So some interesting and exciting Character related news has been filtering out lately.

The Tiana/Naveen happening appears to follow the format of Step in Time with Mary Poppins and Once Upon a Time, Sleeping Beauty with an introductory song and dance show followed by a meet and greet with the characters.  I have seen a few short clips and it looks entertaining and like a nice addition.

In addition to the all new events, there have been changes made to several existing ones.  These include Princess Tiana and Prince Naveen replacing Belle and Beast in the Once Upon a Dream Parade, a Ratatouille car with Remy and Emile being added to Stars 'n' Cars, and another version of the Character Express called the All Star Express.  All these changes seem to be well done and make nice additions or updates.

So that is most of the recent character news!  As far as site news... we continue to add more information and Dan has been busy adding greeting information.  We have also now added a search feature which hopefully will be useful :)

I hope everyone has a magical day!
Jon

Hey all :)

In addition to the new trip reports Dan has also added a bunch of new meeting info to characters.  We have also added a bunch of new characters and updated where some characters can be found.  Hopefully the next new site feature will be search.

We are also busy working on our pictures from previous trips and trying to get those uploaded.

Hope everyone continues to enjoy the site and as always if you have any suggestions please let us know!

Thank you,

Jon

Just a quick update to say that I have now added trip reports for Walt Disney World Christmas and Disneyland Paris Valentine's.

Check them out!

Dan :)

Hi all,

We have continued to add more content to the site gradually. Hopefully you're all liking it still!

We have both been quite busy of late though, and have fallen behind on proper updates.

I will be attempting to add the latest trip reports soon - I promise! for now, just sit back, relax and enjoy the site! 

Thanks! :)

Dan.

 Well it was a busy Feb and we had a great trip to Disneyland Paris!  We are currently working on pictures from the trip (as well as catching up on older pictures) and more pictures should be showing up on our flickr accounts (and here) almost daily :D

Some of the character highlights of our trip:

On Valentines Day DLP had some special characters out.  The big highlights were Bernard and Bianca from the Rescuers, Gus and Jaq from Cinderella, and Quasimodo and Esmeralda from Hunchback!  Apparently Bernard and Bianca flew in from Tokyo just for the day... how awesome is that?!?!  Unfortunately, there must have been some problem because they were supposed to be out 3 times for meet and greets but only actually came out once! Luckily for us we found out about them from a new friend we made while there (Thanks Rob!) so we were of course waiting for them for their first set and were able to meet them.  In addition to the meet and greets all these characters were in a special pre-parade for the day. 

In addition to the special characters, there were several other special meet and greets.  In the morning Mickey and Minnie were at the Disneyland Hotel in prince and princess outfits.  In the late morning/early afternoon Mickey and Minnie were out in Fantasyland in Valentines Day outfits.  In the afternoon at the Disneyland Hotel Belle and the Beast were out and they were in their ball outfits.  It also looks like some of the other hotels had special meet and greets for the day.

We are really glad we were there for Valentines day and got to meet a bunch of characters we had never met before and are hoping to be there next year again if they do something similar!

Other than Valentines day things were pretty "normal" character wise for Disneyland Paris... which is FAR different than normal for the US parks... there is definitely a lot more randomness in DLP which is great; however, at this point we have met most of the characters that are out frequently.  That isn't to say we didn't meet other characters or there wasn't anything new.  We met a few characters in places we have never seen them before and also saw some out in outfits we had never seen before... and even if we have met a character lots of times it is always great meeting (and getting pictures of them) again! 

One nice (well sorta nice...) change they had made since our last trip involved the characters from Star 'n' Cars.  When we were there in Oct most days a lot of the Stars 'n' Cars characters (but not all... for example most of the face characters were never there) were out meeting people near It's a Small World in the early afternoon.  It was a bit strange as the show/parade is in WDS and some of the outfits are more "Hollywood" for the show so it isn't a perfect fit for Fantasyland... but we were very happy to get to meet them in their Stars 'n' Cars outfits so we weren't going to complain :P  Well, now it seems like they have decided to move this meet and greet over to WDS... which makes more sense and also gives people more reason to go over there.  Also, instead of just some of the characters it was almost all of the characters when we were there.  This included all of the face characters as well as Elvis Stitch (who we never saw in Fantasyland).  Personally I think this was a good change and really adds something to WDS... the only downside is since they come out in the main area of the park and spread out all through Production Courtyard and Toon Studio, it is much more obvious they are out meeting (WDS is so small you can see at least some of the characters from 90% of the park when they are out LOL)... this of course means it is MUCH more crowded and you get the usual pushing and shoving and mayhem that occurs for characters at DLP :\  When they were in Fantasyland most people didn't know they were going to be there so while it would get crowded as people stumbled upon them it wasn't like the whole park was instantly aware they were out and mobbed them.

