How does Hall of Presidents handle non-consecutive terms?

[Kit Jackson]

I agree 1000% Muppets doing American History would be way more entertaining and educational!

I can see them trying to do a stage show, like a class/school play about U.S History. This could be fun and work well.

The Muppets would've run this country better than (insert name of rival political figure here).

Like you weren't thinking it!

@TheDailyMoo, one of my friends sent this to my on election night, so you are not alone in your belief.

 

[Shaft41]

I love The Hall of Presidents. I'm a history teacher, and I find learning about all the Presidents fascinating. Our last two visits to WDW were in 2017 and again in 2021, so we didn't get to see the show either time as it was still closed to update and install the new President. Our next visit is scheduled for...2025, so I'm selfishly hoping they don't close for an extended update this time and maybe just switch the order, as others have suggested.

 

[MICKIMINI]

I love The Hall of Presidents. I'm a history teacher, and I find learning about all the Presidents fascinating. Our last two visits to WDW were in 2017 and again in 2021, so we didn't get to see the show either time as it was still closed to update and install the new President. Our next visit is scheduled for...2025, so I'm selfishly hoping they don't close for an extended update this time and maybe just switch the order, as others have suggested.

As a history teacher you will appreciate what happened in 2022. We were asked while waiting for the show which US President was not born in the US. I was the only one who knew the answer and I am really not that smart LOL! Answer: Van Buren.

 

[0FF TO NEVERLAND]

I always feel really proud and patriotic when I watch that show. Love it

 

[Sheryl2059]

I agree 1000% Muppets doing American History would be way more entertaining and educational!

More kids would

As a history teacher you will appreciate what happened in 2022. We were asked while waiting for the show which US President was not born in the US. I was the only one who knew the answer and I am really not that smart LOL! Answer: Van Buren.

Oh man. I hesitate to ask what the other answers were. So I wont.

 

[disneyfam]

I feel like a horrible person admitting this, but I really don't like this attraction. Also in transparency, I've not been there since GHW Bush was president. And when we hit the attraction it was a moment where we needed AC, and thought it would be educational for the kids. Result, both kids slept through. Educational moment lost there. LOL!!

What I'm not remembering is how Grover Cleveland was handled. Did he get recognized twice? I would assume the situation would be the same. Light shining on the year number of office time served, and having the voiceover of the person sitting in office.

Now, for me, talk about tears of emotion - An American Adventure in Epcot. Swells me with pride and makes me cry every time. "America, share your golden dreams......"

Edited to add - Facepalm, mixed the lyrics with the title. Golden Dreams title, lyric "America, spread your golden wings"

 

[piglet1979]

I feel like a horrible person admitting this, but I really don't like this attraction. Also in transparency, I've not been there since GHW Bush was president. And when we hit the attraction it was a moment where we needed AC, and thought it would be educational for the kids. Result, both kids slept through. Educational moment lost there. LOL!!

What I'm not remembering is how Grover Cleveland was handled. Did he get recognized twice? I would assume the situation would be the same. Light shining on the year number of office time served, and having the voiceover of the person sitting in office.

Now, for me, talk about tears of emotion - An American Adventure in Epcot. Swells me with pride and makes me cry every time. "America, share your golden dreams......"

Edited to add - Facepalm, mixed the lyrics with the title. Golden Dreams title, lyric "America, spread your golden wings"

I do love both as I love history but I absolutely use it for air condition and for the kids to take a nap when they were younger. I might have dozed off a time or two just because of pure exhaustion and maybe from having a toddler/young child in my lap. I have several pictures of DD on our first trip asleep in my arms at several shows and on the train. She was 4 at the time.

 

[atthebeachclub]

I agree with saving your applause until the end. I have strong political leanings, but the HOP is an educational experience and not a thrill ride.

I agree. I’m taking my kids to this; they don’t need lessons in adults behaving badly. I want to inspire them to dream big, not watch pettiness in its various forms from all sides. Save the applause for the very end.

 

[atthebeachclub]

As a history teacher you will appreciate what happened in 2022. We were asked while waiting for the show which US President was not born in the US. I was the only one who knew the answer and I am really not that smart LOL! Answer: Van Buren.

Technically if they were born in a colony, they were not born in the US (since it didn’t exist yet)! So that gives us multiple presidents born “not in the US”. Also, it looks like Van Buren was born in New York?

 

[godfather927]

Technically if they were born in a colony, they were not born in the US (since it didn’t exist yet)! So that gives us multiple presidents born “not in the US”. Also, it looks like Van Buren was born in New York?

Correct, he was actually the first to be born after 1776, hence he was the "first president born in the US". A quirky inversion of trivia that either the cast member misstated or the previous poster misinterpreted.

 

[MICKIMINI]

Technically if they were born in a colony, they were not born in the US (since it didn’t exist yet)! So that gives us multiple presidents born “not in the US”. Also, it looks like Van Buren was born in New York?

Technically if they were born in a colony, they were not born in the US (since it didn’t exist yet)! So that gives us multiple presidents born “not in the US”. Also, it looks like Van Buren was born in New York?

Interesting. I did look it up online and that is what is indicated. We toured his family home in NY and that is where I first heard about it from the tour guide. I was the only one who apparently answered "correctly" when asked at HOP. The family home is a National Historic Site, so I would think they knew their stuff as should Disney. Dunno!

 

[georgina]

I feel like a horrible person admitting this, but I really don't like this attraction. Also in transparency, I've not been there since GHW Bush was president. And when we hit the attraction it was a moment where we needed AC, and thought it would be educational for the kids. Result, both kids slept through. Educational moment lost there. LOL!!

