|
 |
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.
|
|
 | Happy 87th Birthday Oswald the Lucky Rabbit! | |
| DisneyDan
Friday, September 5, 2014 6:45:02 AM |
|
 |
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.
 |
|
|
 |
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.
|
|
|
 |
Hello everyone,
Today Walt Disney World released the dates for their popular Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Parties and Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Parties at the Magic Kingdom.
Dates are as follows.
MNSSHP:
September 1, 9, 12, 14, 16, 19, 21, 23, 26 and 28
October 2, 3, 5, 9, 10, 13, 16, 17, 19, 21, 23, 24, 26, 28, 30 and 31
MVMCP:
November 7, 10, 13, 14, 16, 20, 21 and 30
December 2, 4, 5, 7, 9, 11, 12, 14, 16, 18 and 19
Today, 5th May, is also the day that Doc McStuffins finally comes to Disney California Adventure, having already been at Disney's Hollywood Studios in Florida for quite some time now.
If you're planning a trip to Disneyland Paris in the coming weeks, remember that they have lots of exciting things going on right now, such as their brand new Swing into Spring season and Meet Spider-Man at the Walt Disney Studios!
Dan. |
|
|
 |
No trip to a Disney Park would be complete without meeting everybody's favourite star, and the world's most famous mouse, Mickey! I've compiled a list of our top places to meet him at each of the 11 Disney Parks around the world. Some of them are not as obvious as you would initially anticipate, as I have tried to offer suggestions of places where you find him wearing different outfits, or where lines are shorter.
So, let's take a look! I've organised the locations purely by destination, and not in any kind of rank order.
1. Disneyland Park at the Disneyland Resort in California
Disneyland is the gateway to the whimsical world of Toontown, and where better to meet Mickey than in his house there? Depending on your time of visiting, Mickey could be wearing a variety of outfits which include his classic suit, his bandleader outfit, Steamboat Willie outfit or Sorcerer's Apprentice hat and gown. You never know which one he'll be wearing, and while you wait you get to explore the magical home of the world's most beloved mouse!
2. Disney California Adventure at the Disneyland Resort in California
When Mickey visits DCA, he greets is fans on the historical Buena Vista Street, wearing his 1920's Los Angeles clothes. It's a cute outfit and a fitting location indeed.
3. Magic Kingdom Park at the Walt Disney World Resort in Florida
Mickey's home at the Magic Kingdom is in Town Square Theater on Main Street USA. Here Mickey feels most comfortable, and actually talks to guests whilst wearing his special magicians costume! What sort of conversation will you have with him?
Sadly we haven't yet visited Mickey at Town Square Theater since he started talking to guests. The photo above is from a previous visit. The picture below is one taken by our good friend Lori, who has been lucky enough to meet him since he started talking!
4. EPCOT at the Walt Disney World Resort in Florida
While visiting EPCOT, Mickey greets guests at the Character Spot. Although he doesn't wear a special outfit here, it is the only place you can meet him regularly in the park.
Note that the backdrop has changed since we last saw Mickey here, but remains largely similar.
5. Disney Hollywood Studios at the Walt Disney World Resort in Florida
At Disney's Hollywood Studios, Mickey wears his Sorcerer's Apprentice inside the Magic of Disney Animation building. Which spells will you help him conjure up?
6. Disney's Animal Kingdom Theme Park at the Walt Disney World Resort in Florida
Join Mickey before he sets off on his next expedition, at the Adventurers Outpost on Discovery Island! Minnie is nearly always there too, also wearing her explorers costume.
7. Disneyland Park at Disneyland Paris
This one is a bit more obscure (you might have expected I had chose 'Meet Mickey Mouse' in Fantasyland), but I have chosen Discoveryland because when Mickey visits the retro-future he dons his special space suit. Although he doesn't come out daily in Discoveryland, unlike the rest of the locations listed above, it is fairly regular, and it is the only place in the world you will find Mickey wearing a space suit!
8. Walt Disney Studios Park at Disneyland Paris
When he's filming on location at the Studios, Mickey greets fans wearing his classic outfit at Toon Plaza, in Toon Studios. The backdrop is nearly always that of his house back in Toontown.
