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[Kristof]

Today is the official start of the Disney Magical Moments Festival, but as you know, past weekend was the press opening during which all the novelties were previewed.  A group of fan website owners were invited to participate during the weekend which I attented as well.

Here's a photographic overview from an amazing press weekend.

On Friday evening, the opening show on the hub went through a final rehearsal and included the fireworks display.  The Vinci parking lot provided an excellent view for some long exposure photos.







Saturday morning we were welcomed at Hotel New York's convention center Disney Cast Members from the Corporate Communications office greeted us with our badge and all the necesary documents and information we would need for two busy days.




My first stop was at Walt Disney Studios Park for Green Army Men Meet & Play.  It's a short interaction, involving a group of children, with the soldiers. It reminded me of the old Cinéfolies and Shooting Live! shows.






Immediately after, I ran to Moteurs... Action! Stunt Show Spectacular (did I mention their was a tight schedule?) to check out the new Lightning McQueen vehicle.  I managed to get a decent seat for pictures and waited patiently for the Cars vehicles to come one stage.  However, that never happened.  In front of all the press and celebs the arena remained empty despite the sound effects and video footage.  More embarrassment followed when the burning stuntman was lit up with a lighter, instead of sliding through the wall of fire.  I was told later there was a battery issue with the Lightning McQueen vehicles.

After sitting through the entire stunt show, I decided to leave the Studios behind and arrived at Disneyland Park.  The New Generation logo on the Main Street Station has been replaced by Sorcerer Mickey and an English and French logo have been attached to the railings on either side of the visual.




The frames which held the New Generation characters on the lamp posts on Main Street are still in place, but now feature more classic Disney characters.




After a short stroll through the park, it was time to head over to Salon Mickey where we received an interesting presentation by Christophe Leclercq and Emmanuel Lenormand from the Entertainment department. (Read my full report here)




Next stop, a Magical Moment in Adventureland. The Hakuna Matata retaurant's outside terrace has been taken over by a covered photo location featuring a Kaa and Zazou statue.  While Rafiki was entertaining a British celeb (though my two British friends failed to recognize her), I got some time with Timon for a few photos.


















Almost 5pm, so I rushed to the Royal Castle Stage where we got to see the Disney's Once upon a Dream Parade from a reserved area.  We got to see the Villains' show stop, which involved kids playing with the fabric "flames" set to Just Like we Dreamed it" song. For the participating kids and their parents, this must have been a real magical moment, but I prefer the original show stop.






After the parade I got back to the hotel to change for a big night.

Returning to the park, we got to see Mickey's Magical Celebration on the Central Plaza Stage.  Philippe Gas was also in the crowd for the new show.




The show turned out quite nice, especially the music, but it feels unfisheded and lacking more cast members (there are no dancers in this show!!).  Especially during the first 10 minutes, there are just 4 characters on the enormous stage.  Another painful remark: only one character (the Fairy Godmother) spoke English.  The rest of the show was entirely in French.  Very sad considering the resort is loosing much of its UK visitors.










When the show was finished I took a quick stroll to the Fantasy Festival Stage area where a photo exhibition was set up featuring photos by celebrities and their magical moments in the park.  This exhibition (linked to charities) was only for the press weekend and has been removed since.




At 8 pm all the fan website owners and moderators gathered at Agrabah Café for an amazing dinner with Euro Disney CEO Philippe Gas and Jeff Archambault; Vice President communications. Philippe gave us a warm welcome and both him and Jeff kept us company during the whole dinner.  I was seated across Philippe, right next to Jeff who's an American living in France for over 20 years.  He started his carreer at Apple Europe before joining the Euro Disney SCA team in the early '90s.  Although the atmosphere was open and warm, no major news was announced, with the exception that Star Tours II would not be coming to Disneyland Paris, at least not the next 7 years. Instead, other (unstated) priorities will be made.










When dinner was over, Philippe invited us to Central Plaza for the big opening show with an even bigger fireworks display for the grand finale.  It was an amazing night and truly a Magical Moment.










When exiting after the show, we found the Lightning McQueen stunt vehicle on Town Square. A rare photo oportunity!






The night came to an end with a drink at the Hotel New York bar with my friends Mouetto and Grandmath from Disney Central Plaza and Maxime from Designing Disney blog.


