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Advent Calendar - 1st December 2014
DisneyDan  Sunday, November 30, 2014 11:01:39 PM
Hello everyone,

Today is the 1st December, which means it's that time of year again!

Let's see who our very first festive characters of the season are!

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Breaking! Frozen to take over Walt Disney World this holiday season, including Olaf!
DisneyDan  Friday, September 12, 2014 12:36:44 PM
The Disney Parks Blog just announced that Anna, Elsa, Kristoff and everybody's favourite snowman Olaf will be coming to Mickey's Once Upon a Christmastime Parade at Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party this year!
They have also confirmed that Elsa will feature at Cinderella Castle, which will as always be turned into an ice palace - but presumably replacing Cinderella and the Fairy Godmother.

At Disney's Hollywood Studios, the Frozen Sing-a-long which features Anna, Elsa and Kristoff will run through the holidays.

We can't wait to see Olaf join the Disney character family this Christmas season!

Although not holiday related, it's also been announced that Frozen will take over EPCOT's Maelstrom (Norway) attraction, and "will take our guests to Arendelle and immerse them in many of their favorite moments and music from the film." The Blog also confirmed that Anna and Elsa would greet guests at the Norway pavilion, too.

Dare I say it? The only park missing a Frozen addition will be Animal Kingdom!...

Are you excited to see all these additions and changes at Walt Disney World for the holidays and beyond?

Dan.
News - Anna and Elsa arriving at Hollywood Studios for "Frozen Summer Fun - Live"!
DisneyDan  Friday, June 27, 2014 7:50:54 AM
Yesterday the Disney Parks Blog announced a summer full of fun at Disney's Hollywood Studios featuring the incredibly popular Frozen characters, Anna and Elsa.

The biggest news to come out of it is that it would seem Kristoff will be stepping out of Arendelle to make his Disney Parks debut in a special procession through the park! 'Anna and Elsa’s Royal Welcome' will happen at 11am each day.

There is mention of Olaf too, and although we don't know for sure yet, from the description it is likely he will appear on the big video screen only, and not as a character on stage. However, anything could happen, and we really hope he does appear!

Here's a roundup of everything you can expect from 5th July through to 1st September inclusive.

  • Olaf on Summer Vacation – Olaf the snowman is having the time of his life on his very first summer vacation! He chimes in throughout the day to keep everyone updated on all his adventures. Plus, you can pick up your very own Take-Along Olaf from locations in the park, so he can join you on your summer vacation. And when you share your photos with Olaf on social media, be sure to tag them with #OlafSummerVacation. They may just get selected to appear in that day’s grand finale!

  • Anna and Elsa’s Royal Welcome – At 11am each day, Elsa and Anna arrive in Hollywood as part of their goodwill tour of neighbouring kingdoms, making their way down Hollywood Boulevard in a horse-drawn sleigh. Kristoff is along for the fun, too, joined by a flurry of skaters, skiers, ice cutters and more! The entire procession culminates in a special moment at the Sorcerer’s Hat Icon Stage to officially welcome the visiting royalty to this kingdom of Hollywoodland.

  • For the First Time in Forever: A “Frozen” Sing-Along Celebration – Cool down inside the Premiere Theater, where Anna and Elsa join the Royal Historians of Arendelle for a fun and comedic retelling of the unique history of their Kingdom, filled with delightful, sing-along moments from “Frozen.”

  • Wandering Oaken’s Trading Post and Frozen Funland – Inside Soundstage One, Oaken and his cousins have created a Frozen Funland filled with cold weather activities, unique photo opportunities, and more! There’s a frozen pond with ice skating demonstrations, wintertime fun for kids in the “Do You Want to Build a Snowman?” play area, a “big summer blowout” with plenty of “Frozen” merchandise, and special “Frozen”-inspired food and beverage offerings.

  • “Coolest Summer Ever” Dance Party – Starting at 5.30pm each day, a dance party takes over the area around the Sorcerer’s Hat Icon Stage, with a DJ, live band, and more! The band plays a variety of classic and contemporary summer rock and roll hits, as well as a cool, rocking medley of “Frozen” favourites. It’s going to be hot!

  • “Frozen” Fireworks Spectacular – Everything wraps up at 9.45pm when Anna, Elsa, Kristoff, and Olaf come together at the Sorcerer’s Hat Icon Stage for a grand finale to the day’s festivities, kicking off an awe-inspiring fireworks display set to the glorious music of “Frozen!”

Once more information becomes available, I'll be sure to post it here on the blog.

Have a great weekend everyone,

Dan.
News From Around the World - 24 hour event at the US Parks, Disney On Ice announce new Frozen show, new HKDL night parade and MUCH more!
DisneyDan  Tuesday, May 20, 2014 1:03:12 PM
Hello everyone,

First of all, apologies for being absent recently, we have had a lot going on here (real life) and so I haven't had chance to keep as up to date as I would like. Anyway, there are some cool new things I want to talk about today.

