This is the post I’ve been hoping to make for a year and a half now. As my followers know, I’ve been fighting hard for Jessie’s return since her Walt Disney World meet and greet was cut from Frontierland back in October 2016. Today, the Disney Parks Blog shared the exciting news that Jessie will be a part of the daily character experiences in Toy Story Land!
This morning, on Good Morning America, Woody, Buzz, and Jessie were on hand to announce that Toy Story Land will open at Disney’s Hollywood Studios on June 30, 2018!
It’s been quite some time since I’ve shared an update on Toy Story Land’s construction at Disney’s Hollywood Studios in Florida, but that’s not because of a lack of progress. Progress has actually been quite steady, and the constant influx of aerial photos online have been difficult to choose from! But with the land’s opening less than six months away now, let’s take a look at the current state of things in Walt Disney World…
Despite the disappointment of Jessie still being absent from meet and greets at Walt Disney World, there’s been a lot of exciting news lately relating to the Toy Story franchise in the parks! Over the past several weeks, we’ve seen two new shows debut that give the characters a greater presence in entertainment offerings, and the construction for Toy Story Land is really starting to kick into gear…
For the past eight months, I’ve been putting up quite a fight for Jessie, whose meet and greet in the Magic Kingdom fell victim to apparent budget cuts last September. Besides a steady stream of social media posts, countless emails have been sent to Walt Disney World, by both myself and other fans; conversations have been shared via phone and in-person; and a petition and Facebook page have even been created, all in an attempt to get Jessie’s presence reinstated in the Disney Parks. But sadly, once again, another character change-up has only lengthened Jessie’s absence.
I’ll admit it; I know I’ve let this blog slide for the past few months. It’s not for a lack of love for Toy Story, though – if anything, it’s because Jessie’s cut from the Walt Disney World parks and Toy Story 4‘s second delay kind of put me in a fangirl tailspin. Since my last post, my family and I made a trip to Walt Disney World (which, by the way, isn’t all that magical when your favorite character is missing), and I’ve been focusing my efforts on fighting to get Jessie reinstated. But there have been a few little snippets of Toy Story news since then, so I thought I’d catch up and share what’s been going on since November…
I received confirmation a couple days ago that Jessie is in fact slated to be cut from meet and greets at Walt Disney World, and needless to say it hit me like a punch in the gut. But since Jessie never gives up, and I’m going to continue to fight to keep her as a meetable character in the parks, I thought this would be as good a time as any to write something more personal, and share just why this character and her fictional world mean so much to me. Although I’ve written before about why Jessie is important as a character in the Toy Story series of films, these are my own reasons why she matters, to me…
I really want to write a strictly happy blog post – you have no idea how much I would love to write a gushing report about exciting news or some thrilling new development in the Toy Story world! Unfortunately, that has not been the case so much lately. I’ve been meaning to post an update on Toy Story Land construction for the past several weeks, but I just wasn’t able to find the time. Since then, however, another upsetting bit of news has come out of Walt Disney World – and I’m going to need your help on this one, if there’s any chance of making things right…
Toy Story Fangirl 