Bad show disney!!!

[MrsJackSparrow4Life]

No a CM is probably not going to say anything but if your daughter is going to freak out if she sees the demolished house then there is the chance you are going to get "caught" non the less. Disney shouldn't have to arrange their constructions sights to suit your white lie.

Would it be nice if Disney could magically hide everything they are working on? Sure but that is not always doable.

 

[DreamSweetsLove]

I think what OP meant was that they could have made the minimum effort to cover the construction making the view less ugly and as a bonus saving some parents like ktlm from having a situation like that come up. Examples from other Disney parks have been given so it's not about finding fault with Disney as another poster wrote earlier. Of course they should update the parks and of course construction is necessary but Disney has nicer methods of dealing with construction than this and should have used better judgement instead of going cheap. Then nobody would even be talking about this right now and would instead be focused on the positive points of the new addition which we can all agree will be very nice.

 

[MrsJackSparrow4Life]

Well I have seen many posters on this site complain about how ugly those "better options" are, "OMG, there were walls up everywhere" etc, so I doubt Disney could win no matter how they set things up.

People need to learn that Disney Magic only works so far and things are not going to be perfect.

 

[DreamSweetsLove]

Well I have seen many posters on this site complain about how ugly those "better options" are, "OMG, there were walls up everywhere" etc, so I doubt Disney could win no matter how they set things up.

People need to learn that Disney Magic only works so far and things are not going to be perfect.

Yes, you have a point and I understand where you are coming from. However the complaint of "Omg, walls up everywhere" or "ugly walls" is basically the complaint of "Omg, construction", right? By not really covering it like they usually do all of a sudden there is a new complaint that comes into play, "Omg, my child scarred for life", or whatever, that could have been avoided entirely. In any case what's done is done but it could have been for the most part avoided.

 

[bumbershoot]

Apparently, you weren't watching the video close enough. Look at the part between 2 and 3 minutes, they are not digging in the ground. They are tearing Mickey's house down, and there are big yellow pieces of it all over clearly visible through the green shield. My child is observant enough to figure that out. This is a kid who just today at age 5, told us where we stopped to pick up dinner after getting off the plane at home after her trip to WDW when she was 2...we were shocked. DH and I sure didn't remember that, until she reminded us. If you even read my post you would see that my child was told Mickey and Minnie were moving their houses, which is why if we were on a train that went by and she watched a bulldozer tearing the house to shreds she would have freaked out and been completely devastated.

Also the dramatic explanation that they moved things back to cartoonworld (see the Disney movie Enchanted if you don't know what I am talking about) doesn't complicate things, it simplifies them. We had to get her prepared for not being able to see the houses on our next visit, because one of the absolute first things she has wanted to do every time we set foot in MK since she was 2, is go see Minnie's house. We went through it every day we visited the MK no matter how many days were were in MK on each trip, and she usually wanted to do it at least twice every MK day- once early in the day and once to say goodby to it in the evening before we left for the day. She is not one that can be distracted to forget about something by other fun things while in the parks. If my child thought that WDW just moved the houses, she would be demanding to see them wherever they are on our next trip. She would also be walking up to CMs asking where the houses were and why she can't see them. If the CM tells here they are put away somewhere, she will be asking who she needs to go see to arrange a tour. She is not shy; will talk to anyone adult or child; is competely outgoing; and precocious is an understatement. As to where all the characters sleep at night...my child has been categorized as gifted...at age 3 she was not buying that the characters actually lived at WDW. She told me that Cinderella's castle had to be a fake because there was a restaurant inside, there were no grounds and Cinderella's village was not outside the castle. She wanted to know where Cinderella's real castle was. She saw the movie Enchanted and took that as an explanation. The characters come to WDW to see kids during the day because they like to do that, and then they go through a door like Giselle goes down the wishing well in enchanted to go back and forth. For some reason, even though she pegged Cinderella's castle as a fake, that kid loved those mouse houses and I think she may have thought they were the real thing.

With a child like that (and I was a child like that), it probably would have been a MUCH better idea to NEVER start the lie to begin with.

My mom didn't do the Santa thing b/c the idea of a strange man breaking into our home in the middle of the night was TERRIFYING to me. She knew me from a young age and knew that it would be the height of...ignoring who I am...to start that myth. She knew better than to help me "believe" that any of the characters at Disneyland were anything but what they truly are.

