Belle, Aurora & Snow White switcharoo

[cmh314]

She wasn't there last night for dinner.

It was Rapunzel, Ariel, Snow White and Aurora.

Belle is still at Epcot in France though right?

We just left the new Belle area in FL. Totally hated it. Maybe I'll like it more when I don't have a 1 year old that doesn't understand why all the other children get to meet Belle and she doesn't. Totally a stupid move on my part to even do it!

DD will be over the moon if Rapunzel is at CRT when we have dinner there in April. Rapunzel is her favorite! I hadn't heard that she had been added as one of the possible princesses there.

 

[MUDisneyCouple]

Not a traditional one....

The setup is that all players in the story get a quick photo with her, but no one else does. There is also no interaction to speak of and no autographs.

Oh my...this would be really diffult to explain to my 3y/o why she can't hug or get an autograph with Belle. I'm sort of confused as to what the point is... I think we'll skip it, although I really wanted to see all the magic. Any ideas on if this will change?

 

[mom2rtk]

Oh my...this would be really diffult to explain to my 3y/o why she can't hug or get an autograph with Belle. I'm sort of confused as to what the point is... I think we'll skip it, although I really wanted to see all the magic. Any ideas on if this will change?

I think they keep a very tight schedule. I can't think of any other reason. Which is fine as long as she's available somewhere else in the park to meet. Which she's not. Which is why it gets the label "colossal miss" in my book.

Once again, please write Disney if you are not happy with this. I bet they'll be watching closely to see how this goes over:

WDW Guest Communications
PO Box 10,040
Lake Buena Vista, FL 32830-0040

or

wdw.guest.communications@disneyworld.com

For the princess with the new village to be the only one you can't meet seems very silly to me.

 

[livndisney]

How do they choose the kids that will participate and get a photo with her? Any idea how many kids they choose per session?

In the show we saw today, everyone who wanted to was in the show. I think they even had parts they did not have enough people for.

 

[mom2rtk]

In the show we saw today, everyone who wanted to was in the show. I think they even had parts they did not have enough people for.

But did they tell you ahead of time that you had to have a part to get a photo?

 

[mesaboy2]

How do they choose the kids that will participate and get a photo with her? Any idea how many kids they choose per session?

The time I saw it, the CMs picked from willing participants. After all spots were filled, they made a point of asking if anyone else wanted a part. They must have extra filler props or something. They did not mention at the time that only these folks will get a quick pic with Belle.

This was over a month ago during early tests, but I've heard nothing since to suggest its changed.

 

[JamieJo23]

Bummer for us...we're going to be there during the CM previews so we're not going to get to see Belle at MK at all Hopefully we'll be able to find her at Epcot

 

[BrookeMQ]

That stinks about meeting Belle. My kids are really shy and I don't think they would participate in the show. They wouldn't like getting up in front of a lot of people. But they would like to meet her.

 

[RachaelA]

The time I saw it, the CMs picked from willing participants. After all spots were filled, they made a point of asking if anyone else wanted a part. They must have extra filler props or something. They did not mention at the time that only these folks will get a quick pic with Belle.

This was over a month ago during early tests, but I've heard nothing since to suggest its changed.

It was the same way today. And while they say anyone else can have a part, my 1 year old can't go up and participate therefore she can't meet Belle. I guess technically I could have just followed her around so she didn't run off, but that would have been really distracting to everyone else and I wasn't going to ruin it for everyone.

And it was pretty much 99% children that were given parts (except the 2 Knights) therefore adults don't get to "meet" her.

Plus they don't let your family come up and take a picture with Belle even if someone in your group has a part.

Its just a really weird set up. With how popular M&Gs are, you think they would have planned it better. Most kids who want to meet characters could care less about the special effects.

 

[bjakmom]

A DISer posted this video of Enchanted Tales with Belle from the other day http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=3007414 that shows the quick and crazy way they do the pics at the end.
Yikes! This creates a problem for me, too, as DGrDs are 9 and 1 and I really wanted a picture of them together with Belle. I guess I will ask for a part for the baby and participate with her in order to get a photo.
Perhaps they are pulling Belle from all other locations so that people will have no choice but to go see ETwB to even see her - cause once everyone sees that there is no real chance to meet and greet with Belle and get good family photos or autographs, they might never go there again.
This was just crazy thinking IMHO to build a whole village for Belle and have people stand in most likely long lines to sit through the story presentation and THEN realize they are not going to get a pic/autograph with Belle.
Hello?!!! Was this planned by the same person who put the bathroom sinks at BLT back to back with the kitchen sink and counter??

 

[mlittig]

I am extremely disappointed to hear how the Tales with Belle show is being run I was hoping it would be a meet and great opportunity for everyone

 

[mm522]

I don't have any insider information but I seriously doubt that there is a shortage of friends of Belle or her wardrobe. She's one of the most popular characters so I don't think that's the reasoning in removing her from TST and CRT. I believe it could actually be them attempting to preserve some character integrity but that's just a crazy guess. However the whole set up for ETWB is just confusing, it's a character experience, but not everyone is guaranteed to meet the character, and the interaction is the most rushed of any character experience currently available.

 

[ladeeesquire]

I agree the "meet and greet" part is very poorly set up. If your child is shy, young, or has special needs etc its pretty unlikely they're going to want/be able to participate in the show. And I think its really unfair that they don't TELL people that if they're not in the show they won't get to do the picture. Also, because of the way its set up, most people are not going to have a chance to take their own picture forcing them to either settle for a rushed one from the back of the room or wherever they end up sitting, have no picture or pay for the photopass photo. I really don't like any of these options very much. The lighting is very bad in there too.

