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Hello everyone,
Christmas season is nearly upon us which means that the Disney Parks are gearing up for another spectacular season of holiday magic and wonder!
I thought we could take a look at what the Disneyland Resort in California has to offer this holiday season. Holiday Time at the Disneyland Resort will run from 13th November 2014 until 6th January 2015 inclusive this season.
We shall start with Disneyland Park.
At Disneyland Park you immediately find yourself in a winter wonderland as you step onto Main Street USA and discover their huge Christmas Tree and all the garlands, leading to the beautifully snow topped Sleeping Beauty Castle.
Walt's apartment gets a Christmas Tree in its window for the holidays, too.
Whilst on Main Street, you should stand and listen to the Dickens Yuletide Band play some classic Christmas tunes.
You should also stop by Town Square to give a warm hug to all your favourite Disney pals as they celebrate the season in their cute festive clothes!
As you head off of Central Plaza and into Adventureland you should take a cruise on the rivers of the world, aboard the Jingle Cruise! (Note that this is not yet confirmed on the Disneyland Resort website for this year).
Heading out of Adventureland and into New Orleans Square, visit Jack Skellington and all his creepy friends from Tim Burton’s Nightmare Before Christmas at the Haunted Mansion Holiday. This epic holiday overlay features exclusive scenes and awesome effects. This attraction is extremely popular though, so be sure to get a FastPass or be there early (FastPasses aren’t normally available for Haunted Mansion, but during the holidays they are due to the popularity of this overlay).
If taking a ride through the worlds of Christmas and Halloween collided wasn’t enough, you can also meet Jack Skellington and Sally Stitches near the Haunted Mansion.
From New Orleans Square, wander down to Critter Country where you can meet Winnie the Pooh and friends in their festive clothes.
In Frontierland you should definitely visit the Jingle Jangle Jamboree where you can meet Santa Claus himself (Santa only meets until Christmas Eve)! Some of your other favourite Disney pals might just show up too!
Fantasyland’s classic attraction “it’s a small world” becomes “it’s a small world” Holiday for the festive season, and is decked out with an incredible display of colour changing lights, which look awesome at night! Inside, the attraction celebrates holidays from around the world with festive costumes and scenes.
The must-see event at Disneyland Park is of course 'A Christmas Fantasy Parade'. Filled with all the most magical sights and sounds of Christmas, as well as the Disney characters, this parade is truly fantastic.
As night falls watch in awe as Sleeping Beauty Castle Becomes Sleeping Beauty’s Winter Castle, a wondrous snow capped ice palace.
To top it all, the skies high above Sleeping Beauty’s Winter Castle become an array of colour in the “Believe… In Holiday Magic” fireworks spectacular.
As well as all these exciting happenings, don’t forget to check out the beautiful decorations around the park, and of course watch snow fall on Main Street USA!
Of course, no day at Disneyland during Christmas would be complete without some treats!
Be sure to try some of the world famous Disneyland candy canes, too! These are very popular, and tickets are usually distributed first thing in the morning. (Note that the candy canes may also be made at Trolley Treats in Disney California Adventure - check on the day of your visit.)
Now let us take a look into Disney California Adventure’s holiday offerings.
Buena Vista Street celebrates a classic Christmas of days gone by, with period decoration and their splendid Christmas Tree.
While on Buena Vista Street why not stop and listen to the Community Bell Ringers as they celebrate the holidays with some seasonal sounds?
The Elias and Co. department store is the home to Santa Claus up until Christmas Eve.
Also, you can catch Mickey and friends, and the Citizens of Buena Vista Street, in their period costumes which have been given a Christmas twist.
At Paradise Pier, in previous years you were able to meet Duffy and Donald in cute Christmas outfits. It is not known yet if they will return this year, but I’ll share some of our photos nonetheless. It could be that other characters take their place.
Cars Land resident Tow Mater also joins the festivities, wearing a giant Santa hat!
As night falls on Buena Vista Street, the Community Bell Ringers, the Citizens of Buena Vista Street and the Disney characters all come together for the Holiday Tree Lighting Ceremony.
Over in Paradise Bay, the magical World of Color becomes “World of Color - Winter Dreams”, a seasonal holiday version of this now classic nighttime spectacular.
Just like at Disneyland Park, don’t forget to check out all the decorations throughout the park.
You should also try some delicious treats, available from Trolley Treats Candy.
In previous years Disney California Adventure has also featured a special screening of Prep and Landing at the Muppet’s theatre, and a holiday version of the Phineas and Ferb show. There is currently no confirmation of either of these though, and they are not listed on the Disneyland website. However, I’ll share some photo below for reference.
