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Hello everyone,
Today Disneyland Paris sent out a press release announcing that Moana - or Vaiana as she will be known in France - will feature at the resort during their Enchanted Christmas season, which begins on the 11th November. The press release was actually a little vague, giving no more details other than she will be at the resort during the season, so whether that means she will be greeting, feature in a new Christmas show, or in the parade, is yet to be seen. Disneyland Paris are notoriously bad at providing clear information, and are even worse at holding fast to what they have said - so we shall see what happens. At least, for now, we can say that Moana will feature this Christmas in some capacity at the French resort! The movie is released on 30th November in many places in Europe, including France, and the week before in the US, so it will also be interesting to see whether she debuts at the start of the season (starting 11th November), or if she will only appear once her movie premiers at the end of the month.
Disney On Ice this week announced another brand new show, "Follow Your Heart", and while much of it is once again a rehash of previous shows, there are two really cool new scenes of note. A Finding Dory scene will be added, which, if the image and text on their main website is to be believed, should feature Dory, Hank and Nemo. Of course Dory and Nemo have featured before, but the Finding Dory characters, such as Hank, and story will be new to Disney On Ice. Additionally - and the most exciting part of all - characters from the blockbuster PIXAR movie Inside Out will be added! After waiting for an eternity for them to come to the US parks, we are now also going to see them in this new show. Again, things are a little vague, but from what the images depict, and what the text on the website says, at very least we should expect Joy, Sadness and Anger, and most likely Fear and Disgust, too! The new show starts in the Washington DC/Baltimore region at the end of October. You can buy pre-sale tickets on Ticketmaster now, using the code "BUBBLES".
As always, Character Central has been receiving continual updates. This week I added Constance Purchase (Main Street Citizen), Captain Phasma, the March of the First Order, The Jungle Book: Alive with Magic, and Star Wars: A Galaxy Far, Far Away.
Also, you can find out about our latest trip to Walt Disney World in part one of my most recent trip report, here on the blog. In this part I share with you our adventures at the Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom, Disney Springs, the Boardwalk and the three separate Disney resort hotels that we stayed in during our trip.
This weekend we will be in Disneyland Paris, so be sure to follow us on Instagram and Facebook to see our live updates from the resort.
Have a great day everyone,
Dan. |
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Hello everyone,
First of all, apologies for being absent recently, we have had a lot going on here (real life) and so I haven't had chance to keep as up to date as I would like. Anyway, there are some cool new things I want to talk about today.
First of all the big event of the week will be the 24 hour event, "Rock Your Disney Side", coming to Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom and both Disneyland Resort theme parks on Friday this week (23rd).
Details are a bit sketchy right now though, sadly, as Disney seem to want to keep tight-lipped about which characters will appear, when and where. Of course, this doesn't make planning easy, especially since it is likely to be exceptionally busy like the previous events!
I have highlighted below some of the key moments (mainly character experiences) for Disneyland Resort, as per the Disney Parks Blog:
Event operating hours: 6 a.m May 23rd until 6 a.m May 24th.
At Disneyland Park:
In terms of characters, that's pretty much all that has been announced for DLR, sadly. Of course everyone anticipates that there will be a lot of characters out and about, and there is speculation floating around that some characters - villains in particular - may replace the princesses at Royal Hall, but that has not been confirmed publicly by Disney yet.
Over in Walt Disney World, the Disney Parks Blog reported the following (again, I've only highlighted the important moments and character experiences):
Event operating hours: 6 a.m May 23rd until 6 am May 24th.- Everything kicks off with a special edition of the Welcome Show, as heroes and villains make their way to Magic Kingdom Park.
- The Move It! Shake It! Celebrate It! Street Party will feature Disney heroes at 10 a.m and Disney villains at 1:30 p.m. When it comes to the 5:45 p.m. performance, though, exactly who makes an appearance will be determined by your votes throughout the day! (More information on how you can vote will be posted on Friday morning on the Disney Parks Blog).
- Magic Kingdom Park parades will each have two performances. “Disney Festival of Fantasy Parade” will be at 12 p.m and 3:30 p.m, and Disney’s Main Street Electrical Parade at 11 p.m and 1 a.m.
- Wishes Nighttime Spectacular fireworks at 9 p.m
- Prior to each presentation of Disney’s Main Street Electrical Parade, the Disney villains roll through Magic Kingdom Park in a pre-parade, celebrating how “It’s Good to Be Bad!”
- Starting at 11 p.m half of Princess Fairytale Hall becomes Scary Tale Hall, where you can meet Maleficent and the Queen. The other side of the hall will still feature favourite royals Anna and Elsa.
- Around 1:45 a.m, the villains will take over the rest of the park’s character greeting locations. Where Aladdin and Jasmine appear in Adventureland during the day, expect to find Jafar. Dr. Facilier takes the place of Princess Tiana in Liberty Square, Captain Hook replaces Peter Pan in Fantasyland, and more!