9. Tokyo Disneyland at Tokyo Disney Resort
Again, you might have expected me to chose Mickey's permanent location in Toontown, but that can often get lines of 4 hours or more, and so I have picked somewhere a bit more "relaxed". Although he doesn't come out daily in Westernland, when he does, Mickey wears his special Western outfit. The Japanese call this a "free" character set, meaning he will walk around greeting guests, instead of having a multi-hour wait! Be warned though, when he appears, there will nearly always be hoards of Japanese fans screaming for the attention of their idol! The experience of watching them do that is alone worth meeting Mickey here over any structured location!
10. Tokyo DisneySea at Tokyo Disney Resort
Deep in the heart of the Lost River Delta, Mickey is on an excavation trip. When he's taking a break from digging up ancient ruins, he greets his fans in his tent, wearing his cute archaeologist outfit. This is one of the few places at Tokyo Disney Resort where a structured meet 'n' greet location has relatively "short" lines, too, making it a great place to visit Mickey and friends!
11. Hong Kong Disneyland at the Hong Kong Disneyland Resort
Bears and gold are the main attraction in the little town of Grizzly Gulch. It's also where Mickey likes to hang out when visiting Hong Kong Disneyland, and he does it in style, wearing his excellent gold rush costume! Minnie nearly always appears alongside him, too.
Of course, these locations aren't the only places at the parks where you can meet the Big Cheese, but are the ones that I felt were different or unique in some way.
Dan. |
|
|
 |
Hello everyone,
The Disney Parks Blog announced this week that Disney California Adventure would play host to Disneyland Resort's Lunar New Year Celebrations this year, which will feature Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Chip and Dale, Mulan and Mushu over at Paradise Gardens. There will be crafting, Chinese dragon and lion dances, as well as Vietnamese and Korean dance groups. The event will run from 31st January until 2nd February inclusive, from 11am until 5pm.
The Disney Parks Blog also announced that the Disneyland Resort is playing host to another round of rare character weekends from now until May, yes May! Every Friday through Sunday you can head over to the Big Thunder Ranch Jamboree to see who is appearing. Our good friend Loren was there last weekend, and you can check out his report on who he met, here.
The Tokyo Disney Resort Blog made a post revealing some information (albeit all in Japanese) about this year's spring events at the resort. From the 2nd April through 23rd June inclusive, the resort will play host to various shows and parades at both parks.
At Tokyo Disneyland, after a hiatus last year, the park sees a spring parade back on its streets, titled Hippiti-Hoppiti Spring Time. The parade will feature seven new floats, starring Mickey and his friends in their spring finest, as well as Marie. The blog also mentions Easter Bunnies, but it's hard to make out whether it means that the Easter Bunny himself will feature, or if he's just a statue on a float.
At Tokyo DisneySea, Lido Isle Welcome to Spring, Easter in New York and Springtime Surprise all return for another year, at the various ports around the park.
In addition to the shows and parade featuring the characters, there will be special menus, merchandise and decorations.
Jon and I will be there in May, and cannot wait to see the new parade!
I want to also point you to my previous news posts from the last week or so, in case you missed them, because there were some interesting things that are still relevant.
To find out about news for Captain America, Marie, and a brand new Disney On Ice show featuring the Frozen characters, click here.
To find out about Disneyland Paris Spring events, queue lines, Aurora and Camp Minnie-Mickey, click here.
To find out about Doc McStuffins and other news, click here.
For my tribute to the recently retired Celebrate a Dream Come True Parade, click here.
For my tribute to the recently closed Camp Minnie-Mickey, click here.
For my massive photo-filled year in review for 2013, click here.
For my most recent dining review for Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show, click here.
Finally, I have been adding more and more content to the site, including locations and characters! As well as that, new photos show up across the site on many pages almost daily, as we continue to work through our massive backlog! Whenever you visit a page on the site, you never know what you might see that's new or different! So be sure to check back regularly.
Ok, I think that's everything for this evening,
Dan. |
|
 | Advent Calendar - 10th December | |
| DisneyDan
Tuesday, December 10, 2013 1:41:18 PM |
|
 |
It's the 10th December, which means it is time to open the tenth door of our very special Character Central Advent Calendar!
Click to find out who it is today!
