 | Disney Dreams... they really did come true! |
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| DisneyDan
Sunday, April 1, 2012 2:34:35 AM |
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Hi all, Last night saw the premiere of the brand new nighttime spectacular, Disney Dreams, at Disneyland Paris. We weren't there (yet - 5 days for us!), but there was a live video feed of the premiere on YouTube, and I can safely say without any question of doubt, that it is the most beautiful, tear inducing, SPECTACULAR show ever to be produced by Disney. I absolutely cannot WAIT to see it Friday night. It is something really to behold on the screen, but in person I can only imagine I will be an emotional wreck! I don't often get emotional over shows and the like, but if there is any reason to ever travel to a Disney Park to bawl your eyes out in joy, it is for Disney Dreams in Paris this year! Here is one of the better videos I found of it - WARNING - this is the WHOLE show, DO NOT watch if you want it to remain a surprise! [Mac or Chrome users may have to refresh to see the video below] (If you want to watch it in HD, this website has the same video, but in better quality.) I can only imagine in the summer when they run FantIllusion, what a absolutely FANTASTIC nightly experience Guests will have. Nighttime parade into Dreams? Likely to be the best nighttime entertainment offering of any Disney Park world wide! Dan. |
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Hi all,
I know we haven't had any proper updates in a while, but it's all been a bit crazy here since getting back from the Cruise and WDW.
And of course at the end of next week we'll be in DLP for the 20th for a week... so as you can imagine we have a lot to do, and can't always keep things as up to date as we'd like.
That all said, we do have a few updates to share with you this evening.
Disneyland Paris has of course been having "soft opening" showings of it's new version of the Parade (Disney Magic On Parade) and the once again revamped character train, now the 20th Anniversary Celebration Train.
The Parade has seen some cool changes. The soundtrack is of course different, but here a list of other changes we have noticed so far.
Wendy, Pluto, Belle, Prince Adam, Aladdin and Jasmine have all been dropped. In their place we have gained the Blue Fairy, Merlin, the Fairy Godmother, Flora, Fauna, Merryweather, Geppetto, Rapunzel, Flynn Rider and Duffy. Tinker Bell is also due to soon re-join the parade, having been absent the last 2 days.
I don't think losing 6 characters for 11 new ones was a bad trade overall! Do you?
Peter Pan has lost his parade-specific outfit.
The Dreams of Imagination and Dreams of Romance 1 floats have been revamped and re-themed, and Mickey and friends have been switched form the front to the back of the parade, complete with brand new wizard costumes.
There are a bunch of new performer costumes.
Baloo and King Louie no longer have their grass skirts.
The floats have been re-ordered, and characters moved from the float to the ground (such as Jessie and Bert).
There are undoubtedly more than that, but I felt those were the more noteworthy ones for now.
The Celebration Train has now lost it's face, sadly. Which kind of takes away form it's overall appeal I think. He had a little personality before, now it's just a train.
The characters who currently appear for meets in Central Plaza when the train stops are Minnie, Donald, Daisy, Pluto, Goofy, Clarice, Chip and Dale. No Mickey yet, but we have heard he may appear in the future.
You can check out a video of the new parade here, and the new character train here.
Staying with Paris, and work continues on the new Mickey meet 'n' greet in Fantasyland, but while that is being completed, they have temporarily converted the Woody's Roundup area into a "Meet Mickey" experience, which features Mickey and Minnie in their regular outfits.
It is an interesting move, seeing as Minnie will be on the train all year (not saying she can't meet here also), and Mickey will be moving soon to Fantasyland... makes me wonder why go to all that trouble just for the time being?
Finally, jumping over to Florida, and Flik sadly went back to the ant hill this week, and has been replaced by Russell and Dug form UP.
I think that this was quite a nice change, and look forward to seeing them next time we'rein DAK!
Ok, that's all for now. Don't forget to catch up on my latest part of my Cruise Trip Report - there shall be another one coming in the next day or two, so stay tuned!
