Hi all,

We start the news this week with D23 over in California.

Sadly, much to the fans disappointment there were no real major announcements but one thing did come out of the Parks talk, and that is that the Carnation Plaza Stage area of Main Street in Disneyland will be re-themed. It will in fact become part of Fantasyland and will take on the look of a small village complete with a Rapunzel Tower and a small stage for shows. No other real details yet, but it looked fairly sizeable considering the relatively small space up in that area. Interestingly the new area will be called Fantasy Faire. It will house the Disney Princesses, and is likely to replace the current, similarly named, Princess Fantasy Faire that already exists in Fantasyland. Hopefully PFF will be returned to it's former glory and house some neat shows once again.

The only other "news" to come out of D23 was that Jake from the Neverland Pirates was meeting there. I had previously said on the blog that he would be, but we had confirmation from Loren , who was there. His pictures will be posted soon I believe.

Staying in California, but moving across the street from the Expo to Disneyland itself, and Captain Rex and Boba Fett of Star Wars fame were out in Tomorrowland last week randomly. That now makes three Star Wars characters in the last couple of weeks that have been appearing in the land. We hope that this means Disneyland are considering either having them permanently, or testing them for some other purpose, such as a new show or even their own version of Star Wars Weekends! Of course I am just speculating, but it would be cool nonetheless.

Finally, going cross-country to Orlando, and Dr Facilier and the Queen of Hearts made some random appearances towards the end of last week in the Magic Kingdom. They do not normally appear in the Florida parks, but could be because the Halloween Parties begin in just a few weeks they are warming up by greeting their fans again.

Ok, that's all for now,

Dan.