CAPTAiN JACk

[kjh73]

Wow I did not know that Captain Jack was gone! My son was just asking today if Jack Sparrow was at any Character Breakfasts...I told him no....now I'm going to have to tell him we won't be seeing Jack Sparrow at all on our visit in May

On a happy note my son was picked to do the pirate tutorial at Magic Kingdom in WDW when we were there in Sept 2007...it really made his day! Now those photos and videos we have of him doing this will be even more special!

 

[fairycat]

Ya know, after thinking about it, people always bring up the point of girls acting unsavory towards Jack and that's a big reason why he's gone, but there have been instances where men have not behaved themselves around female characters (one story that comes to mind is of a guy in Tokyo Disneyland who tried to drag Cinderella away from her handlers and Prince Charming), so how that really can be a strong reason for kicking Jack out? Yes, you will have fan mania for a while, but that's to be expected. It's not as if they treated him like the fairies and had him in one remote spot where you couldn't see him until after you made it through the whole line and there's multiple handlers to keep people in check. The whole thing just seems poorly thought out by Disney (they could have done something about the m&g spot on the island since they knew what sort of crowd he was drawing, numbers and such, before they remade TSI) and they never made a serious effort to curtail the problems (almost as if they were begging for a scapegoat). So, it's another case of Disney 1, consumers 0.

First I find it cute that you guys refer to the trouble makers as "young woman" when it was rarely "young" woman most should have known better! The other difference in regards to your post is that the woman in this case were daily and not as rare as the men going for the woman. Their were women grabbing Jack, Flashing Jack, pushing kids out of the way to flirt with Jack, and some possible issues with possibly stalking some of the Jack's. The issue was it was a constant issue not a rare issue.

Again it was also mentioned as a reason that the characters "pirateyness" was also becoming an issue with the character. Calming the character down would have worked in some ways, but if you take to much away you will lose the character. If less customers had issues with his behavior he might have made it past the women.

And one other point, another character group was removed because of bad behavior on the part of the guests. In the 50's the mermaids were removed due to the men, yelling at and even trying to swim out too the mermaids in the Sub. lagoon.

PS- The guys they used were rarely "kids from Anaheim", one at least had been a regular Jack impersonator at the Renaissance Faire, and was himself a very handsome man even out of character (and very good at what he did). Even knowing full well these guys were not Jack, many of these woman saw some hot pirate to flirt with and they figured that was fun too.

 

[Silly Little Pixie]

I'm so sad that Captain Jack is gone. At least I do have wonderful pictures of meeting him last year at DD's birthday. It was a truly magical memory. We got to see Captain Jack on DCL last year, and while he wasn't as "good" a Captain Jack as DL's (a little too tall, DH pointed out, and not quite as boozy), he was still great. We got to meet him on Castaway Cay (our Christmas card picture!!) as well as on Pirate Night. I will say some people on Castaway Cay were really belligerent that the line had been cut off (the time was posted the day before...). It seems our beloved Captain Jack brings out the bad behavior in some folks, and not just at Disneyland.

 

[smiley_face2]

First I find it cute that you guys refer to the trouble makers as "young woman" when it was rarely "young" woman most should have known better! The other difference in regards to your post is that the woman in this case were daily and not as rare as the men going for the woman. Their were women grabbing Jack, Flashing Jack, pushing kids out of the way to flirt with Jack, and some possible issues with possibly stalking some of the Jack's. The issue was it was a constant issue not a rare issue.

Again it was also mentioned as a reason that the characters "pirateyness" was also becoming an issue with the character. Calming the character down would have worked in some ways, but if you take to much away you will lose the character. If less customers had issues with his behavior he might have made it past the women.

And one other point, another character group was removed because of bad behavior on the part of the guests. In the 50's the mermaids were removed due to the men, yelling at and even trying to swim out too the mermaids in the Sub. lagoon.

PS- The guys they used were rarely "kids from Anaheim", one at least had been a regular Jack impersonator at the Renaissance Faire, and was himself a very handsome man even out of character (and very good at what he did). Even knowing full well these guys were not Jack, many of these woman saw some hot pirate to flirt with and they figured that was fun too.

I can't help but think this must be the man you are talking about in my picture, we saw a few different "Jack Sparrows" over the 3 or so years he was there, and this one was by far the best! as you can see, I was not one of the "ladies who should know better" and did not fawn all over him like an old cougar kept a polite distance....it was a great experience, he remained in character completely. My very pretty 18 year old daughter did not even get silly around him, just had fun with the chat...he was trying to get her to give him her wrist band she had on, which was a wide leather cuff with some stones attached... Anyway at that time, it was in 2006, he was right in NOS and there was a line, not long when we were there to see him. Never saw any inapropriate behaviour at all, and even when he moved to Pirates Lair we never saw anything rude going on. I loved it when they had him in NOS, and the bootstrappers performing there as well, it added so much perfect atmosphere to the whole area!

