Disney World’s New Fantasyland

This Thursday, a new Fantasyland addition will open, where Belle’s Beast and Ariel’s Eric will get their own place to call home. The new Fantasyland is considered the largest expansion in Magic Kingdom history and will include the Dumbo attraction (super-sized), a Little Mermaid ride, the “Beauty and the Beast Restaurant” and a Snow White adventure.

Phil Holmes, vice president of the Magic Kingdom Park says

“We’re blessed in Florida, that Walt’s original vision was to have all the land these dreams can hold.”

Thank you Disney and their engineers who have created a way to make Cinderella’s castle to look like another home in Fantasyland. Guests will be able to experience the life within the films of Little Mermaid, and Beauty and the Beast with the ability to walk on the short of Prince Erik’s world and enter Beast’s castle.

New Fantasyland already had a soft opening and the employees and special guests were stunned at the attention to detail each location held.

At Gaston’s tavern from Beauty and the Beast guests were able to take in the antler chandelier and taste LeFou’s Brew, an apple-based drink that boasts a light coconut foam head, in a stein cup (non-alcoholic). Inside Beast’s castle, guests could dine where Belle and Beast danced.

The soft opening for guests were charted, so they can share their experience to the Disney employees, Holmes explains the reason,

“We invited our cast to experience it, they’re our best advocates and best critics”

To Holmes, surprise, it was amazing— the cast and guests were very pleased at the extravagant similarities that Disney has created from the animated world to the physical world.

Disney addressed the long wait lines by creating interactive areas to give guests something to do while waiting. In the Dumbo’s ride, Disney created a Storybook Circus where kids are welcomed to play while their parents wait with a beeper to alert them when it’s time to go on the ride.

There’s also the Fast Pass that guests are most familiar with, where they have certain times to come back to the ride and decreases the wait time.

On the outskirts of the “Be Our Guest Restaurant,” Maurice’s cottage and “Enchanted Tales with Belle,” a storytelling experience where guests go to the Beast’s library and help with some great tales.

In Fantasyland there is also the “Under the Sea- Journey of the Little Mermaid,” guests ride in shells and experience Ariel’s adventures, much like the attraction that opened earlier at California Adventure in Anaheim. What are the differences between the two? Well adjustments that were made in the Disney California Adventure (DCA) park’s “Under the Sea– Journey of the Little Mermaid” ride, Disney World was able to built those adjustments in and also incorporate the characters’ seaside home whereas DCA is inside a building.

It won’t be too soon as the vice president says that the new Fantasyland will include a Princess Fairytale Hall where fans can meet all of the princesses and will also have the long awaited “The Seven Dwarfs Mine Train” where guests will be on a roller coaster ride through Snow White’s friends mining train.

Heigh-Ho, Heigh-Ho it’s off to Disney World we go!