"Street" Entertainment

[tinkerbear]

Just got back from a long weekend at Disney Having visited many many times, this time we decided to just go into the parks for the "atmosphere." We got a times guide in each park and wanted to hit the "extra" entertainment that when in a hurry, we often skip. We were really disappointed!!!
In MK - What happened to Sword and the Stone every day? We were there on the weekend, and there was not one showing. THe day we went the park was open to 12:00 am, but no Sword show.
Also, the Tomorrowland theater, is it ever used??? The character shows they used to have in there were great.
Can anyone remember when they used to do a "street" show in Frontierland??? Many years ago.
In EPCOT - It seemed like many of the performers in world showcase were missing. In the past I remember Off Kilter playing daily, as well as street magicians/comedians in France, Voices of Liberty in America, Live Statues in Italy, A band at the Outback area and in Morocco. This past weekend, the only things we found were the band in Mexico, Brittish Invasion in England and the Drums in Japan. Why is American Gardens Theater often empty???

Is it just me or does it seem like Disney is doing away with the "extras"

 

[peter11435]

Those things were never done 7 day weeks. Very few people are willing to work 7 days a week. There is still a ton of those little extras going on you just need to know when they are. Many of them are not listed on the times guide. I suggest you check this site for future reference. http://pages.prodigy.net/stevesoares/

As for the American Gardens theater. It has always been like that. It was only intended to be a facilty for special events such as during the Flower and Garden Festivel, the Food and Wine Festivel, Candlelight, and other smaller things such as the Epcot World Music tour.

 

[DisMN]

I tend to agree with you that there's far less street entertainment than there used to be.
Really disappointing......we were there 10 days in January and noticed a huge lack of things going on, little concerts, quick comedy routines, living statues. You know how you used to find these clusters of people watching a 5 minute show of some sort? We never ran into that this time.

Many of our favorites have gone by the wayside, never to be replaced, or replaced by far inferior "entertainment".

LOL I'm whiney today.

 

[peter11435]

We never ran into that this time.

Just because you didn't see it doesn't mean it wasn't there.

 

[DisMN]

Just because you didn't see it doesn't mean it wasn't there.

Actually, that's exactly what I did mean.

There was far less street entertainment than ever on this last trip. It's a trend we've been watching for the past 5 or so years....each trip we can count on there being one less wonderful creative group working to entertain us at the parks, whether it's at Epcot, MGM or somewhere else.

 

[dreamscometrue47]

We were at Ecpot in January on a Tuesday and we saw what I thought was a lot of street entertainment. I had checked out Steve Soares site ahead of time so I had a pretty good idea of how we wanted to tour. We saw Off Kilter, the WS players in the UK, acrobats in China, Japanese drummers, Mexican band, Norway band and dancers, the band at the Outback area, the comedian/waiter I think in Italy, fife and drum corps and Voices of Liberty at American Adventure. So we were really pleased. We also ran into the Jammitors outside of Mission Space another day.

In MK, we saw the Dapper Dans, the Casey Corner's pianist, and the flag retreat. And yes, we did see the Hoe-down in Frontierland outside of Country Bears in the afternoon! At MGM, we saw two skits of the Hollywood Public Works guys.

So we were actually happy that things worked out well for us because after so many visits, we did want to see these things.

 

[Azure]

Most of those shows and places etc don't operate everyday. At the front gate they should have a times guide. If you look at that it should tell you when the shows etc are. Though, the times will vary during the different seasons i'm pretty sure. So during the busier seasons like the peak seasons they will show it more than at slower times.

 

[Belle1111]

Two of our favorite "extras":

Watching and following "Devine" at the Animal Kingdom. We love to watch her surprise people.

Also, when we were at Epcot my three kids sat and watched a guy in the Africa Outpost make wooden animals for about 30 minutes. I was amazed that they were that into it, but I didn't want to rush them.

 

[Simba's Mom]

One thing I've really noticed is the severe decrease in live entertainment at WDW over the last several years. I recently found an entertainment brochure from Epcot from about 7 years ago. Yes, there was a time that there was so much live entertainment that there was a separate park map. It listed 29 different acts in Epcot. Recently, I checked Steve Soars site and found about 2/3 that many. Remember World Class Brass? The Acrobats in Morocco (in addition to the ones in China)? The Italian Singers? The Alpine Trio (in addition to the Octoberfest Band in Biergarten) in Germany in the Courtyard? And how about the Main Street Marching Band? Future Corps? Recently the Living Statues-what replaced them? The Marimba band in Mexico (that was in addition to the Mariachi band). I'm probably overly upset, but DS used to work for Disney parks Entertainment, so I really notice the decrease.