First of all the big event of the week will be the 24 hour event, "Rock Your Disney Side", coming to Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom and both Disneyland Resort theme parks on Friday this week (23rd).
Details are a bit sketchy right now though, sadly, as Disney seem to want to keep tight-lipped about which characters will appear, when and where. Of course, this doesn't make planning easy, especially since it is likely to be exceptionally busy like the previous events!

I have highlighted below some of the key moments (mainly character experiences) for Disneyland Resort, as per the Disney Parks Blog:

Event operating hours: 6 a.m May 23rd until 6 a.m May 24th.

At Disneyland Park:


At Disney California Adventure Park:


In terms of characters, that's pretty much all that has been announced for DLR, sadly. Of course everyone anticipates that there will be a lot of characters out and about, and there is speculation floating around that some characters - villains in particular - may replace the princesses at Royal Hall, but that has not been confirmed publicly by Disney yet.

Over in Walt Disney World, the Disney Parks Blog reported the following (again, I've only highlighted the important moments and character experiences):

Event operating hours: 6 a.m May 23rd until 6 am May 24th.

  • Everything kicks off with a special edition of the Welcome Show, as heroes and villains make their way to Magic Kingdom Park.
  • The Move It! Shake It! Celebrate It! Street Party will feature Disney heroes at 10 a.m and Disney villains at 1:30 p.m. When it comes to the 5:45 p.m. performance, though, exactly who makes an appearance will be determined by your votes throughout the day! (More information on how you can vote will be posted on Friday morning on the Disney Parks Blog).
  • Magic Kingdom Park parades will each have two performances. “Disney Festival of Fantasy Parade” will be at 12 p.m and 3:30 p.m, and Disney’s Main Street Electrical Parade at 11 p.m and 1 a.m.
  • Wishes Nighttime Spectacular fireworks at 9 p.m
  • Prior to each presentation of Disney’s Main Street Electrical Parade, the Disney villains roll through Magic Kingdom Park in a pre-parade, celebrating how “It’s Good to Be Bad!”
  • Starting at 11 p.m half of Princess Fairytale Hall becomes Scary Tale Hall, where you can meet Maleficent and the Queen. The other side of the hall will still feature favourite royals Anna and Elsa.
  • Around 1:45 a.m, the villains will take over the rest of the park’s character greeting locations. Where Aladdin and Jasmine appear in Adventureland during the day, expect to find Jafar. Dr. Facilier takes the place of Princess Tiana in Liberty Square, Captain Hook replaces Peter Pan in Fantasyland, and more!
  • In Tomorrowland, the INCREDIBLES Super Dance Party rocks the Rockettower Plaza Stage from 4:30 p.m – 10 p.m, and is expected to feature characters from 'The Incredibles'.
  • Disney’s “Up All Night” Dance Party at Cinderella Castle and the Frontierland Dance Party will run from 2 a.m – 5:45 a.m, and may (or may not...) feature Disney characters (no official confirmation, yet)
  • The event concludes with a special “Kiss Goodnight” at 5:50 a.m at the Railroad Station in Town Square on Main Street, U.S.A.

The Move It Shake It heroes line up is likely to include Hercules, who has been seen out and about at EPCOT the past few weeks in preparation for his starring role in this event!

It should be noted that for both WDW and DLR there were more things announced such as bands, food and merchandise, which you can find out about if you search the Disney Parks Blog. Here at Character Central our main focus is of course characters!

Staying with Walt Disney World, and this year's Star Wars Weekends Celebrity Welcome and Motorcade saw the debut of
three new characters to the Disney Parks! Sabine, Ezra and a grumpy droid named Chopper have all landed on Earth for the special weekends this year, from their new Star Wars TV show, 'Star Wars Rebels'.
Check out this video below from Attractions Magazine, which features the new characters in the Motorcade!



At the Magic Kingdom, Tinker Bell and her fairy friends have left the Nook in Adventureland, and sadly all the fairies have now left Florida and are heading back to Pixie Hollow. Tinker Bell has found a new home at Town Square Theatre on Main Street USA, filling the empty space left by the princesses when they moved into the new Fairytale Hall. Other recent character changes in Walt Disney World include the Pooh characters leaving Animal Kingdom, and Donald and Daisy replacing them - just in regular outfits, sadly (I wonder what happened to their special DAK costumes from when they met in Camp Minnie-Mickey?).

Taking the heat off the summer at Disneyland Park in California, the Disney Parks Blog announced the other day that Anna and Elsa from the ever-popular Frozen will feature in a brand new pre-parade addition to Soundsational. At the moment no other details are known except they will feature from "mid-June".

Keeping with Frozen, and the big news this week was that there will be a brand new Disney On Ice show this autumn featuring the characters from Frozen! You may recall that I actually reported about this way back in January, when I even suggested that characters such as Olaf and Sven would appear, and now it has come true! The video below was posted by Disney On Ice and shows some great concept art for the new show.