A child like that might very well have serious serious problems with having been allowed to "believe" by those she trusts the most, once she comes away from "believing".

I speak from experience of having been a serious, smart, talkative child who took things seriously. I think you need to start creating an exit strategy....soon.

 

[ZuzuWDW]

I'm a little conflicted about it. On one hand, I want to see/know what's going on. On the other hand, I'd like it to be hidden from kids.

If kids are going to be emotionally scarred by the sight of construction, the rest of life and the real world is going to be a rude awakening for them.

Mickey is remodeling just like everyone else does, big deal?

 

[ZuzuWDW]

Of course they should update the parks and of course construction is necessary but Disney has nicer methods of dealing with construction than this and should have used better judgement instead of going cheap. Then nobody would even be talking about this right now and would instead be focused on the positive points of the new addition which we can all agree will be very nice.

If this method saved them a little bit (and I believe this method is a truly acceptable one) so that they can spend money in other places, I applaud it. I'm not talking about doing things "cheap" as you put it, they did it in a perfectly acceptable manner. Why spend a ton of extra money on something like that if it isn't necessary? Wouldn't you rather see that money spent in a better way? I would.

And please, people would be "focused on the positive points"? Are you sure you know the people on these boards/a chunk of die-hard Disney fan community in general?

 

[DreamSweetsLove]

If this method saved them a little bit (and I believe this method is a truly acceptable one) so that they can spend money in other places, I applaud it. I'm not talking about doing things "cheap" as you put it, they did it in a perfectly acceptable manner. Why spend a ton of extra money on something like that if it isn't necessary? Wouldn't you rather see that money spent in a better way? I would.

And please, people would be "focused on the positive points"? Are you sure you know the people on these boards/a chunk of die-hard Disney fan community in general?

For me the themed construction walls is basic, just like clean parks and Disney level guest service but that's just what I'm used to at my local parks at TDR. If WDW locals prefer the more practical choice then that's probably why they went with that preference I guess? I'm new to the boards and haven't been back to WDW in years, we will go in a few weeks. Maybe it's wishful thinking for people to look at the positives but MK hasn't had anything huge in a while and the new Fantasyland looks like a move in a very positive direction which I would think would make die hard fans and people in general happy.

 

[angelmav]

This might just be the worst thing that has ever happened to anyone ever, at any place or in any time. My heart breaks into a million pieces thinking about someone being treated in such a way while on vacation from the real world, oh the horror of it all.

Kids take cues from their parents, my guess is if the parent wasnt in a huff about it (and instead took an excited ooooh look at all the new things they are creating for us to enjoy approach) the child would never notice.

 

[goofyernmost]

Those of you who do not think it was bad clearly are not 3 to 6 years old and do not have children in that age range. As an adult, even though it completely pains me to see them doing that to Mickey and Minnie's houses, it isn't that bad. To my 5 year old daughter, who when she was 4 cried her eyes out when she heard that they were closing Mickey and Minnie's houses, if she had been on that train, she would have been crying and screaming and trying to get off the train to make them stop. I sure hope there was some sort of warning to parents putting little ones on the train that day. Kids who had not been to WDW before would not really have known the difference, except it seems like the guy on the video said it was Mickey's house they were tearing down which might have been traumatic even if the kid was not attached to the place. My kid thinks Mickey and Minnie are moving their houses back to their world because they are tired of people traipsing through them all the time, and she still cried for a LONG time (Minnie's house was one of her absolute favorite places at WDW). I don't plan on letting her know that they completely bulldozed them.

The reason she got that story-and I'm the one who did it, so feel free to keep flaming me- is that we told her that Mickey and Minnie were probably going to be closing their houses and we would not be able to go through them our next trip and she started sobbing, and after she had been sobbing and crying for well over 20 minutes (yes she has a dramatic flair) and begging to know why and what was happening to the houses, that is the story the panicked Mom came up with (the they were moving the houses because they were tired of people traipsing through them all day. As I said before, she saw Enchanted at 3 and at 3 came up with that as her own explanation for where the characters really live- that was not me) . I had anticipated there was going to be a reaction, but not as big a reaction as there was. Trying to calm her down, I had already tried the "We can go see their houses at Disneyland", as she has been there before too, but she doesn't like Minnie's house there as much so that didn't stop the tears. I also tried the new Beauty and the Beast restaurant since she loves Beauty and the Beast - and that got "They are replacing Minnie's house with a restaurant....."and more sobbing It is the house itself she is attached to not Minnie somehow losing a house, so telling her they were tearing it down so Minnie could build a bigger house somewhere else, or that Minnie still had a place to sleep was not going to cut it. Plus, at the time we told her that, the rumor was that they were going to move them to DHS, so we thought there was a chance that someday they would appear again. Since DD knows to expect that the houses are not there, and knows the stuff they will replace it with, I highly doubt she will even ask about it when we are at WDW. (This is a kid that you don't want to surprise with one of her favorites being closed at WDW... preparation ahead of time is the key with her.) However, if she actually saw them ripping the house to shreds, it would be another story.

