Hi all,

Today we begin with Florida. The Disney Parks Blog has reported that the Fairies will return to the Magic Kingdom from July 28th at the Adventureland Veranda. We look forward to seeing how the new location looks and works out.

The big news in WDW this week of course was that Naveen and Flynn Rider left their permanent meet 'n' greets with their princesses. There has been much fan uproar about this, and user Shiva on the Forum has since reported (later down the thread) that WDW Guest Services replied to an email saying that Flynn will appear at the Halloween and Christmas Parties, and Naveen occasionally in the Parks with Tiana, but not full time. This is better than dropping them altogether I suppose!

Jon reported on the forum that there are no longer going to be any EMH meet 'n' greets any more either, which is really sad. It seems like WDW - especially the Magic Kingdom - are really scaling back o nthe characters. But then, the WDW management never cease to disappoint us character fans any more.

Jumping aboard the Cruise Line now, and the Disney Cruise Line Facebook page posted some really cute images of some of the Characters in Alaskan gear. You can see them here and here.

Over in Tokyo, Angel got a facelift (picture later down in the thread) and I have to say I'm not sure about her new look! Her head is smaller, which is a good thing since she was HUGE before when compared to Stitch, but she just doesn't look right now. I think she needs to go back to Jumba and have it tweaked slightly!

Across the pond in Paris, although they feature no real Disney Characters, the monster and ghoul filled Terrorific Nights at the Walt Disney Studios are set to return for a third year; and it has been announced that there will two parties this year, since it was so popular last year.

Finally, last week I said that the Star Wars characters were set to return to Discoveryland, and my source was correct - the new schedule was released today, and they are back on it!

Ok, that's all for now,

Dan.

Hi all,

Disneyland Paris yesterday had it's premier showing of the new Pirates of the Caribbean movie (not the French premier though). Disney Central Plaza posted to their Facebook page a photo of Jack Sparrow and Davy Jones meeting Guests at the cinema in Disney Village! There is some conflict of information as to whether these were real or not, but whether these characters were provided by Disney, or by the cinema, they were certainly very convincing, and were on Disney property for a Disney movie premier! In our eyes that makes them characters, but take a look and make your own judgement. Let me know what you think by hitting the Discuss button at the end of this post.

I have also just literally heard from an inside source that Café Mickey in Disney Village, sadly, is no longer offering random characters at the meals! From now on it is only the Fab 5 and friends! This is quite a shame, as this was one of Disney best Character meal experiences around, and you never knew who you would get!

Loren posted his latest Character Updates to the Character Central Forum. Jon also posted to the forum that a user on MiceChat heard that Phineas and Ferb would be coming to Disney California Adventure at the start of June!

Of course the biggest news was from Florida where the D23 event came to a spectacular finish. None other than Dreamfinder and Figment made a surprise, and much welcomed appearance on stage. Check out the video Jon posted in the Forum here.

Staying with Florida, I heard that Rapunzel and Flynn made a random appearance at International Gateway in EPCOT, and Tinker Bell is now greeting alone in the temporary Fairy Garden near Mouse Gear. She has six set times with no friends joining her. This is a massive come down from the glory days of her appearing from open to close with two other friends in Pixie Hollow in the Magic Kingdom. The lines get far too long, and she is way too popular to only have six half hour slots per day. Hopefully when she moves back to Adventureland, things will be restored to order.

Don't forget to check out the latest Character of the Week, and vote for next week's star.

Ok, that's all for now,

Dan.

Hi all,

Over on the forum Jon posted a video of the new night time mini parade at Tokyo Disneyland, called Nightfall Glow Parade. The idea of it has two purposes. It is currently filling the gap between now and when the revised version of Dreamlights launches, and when that does launch, this new mini parade will be the Park's "Rainy Day" version. If there is enough rainfall in one night to warrant cancelling Dreamlights, this new parade has been specially designed to cope with the wet conditions - albeit in a cut down format.

I have to say that as short as it is, it looks amazing, and to be honest if they decided to make a whole new night time parade for any of the parks using the same technology I would not complain! The "light up panels" effect and the smooth, cleaner more defined lines and image of the floats makes it look modern and yet magical at the same time. Well done Tokyo Disneyland!

Also over on the forum Jon posted the meeting times of the upcoming PIXAR Weekend at EPCOT. Check it out now to plan your fun filled character hunting weekend!

Finally, staying with EPCOT, we have heard from a Character attendant friend of ours that for the time being the Fairies are to stay in EPCOT past the end of Flower and Garden Festival, and not move back to the Magic Kingdom.

Ok, that's all for now,

Dan.

Hi all,

DLRP Magic confirmed today what I already said yesterday, that Stars 'n' Cars would be made into a proper parade, running across the park. The show stops will basically be a meet 'n' greet opportunity apparently.

Over in Florida, Walt Disney World have now put on sale their Halloween and Christmas Party tickets. More information can be found on Jon's forum posts here (Halloween) and here (Christmas).

Star Wars Weekends are due to start soon, and WDW have been promoting the fantastic annual event by visiting malls across Florida. Small stages have popped up in at least four locations, and have included appearances by Jedi Mickey, C-3PO and R2-D2!

I have also heard from an inside source that Dumbo and the Three Little Pigs (Fiddler, Fifer and Practical) might be making a return once the new Fantasyland is complete. It has been suggested their costumes may be redesigned, but that is not confirmed by any means. This would be fantastic if they did! We hope this rumour comes true.

Over in Disneyland, California correspondent Loren ran the Orange County AIDS walk, and raised over $4000! Read his post here on the forum to see which amazing characters he saw along the way! Well done Loren!

Finally, as always we have been uploading huge amounts of photos to our Flickr pages, which in turn should automagically appear on their respective pages on this site. Lots of new Florida, Disney On Ice and Disneyland Paris photos should now be on many different pages. The latest images can always be seen by clicking the Most Recent tab on the main photos section of each page.

I have also updated the calendar to reflect some slight changes to our travel plans.

Ok, that's all for now,

Dan.

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... ]