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Ghoulish Delight
07-01-2002, 07:16 AM
There can be almost NOTHING happier than a little girl who stands in line to ride the Teacups, and the next thing she knows, she's sitting in a pink cup with herself, her mom, and...Alice!

Yesterday (6/30), we witnessed an special treat that was one of the coolest things I've ever seen at Disneyland. All the Alice in Wonderland characters (Alice, the Queen, the Rabbit, the Tweedles, and the Hatter) showed up at the Teacups, and rode! With guests! Well, actually, the Queen's dress filled an entire cup, so she had to ride alone, but everyone else rode with someone! Those were the luckiest kids in the park. What could make a trip to Disneyland more memorable! The characters were great. The Hatter, of course, was the life of the party. Everyone had a good time and that little girl with Alice had a smile from ear to ear.

Good to know they can still pull off some truly special things at the Happiest Place on Earth.

RStar
07-01-2002, 07:22 AM
G D- that's is great! It is nice to hear good things once in a while. Thanks for sharing!:D

Bob

mad4mky
07-01-2002, 08:19 AM
What a lucky little girl!! Great story....and I bet it was great to witness.


See...Magic Happens.;)

stinkerbell
07-01-2002, 08:55 AM
Oh, I have goosebumps! That would be so wonderful!

Rallymonkey23
07-01-2002, 08:59 AM
My daughter would just die!!! GD, did you notice if the characters rode a few times or just once??

Ghoulish Delight
07-01-2002, 09:04 AM
Originally posted by Rallymonkey23
My daughter would just die!!! GD, did you notice if the characters rode a few times or just once?? Just once. Could you ride the teacups more than once in a row?! In 40 lbs of costuming, no less :eek: ;)

Rallymonkey23
07-01-2002, 09:10 AM
Originally posted by Ghoulish Delight
Just once. Could you ride the teacups more than once in a row?! In 40 lbs of costuming, no less :eek: ;)

LOL. You have a good point GD. I was just wondering cause I would like my daughter to ride with a character...... I guess the "surprise!! you get to ride with a character!" thing is all a part of the magic. Oh well, maybe some day.

Ghoulish Delight
07-01-2002, 09:27 AM
I don't know that this happens very often. I certainly have never seen it in all my years as a guest. And FEJ mentioned to a friend who has been a CM for 25 years, and they had never heard of it happening. It would be great if they've decided to make it a daily ocurrance (it just ocurred to me that we should have popped into City Hall to say how great it was to encourage it), but if it's not, man am I glad we witnessed it!

Disney Nick
07-01-2002, 10:17 AM
Anyone else get the feeling it was for a promotional commercial??

cyberRoo
07-01-2002, 10:46 AM
I've seen the same thing happen at least once on the teacups, and also on the carousel, with even more characters.

I also wondered if it was for promotional reasons, but nary a camera or a suit in sight. It seems to just be an occasional cool thing that happens. :D

Ghoulish Delight
07-01-2002, 10:48 AM
Originally posted by NMoreles
Anyone else get the feeling it was for a promotional commercial?? Cynnical, are we? Nope. No cameras, no setup, no director, no hand picked riders. They just showed up, messed around with the ride operator for a bit, got in, let the next group of peopl in line on, took a ride, and left. If it were for a commercial, they did an excellent job of disguising it.

greinstein
07-01-2002, 11:00 AM
Several months ago, during an inservice school day, the same thing happeded while waiting for the teacups. Not only did the characters ride, but one of the Disneyland bands played live while the Characters rode. Alice picked a cup with a young girl and Mom to ride with. Smiles all around. Did not look to be anything exceptional. No special cameras, etc.. After the ride the characters and band went on with business.

But way cool to watch.

Bill Catherall
07-01-2002, 11:04 AM
That's very cool! I've seen Pluto riding Gadget's Go Coaster before too. He'd stay on for 2-3 rides, cover his eyes, raise his hands...really ham it up. It was really cute to see the kids that got to sit next to him. :D

tinkfreak
07-01-2002, 11:13 AM
I've heard of this happening from time to time. I remember many of the characters riding Splash Mountain also. It was always really cute.