Dan. |
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Hi all, Today we learned the schedule of events for Disneyland Paris's 20th anniversary day on the 12th of April. It really looks quite exciting! Filled with character meet 'n' greets and shows, it looks set to be a spectacular day! Check out the full schedule here on Disney and More's Blog. Let us know what you think, and what you are looking forward to the most! We'll be there, and CAN'T WAIT! Dan. |
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Hi all,
Sorry it has been a few days since our last update, but we have been very busy preparing for WDW and the Disney Cruise in just a couple of days time! Very exciting!
Anyway, here's what we have from the last few days...
In California, Loren has been busy keeping us updated with all the latest happenings.
Be sure to check out his updates from the Blue Bayou Bash and Valentine's Day here, the launch of the brand new DCA show 'Minnie's Fly Girls' here (which features talking Minnie!), and some cool news about atmosphere characters to appear on the new Buena Vista Street when it opens (think Citizens of Hollywood and Main Street at WDW!).
Loren also reported that there is a chance of some rare characters at DL's Leap Day event. I have to admit that I have been so busy I haven't had chance to check properly, but as far as I know, nothing else has been announced yet for DL, and everything so far is just rumour.
On the other hand, over in Florida, WDW announced the schedule for their Leap Day event. As was expected, there is nothing special about the announced programme. Extra character entertainment includes the Main Street Electrical Parade, extended times for the the regular character meet 'n' greets and the Frontierland Hoedown in the middle if the night.
We have heard form a few different sources across the Internet that some other random characters may appear. So far nothing seems to be confirmed but a few different websites are reporting everything from Jack Sparrow, the Seven Dwarfs and Mickey and Minnie in their PJs. Of course there is no official word on any of this, and anything can change last minute. Nobody will know for sure until they are in the park sadly!
We'd love to hear from you if you are going to be there. Let us know what characters you got to meet. Just hit the Discuss button at the bottom of this article (if you're on the article page)!
Disneyland Paris held their annual meeting, and they had a sneak preview of the brand new outfits for the VIPs during the 20th anniversary. You can check out the video here, which also includes the Three Good Fairies, the Blue Fairy and Merlin all dancing along to the brand new Parade song!
Finally, this video was released for DLP's 20th anniversary, and is a "brief history" of the Resort's 20 magical years. It includes of course some very interesting character moments!
Ok, that's all for now,
Dan.
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Hi all,
Not much again on the news front, but let's take a look at some of the things I've heard this week regarding DLP's 20th Anniversary.
The new version of the Character Express, as expected will feature the VIPs in their new sorcerer outfits, but surprisingly the train will feature Mickey Mouse, as well as the increasingly uncommon Clarice!
In all previous incarnations of the train Mickey has not featured - he is the Big Cheese - you have to make the special effort to go meet him on Main Street (or soon at his new home in Fantasyland, which I'll come to in a minute...).
It is great to hear that they will be making scheduled stops in Central Plaza and the whole gang will be there, including Clarice, and we really look forward to seeing them all in April for the 20th Anniversary!
Above, I mentioned Mickey's meet 'n' greet. As we all know by now, he is moving into the former Fantasy Festival Stage at the back of Fantasyland. We now hear that this has been delayed a bit, and will not open right at the start of the 20th celebrations, but is more likely to be May (which means we'll see it for the first time in June).
DLR Today posted this article suggesting that the new version of the parade will begin soft openings from the 26th March! Of course this could mean that some elements are not yet complete, or may not even run the new version at all some days from then 'til official launch, but nonetheless, if you're there at the end of March you should be i nfor an early 20th treat!
Finally, you might want to check out my latest in my special article series revealing the top 10 places at the Disney Parks and Resorts for meeting characters.