Another thing we made a point of doing this trip was going to the different Hotels in the morning.  For those that don't know, every morning at all of the Disney Hotels they have characters out which is a very nice touch.  With the exception of the Disneyland Hotel there is normally only one character out at a time but they normally switch through the morning what character is there.  To make it even better, when it is one of the Fab 5 they are usually in special resort specific themed outfits!  So for example at the Cheyenne you might meet Cowboy Goofy or Indian Mickey!  While we had met a few characters at the Santa Fe when we were there last Feb and had been making a habit of checking the Disneyland Hotel in the mornings starting in Oct (will talk about the Disneyland Hotel in a min) we hadn't gone to the other hotels.  Dan had previously stayed at the Cheyenne and the Sequoia so he had met a couple characters at them before but he had never met characters at the Newport or New York hotels.  During the course of our trip we went to every hotel (except the Santa Fe) at least twice and got to meet characters in a bunch of new outfits... so these new locations and outfits will get added to the site before too long.  One kinda odd thing was at the New York and Newport they didn't seem to be out in their "normal" outfits for those hotels.  For example at the New York, Goofy was out but was in his regular outfit instead of the New York ones we had seen pictures of... and at the Newport, one morning Minnie was out in a really extravagant frilly dress we had never seen before and the next day Mickey was out in his Winter Wonderland outfit... we weren't complaining about either of those especially since we had never met them before either but hopefully at some point we can meet them in their actual Hotel outfits.

Now onto the Disneyland Hotel, at the Disneyland Hotel they normally have one (or a couple ie Minnie/Mickey or Chip/Dale) of main characters out in the rotunda in a roped off area with a line and a photographer (like the setup in all the other hotels); however, in addition there are normally 2 or more random characters wandering around the hallways around that area.  The characters are pretty random and can be anything from the Pooh characters to Pinocchio characters to Robin Hood characters to Launchpad and Scrooge McDuck.  Needless to say we have started checking there every morning on the way into the park ROFL.  In addition to the morning characters we found out about something new this trip... in the afternoon around 4pm on most weekends (and weekdays during busy periods) there is a little song and dance routine done by random characters in the main reception area with a meet and greet afterward.  It is a nice way to relax for a bit in the afternoon and still meet characters (not to mention a warm place in the winter).  We were there for this a few days this trip and I am sure it will become something we check out regularly!

So... all and all it was an awesome trip and we got to meet some new and very rare characters along with old characters in new outfits!  We also managed to get the French signatures of more characters some of which Dan has already added to the site!  So be on the lookout for pictures from the trip as we add them :D  but here are a couple to start with:

We have been continuing to add lots of stuff to the site with more Characters, Shows, and other things.  In addition, Dan has started going through and adding more detailed descriptions and meet and greet info to some Characters as well as adding more items to their wardrobes.  We still have lots to add including signatures for most characters!

This week so far we haven't added much to the site and this will probably be true for the rest of the week and some of next... but for good reason!  We will be going to Disneyland Paris this weekend for 5 days!  So we will be taking lots of pictures and hopefully meeting some new characters!  Last year on Valentines weekend they had some special rare characters out and we are hoping they do so again this year as some of the characters last year we have never met!

If any of our Paris friends happen to read this and want us to keep an eye out for any of their "friends" please let me know and we will try to get pictures! :)

Have a magical day!

Hi all!

Today is the one month anniversary of the site going live!  While it is still in "development" now and was pretty basic when it we first made it public it has come a long way in a month!

