Walt Disney Global simply wrapped up a quiet summer season, opening a pair high quality degree displays and new midnight parade, however no new points of interest or any “resolution” to Epic Universe. The wonder sleeper of the season was once Cool Child Summer time, which introduced new family-focused studies to Magic Kingdom, EPCOT, Hollywood Studios, and Animal Kingdom. This explains the teachings discovered from this wonder good fortune that punched above its weight and made some magical reminiscences.
Should you neglected it, Cool Child Summer time featured dance events, further persona appearances, hands-on actions, and a large number of interactivity. Highlights integrated the Goofy takeover of CommuniCore Corridor at EPCOT, differently referred to as GoofyCore Corridor. As a substitute of being a pageant heart, GoofyCore Corridor was once a Goofy-led immersive revel in, with video games with foolish twists, like Crazy Limbo and Parachutes ‘n’ Pipsqueaks all in superb air-con.
Over at Animation Courtyard at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, there have been video games and crafts, magicians and soar rope performers, wonder persona appearances, and a full of life indoor DJ dance birthday party the place little ones can turn into additional indoctrinated into the Cult of the Sizzling Canine Track. It was once a equivalent tale in Animal Kingdom and Magic Kingdom, the place there have been dance events, sing-alongs, and different such silliness.
Along with this, characters had been additionally out within the parks previous than commonplace for Walt Disney Global hotel lodge visitors all through the day-to-day Early Access duration. How this took place was once by no means in reality defined in authentic Walt Disney Global communications, however my commentary was once that it in most cases passed off as a pop-up, unfastened roaming ‘side road birthday party’ kinda deal, with particular tune reducing into the standard background loops and signaling the arriving of characters.
In a similar way, visitors staying at Artwork of Animation, Pop Century, Caribbean Seaside and Desert Resort had been all in a position to experience extra Disney-themed actions designed for households with children. This integrated persona visits with set look instances that will help you plan your day and an expanded itinerary of items to do along with your kin all the way through your keep at those 4 accommodations. So mainly, the Personality Caravan however with a printed agenda.
Anecdotally, I additionally spotted extra wonder & pride “Personality Paloozas” all through my most up-to-date seek advice from to Walt Disney Global.
For many who are unfamiliar with them, Personality Paloozas are spontaneous meet & greets with a lot of infrequent characters in out of the way in which places. They most often occur lovely just about behind the curtain get entry to issues, for speedy access and exits.
The actual function of Personality Paloozas is giving Forged Participants at the task coaching in decrease stakes environments. This could also be why the characters featured are infrequent or rare-ish, because the “persona integrity” bar is decrease. Large Al or Wendell performers have a lot more, ahem, autonomy for interactions than Mickey Mouse, who will have to keep on-brand.
I’ve all the time idea that Personality Paloozas are some of the best possible issues Walt Disney Global does with meet & greets, even if the aim is most commonly about coaching in a decrease force atmosphere. We now have fond reminiscences from the Toontown Teardrop long ago within the day, and nonetheless experience stumbling upon a Personality Palooza every now and then. It’s the stuff of surprising magical reminiscences.
The sheer quantity of Personality Paloozas I seen within the lead-up to Exertions Day may’ve been because of a couple of massive waves of Faculty Program arrivals. It most likely had extra to do with that than being a wonder Cool Child Summer time providing or paradigm shift in persona encounters.
I’m nonetheless together with Personality Paloozas as one thing Walt Disney Global will have to do extra, purposefully, outdoor of Forged Member coaching. They’re win-win, and an instance of Walt Disney Global getting one thing proper, possibly with out knowing how impactful it’s to the visitor revel in.
As for Cool Child Summer time, it was once not anything particular this yr on paper. The unique announcement struck me as an “tournament” that was once thrown in combination in no time as Walt Disney Global attempted to marketplace to households and battle mainstream media reviews that Walt Disney Global was once “turning its again” on center elegance households with kids. (See Disney’s Reaction to Emerging Prices Grievance.)