Ok, that's all for now,
Dan. |
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Hi all,
This week the Disney Parks Blog announced that there would again be Chinese Lunar New Year Celebrations at Disneyland in California. Moving this year from the Festival Arena though, to near "it's a small world", the event will run from the 20th through to the 29th of January. It will feature Mulan, Mushu and other Disney Characters. We hope that it means there will be some neat costumes for the Characters. Loren will be there, and we look forward to his updates as usual! You can discuss this topic on our topic about it here on our forum.
Staying with Disneyland, the Parks Blog also announced a special "meet-up" event at California Adventure involving Jake and his pirate band from the hit show, Jake and the Neverland Pirates. RSVPs are opening next week apparently, so keep checking their blog for more information. Loren hopes he can attend - we hope he can too! Discuss this event on our forum topic about it here!
Be sure to check out Loren's weekly Character updates from Disneyland - the latest instalment is here.
Finally for California, I thought this was a cool picture from the Disney Parks Blog - the Tick Tock Croc in a tea cup! Now if only he would come out of hiding to meet his fans once again...
Jumping over to Paris now, and DLRP Today posted some more detailed concept art from the new version of the parade. I have to say it looks really neat, and we really look forward to seeing all the cool changes to it in April. From new characters (Fairies and Merlin to name some!), some brand new mini-floats (carriages for the Princesses), new costumes, new music and newly redesigned old floats (that look simply stunning!), the new version of the parade really looks set to be the fantastic boost that the day parade needed (despite our LOVE of Once Upon a Dream Parade!).
Finally, we have heard confirmation from numerous sources across the Internet that the Tarzan show will be returning for another season this year at Parc Disneyland.
Ok, that's all for now!
Dan. |
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Hi all,
A couple of small things today.
After quite some time of ambiguity over it's fate - and being pushed back some months - the Disney Parks Blog finally confirmed that the "Minnie's Fly Girls Charter Airlines" show starring Minnie Mouse will finally be coming to Disney California Adventure from February 17th.
Although not really Character related, Disneyland Paris released the following video for the upcoming 20th Anniversary. I am posting this here because even with the absence of Characters, this new night time show looks set to be nothing short of eye-poppingly spectacular! (Yes, I know I just invented a word!)
Jon and I will be there in April for the opening of the 20th Anniversary and cannot wait to see everything. Between Mickey's new meet 'n' greet location, the new version of the parade with it's newly redesigned floats, new music, new characters and new costumes, and this awesome new Dreams show, the 20th Anniversary will undoubtedly be the best year yet!
Finally, we have been working to add some more new content to the site over the last few days, as well as update some older pages that were a bit out of date. New content includes Stitch's Hawaiian Brunch at Inventions (DLP), Christmas at the Disneyland Hotel (DLP) which includes three events, Princess Aurora's Christmas Wish (DLP) and the Disney On Ice show, Dare to Dream, which includes several new characters to the site. So be sure to check them out! Some of the pages are still being worked on and so might not have many pictures yet, but rest assured they will be added to over time!
Ok, that's all for now,
Dan. |
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Hi all,
A few small pieces of information for this week, but nothing major.
Christmas Season ended at the Parks and Resorts, and at Disneyland Paris, unusually, Mickey's Winter Wonderland - which previously was a winter show running through February - ended also.
This now makes Winter Wonderland more a Christmas show than a Winter one, which is a little sad since it added some nice seasonal entertainment through the boring months of January and February!
Along with that, Central Plaza Stage has begun being decommissioned, hence ending the Mickey's Magical Celebration show. Disney Dance Express also had it's last performance.
The Once Upon a Dream Parade lost the Imagination unit so it can be converted to the new Fairies unit, and the Romance 2 unit is soon to follow.
All these changes are in preparation for the 20th Anniversary celebration, which will begin on 1st April.
We can't wait to see everything they have planned once it is all up and running!