Disney California Adventure also celebrates Navidad, however we have no photos of this currently, sadly (we shall soon though!).
At the Disney hotels you can also meet Santa Claus at select times, up until Christmas Eve.
In previous years on Christmas Eve, Mickey and friends have appeared on Main Street in their cute PJs ready for bed as they anticipate the arrival of Santa Claus. They usually appear for very limited set times in the evening of Christmas Eve only, so be sure to look out for them!
For New Year’s Eve the parks put on special entertainment offerings, including mind blowing fireworks at the turn of the year. We were at Disney California Adventure for New Year two years ago, so I will share some of our photos and video from that, however, be aware this year’s offerings may differ.
Will you be visiting the Disneyland Resort this holiday season? What are you looking forward to the most?
Happy Holidays everyone!
Dan.
All information in this article is subject to change or cancellation at any time, without prior notice by Disney. We offer this information purely as a guide to some of the things that may be experienced during Holiday Time at the Disneyland Resort.
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 | Happy 87th Birthday Oswald the Lucky Rabbit! | |
| DisneyDan
Friday, September 5, 2014 6:45:02 AM |
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Hello everyone,
Today, 5th September, is the 87th anniversary of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit's debut in the United States.
As we all know, sadly, Oswald was lost by Disney for many years due to an unfortunate set of circumstances. However, he was returned to the Walt Disney Company in 2006 thanks to Bob Iger, and has since found his permanent home at Tokyo DisneySea's American Waterfront. In nine days time Oswald will finally come home to the US when he makes his first ever greeting debut at Walt Disney's original Disneyland Resort, on Buena Vista Street at Disney California Adventure. Buena Vista Street is the perfect place for Oswald, as it is a monumental tribute to the early days of Walt Disney's career and his arrival in Hollywood.
We can't wait to meet Oswald on Buena Vista Street, but we have met him in Tokyo, and so I want to share some of our pictures from our trip there in May (below). You can check out our dedicated Oswald the Lucky page that has many more pictures, here.
Happy Birthday Oswald!
Dan.
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 | Disneyland July 2012 Photo Trip Report Part 2 | |
| PeterPanFan
Sunday, September 2, 2012 8:21:32 AM |
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| Sorry for the delay in posting part 2 of my Disneyland Photo Trip Report; however, I have been busy working on enhancements for the next version of the website as well as some other things... but without further ado here is part 2 :) [ Read More... ] |
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 | Disneyland July 2012 Photo Trip Report Part 1 | |
| PeterPanFan
Monday, August 20, 2012 11:08:30 AM |
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Hi all, Dan is much more of a writer than I am so I don't normally do trip reports; however, in the past I have done "Photo Trip Reports" that are 95% pictures with some comments mixed in. I thought I would do one for our Disneyland Trip since there was a lot of new stuff. This will probably be the longest part as I have a lot more pictures from the 1st day (even though we didn't arrive until 1pm) than the other days. The "Magic Kingdom" park at a resort is almost always our first stop on a trip unless there is a really good reason for it not to be. This trip with all the new stuff in DCA there definitely was a reason to go to DCA first and that is what we did! I never hated Sunshine Plaza and I was sad to see some of its elements go away; however, after seeing Buena Vista Street all I can say is "WOW! What an improvement". I really love the look and feel of Buena Vista Street and think they did an excellent job. I saw pictures of many aspects of Buena Vista Street before we arrived and I had thought some of them (Carthay Circle Theatre) didn't look that impressive; however, everything makes a MUCH better impression in person. [ Read More... ] |
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Hi all,
This week various sources are reporting that Tinker Bell's newest Fairy friend from Pixie Hollow, Perrywinkle, will start appearing this autumn at the US Parks.
When we hear more we'll of course post here on the blog.
Over in Hong Kong, they are just about 4 weeks away from the second of the three new lands to open there, Grizzly Gulch. The official HK Disneyland Facebook page and the website both confirm that Mickey, Minnie, Chip and Dale will appear in the new land in Western themed outfits, as well as Koda and Kenai from Brother Bear (the link being here that Grizzly Gulch is named after the famed bear shaped mountain that casts a shadow over the small mining town).
We are going to be in HKDL on two trips this year, so we REALLY look forward to seeing that when we go!
Over in California Loren reports that Donald is replacing Mickey at Paradise Pier. The reason, apparently is because Mickey will now be appearing down in Buena Vista Street in his new 1920s outfit.
