Originally Posted By gurgitoy2 I guess the thing that gets me about the Princess thing is that it will be inside Disneyland. At WDW it's at the World of Disney store, so you don't have to pay park admission to get the makeover. They just charge you at the store. However, at Disneyland you will have to pay admission, and then be charged an arm and a leg for the makeover. I think that's very bad show, and it might cause people to have a bad reaction to it. Some people already feel fleeced going to Disneyland, this is not going to help...
Originally Posted By Jim in Merced CA ^^True that. And you know it won't be $5.00 make-overs, it'll be $24.95 which will include, hair, make-up, constume -- plus a manicure and pedicure, and a pep talk from Belle on how to be a strong young lady or something. Blecch. It reminds me of that dinner show that used to play at Aladdin's Oasis. 'Come see the dinner show -- $24.95' Sure, it includes dinner and a show, but it's an awful lot of $$ for inside the park. Ah well -- to each his own, right?
Originally Posted By stagemomx3 I just keep thinking that Club Libby Lu has got to be upset about this, since they've been doing the "princess" make-overs" in DTD. I have to imagine this is going to hurt their business.
Originally Posted By LuLu I agree that it should NOT be inside the park. And I think the prices start at more than $25 - at WDW the top package is "$175 and up"! Imagine the family waiting around for hours while little sis gets "turned into a princess." I admit, I don't like the whole Bibbidy Bobbidy Boo-tique concept anyway, talk about overindulging your kids, and taking away any need to develop their own imagination...
Originally Posted By AladdinAZ I appreciate that Al gives us an insight of things to come. That's one thing that I like to hear about, future possible things to come in DL. Whether they come to pass, plans are always subject to change, but just to hear about these possible changes is fun. And yes, he does give insight as to some of the challenges too. And that's good to set a course for discussion about those issues, too. Some prefer just the "happy" stories, but I also like when AL exposes some of the "mistakes" and problems at DL. And when mistakes and problems occur at DL, DL ought to be called on it, not simply ignore those issues. Force fitting BBB into the Fantasyland theater really appears to be a big mistake. Turning a theater, the only one in Fantasyland, into just a meet and greet is definitely a mistake. As someone else pointed out, Festival Arena makes a lot more sense for this kind of a meet and greet/princess store. In fact, there is more than enough room in festival arena for both Jedi Academy and BBB. There simply is not enough room in Tomorrowland for Jedi Academy. Changing the FL Theater to a completely different kind of venue is nearly the same level of Pooh's destruction of the Country Bear Jamboree. Where as Festival Arena, you don't have the expense of removing permanent seating. With removing the seating from FL theater, you have really destroyed it from being useful for any other shows. completely idiotic.
Originally Posted By Jim in Merced CA <at WDW the top package is "$175 and up"> That is so grotesque on so many levels.
Originally Posted By berol Al didn't say no more shows in the theater nor that the seating wouldn't be returned. I have achieved a quadruple negative!
Originally Posted By ChiMike I know, but I can hope can't I? Having daughters, outside of a modest Halloween costume I would never spend money on this stuff. Its crazy what is appealing to folks.
Originally Posted By gurgitoy2 $175 and up?? That's crazy! Are there really that many people who would pay that? Well...it is in Orange County, so maybe there are. However, how many people are going to go in there and get sticker shock, or just not be able to afford it? It's just bad that there will be something at Disneyland that a lot of people/kids can't do because they're priced out of it. I hope this concept dies a dog's death (but not the way they're doing it in China!)
Originally Posted By Dabob2 <That is so grotesque on so many levels.> Boy howdy. And I agree; repurposing the theatre makes no sense, unless it's temporary. This would be a better fit in the WOD store.
Originally Posted By ChiMike >>$175 and up?? That's crazy!<< What's even more crazy is relate that to admission prices. If that's the going rate for dress-up, how much should a year of Disneyland admission be worth? Makes you think they could raise admission without much flinching.
Originally Posted By LuLu >>$175 and up?? That's crazy! Are there really that many people who would pay that? << Well, at WDW recently, we saw many of these little "princesses" with their coifed hair, "subtle" makeup, and full costumes. To me, they looked kinda creepy. The dress alone was like $60, add in $20 for shoes, another 15 or so for purse and gloves, design-your-own crowns that could add up to maybe $25, and then your "makeover"... yeah, I found it pretty ridiculous. If they have to do it (and I'm $ure they do!) it should certainly be outside the parks.
Originally Posted By fkurucz >>$175 and up?? That's crazy! Are there really that many people who would pay that? Well...it is in Orange County, so maybe there are.<< I think that that they are targetting the well heeled tourists who are paying $300 a night to stay in the GC. Its not a lrge demographic, but then I don't think that they are expecting every little girl in the line to get the works.
Originally Posted By pleddy36 I can hear it now. "Daddy, I want a Princess make-over" "No, it's too expensive" "Please, Daddy!" "No" "I want to be a Princess!!! WHAAAAAAAAAAAA"
Originally Posted By avromark pleddy as long as it's your daughter. I hate spreadsheet and powerpoint executives, I miss hands on, these guys started selling churro executives. I hope Grier does work out. The problem I find is it's easy to mess up, but so hard to recover.
Originally Posted By BlueOhanaTerror I hate to ask it, but I wonder what Walt would think of this? It's a very big step up from selling Coonskin caps and pop guns, especially when the whole rigamarole is such a thinly veiled attempt to squeeze more cash out of Joe Cow.
Originally Posted By gadzuux I'm as against this whole idea as anybody, but if they decided to not do the princess thing, what else is left as part of the "year of a million dreams?" Apart from passing out a few freebies to a handful of guests, it doesn't appear that there's much else that's tangible to this whole year-long promotion. Sure, there's the star wars thing, but that doesn't sound like much more than the dreadful 'buzz show' that they ran for awhile over on the TL stage - hardly enough to build a marketing campaign around. From what we hear, it's going to be pretty much the same fireworks show (probably dialed down a notch or two). the same parade, and the same fantasmic. So what's this promotion all about, anyway? Don't get me wrong, I'm perfectly fine with the idea of not having some marketing theme at all times, but the marketing is 'supposed' to support the park - not the other way around. In this case, it seems like this campaign is actually to the detriment of the park. It doesn't tie-in with the projects already underway that will debut during this promotion - specifically 'nemo subs' and the monorail. And it doesn't appear that they're intending to ADD anything to the park to support it. Instead their plan is to tale existing attraction infrastructure and turn it into a meet greet and merch location, in a misguided attempt to create a new revenue stream. That's bad enough on it's own, but as others have already pointed out, this particular plan would only appeal to a narrow segment of guests, yet there's a broad swath of guests that it would actually offend - both due to the very real perception of gouging the guests and of aiding and abetting conspicuous overindulgence of children. "Make-overs" of little girls? This went out with jonbenet ramsey. It IS creepy, just on it's own merits. Throw in the insane pricepoints, the time commitment required to participate, and it's displacement of a showspace designed to entertain thousands - the entire concept is bankrupt of creativity and 'show'. The best we can hope for now is that someone within TDA with some taste and influence will put the kibosh on this entire idea before it ever gets off the ground. But then we're back to the earlier problem of a year-long marketing promotion with practically nothing tangible about it. I'm starting to understand why matt chose to bail out when he did.