[ Read More... ] |
|
|
 |
Hello everyone,
Apologies for the long gap between blog posts again, but if you follow us on Facebook, Tumblr, Instagram or Twitter, you'll know that we were in Disneyland Paris last week for their Halloween Season.
You can check out my album of pictures I uploaded yesterday to Facebook, here. You can also go through our wall photos to see what we uploaded live while we were away!
The big news yesterday was that Mickey Mouse has now taken the bold step of talking live to guests who visit him at Town Square Theater in the Magic Kingdom! Up until now, Mickey has only ever spoken live during shows and parades, and has made rare appearances at his meet 'n' greet location, which have always been unannounced. But, now, you can meet him daily at the the Magic Kingdom in his dapper new magicians outfit, and talk directly to the Big cheese himself!
Our friends at the Unofficial Disney Character Hunting Guide have already met him, and uploaded this video (click link to view on their Facebook page).
Staying with Walt Disney World, and today Anna and Elsa, characters from Disney's brand new movie 'Frozen' began greeting guests at Hollywood Studios!
This is the very first time they have met guests publicly. You can check out a photo of them on the Where Magic Lives Facebook page.
Jumping across the county to California, and rather suddenly, the popular show Minnie's Fly Girls, at Disney California Adventure ended last week. As far as fans are aware, there was no real reason given, it just happened! It was a fun show, and certainly brought some energy to the Condor Flats area of the park.
I have been really busy lately, and haven't updated the website as much as I would have liked to, but I have ten days off from this Friday, so next week I hope to make a lot of updates, refresh a bunch of pages, and if all goes to plan, officially launch the third in our excellent Trip Planner series - this time for California! When it's launched I'll make an announcement on Facebook and Twitter, so watch out for that!
Ok, I think that's everything for this evening. Have a good week everyone.
Dan.
|
|
|
 |
Hello everyone,
This week we start our updates in Disneyland, where the Disney Parks Blog announced that Marvel hero, and God of Thunder, Thor would start making appearances at the park in the winter (no confirmed date as of yet)!
Currently it is unclear as to how long Thor will stay at the park once he starts appearing, but it will mark the first time a Marvel character will greet guests inside a Disney Park.
Captain America, Iron Man and Spider-Man previously appeared at D23 (which was not inside the park), and Captain America is due to appear on the DCL Disney Magic from the autumn.
To mark the end of summer, just across the esplanade from Disneyland, Disney California Adventure is holding an End of Summer Party at the Pier.
All this week, until next Monday inclusive, Paradise Pier will host variety acts and the Disney Characters in beach wear. The LTM website doesn't make it clear whether the characters will be meeting, or part of the acts and other entertainment. Technically it did start yesterday, but I haven't yet seen any photos yet of who is starring - I guess we'll find out soon enough!
Similarly over at Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom, Tomorrowland's regular dance party will add Dug and Bolt into the mix for a special Dog Days of Summer party, also running through next Monday.
Other dogs in attendance will be Goofy, Pluto and honorary dog, Stitch. Basically Chip and Dale are being replaced with Dug (who is over at DAK daily anyway), and Bolt. Hosts are also handing out bone shaped character autograph cards (similar to how all previous LTM events have had character autograph cards).
Staying with WDW, and the Parks Blog released an image of the marquee going up at the new Princess Fairytale Hall in Fantasyland. They also confirm that the new princess meet 'n' greet is set to open in the fall.
Looking to next month's LTM offerings, and Friday the 13th at both Disneyland and WDW looks set to be a blast, with special villainous events.
As we already know, at WDW they are holding a dance party at Hollywood Studios. Disneyland will run the same hours (8pm - 1am) for the event, but will instead have what appears to be various activities scattered throughout the park.
Interestingly, both resorts will apparently have 13 villains in attendance. All other details right now are sketchy, and of course anything could change. I'll be very interested to see what Disneyland has up their sleeves for this one!
Finally, moving ahead to Christmas season, and the Parks Blog announced some of the seasonal offerings taking place this year at Tokyo Disney Resort. When I say some, I really mean very little, because as you read below, you'll see a lot of the previous years offerings were missing from the announcement.
Tokyo Disneyland will be host to the Christmas Fantasy celebration, featuring Santa's Village, complete with a toy workshop, and the Santa's Village Parade. The Santa's Village itself I expect will be home to Santa Claus while he is visiting Tokyo. There are no other details, so we shall wait and see!
