yourfirstvisit.net

(This review is also an entry in the series on Disney World Controversies.)

THE MOVE IT! SHAKE IT! CELEBRATE IT! STREET PARTY

Move It Shake It Celebrate It–I’m dropping the exclamation points–is a combined minor parade and brief dance party that happens several times each day at the Magic Kingdom.

I find it somewhat awkwardly named–must I also celebrate that which I am otherwise delighted to move and shake?–but otherwise a hoot, and the equal to better known and more widely anticipated and attended formal afternoon parades, like the Pixar Pals Countdown to Fun Parade at Disney’s Hollywood Studios.

But you won’t find it in this site’s itineraries, nor in its Comprehensive Guide to Rides and Attractions.  Why? And why might that be changing?

REVIEW: THE MOVE IT! SHAKE IT! CELEBRATE IT! STREET PARTY AT THE MAGIC KINGDOM

This parade/dance party shows several time a day at the Magic Kingdom–exact times are in the day’s Times Guide.

It begins near the Firehouse on Town Square, and makes its way to the hub in front of the Castle, which it pauses in and circles.  It then returns back down Main Street to its starting point.

It includes five or so floats with characters, and dancers.  It’s at the hub that most of the dancing–and some fun surprises–happens, so the hub is the place to view it.

It’s fun–as noted above, as fun as some other formal afternoon parades–worth seeing, but also just a bit skippable. See it if it’s convenient, but don’t plan your schedule around it.

WHAT’S A RIDE, WHAT’S AN ATTRACTION, AND WHAT GOES INTO THE ITINERARIES AND THE GUIDE TO RIDES?

A site like this exists to simplify the complicated, which means sometimes I have to first complicate the simple, and then second re-assemble the resulting mess into a new simple thing…and yes sometimes I do forget about that whole second step…

The itineraries promise all the best of Walt Disney World, and in terms of attractions and rides they try to include everything, with a side note on what might be skipped.

Disney formally uses the word “attraction” for most, but not all, of what for simplicity I usually just call a ride. You can figure what Disney thinks an attraction is by looking at what it lists as “attractions” on its park maps. 

Sensible people think of a ride as something with a ride vehicle, and of “attractions” as all the rides and all the shows. But grab a park map: there’s plenty of rides and shows not shown as attractions.  On the map I’m looking at right now, at Main Street the Walt Disney World Railroad is not listed as an attraction, and Wishes is not a show.

Some of this has to do with the limits of cartography–where, on a map, do you portray Wishes? 

Some of it is the relic of old–and perhaps current–corporate politics, where the creations of Walt Disney Creative Entertainment (large scale shows, parades, and fireworks, but also stuff anyone would consider an attraction, like Festival of the Lion King and The American Idol Experience) tended to get less cred than the creations of the traditional Imagineers.

But for the purposes of this site, it’s mostly just a bunch of category errors (like this).  And I’ve committed these errors myself, by leaving out stuff for the itineraries and guide to rides I considered minor but that some people would love.

I’ll be revising the itineraries and such over the next few months, and as part of that am going back to first principles to see what to include. 

The simple answer is “everything”–but the complicated response is really…everything…are you kidding? 

Just at the Magic Kingdom, should I include the Flag Ceremony?  The Dapper Dans?  Riding the Fire Truck to the hub?  Isn’t the monorail a ride?  It is at Disneyland …Captain Jack Sparrow’s Pirate Tutorial?  Character greetings …and all of them?  Maybe I can leave out extra-cost experiences like Bibbidi Bobbidi–but what about the Frontierland Shooting Arcade and the Shrunken Ned’s Junior Jungle Cruise Boats, each of which cost a buck?

To get the categories right, and then re-simplify into what’s in and what’s not in the itineraries and the Guide to Rides, I need a sensible and helpful principle for what’s in and what’s out…any ideas? 

The starting point of thinking so far is to include all “categories”–rides, shows, or “entertainment”–but exclude the really low capacity stuff …which would leave out most, but not all, of the list of Magic Kingdom stuff in the paragraph above…and puts Move It! Shake It! Celebrate It! in.  What do you think?