Hi all,

Monday was of course Valentine’s Day, and I had already posted about the scaled back events at DLP this year, and the surprise appearances by two princes in EPCOT at WDW, but over in California, there were more surprises!

In a welcome, but unusual move for the usually character-lacking resort, Disneyland put out Prince Eric, Prince Naveen, The Beast, Prince Charming and Prince Phillip on the special day, along with their princesses, of course. They appeared intermittently switching out in Princess Fantasy Faire in Fantasyland.

Our friend Rob is in WDW this week, and has reported to us that the Fairies are now in their new garden location in EPCOT, outside Mouse Gear.

I also want to comment on something I mentioned in my previous blog. For some reason I had a bit of a stupid moment and I had said that the special brunch at the Disneyland Hotel was a one off thing, but it isn’t. The Around the World theme actually was a bit more special than normal, but as it happens, the themed brunches do happen every Sunday. They rotate around between three themes – London, Paris and Hawaii. The London one includes Mary Poppins, Bert, and the Fab 5 friends in their Main Street outfits. The Hawaii brunch includes Lilo and Stitch, and the Parisian one features Belle. We shall be there this Sunday for the London buffet.

It also was brought to my attention that the Lucky Nugget is still featuring Disney Characters in the day time, despite me being told otherwise. So I apologise for any confusion on that one.

As Jon already posted in the forums, Tom Staggs announced some future plans for the way people can plan their trips, including pre-booking slots on certain attraction, and character meet ‘n’ greets. I don’t normally comment on anything that is non-character based (we’re a character blog after all), but I wanted to point out the major failures that I see happening here, as I am not a fan of this idea at all.

When people go to the parks on vacation, they want to roam and explore, encounter things randomly in fun ways with their friends and families. People want to just turn a corner and discover something they never knew was there. They want to be able to randomly bump into Mickey or other characters. Can you imagine if you had to book all your rides six months in advance? Can you imagine walking into the park with a ream of papers all printed out six months ago at home, and sifting through them working out which ride came first. What if it’s raining and the attraction is closed? Can’t go back later as it is all “sold out!” Too bad! What if you randomly do find something along the way and want to explore – but you have a reservation to meet Cinderella at 4pm, well guess that’s too bad too. Can you see how this will just not work? Am I the only one besides Jon who thinks this will fail? What about people who book last minute? What option do they get when they try to book Big Thunder Mountain for next Tuesday, only to find out it sold out a year ago?

I really think that this is taking the vacation planning too far, and not by just a little – but a lot. This idea needs to be scrapped immediately. And as for what it means for those random, fun and exciting character meets, I shiver with fear. No more cool random meets, no more lining up and wondering which combination of Fairies you might get. Nope – all booked six months in advance. How boring.

Ok, so that’s my rant over for today, please let us know what you think of this on Jon’s post in the forum.

Jumping back over to California for a quick mention of this weekend’s Family Fun Days – Mardi Gras! The Disney Parks Blog has announced the happenings that can be found, including a Celebration with Tiana, Naveen and Louis, and a Cavalcade with the Disney Characters in their Mardi Gras finest! The picture of Mickey in his Margi Gras suit makes me really want to be there, but alas we shall be in Paris. But stay tuned to the blog next week when I will hopefully be able to post something from our resident Disneyland correspondent, Loren.

Finally I wanted to mention that we are going to be in Disneyland Paris from Sunday for five days. If anyone is in the parks, be sure to say hi if you see us with our cameras! We will no doubt be hunting characters!

We shall try to update from Paris as usual, but will not be fully online again until next weekend.

I also just want to point out that we have been taking all your suggestions on board for the forums, and we will continue to add more content and tweak the features and functionality. Please continue to give your feedback as we really do appreciate all your support.

Ok, that’s all for now,

Dan.