Hi all,

The last couple of days saw the official launch of the brand new version of Fantasmic! at Tokyo DisneySea. It has had mixed reactions so far apparently, but does include some cool sequences. And of course much to my approval it has Stitch and Angel in it! I found this video here, but there are probably a lot more now if you search.

Staying with DisneySea, I also found some pictures of the "new" (at least within the last couple of months) meet 'n' greet trails at the Lost River Delta. These are the first images I have actually seen of the new area, and I have to say it looks really neat! This Flickr user has some pictures on her stream here.

This Flickr user has some pictures of a new show that replaced Over the Waves. A Table is Waiting looks just as bizarre as it's predecessor but has some interesting outfits including Chip and Dale with moustaches!

Jumping over to Florida, and last week you may recall me praising WDW for actually have some themed characters in the Easter pre-parade such as Chicken Little and Clara Cluck, well today I found this picture of a brand new Azalea Trail Maid Daisy Duck! Well done Magic Kingdom for actually doing something cool for a change!!

Also in Florida, Jon posted some information to the forum about Jake and Izzy from Jake and the Neverland Pirates. Be sure to check it out!

Finally, I heard today that from June Disney's Stars 'n' Cars at the Walt Disney Studios will no longer perform the show section, but instead will run as a proper parade right across the park! I did also hear that Angel and Mike would join the parade with their respective friends, and that there would be some form of smaller show stop more akin to the regular parade show stops from other parks. How true these last two things are I don't yet know.

Jon and I have been working hard as always to get our latest trip pics up on the site, and these can be found by clicking the Flickr thumbnails to the bottom right. I have also been trying to update more character and location pages with more current information, and also added five new characters yesterday.

Ok, that's all for now.

Dan.

Hi all,

Today sees the official launch of the Magic Moments Festival in Disneyland Paris. Of course over the last week or so we have already seen previews and soft openings of the shows, parade and new character locations, but I thought it was worth mentioning anyway. I did tell you that f I came up with a picture of the pink princess tent that has appeared in Fantasyland, I would post it. And I have! The Disney and More Blog posted an article about the press weekend, and although most of the information is not new (I have talked about all of it over the last week), if you scroll down you will see two pictures of the temporary location (just there while they complete the new location at the old Small World exit area).  [ Read More... ]

Hi all,

Yesterday insidethemagic posted some new pictures form the new Mickey and Princess meet and greet rooms at the new Town Square Theater in the Magic Kingdom. The brand new locations have been open on “soft opening” test runs.  [ Read More... ]

Hi all,

I have some news form Disneyland Paris today regarding the new Magical Moments Festival.

They have been out in full force installing the new photolocations, and so far include Aladdin, Lion King/Jungle Book, Rapunzel and Alice in Wonderland. I found these pictures posted to a blog, and I have to say that the Aladdin one looks neat, the Alice one is ok, but the Rapunzel one looks simply awful (you can click the images to see them larger). The Rapunzel one is just stuck right in the middle of the walkway and is completely out of touch with its surroundings. I really think it is a bad set up.  [ Read More... ]

Hi all,

The Disney Parks Blog the other day made a post about the opening of the new Mickey meet ‘n’ greet in Town Square. In the post they mentioned magician Mickey, to which I, and the rest of the Disney community took as meaning he will have an actual magician’s outfit. But it has now come to light that this is not the case, and it will be just regular Mickey. The “magician” part simply implied, well, that Mickey can do magic I suppose. The post doesn’t make it too clear and caused quite a lot of confusion, but sadly regular Mickey will be greeting Guests. We will be there in just over two weeks to check this out for ourselves. The new area does look neat, and today Stitch Kingdom shared two (albeit blurry) images taken by someone on the inside!  [ Read More... ]

Hi all,

Friday night saw a special preview event at Disneyland Paris for the new Magical Moments Festival, due to start in less than weeks at the Resort. The event consisted of special previews of the brand new hub show, and the Disney Dance Express (the latest incarnation of the Character Express/Casey Jr).  [ Read More... ]

Hi all,

The Disney Parks Blog today announced that when the brand new, near-completed Expo Hall meet 'n' greet location opens, Mickey will be greeting his fans in a magicians outfit! I have to say we are quite excited about this, and hope that the new area is completed for our trip in three weeks time!

The princesses will also be moving into Expo Hall until the new Fantasyland is at a stage where they can go back up there. What will become of the extra queue area once they move out of Expo Hall is also unknown. Hopefully WDI have something up their sleeves so that it does not become yet another redundant area of the park! (Especially since the Mickey meet will be permanent and so cool looking, we don't want disused areas making the place look untidy!)

As the comment replies from Staff explain, there is currently no idea of how the FastPass system for the meets will work.

Sadly there isn't anything else character related to report this week, but I'll keep you posted as always.

Dan.

Hi all,

This week I heard from a friend that Merlin made an unprecedented appearance in Disneyland Park in Disneyland Paris. For the first time in many years during regular hours (besides ticketed events), Merlin was found in the Castle Courtyard trying to find the new King of England in the much pined for Sword in the Stone Ceremony!  [ Read More... ]