Ranting and Raving: Thoughts on Limited Time Magic

Disney unveiled the concept of "Limited Time Magic" for the new year, and in theory the concept has sounded like a positive idea to promote special pluses to guests. The idea is to make each week or each vacation a little different than the last one. As it seems, the goal was to promote tourists to travel to Walt  Disney World and Disneyland during times that they would normally not travel. The belief would be that special times of year that were less "busy" would be balanced out by these limited time pluses. What are the thoughts now that it has been rolled out for about four months now? What about the program for the future? Let's look into it shall we.

Here are just some of the Limited Time Magic at Walt Disney World so far:

April 15–21, 2013

         Fairies week at the Magic Kingdom.

April 1–30, 2013

          April's addition to Disney's Year of the Ear is a Strawberry Ear Hat, 

March 25–31, 2013

          Easter Bunny at the United Kingdom Pavilion at Epcot

March 18–24, 2013

          Easter Egg Hunt in Epcot.

March 1–March 9, 2013

          Follow the yellow brick road to WonderGround Gallery at Downtown Disney

March 3–May 12, 2013

          Spring Trolley Show on Main Street, U.S.A. 

Feb. 18–24, 2013

          Presidents Day Celebration at the America Gardens Theatre in Epcot.

Feb. 11–17, 2013

          True Love Week

Feb. 1–9, 2013

          Cosmic Ray's Starlight Cafe in Tomorrowland for Super Sunday menu items.

Feb. 1–4, 2013

           Super Bowl spirit with a super pre-parade including MVP Joe Flacco. 

Jan. 21–27, 2013

           Long Lost Friends Week. 

Jan. 14–20, 2013

           Snow at Epcot

Jan. 7–13, 2013

          "Year of the Ear," promising new, limited-edition Ear Hats each month. 

Upon looking at the list up to this point it seems like things are certainly lacking. With the exception of the week of long lost friends, where old characters make appearances for the first time in years, and True Love week, it appears as though the magic is not necessarily all that magical. To give Disney credit, it seems like an impossibility to make every week ridiculously special, but as the list suggests it seems as though they are content with having a lackluster experience in certain weeks. It also seems curious that they have wrapped some of the yearly traditions into this, like the Super Bowl MVP parade, which is something that has been done since 1987 with Phil Simms. The problem seems to be simple. The Walt Disney Company seemed to be in a situation, with no real celebration in the parks for 2013. This has led to a combination of things from the past and newer, smaller, programs put together to entice travel. Even though many believe that the every year celebration seems to be unnecessary and overbearing, it has become a staple of the company really since the resorts 25th anniversary. 

Here is the bottom line: It is not a necessary thing for Disney to do, and thus it is not something that should make or break your travel to the resort, but if you get lucky to visit during one of the major week long celebrations consider yourself privileged, as it is not often that the magic will blow you away.