I don't want to flame you...your situation is what it is, but certainly you don't think that every child dives that deeply into where Mickey lives do you? She sounds like a very "sensitive" little girl, but I think, or I guess, that a few minutes after this particular episode, she was back to playing with something else and where Mickey's house is was not even on her radar.

That said, the objection that was most prominently addressed in this thread was that it was pretty extreme to feel that everyone else should be deprived of the fun of actually seeing the construction because you, and yes, I do believe that you are pretty upset about this yourself, and your child finds it sad. Then says it is a really, really, really bad show.

I feel that everything Disney does has a reason. They don't spend thousands on the painted tarps for nothing, but also they are aware of the fact that almost every construction site on the planet has "peep" holes so the general public can look in a marvel at the sight of new construction. The train ride is basically Disney's "peep holes". Heck, when they were building EPCOT they used to have monorail rides over so people could stand on the observation deck and look at the construction in progress.

 

[Dan Murphy]

Not sure if it was addressed in the many prior pages (did not read them all), but in the big picture, the actual number of guests that traverse that site by train is quite small, as compared to the number of guests who traverse the site on the other end, from the Fantasyland side. That side does have the more aesthetically appealing painted walls and/or photographically enriched scrims, albeit much more costly, that we are rather accustomed to. And the train, if I recall, does not take on water, therefore not a stop, every time it passes that now non-operating station. I think it is a mater of cost vs. need. And I personally think a good decision.

 

[imthatgirl]

Apparently, you weren't watching the video close enough. Look at the part between 2 and 3 minutes, they are not digging in the ground. They are tearing Mickey's house down, and there are big yellow pieces of it all over clearly visible through the green shield. My child is observant enough to figure that out. This is a kid who just today at age 5, told us where we stopped to pick up dinner after getting off the plane at home after her trip to WDW when she was 2...we were shocked. DH and I sure didn't remember that, until she reminded us. If you even read my post you would see that my child was told Mickey and Minnie were moving their houses, which is why if we were on a train that went by and she watched a bulldozer tearing the house to shreds she would have freaked out and been completely devastated.

Also the dramatic explanation that they moved things back to cartoonworld (see the Disney movie Enchanted if you don't know what I am talking about) doesn't complicate things, it simplifies them. We had to get her prepared for not being able to see the houses on our next visit, because one of the absolute first things she has wanted to do every time we set foot in MK since she was 2, is go see Minnie's house. We went through it every day we visited the MK no matter how many days were were in MK on each trip, and she usually wanted to do it at least twice every MK day- once early in the day and once to say goodby to it in the evening before we left for the day. She is not one that can be distracted to forget about something by other fun things while in the parks. If my child thought that WDW just moved the houses, she would be demanding to see them wherever they are on our next trip. She would also be walking up to CMs asking where the houses were and why she can't see them. If the CM tells here they are put away somewhere, she will be asking who she needs to go see to arrange a tour. She is not shy; will talk to anyone adult or child; is competely outgoing; and precocious is an understatement. As to where all the characters sleep at night...my child has been categorized as gifted...at age 3 she was not buying that the characters actually lived at WDW. She told me that Cinderella's castle had to be a fake because there was a restaurant inside, there were no grounds and Cinderella's village was not outside the castle. She wanted to know where Cinderella's real castle was. She saw the movie Enchanted and took that as an explanation. The characters come to WDW to see kids during the day because they like to do that, and then they go through a door like Giselle goes down the wishing well in enchanted to go back and forth. For some reason, even though she pegged Cinderella's castle as a fake, that kid loved those mouse houses and I think she may have thought they were the real thing.

