is (and if no one is in line behind you) the longer you get.

To be honest I've never felt rushed along or limited when meeting characters, I think as long as you're as aware of the people still waiting in line behind you as you were of those standing in front of you when you were back in line (especially if you're filming etc), you can't go wrong (did that even make sense?)

More chars out and about would always be welcome, the 3pm parade at MK is wonderful too as you get a lot of 'bonus' interaction there.

WDW was always like this. But to hear that they're doing it to disneyland stinks. I understand what Rune means about letting everyone having a fair chance to see the characters and what not, but that just killed all my hopes of going to Disneyland only to see the characters walking out and about with the people.

Now I only have disneyland Paris to look forward to. XP

Seph, someone over at DD forum mentioned not having a good visit with the characters at Disneyland Paris. They said that was the first time ever things did not go well and that really upset them. It sounds like this is something all the parks are slowly doing. Wishful thinking if enough people voice their opinion on this that it does something positive. Seeing the characters is a big part of visiting the Disney parks. I really don't know why they have to change things. It's not like these photo areas were not available before. It had always been both; characters roaming around and in the photo areas, it was wonderful that way. Now I know why the characters have no longer been on the rides anymore. Disney feels people are missing out opportunities to get their pictures with them. Don't they realize that people have their own cameras and many do not even buy the pictures from the photo pass? Oy!