Staying with Paris, and of course with the end of Christmas Season the Characters revert back to regular outfits. Duffy had made his début in Paris during the Christmas period, and so now makes his official regular début on Main Street in his regular sailor outfit on a permanent basis, alongside Mickey Mouse. Incidentally, the new Mickey meet 'n' greet is taking shape apparently, with some fresh new colours being painted onto the former Fantasy Festival Stage building. Again, we look forward to seeing it completed!
Over in Florida, much to my sadness, Dug and Russell from UP have stopped meeting guests just a month after they were added at Animal Kingdom.
This week saw the half marathon and the full marathon in WDW, and there were some truly amazing characters there. We really want to do a marathon some year (when we eventually get time!), and if any year has spurred us on to want to do it, it was this year. We have so far seen pictures of Darkwing Duck, Ludwig Von Drake, the Three Little Pigs and the Big Bad Wolf, amongst others. There were many more of course, but they are the most amazing ones I have seen posted online so far. Oh what we wouldn't do to meet Darkwing and Ludwig!!
In California, Disneyland held their Three Kings Day celebration, and of course Loren was there to get all the best pictures for us! Check out his picture filled Forum post here.
Finally, I posted some photo filled entries that I thought I would just highlight, as they are worth a look.
You can check out Part One and Part Two of my Disneyland Paris Christmas and New Year Photo Trips Reports here and here respectively.
I also posted a great over view of all the fantastic Character related things we have done this year, in my Year in Review post which can be seen here.
Ok, that's all for now,
Dan. |
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Hello everyone! May I take this opportunity to formally wish everyone a Happy New Year. We were in Disneyland Paris (I mean, where else WOULD we be?!), and so we could only Tweet and Facebook our New Year's greeting to everyone, so this is the first chance I have had on the Blog. We had an amazing time as always in DLP, and those of you who follow our Facebook page may have seen our various updates about all the cool things they were doing for New Year. Our pictures will be coming in due course; in fact later tonight I might just upload a select few to begin with and make an additional blog post here so that you can all see a selection of some of the neat things we did this trip. We are now back of course though, and counting down, as always, to our next crazy adventure, which will be to WDW and our first Disney Cruise next month! Following the WDW trip we are also seeing the Phineas and Ferb Disney Live show. February will be quite the amazing month!
Following a pretty quiet December, there are a few small bits of news for this new year, so let's take a quick look. In WDW, we have heard whispers that Princess Merida and Sophia the First will make appearances once the new Disney/PIXAR film 'Brave' has been released. To make way for the removal of the gargantuan Central Plaza Stage at Disneyland Paris, the final performance of this years main Hub show, Mickey's Magical Celebration, will be on January 9th. Also ending earlier than the official Magical Moments end date, are the Green Army Men Meet 'n' Play and the Disney Dance Express. Both of these will also end on January 9th. Also ending early, but not until March 4th will be the parade's show stops, the Following the Leader with Peter Pan show and Rapunzel's meet 'n' greet location in Fantasyland. It is expected that Rapunzel will simply move into the new Princess Pavilion on a rotational basis, just like the rest of the princesses. Character locations that will be staying that were added in 2011 will be the Alice and Mad Hatter area in Fantasyland, the Jungle Rhythms gazebo in Adventureland, and Aladdin's Magic Lamp (also in Adventureland). As far as we know the characters will still appear at these locations. Now as for the parade itself, the Dreams of Imagination float (Mickey and Friends) will be removed for it's magical transformation also on January 9th, while the Dreams of Romance 2 float will be taken out for it's refurb from January 16th. Both will return in their new forms in time for the 20th Anniversary launch, on 1st April 2012. As we already know from a while back, Mickey and Friends will be put on the finale float and fairies and Merlin will now appear at the beginning. The princes and princesses displaced by Mickey and Friends taking over their float will either move to the Dreams of Romance 1 or be