Why would Disney do this???

[Edward Smith]

Disney is careful with character replication inside of the parks to give the illusiom of there being just one Princess Anna and Queen Elsa.

 

[Fastpassminus]

Disney is careful with character replication inside of the parks to give the illusiom of there being just one Princess Anna and Queen Elsa.

Not that careful.... I saw 2 Chip & Dales meeting in Epcot one time. One was in Future World the other was over by the enterance to WS. I was riding the monorail through Epcot & was shocked to see both sets out at once so close together.

 

[ArwenMarie]

I agree, I think it's too bad they don't have more of them right now.

I do like that they put up that the Frozen show in DHS relatively quickly and put them into the FoF parade. Gives people a chance to see them anyway.

 

[mshanson3121]

Well, first, having too many Anna and Elsas around the park kind of screws with the idea that the Princesses are real people. Disney is careful with character replication inside of the parks to give the illusiom of there being just one Princess Anna and Queen Elsa.

Considering that many of their characters (especially Mickey & Minnie) have M&Gs in multiple parks and restaurants, don't you think this argument is kind of moot though?

 

[kandb]

Maybe the guests who snag a fp for A&E are "happier" but what about the poor women who are up past their bedtime trying to get a fp time and NONE are available and then they have to
hear their daughters upset if they cannot see them. Come on, people are paying thousands of dollars. Why disappoint them? They dress up probably a 100? characters for each parade
they have, they can add another A&E.

 

[3Gsandme]

Considering that many of their characters (especially Mickey & Minnie) have M&Gs in multiple parks and restaurants, don't you think this argument is kind of moot though?

It's not my idea so the execution of it isnt up to me. I think that is one part of the equation with other parts being directly related to available stock (meaning ladies available to play Anna and Elsa) and venue and cost. I just put the replication point on my list first. Really, it's all about cost. We know that.

Why doesn't Disney have a meet in every park? Cost, venue and stock. Over saturation and replication are parts.

 

[3Gsandme]

Also, Disney can't just slap anyone into that role. If she's not quite pretty enough she'll get a thread on the Dis with people complaining about how the current crop of Princesses aren't pretty.

 

[dbramer]

And face characters are much harder to replicate. They at least have to strongly resemble the character they are portraying. They can just throw anyone into a Chip and Dale, Pooh or Mickey costume and teach them the mannerisms. Face characters also have to sound something like the characters they represent. Imagine if instead of the pleasant contralto that Elsa speaks with three octaves lower...what kind of uproar would that cause...I paid thousands of dollars for my vacation, stayed up until midnight to get my FP and Elsa sounded like a man....you get the picture.

Casting face characters is much more difficult than costume characters.

 

[MakiraMarlena]

There will be one at Epcot. Yes it is official. They are going to build an entire new building just to accommodate them. They already have multiples meeting in the same spot in MK. What more can they do.

 

[JimmyV]

it is impossible to know that they are someplace else at exactly the same time.

Kenny The Pirate will tell us!

 

[Disfan1968]

I am beginning to wonder if they have just thought all along that the craze would die down over time, so no need to build permanent infrastructure to provide redundant meet and greet support for one character set. Obviously the craze has been slow to die, and announcing a new movie isn't going to help in that regard either.

 

[mesaboy2]

And face characters are much harder to replicate. They at least have to strongly resemble the character they are portraying. They can just throw anyone into a Chip and Dale, Pooh or Mickey costume and teach them the mannerisms. Face characters also have to sound something like the characters they represent. Imagine if instead of the pleasant contralto that Elsa speaks with three octaves lower...what kind of uproar would that cause...I paid thousands of dollars for my vacation, stayed up until midnight to get my FP and Elsa sounded like a man....you get the picture.

Casting face characters is much more difficult than costume characters.

Good point for sure, though I wouldn't go so far as to say they can throw "anyone" into a fur character. There are still at least minimum physical characteristics that come into play. I, for instance, might qualify to be a friend of Goofy but never one of Minnie.

I am beginning to wonder if they have just thought all along that the craze would die down over time, so no need to build permanent infrastructure to provide redundant meet and greet support for one character set. Obviously the craze has been slow to die, and announcing a new movie isn't going to help in that regard either.

