Here's What I Missed When I Was Away

While I was making my wish come true on the Disney Wish cruise ship, I missed about a week of blog posts. Most weeks, I don't have a lot to write about besides my weekly book review, but last week happened to be a pretty big one for princess fans. Not only did Disneyland After Dark debut a new hard ticket event called Princess Nite, but the long-awaited full-length trailer was finally released for the upcoming live-action remake of The Little Mermaid as well. Between those two massive announcements, it looks like I have a lot of catching up to do. Let's get started.

Disneyland After Dark is a series of themed hard ticket events at the Disneyland theme park that take place at night after the park closes to regular guests. Attendees of these events must purchase an additional ticket that grants them evening and nighttime access to the park just for the event. I have been to several hard ticket events at both Walt Disney World and Disneyland. The one that has stuck around the longest is Mickey's Halloween Party since the others tend to be less popular. It looks like that's changed because Disneyland now has a full schedule of hard ticket events themed after a number of different fandoms. Of course, the one that stood out to me the most was Princess Nite, which took place on March 7th and 9th and was themed after the Disney Princesses. Princess Nite took place a full year after I moved out of Southern California and right when I was about to go on my cruise, so the timing was doubly unfortunate. Luckily, there is plenty of coverage for it on other blogs and YouTube channels, so I don't feel like I completely missed out.

The closest hard ticket event that I've attended to Princess Nite is the Pirate and Princess Party in Walt Disney World all the way back in '08. I figured I wasn't missing out on much from this new one because it would probably be similar. It turns out I was wrong. Disneyland went all out for their Princess Nite and added all kinds of exclusive shows, characters, and displays that the Pirate and Princess Party does not hold a candle to. In the video above, you can watch the concert entitled Soaring Melodies Under the Stars, in which three performers wearing dresses in the colors of Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather sang a medley of princess songs as princesses came out around them performing on Fantasmic boats. For the finale, Minnie Mouse came out in a full princess regalia. Minnie and Daisy also greeted attendees at the entrance of the park for this event, and I did recognize Daisy's dress from the old Pirate and Princess Parties of the past.

What made Princess Nite truly stand out was how far it went to celebrate every princess from Disney's roster, and not just the ones that fall into the Disney Princess brand. Giselle appeared down Main Street in her full wedding gown riding her carriage that she used to travel in for a promotional parade pre-show when Enchanted first came out. Rare meet'n'greets took place all over the park with princesses like Kida from Atlantis, Atta from A Bug's Life, Mulan in her armor, Raya, and, of course, Sofia the First and Elena of Avalor. A dance party was also hosted in Tomorrowland by Vanellope, who solidified her status as a princess in Ralph Breaks the Internet. There was also a gorgeous gallery displaying iconic Disney Princess costumes from theme parks around the world from previous events including Cinderellabration and retired parades. Some special photo ops at Princess Nite included Cinderella's royal coach and fan fluttering from The Princess Diaries. The whole park was also lit up for the event with pink sparkles, tiaras, and filigrees projected onto Sleeping Beauty Castle and it's a small world.

The other big thing that happened while I was away was the release of the full-length trailer for the live-action remake of The Little Mermaid. I know a lot of you were waiting patiently to hear my thoughts on this, but honestly, I don't have a whole lot to say. The trailer consisted of direct reproductions of clips I've already seen in the animated movie and some slightly longer versions of clips that I commented on in the last teaser. The lighting for most of it was really dim, so it was difficult to make out a lot of what was going on. I think it will be easier to discern when I watch the full movie because my eyes will have more time to adjust to each scene. In the meantime, this trailer didn't tell me anything I didn't already know, including Halle Bailey's beautiful voice. I am curious to see if the ending of the film will be more similar to the new cruise ship show or the original animated film, but that's not something I can find out from the trailer.

Sometimes, having this blog gives me a constant feeling of FOMO. The fact that Disney released two major princess events while I was away on their cruise ship made me feel like I wasn't doing a good enough job keeping you covered on all things princess. If you were in my shoes, would you have rather attended Princess Nite at Disneyland or gone on a cruise on the Disney Wish? Let me know in the comments! Feel free to also tell me if you have any thoughts you'd like to add about the new trailer for The Little Mermaid. I hope to keep all of you more up to date on any upcoming princess news in the future.