Final Countdown To New Fantasyland
We are just 6 days away from the highly anticipated Grand Opening of the New Fantasylandยฎ Area in the Magic Kingdomยฎ Park. Officially opening on Thursday, Dec. 6th to park guests is the Enchanted Forest, consisting of Under the Sea~Journey of the Little Mermaid, Enchanted Tales with Belle, Arielโs Grotto, Be Our Guest Restaurant, and Gastonโs Tavern. Storybook Circus, also part of the New Fantasylandยฎ expansion, previously opened to guests. Future additions to New Fantasylandยฎ include Princess Fairytale Hall(2013) and Seven Dwarfs Mine Train (2014).
We thought that some New Fantasylandยฎ Fun Facts would be a great way help pass these few remaining days!
- Originally 10 acres, the New Fantasyland expansion doubles the size to 21 acres!
- Inside the Library at Enchanted Tales with Belle, guests will find over 12,000 โbooks.โ
- Beastโs Castle contains 115 windows.
- The design teams called the lion-like figures flanking the door at the entrance to Be Our Guest Restaurant โgolions,โ a combination of goat and lion. The figures above the entrance doors, eagles with snake tails, were called โsneagles.โ
- Be Our Guest Restaurantโs centerpiece chandelier measures more than 12 feet tall and 11 feet wide. It boasts more than 84 candles and more than 100 jewels that hang down to give it added shine.
- As a way to identify them, the six stone figures on the bridge leading to Be Our Guest Restaurant were all given the name โFrankโ during the design phase.
- At the Magic Kingdomยฎ Park, Disneylandยฎ Paris, Hong Kong Disneylandยฎ, and at the Disneylandยฎ Resort, Timothy Mouse carries a magic feather atop the Dumbo attraction. At Tokyo Disneylandยฎ, he holds a circus whip.
- Talk about authenticity! The music heard from the old fashioned calliope in the front of Peteโs Silly Sideshow was recorded from a set of antique circus crank organs owned by a collector in Southern California.
- Of the 183 characters in Under the Sea ~ Journey of the Little Mermaid, more than 70 percent (128, to be exact) are featured in the โUnder the Seaโ scene.
- The Audio-Animatronicsยฎ figure of the sea witch Ursula is 7 1/2-feet tall and 12 feet wide.
Over this Thanksgiving weekend, many of you have likely started the transformation of your homes to make them โmerry and brightโ for the holiday season. While decorating can seem like quite the undertaking, it is nothing compared to the conversion Walt Disney Worldยฎ Resort Cast Members complete on the Magic Kingdomยฎ Park. After months of planning, an autumn Main Street, U.S.A.ยฎ turns into a Christmas wonderland in just hours!
While the day after Thanksgiving is a day of shopping to many in the United States, at the Walt Disney Worldยฎ Resort in Florida it is the official kickoff to the Holiday Season! Today was the beginning of Epcotโsยฎ Holidays Around the World and tonight they will hold their first Candlelight Processional.
