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Toon Circus Parade Premier
Next in the lineup is the quite lovely
Hyacinth the Hippo and her wonderful Trapeze Ballet. She really is the
star of the show and deserves her 'Center Ring' position.
Last but not least comes the Boxing Ring
with Goofy as the main attraction, we see him show his great strength
and sporting prowess. Kids join in the fun and try to lift weights with
the clowns.
Of course the show could not take place
without a ringmaster, and who else could that be but Mickey Mouse. He
introduces each of the acts and joins in with each of the shows.
All around the floats are jugglers,
acrobats, clowns and Disney characters who join in the fun.
When the acts have completed their show the
Circus parade sets off again on its merry way and leaves the park at
Town Square. The characters stay on Main Street for about ten minutes to
do a meet and greet session with the guests.
If the parade starts at Town Square, the
show again takes place on Main Street and then the parade moves through
the rest of the park without stopping and disappears in Fantasyland.
Overall I have to say that the parade and
show are quite good, there are lots of things to see - all accompanied
by some original 'Circus' themed versions of Disney classic songs.
There are a number of problems though with
"Toon Circus" as it is though.
First, the visitors who are not on Main
Street do not get to see the show. It's not clear in the guide map and
I'm sure people will be upset when the parade just passes them by.
During the show Main Street is packed with
people, which makes it difficult for small children to see if they are
towards the rear of the crowd. Please note that for this event, sitting
on the edge of the sidewalk is not allowed as the floats, bikes and cars
get very close to the edge.
The last problem is caused by the
'unwelcome' visitors who have taken it upon themselves to destroy some
of the special 'Toon Circus" decorations. Just
take a look at what they have managed to do during only one week of
previews...
They have pulled off the artwork on every
pole base; most of the 'stars' have been removed making a very untidy
sight. Disney could have course prevented this by painting them instead
of attaching paper cutouts, but they still have been vandalized by
guests. Quite shocking really, let's hope they fix this soon.
"Toon Circus" will be adapted and
changed over the next few weeks to fine tune the acts and make the
guests even happier. If you go to the park this summer make sure you see
it three times to take in all of the sections.
A "Toon Circus" Update!
Just after I wrote the story above I visited
the park again on the April 7th only to find that the parade and show
have already been revised. Rather than rewrite the story about the
premier I've added the following information to this report, which
details the changes:
The floats are now in the following order
for both parade directions:- Casey Jr. Train, Goofy's Boxing Ring and
Hyacinth's Trapeze. The floats now stop to do the performance with two
of them on Main Street and the other in Town Square. This increases the
number of people who can see each show, but on Main Street itself there
is less to see.
The Disney characters that take part now
only join in as the show starts; they no longer take part in the parade.
(So if you want to see them you have to position your group in the show
area.) At the premier the characters also stayed on Main Street after
the show to do a ten minute meet and greet session, now this no longer
happens. This was not supposed to be a special even for the premier as
it is stated in the press pack that it will be part of the show every
time. I think this feature has been removed for the safety of the
character cast members as Main Street is very crowded after the show and
they get mobbed by hundreds of guests.
The final change is the repairs they have
carried out on the pole bases along the parade route. They have all
received a very quick coat of red paint, that simply covers the damaged
'paper stars.'
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