Next morning I decided to check out the rest of the festivities I missed out on Saturday.  First was the Disney Dance Express on the hub.  It's quite an energetic show in the lines of Block Party Bash and some of the Tokyo Disney shows.  Fun, but sadly when you involve a group of guests in the show, it turns into a big mess of people randomly wondering among the performers.  But definetely a good effort, and probably the best re-incarnation of the original Characters Express since the 15th Anniversary.






The Alice in Wonderland photo location was my next stop and guess what, it already had pieces broken off.










Following the Leader with Peter Pan in Adventureland appeared to be a nice fun show with a good cast, but it sadly got cancelled during the performance because of bad weather.  










The Rapunzel photo location was (temporarily) placed across La Bottega di Gepetto. Because of the rain there was no meet 'n' greet when I arrived there.  Instead I got some photos of the photo location.












Over at Aladdin's Magic Lamp I ran into Aladdin and Genie who were more than happy to pose for some pictures.












My final Magical Moment was (once again) the Moteurs... Action! Stunt Show Spectacular, this time WITH Lightning McQueen.  The new Cars scene appeared to go by very slow and seemed almost boring.  When it was over, there was an akward silence from the audience. But I'm sure if they tweek the show a bit more, it could become very interesting and a crowd pleasure.








All in all, it was an amazing weekend with some very nice privileges and opportunities.  It was also lots of fun meeting other Disney fans and sharing ideas and opinions about the new festivities.  The Festival itself is nice and keeps the parks warm for the big celebration next year.  Something to look forward to!

[norhel]

Great report and pics as always. :-)
Can't say that I like that the Mickey's Magical Celebration is almost entirely in French....
To bad for the English speaking guests.

Is it me or has Smee become an facecharacter?

[dagobert]

Thanks for this huge report, Kristof! It seems you had a fantastic weekend.

It's really bad that DLRP will not get Star Tours II for another 7 years. It seems DLRP is stuck with that broken and with duct tape fixed attraction. I always thought ST 2 would be perfect for the 20th birthday, since it can be considered as a new attraction. That's really a big disappointment!!!

Now to the new festival. Honestly there is nothing I'm really interested in.

[davewasbaloo]

Me either, thank goodness Tarzan is back

[Anthony]

Thanks for the report!

Next stop, a Magical Moment in Adventureland. The Hakuna Matata retaurant's outside terrace has been taken over by a covered photo location featuring a Kaa and Zazou statue.  While Rafiki was entertaining a British celeb (though my two British friends failed to recognize her), I got some time with Timon for a few photos.

There's a photo of "Lizzie Cundy and Nick Ede" amongst the official ones for the UK. I don't know them either, but Wikipedia says he's a former footballer and she's a presenter on the show "WAGS World" for Wedding TV and a supporter of the Conservative Party. Ugh, I think that's my least favourite sentence ever typed on this forum. :sick:

The Rapunzel photo location was (temporarily) placed across La Bottega di Gepetto. Because of the rain there was no meet 'n' greet when I arrived there.  Instead I got some photos of the photo location.

Where will the permanent location be? The back of the photo location looks surprisingly lovely, possibly better than the front!

[strawjaw]

When I was there last week - the Tangled/Rapunzel photo location popped in the same place.
Is it not meant to be there then?
I saw the Jungle Rhythms, and Aladdin, although, I didn't realise the Aladdin one was new, so I didn't photograph it.
Everyone went mad over the Tea Party one, so I'm not surprised its broken already. Shame though.

[Kristof]

Rapunzel is supposed to be located at The Old Mill, but they're going to refurbish its roof soon.

[Tuvok]

Star Tours 2.0 is not coming??? What in gods name ARE they going to do for the 'first' 20th anniversary in 2012? Upgrades for Phantom Manor and Pirates of the Caribbean are currently in rumours, but those are minor upgrades, while ST2 would have been a completely new attraction. A major birthday without a new attraction, that would be a first for Disney Parks & Resorts, though not quite possitive. What other priorities are there?

[Bubbles]

Fabulous pictures, thanks for this great report.  I soooooo..... can't wait to get there now!  Only 80 days to go, not that I'm counting!!