Recently we have been adding some new features including popup larger picture and now paging to allow you to see more images.  We have also added some new sections to the web site including trip reports.  In addition, we have made some behind the scenes changes to make management of the site easier which will hopefully result in us getting more information about characters and places up quicker! :)  We have more features planned along with some improvements to existing features which will make the site even better.

We have also been busily adding more Characters and Parades, Shows, Events, etc.

We really hope you all like the site as it is now and it will keep getting better as we fill in more information.  If you have any feature ideas or general ideas/thoughts about the site please let us know!  We love to hear feedback :D

The other day I was going through my old home videos from previous Disney trips, and I was watching my WDW trip from March 2005 with Amy.

I came to the SpectroMagic section. I was interested to see if had been any changes since then that I couldn't remember. So the SpectroMen were different, but I knew that - you can see that on our SpectroMen page. But other than that, it was all pretty much the same - with one notable exception...

This is the current Fantasia crocodile unit (2 pictures):

Continuing with my trip report now...

Part One can be found here

Attractions

We of course as always managed to experience a variety of attractions on our trip. Here is a complete list of everything we did, complete with what was a new experience for us listed next to individual items.

Big Thunder Mountain

Phantom Manor

Space Mountain: Mission 2

Orbitron

Dumbo the Flying Elephant (new to Jon and Dan)

Le Carrousel de Lancelot

Mad Hatter’s Tea Cups

Blanche-Neige et les Sept Nains

Les Voyages de Pinocchio

Peter Pan’s Flight

“it’s a small world”

Les Mysteres du Nautilus

Le Passage Enchante d’Aladdin

Adventure Isle

Sleeping Beauty Castle - tableau and lair

Armageddon Special Effects (new to Jon)

Crush’s Coaster (new to Jon)

Casey Jr. - le Petit Train du Cirque (new to Jon)

Le Pays des Contes de Fees

River Rogue Keelboats (new to Jon)

Autopia (new to Jon)

Buzz Lightyear Laser Blast

Alice’s Curious Labyrinth

Pirates of the Caribbean

It’s Party Time with Mickey and Friends (new to Jon)

It’s Party Time with Mickey and Friends, and the Disney Villains (new to Jon and Dan)

It’s Dance Time in Discoveryland (new to Jon)

Winnie the Pooh and Friends, too! (new to Jon, this version new to Dan)

Merlin and the Witch Academy (new to Jon and Dan)

The Disney’s “Not-So-Scary” Halloween Show (new to Jon and Dan)

The Disney’s “Not-So-Scary” Halloween Cars Cavalcade (new to Jon and Dan)

Minnie’s Halloween Party Train (complete Party Train new to Jon, Halloween version new to Dan)

Once Upon a Dream Parade

Halloween Pre-Parade (new to Jon and Dan)

Stars n Cars (new to Jon and Dan)

The Disney Witches Dancing Spells Party (new to Jon and Dan)

FantIllusion (completely new to Jon, Halloween extension new to Dan)

Mickey and his Magic Halloween Night (new to Jon and Dan)

Of course things like Dumbo aren’t entirely new experiences, as we have rode them it in Florida, but for DLP it was new. It’s always fun to compare experiences of similar attractions across the resorts, even if it is something such as Dumbo! (And we have to be able to say we’ve done everything, right?!)

Characters again

As you can see from the list in the previous character section (in Part One), we were exceptionally lucky this trip in meeting some very unusual characters - even by DLP’s standards! I met 27 new characters and performers, and met 28 characters that I had met before, but in new outfits. Jon met new 22 characters, and new 28 outfits.

We also have over the course of our trips to DLP now come to discover some good locations for regularly meeting some random and indeed rare characters.

Oddly enough, the Main Street Lounge area of the Disneyland Hotel is very good first thing in the morning, up until about 11am. The ISAW gates / outside Pizzeria Bella Notte is THE spot for characters (one day we counted as many as 21 characters up there that randomly came out all at once!), and over by the gates next to Colonel Haithi’s is a good semi-regular (though somewhat more sporadic) location.

These locations have provided us with some of the best “random and rare ones” that we have met, including Chicken Little, Maleficent, Robin Hood and Launchpad McQuack. 

More later! :)

Dan.