- In Tomorrowland, the INCREDIBLES Super Dance Party rocks the Rockettower Plaza Stage from 4:30 p.m – 10 p.m, and is expected to feature characters from 'The Incredibles'.
- Disney’s “Up All Night” Dance Party at Cinderella Castle and the Frontierland Dance Party will run from 2 a.m – 5:45 a.m, and may (or may not...) feature Disney characters (no official confirmation, yet)
- The event concludes with a special “Kiss Goodnight” at 5:50 a.m at the Railroad Station in Town Square on Main Street, U.S.A.
The Move It Shake It heroes line up is likely to include Hercules, who has been seen out and about at EPCOT the past few weeks in preparation for his starring role in this event!
It should be noted that for both WDW and DLR there were more things announced such as bands, food and merchandise, which you can find out about if you search the Disney Parks Blog. Here at Character Central our main focus is of course characters!
Staying with Walt Disney World, and this year's Star Wars Weekends Celebrity Welcome and Motorcade saw the debut of three new characters to the Disney Parks! Sabine, Ezra and a grumpy droid named Chopper have all landed on Earth for the special weekends this year, from their new Star Wars TV show, 'Star Wars Rebels'.
Check out this video below from Attractions Magazine, which features the new characters in the Motorcade!
At the Magic Kingdom, Tinker Bell and her fairy friends have left the Nook in Adventureland, and sadly all the fairies have now left Florida and are heading back to Pixie Hollow. Tinker Bell has found a new home at Town Square Theatre on Main Street USA, filling the empty space left by the princesses when they moved into the new Fairytale Hall.
Other recent character changes in Walt Disney World include the Pooh characters leaving Animal Kingdom, and Donald and Daisy replacing them - just in regular outfits, sadly (I wonder what happened to their special DAK costumes from when they met in Camp Minnie-Mickey?).
Taking the heat off the summer at Disneyland Park in California, the Disney Parks Blog announced the other day that Anna and Elsa from the ever-popular Frozen will feature in a brand new pre-parade addition to Soundsational. At the moment no other details are known except they will feature from "mid-June".
Keeping with Frozen, and the big news this week was that there will be a brand new Disney On Ice show this autumn featuring the characters from Frozen! You may recall that I actually reported about this way back in January, when I even suggested that characters such as Olaf and Sven would appear, and now it has come true! The video below was posted by Disney On Ice and shows some great concept art for the new show.
The description on the Disney On Ice website also specifically mentions Olaf, Kristoff, Sven and the magical trolls, leading us to believe they will all feature in the new show!
Finally for news, and Hong Kong Disneyland finally announced today that their new nighttime parade will debut in October, ending long running speculation that it would start in the autumn. The brand new electric light parade will use innovative new technology and will be interactive, too, whereby guests can use a mobile app to control the colour changes on the floats!
Don't forget that Disney's Swing into Spring season continues at Disneyland Paris until the 22nd June, and features a fabulous new show-parade, characters and other offerings. You can read my review of it here, and visit our dedicated guidebook page to it here.
You can also continue to meet Spider-man at Disneyland Paris until the 10th July. The Walt Disney Studios is the only place in the world you can currently meet the webbed hero! You can read my review of our meeting with him here, and visit our dedicated location page here for more photos and information.
Finally, don't forget that the Halloween and Christmas party dates for WDW were released less than two weeks ago. You can check all the dates on my previous blog post, here.
Ok, that's everything for today,
Dan.
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Hello everyone,
Today the Disney Parks Blog announced that the First Avenger, Captain America, would soon be making his Disney Parks debut at Disneyland in California. Captain America had made his world debut as a Disney Character at D23 last summer, and has since been greeting young guests in the kids' area aboard the newly refurbished Disney Magic, but this marks the first time he will be made available for all guests in a public space at the parks.
Members on WDWMagic Forum have reported that Aristocat Marie has now taken to sporting her more up to date look while visiting Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom. The Magic Kingdom was the last place that Marie was yet to sport her gentler new look, having made her debut last Valentine's Day at Disneyland Paris.
Also on WDW Magic Forum, there has been speculation that the Christmas garlands that hang across the street will no longer be put up going forward, as the new parade is too high for them, which is somewhat disappointing. But of course, this is only rumour at this stage.
Speaking of the new parade, the Disney Parks Blog have been teasing fans with images of an as-of-yet unreported float for the Festival of Fantasy. As of right now we know for sure that there will be a balloon for Mickey, a boat for Rapunzel, Monstro for Pinocchio, a flower garden for some other princesses, giant bagpipes for Merida, a clam shell for Ariel and a cool looking swinging ship for Peter Pan. However, the new images reveal to us a strange, almost steampunk inspired oven, that really could be anything! Current speculation is that it is either Tiana's Palace, one of Maurice's inventions, or something even cooler such as a machine from Treasure Planet or Atlantis, though, those last two are pretty slim chances, sadly!