We were there in the first day or two of testing. I was hoping that by the time they got to the official opening they would have these issues addressed.
They've got smart people at disney, not sure why what all of us are seeing so clearly is not being seen by them.

 

[twodogs]

I agree the "meet and greet" part is very poorly set up. If your child is shy, young, or has special needs etc its pretty unlikely they're going to want/be able to participate in the show. And I think its really unfair that they don't TELL people that if they're not in the show they won't get to do the picture. Also, because of the way its set up, most people are not going to have a chance to take their own picture forcing them to either settle for a rushed one from the back of the room or wherever they end up sitting, have no picture or pay for the photopass photo. I really don't like any of these options very much. The lighting is very bad in there too.

We were there in the first day or two of testing. I was hoping that by the time they got to the official opening they would have these issues addressed.
They've got smart people at disney, not sure why what all of us are seeing so clearly is not being seen by them.

Sorry off topic, but WHERE do you get a M&G with the seven dwarves?? Your picture is So cute!!!

 

[sazzlynn]

We did the testing when we were there in September. My almost 5 yr DD (who's favorite princess is Belle) was being unusually shy with the cast member assigning parts so she wouldn't do a part. I knew from the Dis that she wasn't going to get a picture with Belle unless she did a part and tried to encourage her (she's normally very outgoing), but explaining that fact to a child is a different thing entirely. At this point they were letting anyone who wanted a part have one, but I expect that will change once people figure out that you only get a picture if you participate. The story part was cute, but when it was time to for Belle to leave my DD was super unhappy that she couldn't meet Belle. She was not the only child freaking out about only getting to wave at Belle after being in the same room as her. I figure that since it was still in the testing stage that some of that would change so I was surprised to heard that it's pretty much the same. At least at the time we say it, Belle was still meeting in the Town Hall so we were able to promise a meet later on so I was able to appease my DD quickly, but if they are taking all proper meets with Belle out of MK, that's crazy to me. I will definitely be writing Disney once we see STWB after the official opening b/c if it's still the same this is something I would completely skip to avoid the melt down from a disappointed DD.

 

[MUDisneyCouple]

I think they keep a very tight schedule. I can't think of any other reason. Which is fine as long as she's available somewhere else in the park to meet. Which she's not. Which is why it gets the label "colossal miss" in my book.

Once again, please write Disney if you are not happy with this. I bet they'll be watching closely to see how this goes over:

WDW Guest Communications
PO Box 10,040
Lake Buena Vista, FL 32830-0040

or

wdw.guest.communications@disneyworld.com

For the princess with the new village to be the only one you can't meet seems very silly to me.

Thanks for the info. I plan on making my opinion heard. As another poster stated, I want to avoid a meltdown at all costs, and I think this could be a difficult one to explain to my DD.

 

[ladeeesquire]

Sorry off topic, but WHERE do you get a M&G with the seven dwarves?? Your picture is So cute!!!

Thanks! That was actually taken at Disneyland, about 2 yrs ago when they were doing these some special character meets on the weekends. The day the dwarfs were there also had complete character groups from alice, peter pan, etc. It was awesome and I wish they'd repeat it but, so far, they haven't.

Otherwise, the only way I know of to meet the dwarfs is at the halloween and christmas parties.

 

[WickedDreamer]

I know the loss of a traditional M&G for Belle is a blow to some, but at least it sounds like Snow will be a little easier to find.

Snow was easy for us to find on our recent trip, both in Magic Kingdom and in Epcot World Show case. How ever we are both disappointed about them moving Beast to MK and now you will have to make a reservation just to be able to meet him, he is our family favourite and we had met him 5 times on our recent trip.

Also why move Belle into a spot where you will need to take part in an attraction just to meet and have a photo, and she has been taken out of CRT now completely. There is no where else to meet them together and this kind of sucks, they were such a crowd favourite, with people lining up in Epcot up to 30-40 minutes before their scheduled meet.

 

[tiki23]

It seems to be a lot like how the Jedi Training Academy used to be set up, leaving many disappointed kids and parents.

Ollivander's at WWoHP is the same way - I just don't get why they didn't have two shops set up to help accommodate the crowds.

Hmmm...makes me wonder if Disney has something up their sleeve with the new fastpass system, or who knows what. It's getting harder and harder to meet characters, it seems. And I think most people would like to be able to also meet characters other than the Fab 5 and the Princesses.

 

[Disney_Princess83]

I wrote to Disney already over this, so did a few other people I know! We were excited for this new area but Belle is a top priority to us. Having to watch the show and even be IN the show just to get a photo, no autograph, no interaction is just wrong. Now she isn't even going to be at CRT and it looks like you need a BOG reservation just to meet Beast now. We are not happy campers and told them already! Hopefully if enough people write, it will be fixed.

Belle and Beast are obviously so popular that they got an entire section dedicated to them and their story and yet Belle is nearly impossible to meet now at MK and you need to pretty much pay extra to meet Beast!

I think they keep a very tight schedule. I can't think of any other reason. Which is fine as long as she's available somewhere else in the park to meet. Which she's not. Which is why it gets the label "colossal miss" in my book.

Once again, please write Disney if you are not happy with this. I bet they'll be watching closely to see how this goes over:

WDW Guest Communications
PO Box 10,040
Lake Buena Vista, FL 32830-0040

or

wdw.guest.communications@disneyworld.com

For the princess with the new village to be the only one you can't meet seems very silly to me.