Last year TDL had a small nighttime projection show at Cinderella Castle titled Twinkling Christmas Castle. It has not been stated whether this will return this year yet.
Also, in the past, up to last year, during the park's electrical parade Dreamlights Mickey and Friends would wear sparkling Christmas outfits. Again, no mention as to whether they will do this again this year.
At Tokyo DisneySea the Christmas Wishes celebration will feature Colors of Christmas, which is a nighttime Christmas Tree lighting show on the Harbor, and stars Mickey and Friends. There will also be Holiday Greeting From Seven Ports, a daytime show on the Harbor waterfront featuring Mickey and Friends.
Last year, the American Waterfront show A Table is Waiting had a Christmas overlay, titled Christmas Cuisine. It has not been mentioned whether this will return this year yet.
In the past Duffy and ShellieMay have greeted guests in special Christmas outfits, Santa Claus has appeared in American Waterfront, and fireworks at both parks usually changes over to the Starbright Christmas version. Again, we'll have to wait and see if any of this returns this year.
Both parks will of course have special merchandise, decorations and menu items.
Apologies if all the Tokyo stuff seemed like a lot of non-news, you can blame the Parks Blog for their lack of information! It was interesting nonetheless to see what is definitely confirmed, and what else we might expect based on previous years, despite not being announced yet.
UPDATE: A Japanese friend of mine posted on our forum after I had written this article, saying that a recent Japanese press release had revealed a few more details about this years happenings. I really wish Disney would release everything in multiple languages as so that we can avoid confusion! Anyway, he tells me that A Table is Waiting, Big Band Beat, Super Duper Jumpin' Time and Dreamlights will all receive their Christmas overlays this year. Also, as well as Duffy and ShellieMay wearing Christmas outfits, Ariel (greeting at her grotto in Mermaid Lagoon), also has a festive costume.
Ok, that's everything for today. We are actually off to Disneyland on Friday for four days, so be sure to follow our Facebook and Twitter pages for live updates from the resort!
Dan. |
|
|
 |
Hello everyone,
There really hasn't been a lot of news surrounding Disney Characters for some time, but finally today, I have a few small things to tell you.
In the last couple of weeks Sofia the First from the Disney Channel show of the same name has began making regular appearances at Disney California Adventure. I don't think she has started appearing in WDW yet, but I could be wrong. I haven't seen anything saying she has.
In a random piece of "news", Disney's ever popular Vinylmation series released a new Beauty and the Beast set. The chaser was Beast in human form. Now, as some of you may be aware the fan community usually refer, unofficially, to him as Prince Adam. This stems from a really old, rather random, PC-CD ROM trivia game that mentioned his name. Well, guess what? Some 20 years later and the bottom of the new Vinyl says the character's name is Prince Adam! I guess we can now all breathe a sigh of relief and live content in the knowledge that he is indeed Prince Adam!
Of course the biggest news is the latest Limited Time Magic offerings.
Disneyland doesn't really have anything exciting lined up. More of the Dapper Dans singing out-of-character songs, and musicians on the side of the Matterhorn.
Over in WDW though they have had a few interesting weeks, with more lined up.
The 4th July celebrations saw Mickey and Friends appear at EPCOT and some WDW Resort Hotels in patriotic costumes. Sadly we weren't there, but it looked like fun.
Then, this week Mickey and friends have been rocking out the America Gardens Theater in an energetic show featuring hip-hop, acrobatics and more.
Then there is the latest news... The next Long Lost Friends Week vote is in, and dates are revealed!
From 15th July through the 21st, guests can meet the following at the Magic Kingdom:
- Louis and Dr Faciilier
- Chicken Little and Abby Mallard
- Robin Hood and Friends
- and Br'er Rabbit, Br'er Bear and Br'er Fox.
What is interesting is that on the official Disney Parks Blog they fail to mention Br'er Rabbit, or Louis and Facilier, yet they are mentioned on the in the blurb on the Limited Time Magic page.
Hopefully all four sets will turn up, and there aren't any oddities.
Anyway, that is everything for today. If I hear anything else, I'll be sure to post it, as always.
Have a great weekend,
Dan. |
|