In apply, Cool Child Summer time was once the scrappy little tournament that brightened up days and taken slightly of magic to blighted corners of the parks. Animation Courtyard felt like a useless mall that was once somewhat-alive for the primary time in years. Simply in gazing children fishing with ‘Holiday’ Goofy, coloring with Clarabelle or attractive in antics with Donald, my sturdy suspicion is that visitor pleasure was once upper amongst those that visited Animation Courtyard than those that didn’t. I extremely doubt that was once true prior to this summer season!
Animation Courtyard was once essentially the most pronounced instance, however Cool Child Summer time injected a large number of pleasure round quite a lot of hotspots of the parks. I’d likewise danger a wager that the households who stopped for particular moments with the characters in the back of Cinderella Fortress had higher qualitative studies than those that raced directly to Peter Pan’s Flight. Similar is going for individuals who took the time to decelerate in Storybook Circus, Discovery Island or in GoofyCore Corridor.
Nobody goes to accuse Walt Disney Global of dreaming too large with Cool Child Summer time. As seasonal occasions move, it was once a minor one. There wasn’t a lot of a decor bundle to talk of, and it was once thrown into a number of underutilized venues round Walt Disney Global. So simply to be abundantly transparent, we’re now not announcing it was once if truth be told nice or imploring you to plot a go back and forth round Cool Child Summer time in 2026.
It additionally had a blink and also you’ll omit it high quality. I wouldn’t be shocked if over part of visitors visiting this summer season had no clue Cool Child Summer time took place. Now not simply that they couldn’t determine it via title (that quantity is most likely even upper), however that in addition they didn’t revel in anything else I’ve simply described.
Cool Child Summer time was once simple to forget. Should you weren’t eligible for Early Access or didn’t keep at on of the handful of lodges with further choices, you wouldn’t have skilled that. Should you didn’t mission into some out of the way in which places the place it was once held (they’re underutilized for a explanation why!), you additionally wouldn’t have observed any of that.
What we say is that there’s room for refining and making improvements to on the idea that with a complete yr of lead-time to plot the 2026 Cool Child Summer time. That the development has doable and its excellent concepts may (and will have to!) be carried out full-time, past summer season.
Most significantly, Cool Child Summer time demonstrated Walt Disney Global in the end “will get” the attraction of Disneyland-style unfastened roaming characters. That is one thing we’ve been discussing right here for some time, particularly again with the debut of Famous person Wars: Galaxy’s Edge in 2019.
One of the vital largest questions at the moment was once whether or not free-roaming characters would translate to Walt Disney Global given visitor demographics. The worry was once that once-in-a-lifetime visitors sought after posed footage with characters, to not “play” with them.
That is regardless of free-roaming characters being a staple of the Disneyland revel in for years. Such a lot of of Disneyland’s best possible moments with characters spread in an natural and spontaneous means as characters like Mary Poppins, Peter Pan, or the Evil Queen wander the park.
(It additionally helped that Cool Child Summer time didn’t completely eschew conventional meet & greets in want of persona ‘play’ studies; Animation Courtyard added a large number of each. We’re cognizant that many first-timers need the photograph in their children posing with characters, getting an autograph, and many others. This isn’t an both/or proposition. And as a complete, DHS has quietly turn into an ideal park for assembly characters.)
In accordance with my observations, Cool Child Summer time definitively demonstrated that spontaneous persona studies now not simplest paintings at Walt Disney Global, however are an enormous hit with visitors. Animation Courtyard was once the most productive proof of this, and I am hoping what was once presented there this summer season was once evidence of principle for the kind of ‘play’ that’ll be featured within the reimagined Walt Disney Studios Lot.
There’s one thing particular about those spontaneous encounters, getting a possibility to in brief play with characters versus posing for a photograph, assembly-line genre. That is the stuff that ‘core reminiscences’ are made from. Although Cool Child Summer time clearly didn’t come any place close to being an “resolution” to Epic Universe, I wouldn’t be in the least shocked if one of the most persona encounters at Walt Disney Global left similarly tough lasting impressions.
