My wife took the pictures on her iphone, I will ask her to upload them and will send some across, she was with Cinderella and Prince Charming at the first show stop.
There seems to be alot of disgruntled parents/disney fans. It may be "a mess/waste of time" bla bla bla if you are not involved, but for those lucky ones, it is truly magic and lets face it, part of the Disney magic is to look at the characters and you get to see them for longer, so what is the issue???!!!??? :twisted:
There's good reason to be disgruntled (although I hope you're being sarcastic), the parade isn't just for kids, and it definately isn't just for kids and their parents. Walt set out to build Disneyland in California as a place where kids and adults alike could have fun, after watching kids on a carousel and seeing the parents being unable to ride at the sides. The parade isn't for kids and parents, it's for everyone. Right now these show stops are not only dissapointing people who visit who don't have kids*, but also the kids who AREN'T chosen to take part.
I have no doubt that your children enjoyed getting that extra interaction with the characters and taking part in general. But just think, there's other kids there who aren't chosen by a Princess, a Prince, or a giant talking animal, who will feel that they aren't as special. It's all or nothing to keep everyone happy, and at 'the happiest place on Earth' surely they should be aiming for all at all times?
*I realise that people these days assume DLP is for kids and parents, that's due to bad marketing, but for people like me who will most likely never have children of their own, it's these 'kid friendly' additions which take away the magic of the parks that little bit more. It's for everyone, I should be able to enjoy the parade without having to sit through other people cooing about how adorable their little ones look dancing in a circle and on the other side hearing an unchosen child cry. Stop the interactions altogether and eradicate both problems in one hit. If you wanna do interactions, run a pre-parade to warm the crowd up.