Magical Character Moments

Thursday, January 20, 2011

Last September, I met a bunch of friends for a day at Disneyland. One of the first rides we rode with our children was the King Arthur Carousel. As soon as we got off, and we all strapped our babies back into the strollers , we all witnessed something very magical. 
A little girl was dressed like Mary Poppins, and she was being escorted by the real Mary Poppins and Bert for a ride together. I've heard stories about character going on rides every once in a while, but this was the first time witnessing it. 
Now even though I wasn't directly apart of that magic, the magic did effect me. I walked away with such a happy feeling, just witnessing something like that was magical for me too. As a child once, I could feel the excitement that little girl must be having, and as a parent I could feel the excitement of my child getting to go on a ride with her favorite character. It's these random personal interactions that make Disney so great.
Although we haven't had a ride with any characters, we do have our fair share of stories seeing characters around the park. On one magical day as we were leaving, Geppetto came up to my son and feed him some water with his sippy cup. My son giggled, and then gave Geppetto some water. Geppetto pretended to drink the water, and then gave it back to my son. That may not seem like much, but trust me it left quite a great memory with me. 

This morning the Internet is all a buzz about Disney enforcing a new rule that characters will no longer be allowed to roam, and they will be forced to stay in Photo Pass (A Disney photographer will take your picture, hand you a card with a number, and you can purchase your photos online at home) locations. 
 If the rumor is true, that will be a sad sad day for Disneyland. 
I hope Disney can change their mind and let the magical moments continue to grow.
What was that saying? ... "Let the Memories Begin".

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