Limited Time Magic #2 - Another Dud (ruminations and suggestions)

Disney today announced the second Limited Time Magic offering at WDW (the followup to the largely irrelevant "Bling in the New Year" dance party in Tomorrowland). This time it's a Winter Wonderland in Canada! 

Didn't we just see Donald in winter outfit and a winter landscape (Christmas tree lot) at the upcharge Christmas parties? This isn't very special.

Plus, it's going to be like 85 degrees this weekend. I'm not even kidding. It's that hot in Orlando in mid-January this year. Part of me wants to see what they do with that!

Disney World has had two chances, and two strikes so far. Third strike and you're out?

There just isn't a lot of imagination going into this. The CONCEPT of limited magic is not that bad. They could do any number of things in these categories:

1. Characters we never see (Tod and Copper, Gurgi, Cinderella mice, Zazu) as walkarounds. There are literally hundreds they could choose from.
2. Things that USED to be in the parks but aren't anymore. Disneyland got Golden Horseshoe back briefly. So far, WDW has gotten nothing. They could do this with very little budget. Change the TTA soundtrack back. Put the cake castle on the projector full time every evening. 
3. Tweak the park experience. I can name, with literally no thought, a bunch of low cost things to do. Make Space Mountain totally black for a week; no lights. Or another week with lights ON! How about Peter Pan with audio from the movie rather than the usual ride audio - maybe just songs on repeat? What if they changed all the TTA PeopleMover lightbulbs to be bright orange for a week?

Alas, what we've gotten instead displays no creativity whatsoever. The New Year party fits into a category called "New Atmosphere Acts" which could sound cool if only they were actually interesting. The Winter Wonderland is a category I will call "Steal from Private Parties" - meaning they use costumes and decorations they already own and everyone sees once a year anyway.

It's supposed to be limited time MAGIC, not limited time BUSINESS AS USUAL.

Of course, they could always think big. Why not install meet and greets with the various Star Wars characters (which they now own)... there must be 52 of those, one per week!

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Kevin Yee is the author of numerous independent Disney books, including the popular Walt Disney World Earbook series and Walt Disney World Hidden History.