I think that is part of it.

 

[NavyDad]

And face characters are much harder to replicate. They at least have to strongly resemble the character they are portraying. They can just throw anyone into a Chip and Dale, Pooh or Mickey costume and teach them the mannerisms. Face characters also have to sound something like the characters they represent. Imagine if instead of the pleasant contralto that Elsa speaks with three octaves lower...what kind of uproar would that cause...I paid thousands of dollars for my vacation, stayed up until midnight to get my FP and Elsa sounded like a man....you get the picture.

Casting face characters is much more difficult than costume characters.

This^

I have seen posts over the last 18 months or so since Frozen came out who seem to be "in the know" regarding casting that have talked about this being an issue. Especially for a newer character that also happens to be super popular.

Let's say WDW has 12 (just picking a random number) CM's who play Aurora. They probably expect a 25% turnover meaning they plan on casting 3-4 replacements each year. The Frozen sisters have been just as popular if not more so than any face characters at WDW over a short period of time. I would imagine it would be much mor challenging to basically start from scratch and get up to speed with a full cast. Especially considering Disney does not know if the Frozen popularity is a fast burn situation or if they will have the lasting power to command a large long term investment.

The other factor that has been mentioned is $$$. The trend for years now is to build M&G areas for popular characters. That can involve large investments that were not planned for 18-24 months ago...

For the WDW execs their Prime Directive is to maximize shareholder value. I would imagine "hard to get" personal meetings with insanely popular characters has worked out well for them in that department over the last couple of years. It will be interesting to see what they do in the future...

 

[JoshuaShaw]

Pooh as well. He meets at every park and sometimes twice.

He's insatiable!

 

[WDSearcher]

I don't want to be overly critical of your statement, but, I have to wonder how anyone would know if A&E were in two parks or three park or for that matter all four, and then throw in the water parks and the miniature golf courses for that matter? Unless one can physically be in more then one place at a time, it is impossible to know that they are someplace else at exactly the same time.

No ... it's not.

I'm standing in front of Fairytale Hall with a crying child ... a child who is crying because she's next in line to meet Anna & Elsa and her sister just texted her a picture of Anna & Elsa in the parade. The parade that was going on right at that very minute. And this other little girl is crying because she waited all this time and now thinks she has to wait until the parade is over to meet Anna. Did I mention that this little girl is dressed in a beautiful Anna dress herself? She's looking at Anna in the parade picture and I (the helpful CM) am trying to tell her that Anna will magically be in the room when she gets there and not to worry. And then the door to the room opens, and there's Anna, and now the little girl doesn't want to meet her because she can't possibly be the real Anna, because the real Anna is in the parade.

Or ... this one was fun ... kid walks in to meet Mickey Mouse at the Studios one evening. As he's meeting Mickey and getting his photo taken, I notice he's got his iPad and is on Facetime with a friend of his. In California. Meeting Mickey Mouse at the exact same time. Kid turns and looks at me and wants to know which Mickey is real, the one he's with or the one in California?

So yes ... people can be in two places at once, and kids will challenge you on stuff like that, especially the ones that are just at that age of "are they real or are they not real"?

Add to that someone going through their photo album after a trip and seeing their child with four different Elsas and three different Tianas. Each one having been introduced as the "only" Princess Tiana or the "only" Princess Anna.

That's how people know if A&E are in two or three or four parks at one time.

 

[gtpoohbear]

I don't think the replication argument really holds... how many Mickeys are there out at one time? I think he has a m&g in every park, not to mention parades and characters meals. The princesses and Pooh are almost as omnipresent as well. I actually remember before our first trip wondering how Disney coordinated the schedules to make sure a character wasn't showing up in the same place twice, then once we were there I of course realized how naive I had been to expect that, lol!

I think it's more matter of simple economics, both for staffing and space. They ARE working on a second location, but until that one is done, I'm pretty sure it would be a crowd-management disaster to just plop them out on the sidewalk somewhere. And they can't just grab any cute girl off the street to "be friends" with them... Honestly the Anna and Elsa we had at our m&g in December left a lot to be desired, I suspect they were probably new and maybe hadn't had a lot of training time. So it seems they are already spread a bit thin. To water down the experience any more would surely make it lose its magic, and the last thing Disney wants is for people to turn against Frozen. It's making them far too much $$

 

[Funfire240]

Disney is careful with character replication inside of the parks to give the illusiom of there being just one Princess Anna and Queen Elsa.

