As a matter of fact, Michele and I were discussing this very thing, more or less, over on my TR thread a couple of weeks ago or so, when the dreaded subject of the Haunted Manson Holiday provoked some folks to take it so personally. Heaven forbid some of us actually LIKE the HMH - it is somehow viewed as a personal insult.
The HMH thread started to get heated so I escaped and came over to my TR for peace! Disney is going to do what they want to do, whether we like it or not. They have made some GREAT additions and changes, and they have made some mistakes or missteps along the way. But what is done is done and that's that.
Clearly, I am old enough where that I became familiar with the original Small World decades ago. I mean, those pictures you saw of me at DL when I was 4 in 1972 - I went on Small World on that same trip. And I came out of it singing in (what I thought was) French, but was really just 4-year-old faux French!
I grew up riding it on every trip up until probably the early '90s. For all intents and purposes, I should be a 100% purist. But I am not. I was tired of the ride. I was bored with it. Frankly it had dropped off the 'must-do' list at
Disneyland for many trips....UNTIL the Holiday version opened up. That gave us a new reason to go on it. And now that there are little Disney characters (in the form of dolls) to look for, I
want to go on it again. The additions have breathed new life into a ride that was only interesting at Christmas! My only hope is that they don't skip the holiday overlay this year because they want to showcase the new additions throughout 2009. I am afraid they may do that.
I know there are some folks who are probably resistant to the IASW holiday overlay too - though how could you be? It is so pretty that it seems it would win over even the most diehard purist. But some folks really seem to take it
personally that a few character/dolls have been added to the ride and I don't understand that, just as they take it so personally that the Haunted Mansion gets its yearly overlay (let's cross our fingers for a 2009 HMH overlay). It is just something different to do to an old favorite to perk it up a bit and make it interesting. It is not, as Michele said, a life-altering event! To me, the 'message' of the IASW ride that people keep talking about is the same. I think the integrity of the ride will stay intact. I think Disney did the right thing because the ride was boring and dated, and they NEEDED to infuse new life into it to attract people of all ages back on it during the other non-holiday months of the year.
Bottom line is, Disney
needs to keep a lot of things the same AND they need to change a lot of things, and they need to do both seamlessly and without a major disruption. It is hard to accomplish all of that without ruffling feathers of both camps. I, too, have questioned some of the changes that are coming for DCA and wonder why they didn't do other things instead,
but it is not personally offensive to me and I am keeping an open mind about the ones I am iffy about, while I am
very excited for some of the other changes and additions. They are not making the changes to please or displease ME, so I just have to roll with it and adapt and when everything in DCA is up and running, I am SURE I will like it! It is not going to affect my life in any way!
That has to be one of the best ways I have heard of someone being proposed to at DLR! Not only is it amazing that he managed to keep your entire family quiet about it (and thank God you said YES to the proposal or the rest of the trip would have been awkward, to say the least!!), but how did he keep you from seeing that the caricature artist was drawing out "Will You Marry Me?" Where did he have that done - in Downtown Disney? I think I have seen the caricature people around DLH but I can't recall if I have seen them anywhere else. I want to get one done - even though mine won't be as cool or as memorable as yours was.
When the girl was drawing us out and everything Eric wasn't smiling and he was very silent. I kept saying "smile! I don't want her drawing a grumpy face!" People kept passing by, smiling, and saying 'awww.' I was a little confused and just smiled back or said thanks because I thought they were looking at how cute she was drawing us. Then after she was done, she turned it around and it read "will you marry me?" and I was confused. The first thing I thought was "crap, I can't bring this home. My dad's gonna be so pissed. Why did she write that?" Then I turn around and Eric is on his knee. A big group showed up and all I could say is "oh my god" so this man standing by came up to me and said "you're going to say yes, right?" and I said "of course!" So thats why it says it on the drawing. The man & his wife wanted to take a picture of us for some reason, so we let them. 
This trip will be my first trip with braces!! So NO caramel apples! NOOO! 
He did such an amazing job. I was so floored. He is so damn awesome! I'm so glad you enjoyed reading about it!
