I watched the livestream after it was over. Here goes with the update 53:
The first part of the update will focus on the Walt Disney World 50th Anniversary. Then a Tower Event will be starting on October 22nd.
With the celebration of the WDW 50th, our Magic Kingdoms will get a new look to them. It will have a lot of the iridescent look/feel that is going on at WDW right now.
New items coming to celebrate WDW 50th Anniversary:
- WDW 50th Anniversary Minnie Topiary
- WDW 50th Anniversary Mickey Topiary
- WDW 50th Anniversary Cake (which will be free to all players)
- WDW 50th Anniversary Gold Trophy
- WDW 50th Anniversary Sparkly Cupcake Stand
- WDW 50th Anniversary Spaceship Earth - the animation on this was pretty cool
While it was sort of mentioned later in the live stream, but you could tell from the intro video, both Mickey and Minnie have new outfits. They may be rewards for leader boards. Wasn't real clear.
So we get to enjoy the new decorations and look for the WDW 50th Anniversary first. Then the Tower Challenge will start on October 22nd and will end November 7th. As usual there will be Three Chapters. Chapter one starts October 22nd. Chapter two starts on October 28th. Chapter 3 starts on November 2nd. The three characters that will never tire are the White Rabbit (Chapter 1), Carpet (Chapter 2) and Dante from Coco (Chapter 3). From what I can tell with Chapter 1, other characters are from Mickey & Friends, Alice in Wonderland, Toy Story, Monsters Inc. and Wall-E. Not sure which specific characters will be involved. Did not see any screen shots for Chapter's 2 or 3.
It appears that the Hat Box Ghost is going to be the goal for the Tower Challenge. Amanda, the host, mentioned that the Hat Box Ghost would be available for a one time purchase like Gord was. But the screens showed that you could earn the tokens for this character like in other Tower Challenges. I guess if you don't want to participate you can purchase the Hat Box Ghost outright. When she showed the Hat Box Ghost, it was with the Bride. Not sure if the Bride will become available to those who don't already have her (which I unfortunately do not).
There will be three other characters - the hitchhiking ghosts. She showed Ezra, Gus and Phineas. However, there was no mention on how you can acquire these characters. I would imagine that at least one of them will be via gems or $. Once you do complete the 3 hitchhiking ghosts you would get 24 gems.
She described the various mini-events that will happen. I had to rewind a few times to be sure, but it appears that there will be three tapper events in a row. From October 7th - 10th, there is a Figment Tapper. Figment will be running around our kingdoms. Then she said from the 11th to the 14th, the Figment Tapper again. I would have thought possibly she meant November and not October, but there was no clarification. So it could be October or November. Some of the possible Milestones or Leader Board rewards include the Mickey 50th Topiary, Mickey's 50th costume and various chests.
The next tapper is a Spooky Tree Tapper. It is from October 15th to October 20th. So maybe the 2nd Figment Tapper is in October. The rewards/milestones sounded like just normal stuff and nothing significant.
She also mentioned a Striking Gold Event. I had to listen to the dates a few times to be sure. She said October 7th through October 14th. Which is odd since that would overlap the tapper events. But I guess we will see. Some of the rewards/leader board stuff would be the WDW 50th Gold Trophy and the WDW 50th Hat stand.
There was a question at the end about the two Haunted Mansion attractions and if they would be enchantable. Currently they are not enchantable. But with this new update, they will become enchantable.
As always Balancing Changes will occur. The patch notes will have all of the significant balancing changes documented. The update should start appearing on Tuesday, October 5th. As always it may take time to hit all platforms and devices.
