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Hello everyone,
It's supposed to be the first day of spring, but of course as these things go, it's snowing here in the mid-Atlantic region, so I thought I would share with you some photos from this past winter's festivities at the Magic Kingdom (December 2017). I won't share everything we did at the Magic Kingdom, because it's fairly standard otherwise, but I thought the holidays would be a fun theme for this frigid first day of spring!
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Hello everyone,
In my continued effort to catch up on my reports, today I am going to share with you my photos from our amazing experience at the Disneyland Resort Thanksgiving Banquet.
The Thanksgiving Banquet was held on Thanksgiving day, November 2017, at the Disneyland Hotel. The Banquet was held in one of the main ballrooms, and required pre-booking at least 60 days in advance.
The main reason for us wanting to attend this experience is because in previous years they have had some really neat characters. While we didn't get anyone super rare at this one, there was a really good number of characters in attendance, including many of our favourites.
The food was pretty good, and was buffet style. We did have a server who brought drinks and saw to any requests we had. The buffet food was pretty good, and while there wasn't anything amazing for vegetarians, there was enough for us to eat.
For the money we paid (and while I don't recall the exact cost right now, it was certainly less than $100 per person), it was exceptionally good value. The sheer number of characters and the amount of time we spent there (at least four hours!), and the quality and quantity of the food, made it well worth it. Regular character meals can easily cost upwards of $60 per person these days, and the fact there were 18 characters at this meal made it phenomenally good value.
My only complaint is that the character lines were long (you lined up, as opposed to them coming to you), and they rotated without guarantee who you would get - hence why we spent four hours there! It took us three attempts of standing in line to get Horace, which was a little frustrating. However, the backgrounds were really nice, and well themed for Thanksgiving/fall.
Since it was several months ago now, I won't say anything more - so please enjoy these photos!
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Hello everyone,
Over three weekends in January and February DVC held another special Moonlight Magic event at the Magic Kingdom. I thought you would all like to see some photos from the characters we met at the event. The three hour event included some awesome long lost pals such as Little John, Koda and Kenai, the hyenas, and Herbie, plus more regular characters in special costumes, such as Chip 'n' Dale in their Rescue Ranger gear, Tiana and Naveen in their Royal Friendship Faire outfits, Donald and Daisy dressed for the Wild West, and Goofy and Pluto in their Mission Space suits.
Let's take a look!
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Hello everyone,
I realise this is about 11 weeks late, but better late than never, right?
Back in December we attended the DVC Moonlight Magic event at Epcot. It was a fun evening with some great characters, but other than that, I don't have a lot to say about it at this point, since it was over two months ago, but I thought it would be fun to share some photos from the evening anyway.
Enjoy!
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 | Disneyland Paris, August 2015 Photo Trip Report | |
| DisneyDan
Tuesday, September 8, 2015 3:44:21 PM |
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Hello everyone,
A couple of weeks ago, in August, Jon and I were back in Disneyland Paris for five days, after a hiatus from visiting for a while (not a hiatus from Disney though - if you follow our adventures you'll know we've been to the US parks numerous times this year already!). Despite being annual passholders and having visited Disneyland Paris six times last year, due to personal circumstances we hadn't been back since last September. So, following our extended break from the resort, we were glad to finally be able to get back there.
For the first time in all our trips to Disneyland Paris, [ Read More... ] |
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Hello everyone,
Last weekend we were in Disneyland to see the end of their holiday offerings and the start of Frozen Fun.
This post is photo heavy so be warned if you have a slow connection speed!
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Hello everyone,
This is the third part of my Walt Disney World Christmas trip report. In case you missed parts one and two, here are the links:
Part 1 - The Magic Kingdom
Part 2 - Epcot
In this part I am going to share the festive fun we had at Disney’s Animal Kingdom and Disney's Hollywood Studios.
Let’s start with Animal Kingdom.
At the main entrance, the beautiful Christmas Tree welcomed us.
On Discovery Island we met Mickey and Minnie in their Christmas attire, and Daisy was greeting in her safari wear, with some small little holiday additions - some holly and a candy cane striped scarf and ribbons.
Up at Rafiki’s Planet Watch, Chip and Dale were inside the building due to the rain, but they were wearing winter scarves and hats. They were so cute!
In Asia, King Louie and Baloo were wearing winter scarves, and had a great backdrop with Christmas Trees and garlands with bananas on them!
In DinoLand USA, Santa Goofy and his trusty helper, Pluto (who has bells on his collar) had a nice setup with their own Christmas Trees, too. Donald Duck was at his location near Dinosaur, and while his outfit was his regular one, he had a festive addition to his hat, and a candy cane striped scarf.
It was really nice to see so many characters wearing Christmas outfits at Animal Kingdom - I just wish that there were as many at the Magic Kingdom (during regular hours), too!
Now let’s move onto Hollywood Studios.
Phineas and Ferb were at their regular location wearing Christmas hats and scarves (the same ones they wore at the Club Tinsel dance party at Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party, which we saw in part one of this report).
Santa Goofy was greeting fans on the Streets of America, and while he wears the same outfit as he over at Animal Kingdom, it was nice to meet him with a different festive backdrop.
Hollywood Studios has some nice Christmas decorations, too, including a large tree at the main entrance.
Of course, the highlight for me for Hollywood Studios, and one of the top things from the whole trip was seeing the Osborne Lights. I love the Osborne Lights, and was so happy to finally get to see them again having spent several Christmases at the other Disney Parks around the world. The lights are nothing short of spectacular. The colours, the way they dance to the music - they are simply awesome. No amount of photos can ever do them justice, but I’ll try nonetheless!
I took some short video clips on my phone, which I’ll post below, but just be aware that the quality might not be the best!