Hyperbolic as it could appear, that is formative stuff. We’ve frequently stressed out that it’s the “little issues” that shape the root of nostalgia and sentimentality, and forge new Walt Disney Global enthusiasts within the procedure. Clearly blockbuster new points of interest and lands are vital, however getting those little issues proper is the ‘secret sauce’ for Walt Disney Global.
Even supposing Cool Child Summer time was once not anything noteworthy on paper, and surely now not the kind of factor someone deliberate journeys round (except for for Walt Disney Global’s unparalleled summer season reductions that necessarily presented 2019 pricing), it did arrange to punch above its weight and be offering one thing particular to lots of the visitors who were given to revel in it.
The seasonal tournament additionally urged that Walt Disney Global is in the end beginning to get the attraction of taking part in with characters or having spontaneous and memorably interactions, and would possibly use Cool Child Summer time as a template for long run persona encounters. That on my own could be an enormous win, and truthfully, it’s more or less wild that they didn’t be informed this lesson from Disneyland a decade or extra in the past.
As for the seasonal tournament itself, I’m cautiously constructive about Cool Child Summer time getting a sophomore season in 2026. Confidently the inaugural yr was once a studying revel in, and it returns larger and higher subsequent yr with (possibly) extra lead-time for making plans it. Even supposing that is in regards to the persona part, I am hoping extra emphasis is positioned at the cool facet of Cool Child Summer time, as there are such a large amount of ingenious tactics for Walt Disney Global to lend a hand visitors beat the summer season warmth.
In relation to characters, the massive factor on my want record for some time has been 90s nostalgia. The hot Vacation spot D23 did this in reality smartly each with its panels and the phenomenal Kuzcotopia Evening at Storm Lagoon. Confidently that was once proof-of-concept for in-park choices, and even perhaps a difficult price tag tournament.
Doing extra with Disney Afternoon, Disney Channel, and cult classics animated movies from the past due Nineties could be superior. Other folks my age adore the ones animated movies from the second one part of the Nineties, at the side of Rescue Rangers, Darkwing Duck, TaleSpin, and DuckTales. We also are now the objective target market of the parks, whether or not we’re Childless Disney Millennials or oldsters who need to proportion our personal formative years nostalgia with our youngsters.
As coated prior to now in our Most sensible 10 Uncommon Characters We Want Walt Disney Global Would Deliver Again, we will be able to’t be the one millennials who would overpay for a 90s nite at Magic Kingdom or Disney’s Hollywood Studios. Perhaps Walt Disney Global may weave that along side Cool Child Summer time, and pull deeper from the 2000s playbook via providing a “Pirates, Princesses & Friends Birthday party.”
Regardless, I’m taking a look ahead to seeing what they do with the development in 2026, and expectantly we don’t have to attend virtually a yr to peer Walt Disney Global follow courses discovered from this summer season to spontaneous persona encounters across the parks. There’s super unrealized doable for Disney to leverage its loved characters in playful tactics, and the chance to make new lifetime enthusiasts of the parks by means of the ones little moments of magic.
Making plans a Walt Disney Global go back and forth? Find out about lodges on our Walt Disney Global Inns Opinions web page. For the place to devour, learn our Walt Disney Global Eating place Opinions. To economize on tickets or decide which sort to shop for, learn our Guidelines for Saving Cash on Walt Disney Global Tickets submit. Our What to Pack for Disney Journeys submit takes a singular have a look at artful pieces to take. For what to do and when to do it, our Walt Disney Global Journey Guides will lend a hand. For complete recommendation, the most productive position to begin is our Walt Disney Global Commute Making plans Information for the whole lot you want to understand!
YOUR THOUGHTS
Did you revel in any of the nature encounters all through Cool Child Summer time? What did you recall to mind those spontaneous studies? Any particular lasting reminiscences from ‘taking part in’ with the characters? Do you hope Walt Disney Global learns courses from this particular tournament and applies them year-round? Will you be visiting for Cool Child Summer time 2.0 if the development is expanded upon and progressed in 2026? Ideas at the new persona studies/encounters on the parks & accommodations this summer season? Any questions? Listening to your comments about your studies is each fascinating to us and useful to different readers, so please proportion your ideas or questions beneath within the feedback!
