Spontaneity in the Parks

[Missyrose]

Wow, wow, wow on riding the teacups with Alice! Such a cool experience! Did you "chat" with her?

Also I'm picking up a familiar theme here.....the CM portraying Peter Pan are phenomenal.

We had a lovely chat about our favorite teas... Royal-TY, Curiosi-TY, and Loyal-TY. We also took some fun selfies.

 

[FLchick415]

Oh my gosssshhh! Those are so adorable!

 

[Jfsag123]

I'm pretty sure I've posted this here before, but I'm going for it again. My DS is a Toy Story fanatic. Last year at DHS, a couple of Green Army Men who were headed backstage spotted my son dressed as Woody and came over and surprised him. He was thrilled and still talks about it regularly.

 

[sorahl1]

It's predictable b ut I love it. I always wear one of my Jungle Book shirts (with Baloo on ofcourse) when I know i'll run in to Baloo. He loves it. makes a huge deal about it, usually takes me (a 47 year old guy with Ears on) walking up and down the line waiting to meet him to show everyone).

 

[jimilla]

This goes back some years but we still talk about it today:

Back when the Parade used to stop and allow kids to dance with it, I had this idea that we could see the Parade twice if we 1. Watched it close by the entrance to the Train Station in Frontierland and 2. Right before the last float we hopped on the train, road it around to the Main Street Station.

So that is what we did.

Belle was waving to children like she always does, but I would have sworn she looked directly at my daughter and showed a sign of recognition the second time.

I turned to my cousin and said - she's looking at my daughter and waving right to her. His response was something like "yea...with all the kids her she picked out your daughter... she just waving to everyone."

The next morning we had Breakfast in Cindy's castle and her comes the same Belle, she literately sits down next to my daughter and says "...didn't I see you twice during the parade..."

We explained what we did, and she says "it's the funniest thing, I thought to myself when I saw her the second time, imagine if there twin sisters and they didn't know the other was here..."

Anyway this was when my daughter was like 6 or 7 and she is 16 now and still remembers it.

 

[MississippiMom]

Today we witnessed the interaction. As we were leaving the Pinocchio themed counter service restaurant in Magic Kingdom, we noticed Cinderella's stepmother and stepsisters wandering about (like they were up to something). They pulled a nearby little girl over and asked her if she could clean and cook for them. Super cute! The parents were caught off guard, and weren't camera ready. So the CMs just kept the casual question and answer session going with their daughter until they took some pics. Very fun!

 

[wdwjeffc37]

This year at the beginning if June we were in Tomorrowland when Stitch came out for a M&G. My 11 year old DD got in line yo see him (he is her favorite character) but she decided after a few minutes that she really wasn't feeling well and went and sat down on a bench. Well, when Stitch was leaving he saw her sitting there (I think he noticed her getting out of line) and came over and sat on her lap and gave her a big hug. Then he grabbed her drink bottle and started to walk off with it. His "friend" had to fuss at him to make him bring it back. It was fun and funny.

 

[rymahoney]

My daughter on our trip in January was dressed as belle. We went to see gaston. He did his normal belle will you marry me? My daughter said no. Gaston proceeded to lock arms with her walk her to his tavern and show her everything she could have. Than walked her to the front of the water fountain for pics and more begging to marry him. Then walked her back where we came from. She was embarrassed. Probably 25 people following us and the photo pass guy was freaking out saying it was the best thing he had seen since working there. She still embarrassed to talk about it today. Good stuff.

 

[SillySallySews]

Our trip last month was full of spontaneous magic. Snow walked up to us on Main St. minutes after we got into the MK one day. Aladdin rode the carpets with us. Merida gave my son a lesson with the bow and arrow. On our last day we had breakfast at Ohana and Mickey grabbed my daughter and held her hand while they skipped around the restaurant in the little parade they have. And it wasn't just the characters, the magic was everywhere for us on this trip. I think a lot of it is just luck because we've never had any if that happen to us before, but we've seen most of it happen to others.

 

[Cadenza]

So funny that so many spontaneous magical moments involve Peter Pan... mine does as well...

When we were in WDW last month, we spotted Lady Tremaine tucked away in a corner having a meet & greet, with only one person meeting with her when we rolled up. While we were chatting with her, Peter crashed our meet up, making fun of her and saying that she could be his new mother. It was so hilarious, and the awesome CM we had asked to take pictures for us captured the magic!

 

[BuzzinDownToDisney]

That is awesome! I love all the Peter Pan stories as he's my little guy's favorite behind Buzz.

 

[wendybeth75]

Absolutely, and it's one of my most favorite memories to date.

It was back in December, and I was there with my aunt, sister, and nieces. It was still fairly early in the morning after park open, and we had just gotten off Peter Pan's Flight. We were walking through the Tangled restroom area towards Liberty Square, and HELLO...there were Peter Pan and Wendy looking for Pascal. So, we decided to join them and spent a good 10 minutes just having fun. Nobody else was around. Peter and Wendy then happily told my nieces to skip behind them towards their M&G spot, got them to sing I'm A Little Teapot and swore them in as Lost Girls for life. No plans, no fastpasses, no schedule. Just a pure spur of the moment magic.

