Hi all,

This week has been fairly quiet on the character news front, but there are now a few more details emerging about the upcoming Halloween Season across the parks.

At Walt Disney World the Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party line up has been released and can be found on our forums here. There are no real surprises as rumours had been flying around for a while. Just confirmation really of some of those expected, including Jack Sparrow, Lotso and Gaston.

Additional to this post Jon made, we now know that Rapunzel and Flynn will be in Town Square Theatre, as the list initially just said "Disney Princesses". They will meet along side Cinderella, Prince Charming, Snow White and the Prince. In an unconventional move, Aurora and Phillip are being moved to the Fairytale Garden. We also know that Hades is now not appearing. The rest of the list remains unchanged.

Speaking of Gaston, he has been making on/off appearances in EPCOT the last couple of weeks, including yesterday. This is in preparation for him starring at the Parties for the first time, which begin next week.

Over at Disneyland, between the official Disney Parks Blog and Stitch Kingdom, we have been able to piece together the character picture over there for the Parties.

This year it would appear that there are a number of changes including the addition of Duffy (as with Florida), Phineas and Ferb. Stormtroopers, and a new dance party starring Pirate Goofy, Chip, Dale and Pluto. The Buzz dance party is returning, as are all the regular meets such as Mickey, Minnie, Princesses, Villains etc. There is no mention of Jack and Sally at all yet for this Halloween Season, but we hope they return.

In Disneyland Paris We know that there will be one new show, which I discussed previously, as well as a second, smaller happening that I now know will not be totally new, but will utilise the Dance Express train - at least that is what I have been told. Previously the information we had made it sound as though the smaller show was something on the Castle Stage itself (not the Hub Stage - that is different).

Like Florida, DLP have been preparing for the Halloween Season by featuring some random Disney friends over the last few days, including Jack Skellington (confirming his return this Season), Mulan, Alice, Clopin and Esmeralda. Jack normally features in during regular hours, as well as at the parties, but the others listed have previously featured quite prominently at the parties, and so these random "training" appearances confirms their return for this year.

Finally, WDW have added a new character meal in Animal Kingdom at the Tusker House. The Tusker House already features a character breakfast, but has now added (from December) lunch too. Apart from the actual food served, it sounds almost identical to the breakfast. Jon has more information here.

Ok, that's all for now,

Dan.