Walt Disney Global simply wrapped up a quiet summer season, opening a pair high quality degree displays and new midnight parade, however no new points of interest or any “resolution” to Epic Universe. The wonder sleeper of the season was once Cool Child Summer time, which introduced new family-focused studies to Magic Kingdom, EPCOT, Hollywood Studios, and Animal Kingdom. This explains the teachings discovered from this wonder good fortune that punched above its weight and made some magical reminiscences.
Should you neglected it, Cool Child Summer time featured dance events, further persona appearances, hands-on actions, and a large number of interactivity. Highlights integrated the Goofy takeover of CommuniCore Corridor at EPCOT, differently referred to as GoofyCore Corridor. As a substitute of being a pageant heart, GoofyCore Corridor was once a Goofy-led immersive revel in, with video games with foolish twists, like Crazy Limbo and Parachutes ‘n’ Pipsqueaks all in superb air-con.
Over at Animation Courtyard at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, there have been video games and crafts, magicians and soar rope performers, wonder persona appearances, and a full of life indoor DJ dance birthday party the place little ones can turn into additional indoctrinated into the Cult of the Sizzling Canine Track. It was once a equivalent tale in Animal Kingdom and Magic Kingdom, the place there have been dance events, sing-alongs, and different such silliness.
Along with this, characters had been additionally out within the parks previous than commonplace for Walt Disney Global hotel lodge visitors all through the day-to-day Early Access duration. How this took place was once by no means in reality defined in authentic Walt Disney Global communications, however my commentary was once that it in most cases passed off as a pop-up, unfastened roaming ‘side road birthday party’ kinda deal, with particular tune reducing into the standard background loops and signaling the arriving of characters.
In a similar way, visitors staying at Artwork of Animation, Pop Century, Caribbean Seaside and Desert Resort had been all in a position to experience extra Disney-themed actions designed for households with children. This integrated persona visits with set look instances that will help you plan your day and an expanded itinerary of items to do along with your kin all the way through your keep at those 4 accommodations. So mainly, the Personality Caravan however with a printed agenda.
Anecdotally, I additionally spotted extra wonder & pride “Personality Paloozas” all through my most up-to-date seek advice from to Walt Disney Global.
For many who are unfamiliar with them, Personality Paloozas are spontaneous meet & greets with a lot of infrequent characters in out of the way in which places. They most often occur lovely just about behind the curtain get entry to issues, for speedy access and exits.
The actual function of Personality Paloozas is giving Forged Participants at the task coaching in decrease stakes environments. This could also be why the characters featured are infrequent or rare-ish, because the “persona integrity” bar is decrease. Large Al or Wendell performers have a lot more, ahem, autonomy for interactions than Mickey Mouse, who will have to keep on-brand.
I’ve all the time idea that Personality Paloozas are some of the best possible issues Walt Disney Global does with meet & greets, even if the aim is most commonly about coaching in a decrease force atmosphere. We now have fond reminiscences from the Toontown Teardrop long ago within the day, and nonetheless experience stumbling upon a Personality Palooza every now and then. It’s the stuff of surprising magical reminiscences.
The sheer quantity of Personality Paloozas I seen within the lead-up to Exertions Day may’ve been because of a couple of massive waves of Faculty Program arrivals. It most likely had extra to do with that than being a wonder Cool Child Summer time providing or paradigm shift in persona encounters.
I’m nonetheless together with Personality Paloozas as one thing Walt Disney Global will have to do extra, purposefully, outdoor of Forged Member coaching. They’re win-win, and an instance of Walt Disney Global getting one thing proper, possibly with out knowing how impactful it’s to the visitor revel in.
As for Cool Child Summer time, it was once not anything particular this yr on paper. The unique announcement struck me as an “tournament” that was once thrown in combination in no time as Walt Disney Global attempted to marketplace to households and battle mainstream media reviews that Walt Disney Global was once “turning its again” on center elegance households with kids. (See Disney’s Reaction to Emerging Prices Grievance.)
