There’s excellent news about Walt Disney World character experiences, as extra are returning to Magic Kingdom this month and in February 2023. Here we’ll cowl what’s coming again, Genie+ Lightning Lane additions, plus commentary about causes, implications and what’s nonetheless lacking.
Let’s begin with the excellent news, as a few meet & greets quietly returned to Magic Kingdom over the weekend. Back in Storybook Circus, the Meet Daring Disney Pals as Circus Stars at Pete’s Silly Side Show is now again. That means the meet & greets for Daisy Fortuna and Minnie Magnifique (on one aspect) and the Astounding Donaldo and his daring stuntman pal the Great Goofini (on the opposite aspect) have reopened. These are glorious, under-the-radar meet & greets, with enjoyable Easter Eggs within the queue and funky costumes–glad they’re lastly again!
The oblique reason for that is probably the conclusion of get together season at Magic Kingdom. Since August 12 of final yr, Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party and Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party pulled a variety of performers to these onerous ticket occasions. That was an enormous a part of why Town Square Theater and Princess Fairytale Hall noticed wait occasions spike and Lightning Lane stock lower–these events had important staffing necessities, and useful resource reallocation in consequence.
Keeping the momentum going, Walt Disney World has introduced that the final two main character experiences will return within the subsequent month.
First, Ariel’s Grotto will reopen January 22, 2023. This is the Little Mermaid meet & greet, with a location carved out close to the exit of the Under The Sea ~ Journey of the Little Mermaid attraction in Fantasyland.
Following that, the Enchanted Tales with Belle will reopen February 19, 2023.
For those that are unfamiliar with it, Enchanted Tales with Belle is an elaborate character expertise (for lack of a greater time period) in New Fantasyland. When this attraction debuted a few decade in the past, it was much-maligned by Walt Disney World followers, a lot of whom criticized it as a waste of house or had been disillusioned that it wasn’t a darkish experience.
It’s protected to imagine a lot of these critics don’t have young children. For our half, we’ve been huge followers of Enchanted Tales with Belle since day one. While solely children and their dad and mom are prone to love the substance of the expertise, everybody can be impressed by the expertise utilized and parts of the storytelling.
Personally, I feel Enchanted Tales with Belle is a superb evolution of meet & greets–I simply want it higher blended the character element and storytelling with a little bit of humor. (Similar to the Frozen Sing-Along, which works on totally different ranges.) Enchanted Tales with Belle is nice for its audience, however not fairly nearly as good for all ages because it might be. (And adults essentially can be within the viewers, since children don’t go to Walt Disney World sans dad and mom.)
The Ariel’s Grotto meet & greet and Enchanted Tales with Belle will each be added as Lightning Lane alternatives to the Genie+ service on their respective reopening dates. This can be along with the standby strains, which each character experiences may even supply.
This makes the already loaded Lightning Lane lineup at Magic Kingdom even higher. It’s already far and away the most effective park for the paid FastPass service at Walt Disney World, which is owing to higher capability than every other park–and at a greater variety of sights. (Still not so good as Disneyland, however the one Walt Disney World park that’s even remotely shut.)
It has been some time for the reason that FastPass+ days and lots has clearly modified since. To the most effective of my recollection, each Ariel’s Grotto and Enchanted Tales with Belle had been medium-priority FP+ alternatives. My preliminary guess is that the identical will maintain true for Lightning Lanes.
We’ll replace our Magic Kingdom Genie+ Lightning Lane Rankings shortly after Ariel’s Grotto and Enchanted Tales with Belle return, however my intestine response is that each of those must be slotted above Princess Fairytale Hall. These are each decrease capability and better demand than these devoted princess meet & greets. (Town Square Theater additionally wants a downgrade in these rankings–that has fallen in precedence since get together season ended.)
All of those are comparatively important developments that would bode nicely for each different meet & greets and character eating experiences. As has been famous in different posts on just a few events, Walt Disney World has been experiencing a ‘princess shortage.’ This is one huge motive why meals with face characters–Akershus, 1900 Park Fare, Bon Voyage Breakfast, and even the conventional Cinderella’s Royal Table–have been sluggish to return.