I'm sorry, but it seems to me you dug your own hole with your child. She's upset because you didn't handle it correctly, not WDW. I would have cried too if you told me Mickie and Minnie moved back to cartoon land. They didn't, so to tell a child that is more then confusing.

With kids it's easier to keep things simple, you didn't. stop blaming other people for that.

ETA: I have watched the video over and over again...I don't know what you think you see but you can not tell what they are doing from the video. Yes the color yellow is present, but you can not tell what that coor yellow is from. Nor does it appear they are actively demoing the houses in this video.

Edited again because ...wait? Yellow? That was a really bright yellow.....what exactly do you think was so so yellow? The roof is red and the walls are a pale yellow.

 

[itsmetigress]

eh construction isn't bad show...it's a fact of life at Disney.

Bad show is walking out of the Princess M&G area and heading to the Hub to see them on stage. Or taking said train and seeing Mickey and Minnie by Splash in their country gear and then a few minutes later by Space in their normal attire. And getting a CM explanation that "they move REALLY quickly isn't it awesome?".

That being said I realize it's all temp till the new spot opens but you would think they would put a LITTLE more thought behind it. Few extra hedges and you wouldn't be able to tell M&M were even BY Space.

 

[GinnyEmma]

I don't want to flame you...your situation is what it is, but certainly you don't think that every child dives that deeply into where Mickey lives do you? She sounds like a very "sensitive" little girl, but I think, or I guess, that a few minutes after this particular episode, she was back to playing with something else and where Mickey's house is was not even on her radar.

That said, the objection that was most prominently addressed in this thread was that it was pretty extreme to feel that everyone else should be deprived of the fun of actually seeing the construction because you, and yes, I do believe that you are pretty upset about this yourself, and your child finds it sad. Then says it is a really, really, really bad show.

I feel that everything Disney does has a reason. They don't spend thousands on the painted tarps for nothing, but also they are aware of the fact that almost every construction site on the planet has "peep" holes so the general public can look in a marvel at the sight of new construction. The train ride is basically Disney's "peep holes". Heck, when they were building EPCOT they used to have monorail rides over so people could stand on the observation deck and look at the construction in progress.

I remember the epcot construction. Most kids like that kind of thing. We are talking about basic construction. The hoopla over seeing it is pathetic. Disney isn't really magic. Deal with it. And help your kids to deal with it, for heaven's sakes. Don't make it worse for them with your whining and complaining.

 

[disneyjunkie]

Wow I think some people (adults and kids) have reached the too much Disney point. If you get this worked up over something so minor, it's time to stay home.

 

[Snape]

Wow I think some people (adults and kids) have reached the too much Disney point. If you get this worked up over something so minor, it's time to stay home.

I'll add to please, please stay home because I don't want those crazy people near me. If a person has problems explaining a very simple issue to their children, I can't even begin to imagine what will happen when real issues crop up in their life. Real issues are people losing homes in Hurricane Katrina not having to explain Fake Mickeys Plastic house is gone.

 

[pyrxtc]

I would actually not mind the stop. I would also like to be able to see more of what's going on.

 

[GinnyEmma]

I'll add to please, please stay home because I don't want those crazy people near me. If a person has problems explaining a very simple issue to their children, I can't even begin to imagine what will happen when real issues crop up in their life. Real issues are people losing homes in Hurricane Katrina not having to explain Fake Mickeys Plastic house is gone.

no kidding.

 

[PRmamiDEdos]

This might just be the worst thing that has ever happened to anyone ever, at any place or in any time. My heart breaks into a million pieces thinking about someone being treated in such a way while on vacation from the real world, oh the horror of it all.

Kids take cues from their parents, my guess is if the parent wasnt in a huff about it (and instead took an excited ooooh look at all the new things they are creating for us to enjoy approach) the child would never notice.

This. One of the first things you learn as a parent is not to overreact because it causes your child to overreact.

 

[Toad_Passenger]

Construction = Bad Show?

Please. People know this is going on and I would think most, out of curiosity, would love to see some of the Disney Magic being built. My daughter is 4 and she was a bit sad about them taking down Mickey & Minnie's house (Even DW and I are), but she is just as excited to see what "new" things Disney will have on our trips. I showed her this video and now she can't wait to see if we can catch a glimpse of something being built or changed.