So, this report along with the previous two parts, we have now covered everything festive that we experienced during our recent Walt Disney World trip. I think I’ll probably try to make a final part to just share with everyone the other things that we did during our trip that were not Christmas related, but that might not come until next week.
Have a great Christmas everyone!
Dan.
***
Want to discover the magic of all the Disney Parks worldwide without leaving your seat?! Then be sure to check out my “Grand Circle Tour”, which is currently touring Main Street, Adventureland and Frontierland, here on the Character Central Blog! See below for links.
Part 1 - Main Street USA
Part 2 - Adventureland
Part 3 - Frontierland
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Hello everyone,
In this second part to my Walt Disney World Christmas Trip Report, I am going to share the fun we had at Epcot across several days, for their Holidays Around the World, and other festive things.
We start our journey at the front of the park of course, where we shall stop to look at the Christmas decorations and topiaries of Future World. We took day and night shots of some of the topiaries, as they had a different look and feel to them at different times of the day, so I’ll share both with you.
Future World is also host to a religious musical performance - “Joyful! A Gospel Celebration of the Season”.
The main Epcot Christmas Tree is located on the walkway that links Future World to World Showcase. We took day and night photos of this, too, of course!
Duffy the Disney Bear has his permanent location near the Christmas Tree, on Showcase Plaza, and for the holidays he wears his cute Christmas outfit.
Now we shall make our way around World Showcase to discover their holiday offerings, starting in Canada.
Canada used to be home to the Canadian Pere Noel, but sadly he has departed for voyages into the great wilderness of Canada, and has been replaced with a live band. The Canadian Holiday Voyageurs perform what are told to us to be Canadian Christmas songs and music styles from the different provinces and territories of Canada. The band and the music has a strong Christian rock overtone, although there are some songs that are non-religious too.
In the United Kingdom you can listen to Father Christmas as he shares stories of festive British traditions, including mistletoe and Christmas cards.
I’m sure these next two will make my fellow Brits chuckle. A giant Christmas tea set, and Christmas crackers on a garland - because that’s what we all use and decorate our homes with, right?!
Crossing the ”English Channel” (AKA the bridge across to France), we can discover the enchanting Pere Noel, and his story of Babette and her brother, Francois, who didn’t believe in Pere Noel.
In Morocco you can learn all about traditional Muslim festivals and food, where celebration is “the spice of life!”
Japan hosts the Daruma vendor who tries to sell everyone her Daruma dolls. You also learn about the Japanese New Year traditions.
At the American Adventure, you can discover the traditions of Hanukkah and Kwanzaa, as well as meet Santa Claus and Mrs Claus, and wander around the Santa’s Village they have there. The American Adventure is the permanent home to the Voices of Liberty, and while we were there they were singing traditional carols, dressed in Dickens wear. Sadly we didn’t get any photos of them - they were the only thing from Holidays Around the World we missed!
Three times per night Epcot hosts its Candlelight Processional at the America Gardens Theater. Candlelight Processional is an epic musical retelling of the traditional Christmas story. During its run the narrator is always a celebrity, and while we were there it was Jonathan Groff - known more recently as Kristoff from Frozen! While we aren’t really into religious retellings and religious carols, it was pretty neat to hear him speak live, and the musicians and choir are exceptionally talented.
I have included a short video clip below. It was taken on my phone, and I didn’t want to be rude and sit there holding my phone above everyone for a minutes on end, so the quality is poor, but I thought I’d share it anyway, to give you some idea of what the experience is like.
Moving on to Italy, and we learnt about the story of the good witch, La Befana, who leaves presents for good children on the Eve of Epiphany, having searched the world for Christ for thousands of years.
In Germany Helga tells her story of her very first Nutcracker, which comes to life as if by magic!
The Germany snowman topiary by day…
...and by night!
In previous years, China used to be home to the Monkey King, but like Pere Noel in Canada, he had to depart and make way for new entertainment. This year the Chinese Lion Dancers entertain guests.
As with the video for Candlelight Processional, this was taken on my phone, so don’t expect great quality - I just wanted to capture the moment!
Next up is Norway. Here, Sigrid tells the story of the Christmas gnome, Julenissen, however, she doesn’t believe in him! With a little bit of magic, faith and trust, she eventually realises he’s real! For some reason this is the only Holidays Around the World that I didn’t take a picture of the storyboard for. There is also a video below, and like the previous two, it was taken on my phone.
The final stop on our tour around the holidays of the world is Mexico. Previously the Three Kings would tell their story, but sadly they have now gone too. This year instead there is a Mariachi band and some performers who show us what it is like to celebrate Navidad the Mexican way. In addition, Donald Duck, who always greets in Mexico, dons a new outfit this year to celebrate Navidad. There are two videos for the Mariachi performers, below.
That’s wrap! We have discovered all the Holidays Around the World! We really enjoyed Holidays Around the World this year, even if they did cut some of the storytellers in favour of musicians. I don’t mind the musicians, but I wish they had been in addition to the storytellers, instead of replacing them. Also, I didn’t mention it in the main part above, but for the storytellers that remain, you can’t always meet them now, either. In the past it would be that they would stop for photos and autographs afterwards, but now most of them do not, and the ones that do feel very rushed, which is a shame.
In case you missed part one, which was all about Christmas at the Magic Kingdom (including Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party), you can read that here. Part three of this report, which will be about Christmas at Disney's Hollywood Studios and Animal Kingdom, will come in the next week or so, so look out for that!
Dan.
***
Want to discover the magic of all the Disney Parks worldwide without leaving your seat?! Then be sure to check out my “Grand Circle Tour”, which is currently touring Main Street, Adventureland and Frontierland, here on the Character Central Blog! See below for links.
Part 1 - Main Street USA
Part 2 - Adventureland
Part 3 - Frontierland
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