Moving on now, and last night Jon received a survey from Disney On Ice, which proved to be quite interesting. The text below is from the survey:
"Act 1
Mickey and Minnie invite you to enter the magical world of Disney On Ice’s newest ice show! Dive into the vibrant aquatic world “under the sea” with Ariel, Flounder & Sebastian from The Little Mermaid. Join Rapunzel and her unlikely companions, Flynn, and Maximus from Tangled as they take adventure to new lengths! Be bedazzled by Snow White and her seven most trusted friends. And, celebrate the courage and inner beauty of Cinderella. Journey to the jungle heat of Africa as Disney’s The Lion King comes to life on ice with majestic sets and thrilling special effects. Plus, the toys are back in town with memorable moments from all of your favorite Toy Story movies.
Act 2
Bundle up and enjoy the dazzling winter wonderland and enchanting world of Arendelle as Frozen, Disney’s newest comedy-adventure takes to the ice. Be amazed as Anna teams up with mountain man Kristoff, his reindeer Sven and the hysterically funny snowman Olaf on an epic journey to find Anna's sister Elsa, The Snow Queen, and, through the power of sisterly love, puts an end to her icy spell and frees Arendelle from eternal winter.
From loveable toys to your favorite Disney Princesses to glorious ice palaces, your family's favorite Disney/Pixar moments come to life at Disney On Ice with dazzling skating, special effects and beloved characters certain to create a lifetime of memories."
(Copyright Disney and Feld Entertainment)
The survey then went on to ask questions specifically about the characters Anna, Elsa, Sven, Olaf and Kristoff (who were all mentioned in the above text), which leads us to believe that they will all soon be seen as characters in Disney On Ice shows! We are really excited about the prospects of them leaving Arendelle to make their public debut, and look forward to seeing them!
Ok that's everything for this evening, but if you want to catch up on all the news from earlier this week and last week, I have posted the links below.
Have a great weekends everyone,
Dan.
For news on the new Spring events at Disneyland Paris, rare character appearances at Animal Kingdom and Princess Aurora's dress, click here.
For news about Doc McStuffins, Star Wars Weekends and more, click here.
For my photo tribute to the now closed Camp Minnie-Mickey, click here.
For my tribute to the now retired Celebrate a Dream Come True Parade, click here.
To see my massive, photo filled review of all our adventures in 2013, click here.
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Hi all!
First off, yes I know we have been quiet on here for a while, but to be honest there hasn't been TOO much going on in the Character world as late (except a few small things which I'll mention below), and we have also been very busy ourselves.
I myself am in the process of moving house, and on top of that we are went to DLP again, are preparing for our AMAZING summer of round the world craziness (!), AND we have been desperately trying to catch up on all our pictures from previous trips. That is on top of maintaining this site and making sure everything runs smoothly. LOL!
So yes, you could say we have been busy!
As I mentioned, we have been working on pictures, and across the site there are many new photos showing up on location and character pages. When you're on a page be sure to scroll down to the "Recent" tab to see the latest images.
I have also updated the calendar to reflect some changes to our plans this year, for those of you who like to keep track of us around the globe!
If we're nearby, be sure to drop us a line!
We have now run two competitions with great success, one was exclusively on Facebook just last week, which one of our regular fans won just for "Liking" and "Sharing" a post on there! We do plan to run more competitions, and have some fun ideas planned for how you can interact with us to win prizes! At the moment we are looking to reach the magic number of 2000 Likes/Fans on our Facebook page, and if we achieve that, we will run another amazing prize giveaway at the end of this month! So head over to our Facebook page and get sharing with your friends so we can get to 2000 and run the competition!
Ok, so to the Character news...
Disneyland last week announced the dates for it's popular Mickey's Halloween Party, which can be found here.
We were able to attend last year twice, and we had a LOT of fun! This year we'll be in BOTH Asian Resorts for Halloween, AND the Halloween Soiree in Paris!
Disney On Ice also launched a new show, titled Rockin' Ever After, which will be a musical revue of some of the newest and classic Disney Fairytales - including Princess Merida from Disney-PIXAR's Brave! We have already booked our tickets for January, and look forward to seeing it! Speaking of Disney On Ice, sadly we had to cancel our trip to see Passport to Adventure, as it conflicted with dates for something else. This is an old show now - which we still haven't seen - I just hope we get chance to FINALLY see it sometime before it gets retied.
Finally, we have heard strong rumours that SpectroMagic will return next spring (most likely March) to the Magic Kingdom after its long hiatus! Of course they are still ONLY rumours, but everything we have heard so far seems to confirm this will happen. As always, when we know more, we'll post it here.
Ok, I think that's it for now. Remember to look out for great new content across the site, and check out our Facebook page for exclusive updates, as well as all the latest information regarding our competition - remember to share our page with your friends so that we can run the BIG giveaway at the end of July!
Dan. |
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Hi all, It has been a while since I updated properly here, but as you all know we have been away on a mega trip to DLP and DL CA! As I stated earlier in the week, we have been working hard to get as much new content from the trip up as possible, but it takes time. There hasn't been too much news since we went away, but here is a round-up of what I have heard. [ Read More... ] |
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