The description on the Disney On Ice website also specifically mentions Olaf, Kristoff, Sven and the magical trolls, leading us to believe they will all feature in the new show!

Finally for news, and Hong Kong Disneyland finally announced today that their new nighttime parade will debut in October, ending long running speculation that it would start in the autumn. The brand new electric light parade will use innovative new technology and will be interactive, too, whereby guests can use a mobile app to control the colour changes on the floats!

Don't forget that Disney's Swing into Spring season continues at Disneyland Paris until the 22nd June, and features a fabulous new show-parade, characters and other offerings. You can read my review of it here, and visit our dedicated guidebook page to it here.

You can also continue to meet Spider-man at Disneyland Paris until the 10th July. The Walt Disney Studios is the only place in the world you can currently meet the webbed hero! You can read my review of our meeting with him here, and visit our dedicated location page here for more photos and information.

Finally, don't forget that the Halloween and Christmas party dates for WDW were released less than two weeks ago. You can check all the dates on my previous blog post, here.

Ok, that's everything for today,

Dan.
News and updates from around the world - Captain America coming to Disneyland, new Disney On Ice show featuring Frozen characters and much more!
DisneyDan  Friday, January 10, 2014 1:24:28 PM
Hello everyone,

Today the Disney Parks Blog announced that the First Avenger, Captain America, would soon be making his Disney Parks debut at Disneyland in California. Captain America had made his world debut as a Disney Character at D23 last summer, and has since been greeting young guests in the kids' area aboard the newly refurbished Disney Magic, but this marks the first time he will be made available for all guests in a public space at the parks.

Members on WDWMagic Forum have reported that Aristocat Marie has now taken to sporting her more up to date look while visiting Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom. The Magic Kingdom was the last place that Marie was yet to sport her gentler new look, having made her debut last Valentine's Day at Disneyland Paris.

Also on WDW Magic Forum, there has been speculation that the Christmas garlands that hang across the street will no longer be put up going forward, as the new parade is too high for them, which is somewhat disappointing. But of course, this is only rumour at this stage.
Speaking of the new parade, the Disney Parks Blog have been teasing fans with images of an as-of-yet unreported float for the Festival of Fantasy. As of right now we know for sure that there will be a balloon for Mickey, a boat for Rapunzel, Monstro for Pinocchio, a flower garden for some other princesses, giant bagpipes for Merida, a clam shell for Ariel and a cool looking swinging ship for Peter Pan. However, the new images reveal to us a strange, almost steampunk inspired oven, that really could be anything! Current speculation is that it is either Tiana's Palace, one of Maurice's inventions, or something even cooler such as a machine from Treasure Planet or Atlantis, though, those last two are pretty slim chances, sadly!

Moving on now, and last night Jon received a survey from Disney On Ice, which proved to be quite interesting. The text below is from the survey:

"Act 1
Mickey and Minnie invite you to enter the magical world of
Disney On Ice’s newest ice show! Dive into the vibrant aquatic world “under the sea” with Ariel, Flounder & Sebastian from The Little Mermaid. Join Rapunzel and her unlikely companions, Flynn, and Maximus from Tangled as they take adventure to new lengths! Be bedazzled by Snow White and her seven most trusted friends. And, celebrate the courage and inner beauty of Cinderella. Journey to the jungle heat of Africa as Disney’s The Lion King comes to life on ice with majestic sets and thrilling special effects. Plus, the toys are back in town with memorable moments from all of your favorite Toy Story movies.

Act 2
Bundle up and enjoy the dazzling winter wonderland and enchanting world of Arendelle as
Frozen, Disney’s newest comedy-adventure takes to the ice. Be amazed as Anna teams up with mountain man Kristoff, his reindeer Sven and the hysterically funny snowman Olaf on an epic journey to find Anna's sister Elsa, The Snow Queen, and, through the power of sisterly love, puts an end to her icy spell and frees Arendelle from eternal winter.

From loveable toys to your favorite Disney Princesses to glorious ice palaces, your family's favorite
Disney/Pixar moments come to life at Disney On Ice with dazzling skating, special effects and beloved characters certain to create a lifetime of memories."
(Copyright Disney and Feld Entertainment)

The survey then went on to ask questions specifically about the characters Anna, Elsa, Sven, Olaf and Kristoff (who were all mentioned in the above text), which leads us to believe that they will all soon be seen as characters in Disney On Ice shows! We are really excited about the prospects of them leaving Arendelle to make their public debut, and look forward to seeing them!

Ok that's everything for this evening, but if you want to catch up on all the news from earlier this week and last week, I have posted the links below.

Have a great weekends everyone,

Dan.

For news on the new Spring events at Disneyland Paris, rare character appearances at Animal Kingdom and Princess Aurora's dress, click here.

For news about Doc McStuffins, Star Wars Weekends and more, click here.

For my photo tribute to the now closed Camp Minnie-Mickey, click here.

For my tribute to the now retired Celebrate a Dream Come True Parade, click here.

To see my massive, photo filled review of all our adventures in 2013, click here.

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