Hi all,

Today we begin in Disneyland Paris. The summer season started three days ago, which meant the return of Disney's FantIllusion, their night time parade. Maleficent has been given a slight makeover, and now appears as face character. She had previously been a masked character in the parade. What was strange is that FantIllusion was the only place she appeared like that! Returning her to her regular self is definitely an improvement. Sadly I do not have any picutres to share, but if I come across any I will be sure to post them here.

Jumping across the pond, and to California, two brand new entertainment offerings began this week in California Adventure. The Phineas and Ferb's Rockin' Rollin' Dance Party and the Wilderness Explorer Camp featuring Russell and Dug from UP are now both featured in the park. Loren will hopefully be there this coming weekend, so stay tuned for his picture updates!

Staying with Phineas and Ferb, we heard from a friend that apparently certain showings of the new Disney Live show starring Phineas and Ferb are offering front row seats with character meet 'n' greets. The problem is that the tickets are over $100 each, and Feld Entertainment will not tell us who you get to meet! If it was Candace and some of the other characters from the show that have never been in the parks, it could be neat. But if it is just Phineas and Ferb, then a hundred dollars is a steep price to pay, especially since they are now in both US Resorts.

Also for Phineas and Ferb, today saw the launch of the "Platy-Bus" which will tour select cities around the US. Sadly, the official website is next to useless (as the official sites always are), and so it leaves me wondering if Perry the Platypus / Agent P himself will be making appearances? When I know more I will be sure to let you know.

Swinging over to Tokyo now, and Dreamlights has been given some brand new floats. There are new Aladdin, Tinker Bell and Toy Story units, and I have to say they look nothing short of jaw droppingly spectacular! We were lucky enough to see Dreamlights several times last year, and thought it was awesome, but these new floats just blow everything else away. Once you see Dreamlights, trust me, nothing else compares!

Staying with Tokyo, and over on the forum Jon posted two videos of some of the more interesting character offerings involving thousands of gallons of water. Despite their much reduced programme this year, Tokyo still continue happily to drench fans daily.

From the best parade in the Disneyverse, to the worst now, and over in the Magic Kingdom, they have decided to now run the day parade twice daily through the summer season. Not content with torturing fans with a once daily showing they decided that for some bizarre reason we would all want to see it twice. The Magic Kingdom day parade has well and truly had it's day, and needs urgent replacement. We can only hope that making it work twice as hard through the toughest season of the year send it into disrepair! One can dream...

Finally back in Paris, just a few random character sightings. Native American Chip and Dale were spotted out this weekend in Frontierland (they don't get out often), as well as Goof Troop Goofy, and son Max over at the Sequoia Lodge. Max is quite rare for Paris, so to have him with the also-rare Goof Troop style Goofy was quite a treat! (For those of you wondering, Goofy wears and orange sweater, green trousers an a pink bow tie).

Don't forget to check out this weeks Character of the Week and to vote for next time, and finally check out my special Summer Character Magic article for Disneyland Paris.

Ok, that's all for now,

Dan.