Uncle Dick
07-01-2002, 11:21 AM
I've noticed that the Alice in Wonderland characters seem to have a lot of fun around the park. A few weeks ago, just after opening, they were playing "Red Rover" out in front of City Hall. That's the kind of stuff that's gotta make playing a character a whole lot of fun.

cstephens
07-01-2002, 11:42 AM
That's very cool. I remember seeing Chip, Dale and Mickey riding the Go Coaster, and the kid sitting next to Mickey was just so thrilled. I agree - it's a wonderful thing to see.

Cadaverous Pallor
07-01-2002, 12:23 PM
Just watching it was amazing!

We were passing the teacups when we noticed the characters were bugging the ride operator. "Are they going to have a ride?" we kept asking each other. They gestured towards the cups, and finally the operator sent them to grab a cup. (It was probably a set-up, where the operator knows in advance, but it make it look all the more impetuous. Very cool.) The Hatter yelled "I want YELLOW!!!" They each took their own cup, which kind of surprised me. After a moment of getting settled, they threw open the gates to the very lucky next round of guests. It was only when the characters opened their cup doors and beckoned to guests that we fully understood. All at the same time, our mouse-eared group went "Oooooohhh, they get to ride with the characters!" We all had the same wowed reaction.

So yeah, we HAD to stay and watch the fun. It doesn't get much better than that. There's something so gratifying watching characters "in their element".

TecTalker2K
07-01-2002, 01:20 PM
Guy in Vader suit: "This is my chest box that helps me breathe."
Triumph: "And which of these buttons calls your parents to pick you up?"

This was one of the funiest rotinesI have seen Conan do. =)

Not Afraid
07-01-2002, 01:29 PM
Here's some pics from the happening. It was really an incredible amount of fun to watch. When they got going, the Mad Hatter was spinning his teacup so fast he was giving Master Teacup Spinner, cemeinke a run for his money.

I remember commenting afterwards to Stan4dSteph's mom that "this is why we go to Disneyland so often - it's this kind of magic."

I've seen characters play like this on one other occasion. One Sunday morning at brunch I looked over to the RoA and Chip and Dale were both in a canoe with other guests paddeling about. What a treat that was!

So here's the pics:

http://www.linkline.com/personal/cemeinke/img/Teacups%201.jpg

http://www.linkline.com/personal/cemeinke/img/Teacups%202.jpg

MammaSilva
07-01-2002, 02:21 PM
That is so cool, this must be a new thing because while we were there last week we saw Mickey riding the Astro Orbitors with young riders, he rode several times before the assistant lead him off stage....and Goofy and Pluto were riding the Gadget coaster that same trip.....the only other time I saw something like that was several years ago Goofy rode the Gadget coaster with a friends grandson... those are memories that last forever.....

mad4mky
07-01-2002, 02:22 PM
I am glad you guys have pictures....REAL pictures.

We see pictures of them in the tea-cups all the time...you know, the ones on postcards, AAA Travel Books, etc....(ie: the set up ones for ads).

But these are REAL pictures....cool:cool: :D

Pony Sugrue
07-01-2002, 02:27 PM
Poor lonely Queen... "Naughty girls need love too" you know

Those costumed cast-members must be sweating like Roger Ebert under those suits. It's been pretty hot lately.

ChipmunkStar
07-01-2002, 09:53 PM
Here's the low-down. CHaracters are allowed to ride rides now YAY!

The ride operatos and leads have to be asked in advance, and then the characters can go on their "choice" of approved ride. The rules of the game? each character must ride with a guest (Chosen at complete random), and are only supposed to go on ONCE. So if you see someone ride with Mickey on the Astro-Orbiter, don't try to bribe the Cast Members to let your little one ride too.

It is a really nice touch for the guests, and it's nice to get a little playtime for the characters.

(Hopefully this will stay around forever. . . Let's hope no one abuses the system!!)

tinkfreak
07-01-2002, 11:04 PM
Originally posted by TecTalker2K
Guy in Vader suit: "This is my chest box that helps me breathe."
Triumph: "And which of these buttons calls your parents to pick you up?"

This was one of the funiest rotinesI have seen Conan do. =)


Waaaaaaaaa? I know what you're referring to, but what does that have to do with this????????

Cute pictures! Looks like they had alot of fun:) .

MickeyD
07-01-2002, 11:07 PM
Originally posted by tinkfreak


Waaaaaaaaa? I know what you're referring to, but what does that have to do with this????????

Cute pictures! Looks like they had alot of fun:) .

It's from Cadaverous Pallor's signature line. I'm guessing this is the thread the poster happened to notice it in.