Disneyland Resort Paris celebrates St. Patrick's Day

Disneyland Resort Paris was among the many venues that celebrated St. Patrick's Day in style on Saturday, with a special parade and fireworks.

DLRP.fr has some photosets of both events, starting with the St. Patrick's Day Parade, which included Irish dance troupes, marching bands and - of course - the Disney characters all dressed in green outfits for the special occasion.

At 9pm, Fantasyland closed so that preparations could take place for the special fireworks, which took place later in the evening. Fireworks danced to the sounds of Riverdance and music from the recent Pirates of the Caribbean films. A video of this is available on the DLRP.fr website along with many photos and a (French) description.

Links:
- St Patrick's Day Parade Photos - DLRP.fr
- St Patrick's Day Fireworks Video and Photos - DLRP.fr

A closer look behind the magic

The Orlando Sentinel has a rather interesting three page article about what the Character Performers go through on a daily basis.

Today Disney World employs about 1,900 character actors, about 40 percent more than just 10 years ago. The performers earn between $7.60 and $13.65 an hour with opportunities for extra pay for certain duties, such as driving parade floats.

The article looks at what the characters go through each day and how the costumes are designed, as well as looking at some of the classes and training that the performers get before they go out into the parks.

Of course, we all know that there's nobody inside them, because they're all the real thing. I mean, that's the real Mickey and Minnie, not some person in a costume. Right?

Links:
- A closer look behind the magic - Orlando Sentinel

Just like we dreamed it - 15 years of magic

This year, Disneyland Resort Paris has a very special celebration going on. On 12 April 1992, what was at the time called The Euro Disney Resort officially opened its gates to the world. This year, on 1 April 2007 the resort will start its celebrations for its 15th anniversary.

Several websites have already been starting to release pictures and information about some of the things that will be happening around the resort during the celebration, and it looks like there's going to be a lot of fun things happening for visitors to the resort during the festivities. Ranging from a brand new parade to new attractions and shows.

The Walt Disney Studios Park will be introducing the new attractions, which include the Tower of Terror (which is based on the Anaheim version of the ride) as well as two new attractions based on Pixar's Finding Nemo and Cars films. The Disneyland Park will introduce Disney's Once Upon a Dream Parade along with a special celebration show in front of Le Château de la Belle au Bois Dormant. During a Shareholders Meeting recently, the resort revealed the characters with their new costumes for the anniversary celebrations along with a special 15th anniversary song called "Just like we dreamed it". Photos of the costumes and a MP3 file of the song are available on DLRPMagic's DLRPToday website.

The resort also opened up it's special Disneyland 15 website to coincide with the Shareholders Meeting, which contains lots of information about the celebration (although some sections aren't live yet) and some special trailer videos. There's also a special "Behind the Scenes" video, which features some of Disneyland Resort Paris' creative team talking about what's going on during the celebration. It's very likely that more and more details about the celebration will be announced or otherwise revealed over the next month as the resort prepares to start what is sure to be a fantastic celebration of 15 years of magic that only Disney can create.

Links:
- Disneyland Resort Paris' official 15th Anniversary site
- Disneyland Resort Paris' official website