Hi all,

After a quiet couple of weeks on the characters news front, like buses, it all comes at once today!

As Halloween Season across the parks draws to a close tonight, I have a few things to mention.

Disney's Animal Kingdom, which for as long as one can remember has featured the Pooh and Fab 5 characters in Halloween outfits during the last few days of the season, has this year dropped this tradition. It was the only place across the WDW Resort you could meet any Halloween characters without having to pay for the parties (with exception to Duffy at Epcot this year). So we say a sad farewell to scarecrow Mickey, mummy Eeyore and all the other cool costumes from years passed.

Over in the Magic Kingdom at the parties, it was reported that Donald has been seen in his pirate outfit on some random occasions even though he is supposed to be meeting as the pumpkin this year.

Moving across the pond to Paris, and this weekend saw the Terrorific Nights return, this year with the addition of some Disney Villains. The event in it's two previous incarnations had billed itself as being the more adult, and much scarier event, with very little Disney influence at all.

This year saw all the regular Villains from DLP's main Halloween Season and parties appear at the Studios events, including Shan Yu, The Witch, Hades, Frollo and Jafar.

I had previously said that the Headless Horseman was making a surprise appearance at the Halloween version of Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show for all performance in the last week of October, and much to everyone's surprise, he even made it over to Terrorific Nights as well!

Staying with Paris, but jumping ahead to next week, and in preparation for his Christmas Season public début, Duffy the Disney Bear is appearing at a special Annual Passholder event tomorrow at the Newport Bay Club. From 1pm to 2.30pm, Duffy will greet his fans who hold the Dream pass. I have no working link for the sign up, so you will have to contact Disney if you want to attend.

Over in California, Loren keeps us up to date as always with any character developments there. His latest post can be found here, and includes details about the Christmas Day Parade taping at the park this coming weekend! It is likely to be awesome, but also very hectic, so make sure you read his post about all the events before you go!

Over at WDWMagic, our friend Drew posted that Talking Mickey will be making appearances in WDW this week at Town Square Theater. Disney will probably not release any details about this, and it will be pot luck if you get to meet him. Let us know if you get to see him!

Don't forget to check out all the latest additions to the site.

Happy Halloween everyone!

Dan.

Hi all,

This week has been a fairly quiet week news wise, so I thought I would just update you on some of the new things here at Character Central.

Part One of my Disneyland Halloween trip Report can be read here.

Part Two, which is all about the Halloween Parties, is here.

My review of the Soundsational Annual Passholder Event night is here, and Loren's is here and also includes his review of the CHOC Walk, which was last weekend.

I added the following new Characters to the site:

Shaker

Agent P

Zero

and the CDA Workers.

I added the following new locations to the site:

Halloween Time at Disneyland, including Mickey's Halloween Party, Piratepalooza, Buzz Lightyear's Intergalactic Space Jam and Mickey's Costume Party Cavalcade.

Phineas and Ferb's Rockin' Rollin' Dance Party

Ariel's Grotto "Under the Sea" Character Dining

PIXAR Pals Heroes in Training Squad and Monsters Inc Mayhem

The Mary Poppins Castle Show

The Wilderness Explorer Ceremony

and Disney Dance Crew.

A lot of pages now have more new photographs, with lots more to come. A few pages also have new videos too. I won't list them all, but next time you visit a page be sure to scroll down to see if anything new shows up under the Most Recent images! Of course, on top of that, all those new pages will need descriptions too, but they will come over time when I get chance!

Stay tuned for more updates over the next few days, including our trip to Walt Disney World for Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party!

Ok, that's all for now,

Dan.

Hi all,

As you all know Jon and I have spent the last week in Disneyland California for the Halloween season. I don't tend to write trip reports for places that we visit fairly frequently, but we experienced so much new stuff on this trip that I had to write one!

We had five days of fun and adventures across the resort with many of our Disney friends, including Loren, who you all already know.

While there we not only got to experience the park's Halloween offerings but also some other new things along the way.  [ Read More... ]

Hi all,

Friday saw the official opening of the brand new Princess Pavilion in Fantasyland at Disneyland Paris.

Following a few days of soft openings, the Disney Princesses were there at 9.30am along with some other courtiers to officially dedicate the new meet 'n' greet location.

Our good friend Hilde (who is also a life long Disney fan), posted a blog entry to her tumblr account which includes some really nice pictures. You can discuss the Pavilion here on our official forum thread.  [ Read More... ]

Hi all,

Loren posted his Mickey's Halloween Party report to the Forum, so be sure to check that out. As always it contains some really great pictures and useful information for those attending.

I also made a Forum post earlier about the Halloween Season at Disneyland Paris. It was more suited to the Forum as it contained a lot of pictures, rather than specific information. Be sure to check it out as it also has a lot of useful pictures for those who are going to be there this Halloween Season.

