Hi all,

It has been a fairly quite week on the news front, but I do have a few small pieces of information for you.

First off, our friends at Characters Photos Blog were in Disneyland Paris this week and have reported that Maleficent is finally back on the Dreams of Power float after nearly a year’s absence! Last spring she was removed from the float after the performer fell from it during a live parade. It is a welcome return for Disney’s most celebrated villain – especially since currently the parade is in an abridged format due to the Fantasyland repaving.

Characters Photos Blog was in the parks today also, and confirming my earlier speculation that they might unofficially return, Rapunzel and Flynn were seen at the Disneyland Hotel this evening. Although Rapunzel and Flynn left at the end of the Christmas Season, they are due to return in April for the new Celebration year. I had speculated that Disney would not waste the opportunity to use these new characters around the parks even if they were not currently listed.

Over in Florida we have heard from our contacts that some random characters have been out. This time of year typically sees new performers training, and so more random characters can sometimes be found. I had one report of Foulfellow being at the American Adventure, which is a rare site indeed!

This weekend over in California sees the next event in the Family Fun Weekend line up – and it is the big one we have all been waiting for – Character Fan Days!

The Disney Parks Blog has made a post listing the characters that will be available. Sadly, due to the “favourite” voting of the fans, as opposed to what should have happened – vote for the rarest – there are not really any amazing characters on the list. The Seven Dwarfs, Hook, Wendy, Smee, Donald, Daisy, King Louie and Baloo are all regularly available in most other parks around the world, and even Donald in California itself. The Dwarfs are out all the time in Tokyo, and at the Halloween and Christmas Parties in Florida. Baloo and King Louie are out in the other parks quite often. The Pan gang are also out all the time in the other parks. They aren't out so often in Disneyland but Hook can be found at the Breakfast in the Park, and all three have been at the Halloween Parties in previous years. Esmeralda and Clopin are probably the coolest characters on offer, but even they are out fairly often in Disneyland Paris these days. Our California correspondent Loren should be there and we’ll update you with all the latest as we get it!

Finally another site update for you. Jon and I have added a calendar page to the site. This is accessible by going to the About Us page, or by scrolling down to the left hand side panel here on this blog. Note that the link is NOT currently up here on the blog, but is on the About Us page. We will be adding it to the side panel later today or tomorrow. The calendar has been launched because we often have people who email us and ask when we'll be at the Parks so that they can meet with us, or so that Cast Members can tell their performer friends to look out for us. Cast love to see their pictures and we always try to get them copies of themselves performing, where possible. So we decided to add a calendar to the site for ease of reference for everybody.

Ok, that’s all for now,

Dan.