I love this!! This is why I love Disney so very much!

 

[andyman8]

I've occasionally caught characters walking to/from their meeting location.

The characters schedules and FP+ reservations don't bother me that much. What kills me is ADRs. They drive me up a wall! Trying to decide where I want to eat lunch 6 months in advance is borderline ridiculous, particularly for someone who doesn't usually plan that far out though I guess Disney is accomplishing its goal as I'm starting to do just that to get in to some of the more popular restaurants.

 

[BuzzinDownToDisney]

I posted this in a dining forum but it fits here as well. Most character meals we had done were simply meet character, get pictures, quick hug or handshake. Nice but not over the top.

Then we encountered Chip and Dale at Garden Grill. On our last visit my wife was 7 months pregnant and when she stood up to hug Chip he freaked out when he saw her belly, made her sit back down and began massaging her head. Dale saw this and came running over and started fanning her with a napkin, and then it turned into a full competition for her affection. From offering her soda till she sipped it through the straw, to wiping her brow, to fanning her with her mister. It was so much fun.

Then the spontaneous happened, we were walking past later in the day and they came running out full speed having just "stolen" someone's hat, saw us and ran over to do the routine all over and tried to "insist" I carry her the rest of the day. Those 2 fur balls earned a huge spot in our heart that day.

 

[1stvisit0909]

Was talking to my cousin before about our trip and he said something to the effect of "Yeah but now that you have to schedule exactly where and when a character will be, there's nothing spontaneous about going to the parks anymore." I can see people feeling that way, as there was nothing better as a kid than turning a corner and BAM! there's the mouse, however knowing WDW it seems there are opportunities for some magic all around. Just curious from anyone who's been there since they started set times/locations for character M&Gs if you've still had any spontaneous memories created? (Also the board's been a bit gloomy today, need a cheerful thread )

Yep. We took a wrong turn at EPCOT after grappling FP for Soarin on our way to test track. Ran into Mickey, Minnie and Pluto. Arms open was Minnie, running to my dd. Pics in my trip report.

 

[mare1203]

They do have some set times they come out, but I absolutely LOVE the character performers at DHS. There are a variety of zany characters and they are usually on sunset boulevard. They do a bunch of different shows, but on their way to and from the site they will play with guests. During the mornings and middle of the day, you can also find them roaming around playing with guests. They're great at the guest interaction and one of my favorite things to experience while I'm at DHS.

You can also have some wonderful random interactions with the players on Main Street, especially in the mornings. The mayor is usually out along with a variety of other characters who will take pictures and play with guests. I just love mornings at MK for this reason.

 

[lauraleh]

This is one of my favorite all time moments at WDW! We were visiting the princesses just before they went on break so as we moved along the line, so did they. It was so fun to get a picture of all three of them with my baby girl!

 

[dchronister]

After several trips to Disney, we had really only experienced the normal M&Gs, occasionally a CM would deliver some magic, but nothing that really stands out in memory, till this last trip anyway. We were there the 2nd week in Dec, we were in AK, on a Tuesday, I think, anyway, we arrived about 9:30 or so and we went into Camp Mickey first so my DN6 could meet some characters. We got in line to meet Pocahantas, and we were chatting between ourselves, there were 7 of us, a lot of chatting, and some cutting up, anyway, we got to talking to a CM as we got closer to meeting her and out of the blue, he ask if we wanted to be in the parade at 3. And as I knew this parade would soon come to an end, I said yes, the other people in my party were like, I don't know, we may not be in this park that long, I overrode everyone and said "yes, we will be there". We show up at assigned time and place, got our outfits. They take us back there, and guess what, we were on Mickeys float. Mickey came around shortly and we were talking with him and we got Mickey to dance for us, yes, Mickey did the crump. It was great. All time best Disney moment ever for us. Oh, and then we rode on the mickey float through the Parade. I may never get anymore Disney magic, but I have the memory of Mickey doing the crump. I wish I had a pic, but they wont let you take any back there. Anyway, it was awesome.

 

[disnut8]

Was talking to my cousin before about our trip and he said something to the effect of "Yeah but now that you have to schedule exactly where and when a character will be, there's nothing spontaneous about going to the parks anymore."
I can see people feeling that way, as there was nothing better as a kid than turning a corner and BAM! there's the mouse, however knowing WDW it seems there are opportunities for some magic all around. Just curious from anyone who's been there since they started set times/locations for character M&Gs if you've still had any spontaneous memories created? (Also the board's been a bit gloomy today, need a cheerful thread )

Back from the July 4th weekend. Went out to Rafiki's Planet Watch and expected to see some exhibits and pet some goats and pigs. Walked up to the Conservation Station and had a Cast Member extolling all children and adults to come up and dance with Chip and Dale! And they came out and the dance started. No one had been standing around waiting before then, there was no queue. I'm sure it was planned because the same thing happened when we left (we pet the goats and the pigs a looooooong time) but the kids (and adults) loved it both times.

 

[DisUniversal]

I heard that in the not so distant future, you'll be able to reserve spontaneity up to 60 days in advance using MDE.