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Hello everyone,
A few small pieces of news today.
First up, Disneyland in California has abruptly ended the Plaza Inn's "My Disneyland Birthday" which used to take place at the restaurant. The special gathering which saw the debut of a brand new park-exclusive character "Pat E Cake", ran for over 10 years, before ending this past Sunday. It was a neat little happening that also featured Mickey and Minnie meeting the invited guests together for pictures.
You may recall last year WDW similarly cut its Tony's Town Square Gathering, which featured the Lady and the Tramp's chef Tony exclusively at the Tony's Town Square Restaurant in the Magic Kingdom.
It's sad to see that these unique events are gradually disappearing from the parks, as it is often these little details and happenings that really add that extra sparkle to a guest's day.
The Disney Parks Blog finally announced details of Disneyland's version of Long Lost Friends Week. Although no date is set yet, they have released on the blog a list of characters which can be voted on, and the top ones will be the ones that appear in the park that week (whenever that may be).
The list has been met with some mixed reaction from the fan community overall, simply because it isn't as diverse as we were all hoping for. Sure, it does have the Three Good Fairies, Merlin and Ludwig Von Drake, amongst others, but it also has Alice, the Mad Hatter, Peter Pan, Chip 'n Dale, and many more who are all in the park regularly.
Some have pointed out that it's the opportunity to get these groups of characters together that is also the draw, but to be honest, when I think "long lost", meeting Alice with the Tweedles doesn't exactly inspire me. The fear is also of course that people will vote for those characters, and the event will end up being nothing more than a big gathering of current friends, rather than the return of anyone truly "lost".
I guess we shall see soon enough what happens!
Over at WDW, although Disney themselves haven't made a public announcement, Cast Members there are reporting that Hollywood Studios' Countdown to Fun parade and Disney Channel Rocks will both be ending permanently on April 6th this year.
There is no word on any replacement yet for either offering, sadly.
In Disneyland Paris, our friends at Dedicated to DLP reported that they have heard whispers of a runDisney event being held there late next year. For anyone who doesn't know, usually these events have lots of random and cool characters featured along the course! I guess we should all start training now!
This past weekend DLP also held its annual St. Patrick's Day event, which featured characters in their Irish finest, and Leprechauns! It's one of the very few things that we still haven't been to, here at Character Central. Every year we say we will, and we always fail! Maybe next year?...
Lots of the main DLP Facebook and Twitter pages had some good updates throughout the weekend of the characters, shows, special fireworks and the pre-parade, so be sure to check them out!
Remember that just a few days ago I made another News post, which contains details of lots more cool things coming to the parks this year, including a Greek event at DLR! So be sure to read that.
Although its birthday has passed now, two days ago it was Walt Disney Studios Park's 11th anniversary. I made a special tribute post with lots of really great photos in it, so if you're curious at all, then have a look.
Finally, I want to mention our brand new Tokyo Disney Resort Trip Planner that was launched last week. If you are planning to visit Tokyo, and haven't yet seen our special Trip Planner, I would suggest you do not miss it!
For those who have asked, or are curious, more Trip Planners are on their way, for the other Disney Parks and Resorts - they just take a lot of time to create! We'll let you know here on the blog when we do launch them.
Ok, I think that's all for today.
Dan. |