In apply, Cool Child Summer time was once the scrappy little tournament that brightened up days and taken slightly of magic to blighted corners of the parks. Animation Courtyard felt like a useless mall that was once somewhat-alive for the primary time in years. Simply in gazing children fishing with ‘Holiday’ Goofy, coloring with Clarabelle or attractive in antics with Donald, my sturdy suspicion is that visitor pleasure was once upper amongst those that visited Animation Courtyard than those that didn’t. I extremely doubt that was once true prior to this summer season!
Animation Courtyard was once essentially the most pronounced instance, however Cool Child Summer time injected a large number of pleasure round quite a lot of hotspots of the parks. I’d likewise danger a wager that the households who stopped for particular moments with the characters in the back of Cinderella Fortress had higher qualitative studies than those that raced directly to Peter Pan’s Flight. Similar is going for individuals who took the time to decelerate in Storybook Circus, Discovery Island or in GoofyCore Corridor.
Nobody goes to accuse Walt Disney Global of dreaming too large with Cool Child Summer time. As seasonal occasions move, it was once a minor one. There wasn’t a lot of a decor bundle to talk of, and it was once thrown into a number of underutilized venues round Walt Disney Global. So simply to be abundantly transparent, we’re now not announcing it was once if truth be told nice or imploring you to plot a go back and forth round Cool Child Summer time in 2026.
It additionally had a blink and also you’ll omit it high quality. I wouldn’t be shocked if over part of visitors visiting this summer season had no clue Cool Child Summer time took place. Now not simply that they couldn’t determine it via title (that quantity is most likely even upper), however that in addition they didn’t revel in anything else I’ve simply described.
Cool Child Summer time was once simple to forget. Should you weren’t eligible for Early Access or didn’t keep at on of the handful of lodges with further choices, you wouldn’t have skilled that. Should you didn’t mission into some out of the way in which places the place it was once held (they’re underutilized for a explanation why!), you additionally wouldn’t have observed any of that.
What we say is that there’s room for refining and making improvements to on the idea that with a complete yr of lead-time to plot the 2026 Cool Child Summer time. That the development has doable and its excellent concepts may (and will have to!) be carried out full-time, past summer season.
Most significantly, Cool Child Summer time demonstrated Walt Disney Global in the end “will get” the attraction of Disneyland-style unfastened roaming characters. That is one thing we’ve been discussing right here for some time, particularly again with the debut of Famous person Wars: Galaxy’s Edge in 2019.
One of the vital largest questions at the moment was once whether or not free-roaming characters would translate to Walt Disney Global given visitor demographics. The worry was once that once-in-a-lifetime visitors sought after posed footage with characters, to not “play” with them.
That is regardless of free-roaming characters being a staple of the Disneyland revel in for years. Such a lot of of Disneyland’s best possible moments with characters spread in an natural and spontaneous means as characters like Mary Poppins, Peter Pan, or the Evil Queen wander the park.
(It additionally helped that Cool Child Summer time didn’t completely eschew conventional meet & greets in want of persona ‘play’ studies; Animation Courtyard added a large number of each. We’re cognizant that many first-timers need the photograph in their children posing with characters, getting an autograph, and many others. This isn’t an both/or proposition. And as a complete, DHS has quietly turn into an ideal park for assembly characters.)
In accordance with my observations, Cool Child Summer time definitively demonstrated that spontaneous persona studies now not simplest paintings at Walt Disney Global, however are an enormous hit with visitors. Animation Courtyard was once the most productive proof of this, and I am hoping what was once presented there this summer season was once evidence of principle for the kind of ‘play’ that’ll be featured within the reimagined Walt Disney Studios Lot.
There’s one thing particular about those spontaneous encounters, getting a possibility to in brief play with characters versus posing for a photograph, assembly-line genre. That is the stuff that ‘core reminiscences’ are made from. Although Cool Child Summer time clearly didn’t come any place close to being an “resolution” to Epic Universe, I wouldn’t be in the least shocked if one of the most persona encounters at Walt Disney Global left similarly tough lasting impressions.