 

[AmericanItGirl]

First I find it cute that you guys refer to the trouble makers as "young woman" when it was rarely "young" woman most should have known better! The other difference in regards to your post is that the woman in this case were daily and not as rare as the men going for the woman. Their were women grabbing Jack, Flashing Jack, pushing kids out of the way to flirt with Jack, and some possible issues with possibly stalking some of the Jack's. The issue was it was a constant issue not a rare issue.

Again it was also mentioned as a reason that the characters "pirateyness" was also becoming an issue with the character. Calming the character down would have worked in some ways, but if you take to much away you will lose the character. If less customers had issues with his behavior he might have made it past the women.

And one other point, another character group was removed because of bad behavior on the part of the guests. In the 50's the mermaids were removed due to the men, yelling at and even trying to swim out too the mermaids in the Sub. lagoon.

PS- The guys they used were rarely "kids from Anaheim", one at least had been a regular Jack impersonator at the Renaissance Faire, and was himself a very handsome man even out of character (and very good at what he did). Even knowing full well these guys were not Jack, many of these woman saw some hot pirate to flirt with and they figured that was fun too.

When I say young women, I'm referring to women around my own age (I'm a ripe old 22), who I know have no problem brazenly giving an attractive member of the opposite sex the "ol' hairy eyeball."

They did make one or two comments on tweaking the character, but they could have done more without losing the essence (one way, as sad as it would be, is to lessen character interaction to more of a quick comment and a quick picture, which is what I get as an adult from all of the other characters that I take a picture with [esp. the princesses, they're nice but it's like hi-*flash*-bye, sort of what you'd get from a celeb when you're on the other side of the barricade at a red carpet event]). This is another reason why I think Barbossa would work well, because he was a baddie for the first movie so little kids would just chalk up his pretend rudeness to that.

I did not know that about the mermaids. I wonder how Ariel's managed to remain relatively safe all these years.

As for who they hired, they were right (imo) in hiring "professional" Jacks because adults are much more harder to impress and he was the first new face character that they've had in years and it was based not on a cartoon but a living and breathing man, so the level of reality is heightened.

 

[fairycat]

When I say young women, I'm referring to women around my own age (I'm a ripe old 22), who I know have no problem brazenly giving an attractive member of the opposite sex the "ol' hairy eyeball."

They did make one or two comments on tweaking the character, but they could have done more without losing the essence (one way, as sad as it would be, is to lessen character interaction to more of a quick comment and a quick picture, which is what I get as an adult from all of the other characters that I take a picture with [esp. the princesses, they're nice but it's like hi-*flash*-bye, sort of what you'd get from a celeb when you're on the other side of the barricade at a red carpet event]). This is another reason why I think Barbossa would work well, because he was a baddie for the first movie so little kids would just chalk up his pretend rudeness to that.

I did not know that about the mermaids. I wonder how Ariel's managed to remain relatively safe all these years.

As for who they hired, they were right (imo) in hiring "professional" Jacks because adults are much more harder to impress and he was the first new face character that they've had in years and it was based not on a cartoon but a living and breathing man, so the level of reality is heightened.

First smiley_Face got my comment about the "young woman" . I have worked at the Renaissance Faire for years I have also heard tales in other locations were good looking men are . And while you would NEVER guess it older woman can be just naughty!!!!! Something happens with woman your Mom's, Grandmother's and even Great Grandmother's age when they get around good looking men. Not to say all women loose there heads but older woman sometimes do forget their manners so to say I saw a few act badly myself with Jack, and heard of one woman who went to see Jack almost daily, that can get a bit creepy.

As for Ariel if you have noticed thanks to the fact she has a tail they keep her on her Shell since walking is hard with a tail. This also means she needs more people to move her about. I have heard from a old friend of Ariel's that they have had a few near issues but have been able to keep things mostly decent. There was also some talk that ease of movement and less handlers made Bride Ariel who could walk a much more desireable option for Disney.

I do hope they find a way to bring him back he was fun. I also loved the BootStrappers in NOS, I love a good sea shanty!!! haha!

 

[McCall]

I am lucky that they did not have the character yet, they had nothing at all no merchandise, nothing when I decided to take my sons to DW at Halloween to show off the the costumes I made.
and now if they don't have the character again I might be able to go again some time.