I went to the Magic Kingdom here in Orlando last Saturday. My reason for going was that a new attraction, "Stitch's Great Escape", opened last week, in place of "Extra-terror-estrial Alien Encounter" (which itself took the place of "Mission to Mars" some years back). Those of you familiar with "Alien Encounter" need not make a special trip to see "Stitch's Great Escape". It's 85% the same attraction. They've just replaced the scary winged alien with a cute furry one, and the theme of the attraction shifted from X-S Technology trying to sell you a transporter to the Galactic Federation using a transporter to put naughty aliens in prison until they turn nice. Same escape mechanism, same breathing down your neck and pressing on your shoulders effects. The best part of it is how at the end of the show, they use their tracking computer to pinpoint Stitch's location, and they zeroed right in on Orlando. Then they asked the kids to leave the attraction and keep their eyes peeled for Stitch.
But the main reason I went is that I saw on the Friday morning news that Cinderella's Castle had been toilet papered as a promotion for the new attraction's grand opening (Stitch being of the naughty persuasion, you know). Great giant streamers of TP were flying from the ramparts, and "hand-painted" on the side of the castle in enormous red letters, "Stitch is King".
So I show up on Saturday, and the castle is already cleaned up (and freshly painted, from the look of it). The reason is that they were taping the Christmas parade for the ABC Christmas morning special. I always knew they taped the parade in advance, in case of inclement weather on the day of the broadcast. What I didn't know was that they had the whole cast & crew there for the taping. I got to watch Regis and Kelly sitting on their dais with the castle in the background giving play-by-play, and Tom Bergeron, who is the host of
America's Funniest Home Videos and
Hollywood Squares, and played alien trader D'Marr in
Enterprise's "Oasis", was down on Main Street talking with parade watchers. They sent through one float at a time for taping, so the whole thing must have taken hours! The funny thing was, it was very cloudy on Saturday. I wonder how they'll fix that, maybe give George Lucas a call. They did have intensely bright lights shining on the parade route, so if they didn't catch the sky you'd think it was sunny.
After seeing Regis and Kelly there, it makes me wonder if they ever really show the parade live on 12/25. I can't imagine they'd fly them in to do all this taping, then make them come in again on the 25th, separating them from their families, to do it again live. And it's not like they need the money.
A bit of Disney trivia... The parade always starts around Town Square and heads up Main Street toward the castle, then off through Frontierland and out past Splash Mountain. But when they're taping it for broadcast, it runs in reverse. That's so the castle can be in the background as the parade is coming toward the camera down Main Street.
lswot
