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.

Hi all,

It has been really quiet o nthe Disney Character news as late, but I have been searching around and have a few small items to share today.

The Disney Parks Blog announced the dates for Star Wars Weekends next year. These events are always ridiculously popular, and are filled with some excellent Star Wars characters, as well as Disney Characters in Star Wars outfits.

Dug and Russell are now meeting in Disney's Animal Kingdom, near the Flame Tree BBQ.

I have also heard a rumour - and this really is jus tthat right now - that Dumbo may appear maybe in Aniaml Kingdom (although could be elsewhere) for the early part of next year while his ride relocates across the Magic Kingdom. This is certainly a viable rumour since they did the same thing back in 2005.

Lastly for WDW, the Pooh characters are now meeting in Town Square, and not Fantasyland.

Over in California, Loren has been keeping us up to date with all the happenings there. Be sure to check out last week's and this week's posts.

The Disney Parks Blog also announced a brand new show coming to the Disney Fantasy, called Wishes. It looks pretty neat, so we look forward to hearing more about that one as it develops.

Finally, don't forget to check out Part Five of my Grand Circle Tour of Disneyland Paris, which was about Frontierland. Of course, it features some of our favourite friends along the way!

Jon and I are off to Disneyland Paris this weekend again, to check out the Christmas Season, and will be back at our desks Monday.

Have a great weekend all!

Dan.

Hi all,

We begin today's news with Halloween at Disneyland Paris. According to a friend of mine (who has many contacts), this year Disneyland Paris will not feature the Pumpkin People or the Halloween post/pre parade! I am not sure how accurate this is, because at very least the post/pre parade has always been a popular staple of the Halloween offerings at the park. I will be very surprised if they do actually go forward with this.  [ Read More... ]

Hi all,

To begin with today, Walt Disney World are going to be hosting a series of DVC promotional events, and characters will be present! More information can be found on the Forum here.

Staying in WDW, for the 4th of July the patriotic Mickey, Goofy and Donald as seen in previous years are set to make appearances at the American Adventure.

Jumping across the world to Hong Kong, and we have heard that the Glow in the Dark Halloween parade will be returning once again. It looks really neat, and we hope we can see it some day! The park runs it during the evenings of October as an additional parade, without having to buy special tickets (unlike the US parks).

Staying with Halloween, and flying back to the US, Disneyland Resort today put their Mickey's Halloween Treat tickets on general sale. We already have ours (Loren booked them when they went on sale to AP holders!), and will be attending two in mid-October - and we can't wait! It will be our first time to Halloween in California (having done Paris and Florida multiple times the last few years).

Finally in Paris, I heard from a friend that Darth Vader and Chewbacca are going to be making appearances again throughout the summer as part of the Magical Moments Festival. They previously appeared for the last three months of last year, but disappeared in January.

Ok, that's all for now,

Dan.

Hi all,
 
Two things this evening for you. First off, the news on MousePlanet about Disneyland scrapping all random character meet and happenings seems to have gathered quite a lot of attention, and now the same person is reporting that it has since been shot down in flames. All I can say is thank goodness! This would have probably been one of the most damaging decisions ever taken by Disneyland Resort management, and I’m sure no-one will be suggesting that one again in a hurry!  [ Read More... ]

Hi all,

Yesterday I reported on the random happenings in Tokyo Disneyland, including Donald’s Funny Harmony. Since then a cavalcade of videos have made it onto YouTube, and so I have chosen this one to show you. It looks a really cute little show, and I love Sorcerer Donald!  [ Read More... ]

Hi all,

As promised here is Loren’s report from last weekend at the Fiesta Disneyland Family Fun Days.

Loren also discovered the magic of characters at Universal Studios recently, and has been visiting there fairly frequently after deciding to purchase an annual pass. So, within this report he also gives us some of his thoughts on his experiences at Universal.

Over to Loren!  [ Read More... ]

Hi all,

Earlier this week the brand new Disney Cruise Line ship, the Disney Dream launched in spectacular Disney style, as I reported on earlier. Since then we have learned from the Orlando Sentinel that there is at least one new show on board title the Sail Away Party. There is also a new segment added to the Golden Mickeys show (also currently plays aboard one of the other ships) starring Rapunzel, Flynn Rider and none other than Mother Gothel! This is the first time the vain and self-obsessed step mother has appeared in character form, and we look forward to seeing her in the future! I don’t currently have any pictures of these things, but if I see any, I will be sure to post them here.  [ Read More... ]

Hi all,

Today has seen more character news emerge, in what has been quite an eventful week so far!

The ever reliable drew81 on the wdwmagic forum posted saying that when SpectroMagic returns to the Magic Kingdom (still no idea as to when though), new characters will be added including possibly Oswald the Lucky Rabbit! Apparently the float will change colours from black to white, although how successful this will be for a night parade (black?) is yet to be seen! All the same, Oswald will be a fantastic addition, and one which the character fan community will welcome with open arms, I am sure! There is no other mention of the other new characters yet.  [ Read More... ]