How do you explain Cinderella at her castle and meeting next door? My dd asked and I told her there's a passage to run between

 

[IrishNYC]

No ... it's not.

I'm standing in front of Fairytale Hall with a crying child ... a child who is crying because she's next in line to meet Anna & Elsa and her sister just texted her a picture of Anna & Elsa in the parade. The parade that was going on right at that very minute. And this other little girl is crying because she waited all this time and now thinks she has to wait until the parade is over to meet Anna. Did I mention that this little girl is dressed in a beautiful Anna dress herself? She's looking at Anna in the parade picture and I (the helpful CM) am trying to tell her that Anna will magically be in the room when she gets there and not to worry. And then the door to the room opens, and there's Anna, and now the little girl doesn't want to meet her because she can't possibly be the real Anna, because the real Anna is in the parade.

Or ... this one was fun ... kid walks in to meet Mickey Mouse at the Studios one evening. As he's meeting Mickey and getting his photo taken, I notice he's got his iPad and is on Facetime with a friend of his. In California. Meeting Mickey Mouse at the exact same time. Kid turns and looks at me and wants to know which Mickey is real, the one he's with or the one in California?

So yes ... people can be in two places at once, and kids will challenge you on stuff like that, especially the ones that are just at that age of "are they real or are they not real"?

Add to that someone going through their photo album after a trip and seeing their child with four different Elsas and three different Tianas. Each one having been introduced as the "only" Princess Tiana or the "only" Princess Anna.

That's how people know if A&E are in two or three or four parks at one time.

No kid that's young enough to cry about meeting a character should be getting texts from anyone while waiting in line.

 

[Bluegrrl]

Has anyone here been to a character audition lately? Or seen the character audition website? They are advertising for Elsa/Annas/Kristoffs constantly. It's not for lack of looking. But Disney character cms are really picky. As a princess, you have to "look" the part (not just be "pretty"). And you have to be able to multitask princess-wise. There are princesses that are Anas that also need to be able to be Cindy's, Rapunzels, Meridas - Disney casts for multiple people. Disney is also very subjective. Sometimes girls get cast with no rhyme or reason to it. They might look like Cindy to you, but to Disney they look too mature or like they might age out of the Cindy role or are too sexy for a Cindy - whatever that means. And there are very specific heights - most princesses are on the shorter side because they want the princes to look tall. Oh, and there is also the tattoo thing. Can't be a princess with a visible tattoo. Try finding a girl without a tattoo down in Florida. That cuts another 1/2 out of the way. They you get fitted for the costume. If you don't look right in it or can't fit INTO the costume that they have - bam, cut. Some people look like Ariel or whatever, but the minute you get into a red wig, ugh. Not so hot looking.

So you get through all that, and then you have to get through the grace test. If your aren't as graceful as a princess (or can't pickup the grace lessons/voice mannerisms that they teach you) then you get cut. Out of all of that, how many princesses do you think you are left with? Exactly. Youtube "princess auditions" for examples of this. There are hundreds of disappointed Disney girls when it comes to being the next Ana or Elsa.

Oh, and face characters always are fur characters. And yes, as long as you can move well and play charades decently it's way easier to be cast as a fur character.

 

[Sargeant Tibbs]

Maybe the guests who snag a fp for A&E are "happier" but what about the poor women who are up past their bedtime trying to get a fp time and NONE are available and then they have to
hear their daughters upset if they cannot see them. Come on, people are paying thousands of dollars. Why disappoint them? They dress up probably a 100? characters for each parade
they have, they can add another A&E.

If people want to meet Anna and Elsa that bad and they are unable to secure a FP, there is a solution. Be there early for RD and head straight back. Honestly, it takes a long time for that queue to reach an hour wait, longer than it takes those people up front at RD to walk back there. If it was that important to me, that's what I would do. If anyone has an excuse of why they can't do this, they obviously don't want it bad enough.

I'd rather see more of the rare characters than have more Anna and Elsa.