While casting necessities range, we’re nonetheless a bit shocked that the above meet & greets would return earlier than increasing meal companies on the aforementioned eating places. The latter straight generate income, whereas the previous are extra supporting gamers, for lack of a greater time period. They’re not devoted meet & greet places, simply places in Magic Kingdom the place characters have traditionally appeared.
There’s extra excellent news for these hoping to see the still-shuttered eating places or lacking meal companies return. Disney Programs introduced final week that the long-awaited return of character performer roles has returned to the Disney College Program.
Applications are actually open for these character performer position auditions. However, Disney College Program contributors received’t be in these positions till the Fall 2023 season. Obviously, that’s a great distance off–that means there’s no instant reduction from College Program contributors. (In equity, that’s most likely concerning the time they’ll be urgently wanted–proper across the time MNSSHP and MVMCP return once more.)
Finally, let’s check out the leisure that was eliminated for the official Walt Disney World web site just a few months in the past:
Animal Kingdom
- Pandora Drummers – Swotu Wayä
- Pandora Rangers
EPCOT
- British Revolution
- Jeweled Dragon Acrobats
- Serveur Amusant
Hollywood Studios
- Citizens of Hollywood
- Jedi Training Academy
- Jingle Bell, Jingle BAM!
- Star Wars: A Galactic Spectacular
- Voyage of the Little Mermaid
Magic Kingdom
- Citizens of Main Street
- Main Street Trolley Show
- Meet Alice in Wonderland on the Mad Tea Party
- Meet Gaston at his Tavern
- Meet Tinker Bell at Town Square Theater
Ultimately, it’s nice information that extra Magic Kingdom meet & greets are being restored. This will carry the park near regular as in comparison with pre-closure, not less than by way of character experiences. Ariel’s Grotto and Enchanted Tales with Belle had been two actually huge ones.
However, there’s nonetheless extra to be restored to hit 100% at Walt Disney World. Based on credible rumors we’ve heard, a few of that is by no means coming again. Some reveals and leisure acts will probably obtain oblique replacements or reimagined successors. Others are probably simply gone for good, with no replacements (direct or oblique) contemplated.
Our hope is that that is one factor that Walt Disney World administration revisits within the months to come back whereas evaluating methods to enhance the visitor expertise. Reducing leisure, characters, and streetmosphere is short-term pondering for a enterprise unit that must be extra fixated on long-term well being. It’s as if Walt Disney World is teetering on the precipice of insolvency, at the same time as the corporate boasts about how per-guest spending is hitting report highs.
Charging extra and providing much less could be one technique to obtain short-term targets, however there are definitely long-term destructive penalties to that strategy. This has been our perspective every time leisure has been lower for the final 5+ years, nevertheless it feels well timed to reiterate at the same time as characters are being restored, as the corporate is actively in search of methods to undo a few of the previous harm proper now. Walt Disney World persevering with to revive leisure is a superb repair that will enhance goodwill and visitor satisfaction, whereas demonstrating to followers that administration “gets” what makes the parks particular.
Planning a Walt Disney World journey? Learn about inns on our Walt Disney World Hotels Reviews web page. For the place to eat, learn our Walt Disney World Restaurant Reviews. To get monetary savings on tickets or decide which kind to purchase, learn our Tips for Saving Money on Walt Disney World Tickets put up. Our What to Pack for Disney Trips put up takes a singular take a look at intelligent objects to take. For what to do and when to do it, our Walt Disney World Ride Guides will assist. For complete recommendation, the most effective place to start out is our Walt Disney World Trip Planning Guide for the whole lot it’s essential to know!
YOUR THOUGHTS
What do you consider these Enchanted Tales with Belle and Ariel’s Grotto reopening in Magic Kingdom? Are you optimistic or pessimistic about WDW restoring “temporarily unavailable” leisure as performer availability improves, or suppose that’s irrelevant? Think the character performer roles returning to the College Program bodes nicely for extra being restored (e.g. Seven Dwarfs) to Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party and Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party? Worried that Walt Disney World may by no means get again to 100% by way of leisure? Any questions we might help you reply? Hearing your suggestions–even once you disagree with us–is each fascinating to us and useful to different readers, so please share your ideas under within the feedback!