Hyperbolic as it could appear, that is formative stuff. We’ve frequently stressed out that it’s the “little issues” that shape the root of nostalgia and sentimentality, and forge new Walt Disney Global enthusiasts within the procedure. Clearly blockbuster new points of interest and lands are vital, however getting those little issues proper is the ‘secret sauce’ for Walt Disney Global.
Even supposing Cool Child Summer time was once not anything noteworthy on paper, and surely now not the kind of factor someone deliberate journeys round (except for for Walt Disney Global’s unparalleled summer season reductions that necessarily presented 2019 pricing), it did arrange to punch above its weight and be offering one thing particular to lots of the visitors who were given to revel in it.
The seasonal tournament additionally urged that Walt Disney Global is in the end beginning to get the attraction of taking part in with characters or having spontaneous and memorably interactions, and would possibly use Cool Child Summer time as a template for long run persona encounters. That on my own could be an enormous win, and truthfully, it’s more or less wild that they didn’t be informed this lesson from Disneyland a decade or extra in the past.
As for the seasonal tournament itself, I’m cautiously constructive about Cool Child Summer time getting a sophomore season in 2026. Confidently the inaugural yr was once a studying revel in, and it returns larger and higher subsequent yr with (possibly) extra lead-time for making plans it. Even supposing that is in regards to the persona part, I am hoping extra emphasis is positioned at the cool facet of Cool Child Summer time, as there are such a large amount of ingenious tactics for Walt Disney Global to lend a hand visitors beat the summer season warmth.
In relation to characters, the massive factor on my want record for some time has been 90s nostalgia. The hot Vacation spot D23 did this in reality smartly each with its panels and the phenomenal Kuzcotopia Evening at Storm Lagoon. Confidently that was once proof-of-concept for in-park choices, and even perhaps a difficult price tag tournament.
Doing extra with Disney Afternoon, Disney Channel, and cult classics animated movies from the past due Nineties could be superior. Other folks my age adore the ones animated movies from the second one part of the Nineties, at the side of Rescue Rangers, Darkwing Duck, TaleSpin, and DuckTales. We also are now the objective target market of the parks, whether or not we’re Childless Disney Millennials or oldsters who need to proportion our personal formative years nostalgia with our youngsters.
As coated prior to now in our Most sensible 10 Uncommon Characters We Want Walt Disney Global Would Deliver Again, we will be able to’t be the one millennials who would overpay for a 90s nite at Magic Kingdom or Disney’s Hollywood Studios. Perhaps Walt Disney Global may weave that along side Cool Child Summer time, and pull deeper from the 2000s playbook via providing a “Pirates, Princesses & Friends Birthday party.”
Regardless, I’m taking a look ahead to seeing what they do with the development in 2026, and expectantly we don’t have to attend virtually a yr to peer Walt Disney Global follow courses discovered from this summer season to spontaneous persona encounters across the parks. There’s super unrealized doable for Disney to leverage its loved characters in playful tactics, and the chance to make new lifetime enthusiasts of the parks by means of the ones little moments of magic.
Making plans a Walt Disney Global go back and forth? Find out about lodges on our Walt Disney Global Inns Opinions web page. For the place to devour, learn our Walt Disney Global Eating place Opinions. To economize on tickets or decide which sort to shop for, learn our Guidelines for Saving Cash on Walt Disney Global Tickets submit. Our What to Pack for Disney Journeys submit takes a singular have a look at artful pieces to take. For what to do and when to do it, our Walt Disney Global Journey Guides will lend a hand. For complete recommendation, the most productive position to begin is our Walt Disney Global Commute Making plans Information for the whole lot you want to understand!
YOUR THOUGHTS
Did you revel in any of the nature encounters all through Cool Child Summer time? What did you recall to mind those spontaneous studies? Any particular lasting reminiscences from ‘taking part in’ with the characters? Do you hope Walt Disney Global learns courses from this particular tournament and applies them year-round? Will you be visiting for Cool Child Summer time 2.0 if the development is expanded upon and progressed in 2026? Ideas at the new persona studies/encounters on the parks & accommodations this summer season? Any questions? Listening to your comments about your studies is each fascinating to us and useful to different readers, so please proportion your ideas or questions beneath within the feedback!