On some unrelated news, our friends at Characters Photos Blog on Facebook were in the city of Paris today for a special event attended by none other than Phineas and Ferb! I believe this is the first time they have ever featured anywhere in Europe. Phineas and Ferb is really popular here like it is in the US, so I hope that they come to Disneyland Paris, but I haven't heard anything on that front yet, sadly. But now they have arrived here, maybe they'll stay?...

Finally, Loren clarified the news regarding the Winnie the Pooh meet 'n' greet area in DL. It is being refurbished, and he posted a link here to the update, which includes some photos.

Ok, that's all for now,

Dan.

Hi all,

This weekend was quite an eventful one in the world of Disney.

We shall begin with something close to home (at least for me!), and that is Rapunzel's coronation in London. Although I wasn't there (why did they have to have it the same weekend as DLP's Halloween Season open?!), there have been some videos posted to YouTube. I liked this one, and this one in particular.

There was a small ceremony at an indoor location, which was presented by the Fairy Godmother and also featured Flynn Rider, and there was a horse-drawn procession outside.

It was a neat and different way to induct her a the newest member of Disney Royalty, and I hope that Disney continue to do cool things like this in the future.  [ Read More... ]

Hi all,

Yesterday I reported on the information supplied by Magic Forum member Poppy about the new Dreams show at DLP for the 20th anniversary. With my head all over the place for my upcoming trip, I totally forgot to mention that he also revealed some interesting new changes to the Parade for the 20th also.

Jon and I had heard about some of these before, but never had any proper confirmation, so I guess now we can say with some more conviction that the parade will be reworked next year. Changes rumoured so far (that Jon and I have also heard from sources) include Mickey and friends moving to the current Princess 2 unit, and Disney Fairies (not specified which brand yet - classic, or the new Tink and Friends) to go to the Dreams of Imagination float. Check out his post for the rest of the details.

Over on the our forum, Loren posted some information that a contact of ours sent us regarding the Mickey's Halloween Parties that start tonight in Disneyland. Check out the complete list of who is appearing here (you will have to scroll down). Note also that the Cavalcade will be having two showings per night!

In Florida, Inside the Magic reported (no link sadly as it was on their Facebook), that the Trick or Treat special event that was held in the Magic Kingdom last night (you may recall they announced it on the Parks Blog a few weeks back), was a big hit, and included Dr Facilier among the character meet 'n' greets. No other details of who was there yet, but when I get them, I'll post here or to the forum.

Finally, as you may have gathered, I am off to the opening weekend of Halloween Season Disneyland Paris tomorrow morning, and will be there all day tomorrow and Sunday. I intend to see both of the new shows at least twice each, and check out all the special characters (Villains, Jack and Sally, Fab 5 in costumes etc).

I will be back at my desk Monday afternoon, so expect an update then!

Until then, have a fantastic weekend everyone! For those in London, remember Rapunzel's coronation tomorrow, those in Paris be sure to be at the Halloween open, and for those in Florida make sure you see the character cavalcade at 10am tomorrow for the 40th!

Dan.

Hi all,

As I had previously reported, Rapunzel is having her coronation in London on Saturday (further info in previous post - location etc), and will be joined by all the other Disney Princesses. There have been some neat press photos released this week of Rapunzel's trip to London before her big day. I couldn't find an official Disney source, but Stitch Kingdom reposted some here.

Disneyland in California has said that they will be holding some exclusive new annual passholder events from mid-October, but sadly to begin with these will be by invite only. The first of these parties will include an exclusive evening showing of the Soundsational parade, showing off it's neat light effects not normally seen. Al Lutz has more details here, and there is more to the events than I have time to explain here, but if they are eventually opened up to other passholders, I can see that these will be a success (see Al's post as to my meaning about "if" here).

Over in Disneyland Paris, the opening weekend of Halloween has had it's schedule posted online, much to my joy (I go for two days this Saturday for the opening). It is really good to see some decent times for the two new shows, and some good times for the Villains meets, Jack and Sally, and the Tremaines.

Staying with Paris, and on the Magic Forum, user Poppy has posted some more info about the 20th anniversary Castle show, which I had speculated on previously. The character link here is that Mickey or Peter Pan may appear - but only one of them! Of course, nothing is confirmed yet.

DLP have also announced that there will be an exclusive preview of the new Princess Pavilion for annual passholders (Dream only) on the 5th and 6th of October between 10am and 1pm. If you're there be sure to check it out and let us know what you think!

Finally, our friend Drew posted on the WDWMagic Forum that on Saturday, for WDW's 40th anniversary, the cavalcade I had previously mentioned will be at 10am down Main Street USA, and will feature 60 characters. It will be followed by a speech by Meg Crofton, at CInderella Castle.

Ok, that's all for now,

Dan.