What I'm not remembering is how Grover Cleveland was handled. Did he get recognized twice? I would assume the situation would be the same. Light shining on the year number of office time served, and having the voiceover of the person sitting in office.

Now, for me, talk about tears of emotion - An American Adventure in Epcot. Swells me with pride and makes me cry every time. "America, share your golden dreams......"

Edited to add - Facepalm, mixed the lyrics with the title. Golden Dreams title, lyric "America, spread your golden wings"

Don't feel bad. I haven't been to HOP in ages and really don't care! Epcot show is patriotic! I usually skip that too though.

 

[GatorChris]

I'm the biggest fan of the Muppets. I just don't think this would be a good place for them. Walt was extremely patriotic - that's why it's there. A president is someone we should respect because of the office. This is an important "neutral" place where it can all be celebrated.

Would Muppets be fun with American history? For sure. But think of all the backlash when Iago took over a birdshow. What happens when Muppets do Presidential History?

Now...if there was a pre-show with the Muppets? That I could get behind.

 

[Sheryl2059]

Then again, it can be argued that whether or not we all celebrate it at a particular time depends on whether or not the current occupant also sees as neutral. However, I imagine few presidents in history saw it that way.

But I digress. Having the muppets do it could be interesting. But it would still need the anamatronics of the presidents. Also, it really wouldnt work to have the muppets be the priority of the show or the main attraction. It might if it was an original attraction not a replacement or upgrade. Or reimagining.

 

[seashoreCM]

Very little special treatment needs to be given to Donald Trump. And I am led to believe that Disney would like it that way.

The presidents are not standing in chronological order. Grover Cleveland (who served nonconsecutive terms) is named just once and "no one" would notice anything unusual. Also very few people have memorized the order of presidents to want to point out any error.

Donald Trump should be announced in the usual order as #45 with Joe Biden (as immediate previous president) announced last. "Everybody knows" that Trump would (also) be the current president so the spotlight comes back for him to say the oath of office or whatever with no sequence irregularity. (If I recall, the narrator does not introduce the current president at this point.)

Additional head and body animatronic movements needed would be minimal since Trump already has an audience addressing sequence (2021) and a previous president lineup sequence (2025).

 

[Chili327]

I agree. I also always liked the way it was presented. It's about history. But probably in the last 20 years or so, the disrespectful cheering and jeering has made it so we don't even go to the show anymore. It's sad and annoying. They're robots - sit, listen, and enjoy the show.

Yep. Not even going to waste my time anymore. People can’t enjoy or respect history, they have to turn it into a contest… not much different than people talking in the stretching room in the mansion.

 

[GoingSince1990]

Time to retire this attraction and replace it with the Hall of Secretaries of the Interior (Wait Time 0 minutes).

 

[whiteness]

Very little special treatment needs to be given to Donald Trump. And I am led to believe that Disney would like it that way.

The presidents are not standing in chronological order. Grover Cleveland (who served nonconsecutive terms) is named just once and "no one" would notice anything unusual. Also very few people have memorized the order of presidents to want to point out any error.

Donald Trump should be announced in the usual order as #45 with Joe Biden (as immediate previous president) announced last. "Everybody knows" that Trump would (also) be the current president so the spotlight comes back for him to say the oath of office or whatever with no sequence irregularity. (If I recall, the narrator does not introduce the current president at this point.)

Additional head and body animatronic movements needed would be minimal since Trump already has an audience addressing sequence (2021) and a previous president lineup sequence (2025).

Magic Kingdom has visitors from all over the world. It would make more sense to them to present an historically accurate sequence of presidents. The last one being Donald Trump. I agree that it would be unnecessary to announce him twice, but he does need to be announced last. And he should give his little speech and/or oath of office just like any other president would have done under the circumstances.

 

[OKW Lover]

Magic Kingdom has visitors from all over the world. It would make more sense to them to present an historically accurate sequence of presidents.

Interesting thought. But how many foreign visitors would even be interested in the HoP? And how many of them would even notice if it was historically accurate?

 

[whiteness]

Interesting thought. But how many foreign visitors would even be interested in the HoP? And how many of them would even notice if it was historically accurate?

The Taiwanese news podcasts and stuff that my wife is always listening to are intensely interested in American politics. The German, Israeli, Canadian, Australian and British also seem fairly interested. Outside of that, I cannot say. But visitors from those countries, at least, would probably notice and find it odd if the HoP didn't acknowledge the results of our latest elections.

If your point is that they wouldn't be interested in the attraction at all, due to their lack of interest in USA politics and/or history...again, most of my wife's overseas friends (Taiwan, mainland China and HK) are interested in our history and politics. Just as I am interested in theirs.

When I lived in Shanghai and Beijing and visited her family and our mutual friends, we talked about our respective histories fairly often. When I lived in England, Germany, the Netherlands, the Philippines and Austria, the histories of my birth country and the country where I was living was often a topic of mutual interest. Taking a (polite and respectful) interest in the Royal family and being willing to dish on present and past presidents was a pretty easy way to strike up a conversation in a pub (sometimes, the conversation didn't remain polite and respectful, but don't go there first!)

Many people like learning about the history and culture of other places. When I visited the Forbidden city, I wished they had an attraction like HoP there, too (at least they had a Starbucks...) Same with the Tower of London. At least we have the HoP, and we have Walt to thank for that.