The flaw in that logic is that Donald also will be meeting down there in a new 1920s outfit too. But either way, it means Donald is getting a new outfit for Paradise Pier, as well as the 1920s one!
Finally, and also in DCA, Loren also reports that an inside source has told him that the new Dance Party over in the Backlot will feature random and possibly rare characters this summer!
As always, we'll keep you up to date with any changes!
One last thing to mention - Happy 18th Birthday The Lion King! Check out my special tribute here on the blog!
Dan. |
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Hi all,
Overall not too much going on in the character world this week, but there were a few interesting points to note.
Over in California, Buena Vista Street got it's previews, and some of the brand new Citizens of Buena Vista Street were out greeting for the first time, as well as Mickey and Friends in their brand new 1920's style Hollywood outfits!
I don't have any pictures to post here (all from my contacts, sadly), but if you find any, hit the Discuss button below and reply on our Forum! We'll also be there at the end of July for ourselves, and will meet them all, of course! We're really excited to be able to go to DCA so soon after the new things open!
Along with the Buena Vista Street preview, Cars Land also had a preview, and Mater, McQueen and the brand new Red character were there. Mater and McQueen have been park regulars for a long time now, and will continue to meet once DCA re-opens. Red will star in his own new show in Cars Land once the land opens this week! [ Read More... ] |
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Hi all,
We have been busy as always here at Character Central, but here's this weeks roundup of all the latest character news.
There has been lots of PIXAR news this week.
We start with the news that the West Coast Cruises this Fall will feature a lot of favourite PIXAR Pals. There will be special meet and greets and events on board.
The picture posted by the Parks Blog shows fairly standard characters, and I doubt very much any real neat ones will show up.
What do you all think of this? Have you already booked a DCL Cruise for these dates? Would you have liked to have known it was going to be PIXAR centric?
Staying with PIXAR, some new PIXAR stamps were launched in the US this week, and the PIXAR pals were at the brand new Art of Animation Resort in WDW for a special launch event.
That leads me to talk about the new Art of Animation Resort... It opened this week with a character filled ceremony and a speech by the fan love her/hate her head of Parks and Resorts, Meg Crofton. Characters in attendance included Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Daisy, Pluto, Timon, Ariel, Eric, and Chip 'n' Dale - and the Fab 5 friends were the talking head versions! Also there were puppeteers commanding Sebastian and Flounder alongside Ariel and Eric.
Continuing the PIXAR theme, and Downtown Disney in WDW has been hosting the Car Masters Weekend, and of course Disney took the opportunity to have some very famous stars there... Mater, McQueen and Finn McMissile! Although Mater and McQueen already meet in the Parks, Finn is a cool addition for those visiting this weekend.
Over in California, the PXAR Play Parade made it's return in "soft opening" mode, and will return officially on June 15th - DCA's official re-launch date.
The only float we can see that is missing currently is the Remy and Emile one, and that's probably due to the rats bouncing wires being too tall for the new overhead lines along Buena Vista Street.
Staying with DCA, and the Disney Parks Blog announced a few new cool things there. I thought I had mentioned these previously, but obviously completely forgot! So these are a bit late, I apologise lol.
When the new Buena Vista Street opens, some of the Fab 5 friends will get some fantastic new outfits to meet fans in the new land. We just LOVE Chip and Dale's outfits!
Also, as expected, but now confirmed, Mater and McQueen will be meeting Guests in Cars Land daily.
On top of all that, and I think maybe inspired by DLP's daily fountain shows that utilise the new Dreams technology, Goofy will be making appearances in his tux throughout the day at Paradise Bay, conducting the World Of Color fountains to music!
Finally for DCA (!), the Parks Blog also said that a character dance party will take place daily though the summer in Hollywood Land, and "you never know who might show up!"... We'll see whether that ends up being regular pals, or some more random ones (we of course hope the latter!).
We look forward to seeing all these new things this year!
Two last things, which aren't PIXAR related!
Rapunzel and Flynn have apparently been added to the day Parade in the Magic Kingdom, on the finale Castle float, which makes for a nice addition. As we all know, they are immensely popular, and so adding them makes sense - especially in the MK's ailing parade.
Finally, it has been announced (and confirmed by various sources) that place-making will begin at the Walt Disney Studios in Paris, alongside the new Ratatouille ride (scheduled to open 2014), and will continue through 2018!
I know this isn't character related, but it is a much welcomed announcement, and we can only hope that it will be along similar lines to the new DCA, and in turn will mean new character shows, greetings and entertainment!
Ok, that's all for now! Let us know your thoughts by hitting the Discuss button below and commenting on the forum!
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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