in new horse drawn carriages. We have a thread going on our Forum here, and if you scroll down, user Dragy recently posted a piece of artwork showing the new changes. Over in California, Loren tells us that this weekend Disneyland will be celebrating Three Kings Day by featuring some cool characters in the park! Check out his Forum post about it here. Loren also tells me that Disneyland continued it's tradition this year of having a mass ensemble of characters appear at park closing at Main Street Station on Christmas Eve. Ones that he tells me appeared include Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Max, Donald Duck, Pluto, and Chip n' Dale in their pyjamas and then there was Pooh, Tigger, Rabbit, Eeyore, Mulan, Mushu, Pocahontas, Meeko, Cinderella, Prince Charming, Suzy, Perla, Fairy Godmother, Rapunzel, Flynn Rider, Belle, Beast, Snow White, Dopey, Woody, Jessie, Buzz Lightyear, Jane, Terk, Lilo and Stitch (in a Santa costume!), Alice, the Tweedles and the Queen of Hearts. Finally, Character Central celebrated it's second birthday on January 1st, but of course we were away in DLP, so we missed being able to make a post about it. We just want to thank every single one of the 120,769 unique people that visited last year on at least 222,000 occasions! We really appreciate all your support and feedback. In the next few months up until April we are going to be working to make some awesome new additions and changes to the site. So stay tuned for those! So, Happy New Year everyone, and Happy 2nd Birthday Character Central! Dan. |
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Hi all,
This week sees some sad news from Disney's Animal Kingdom. Apparently due to the new character lunch at Tusker House, WDW feel it apparently necessary to cut a whole bunch of characters from the Park's meet 'n' greet line up. To be honest nothing actually surprises me with WDW any more, and this is just another sad change that will go unchecked.
Quite why they have to cut regular meet 'n' greet characters - especially popular ones such as Lilo and Stitch, when they are receiving money for the meals anyway, is quite baffling. Doesn't it already cost enough to get into Disney, without having to pay for a meal to meet characters? Shouldn't the cost of the meal cover that service? Why should regular meet 'n' greets suffer? Let us know your thoughts on this by replying to this article, below.
Over at the Magic Kingdom, our friend Drew has posted some rumoured characters for Pete's Silly Sideshow. We hope that there are no cutbacks there, and some of those mentioned indeed come true! Oswald would be particularly amazing!
At Disney's Hollywood Studios Jake has finally made his official debut at both the Play 'n' Dine and outside Disney Junior Live at a meet 'n' greet. Sadly, once again, in favour of this one new character, ALL the Little Einsteins have faced the axe! The only one left that I am aware of is June, who still meets at the Play 'n' Dine (which is of course a paying service...) Jake has also started greeting at Hollywood Pictures Backlot in Disney California Adventure. I am sure Loren will have all the updates form that next weekend!
Here in Europe at Disneyland Paris, artwork has been released showing what is expected to be some of the changes to the Once Upon a Dream Parade for the 20th anniversary. I had already posted on the blog back in the early summer that the Fairies would appear at the front, and Mickey and Friends would move to the back onto Princess 2, but this seems to now be confirmed.
It also looks like there could be some new characters in the parade, such as Mowgli and Mike Wazowski. The Mickey and Friends characters are expected to have new outfits, which are the same ones which have been used for all the 20th anniversary advertising so far. Hopefully that will translate into meet 'n' greet outfits too, as they look pretty cool!
Regarding next year and Halloween, I had mentioned before that Halloween may be facing some cuts next year due to the massive expediture on the new "Dreams" night time spectacular. The new brochure (which can be found here, and also has a lot of the new artwork in it) does indeed confirm the sad demise of Mickey's Halloween Parties, but leaves the Soirée in place. It does confirm however that ther ewill be a Halloween Season, filled with characters and Disney Villains. Hopefully that means at least the Fab 5 friends, Pooh (Fab 5 and Pooh in Halloween outfits that is) and Jack and Sally will continue to meet, as they have always done, as well as all the cool Villains.
Ok, that's all for now,
Dan. |
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