Ever since Walt Disney opened his beloved Disneyland in 1955, no other structure has come to better represent a theme park than a castle. The Anaheim location changed the history of themed entertainment for good. Since that opening year, five other castle styled Disney parks have opened all over the world. Next up was Florida's Magic Kingdom in 1971, the first of four major parks in Walt Disney World.
The first overseas park Tokyo Disneyland, opened its gates in 1983 in the beautiful country of Japan. A decade later on a different continent, EuroDisney aka Disneyland Paris made its debut in Europe in 1992. Two more Asian parks were next: Hong Kong Disneyland in 2005 and Mainland China's park in Shanghai opened in 2016. It will celebrate its ten year anniversary on June 16th. Disneyland Abu Dhabi will join the line-up in approximately 2030, the first Disney park in the Middle Eastern part of the world. Will it have its own castle? No one knows except the Imagineers working on the project. My guess is definitely yes. It's the icon of every park in the Disneyland mold.
As a hard core theme park fan, it's only natural to rate and rank similar attractions and experiences in various similarly styled parks. And that is what I am going to do right now.
We'll explore each castles' strengths and weaknesses, taking note of what makes them unique and notable. Will my ratings match yours?
Special Mention: Beast's Castle, Tokyo Disneyland
An official photograph from the Oriental Land Company, owners of the Tokyo Disney Resort.
Contents: One sole attraction, The Enchanted Tale of Beauty and the Beast.
Strengths: Never before has this classic story based on Disney's animated film been so wonderfully told. Riding giant tea cups, guests journey into the castle and relive its memorable musical highlights. All within a full size, full scale building. Incredible!
Weaknesses: This is perhaps the most difficult attraction to experience in all of the Disney parks. Guests queue for hours and special purchase to ride passes sell out within minutes.
#6, Tokyo Disneyland
This gorgeous photograph by friend Len Yokoyama captures the beauty of Japan's Cinderella Castle at night.
Contents: This lovely palace was once the home of perhaps the most frightening of all Disney attractions- Cinderella Castle Mystery Tour. The walk through attraction ended with a chilling encounter with the Horned King from The Black Cauldron. Villains are no longer in vogue in Tokyo, so it's now been replaced by the princess friendly Cinderella's Fairytale Hall. There are no shops or restaurants inside the castle itself.
Strengths: Cinderella Castle in Tokyo is the centerpiece of the best Magic Kingdom styled park in the world. The attractions are in top notch shape and the line up represents the best of Disney world wide as well as some attractions unique to the resort. The only remaining Splash Mountain is here as is the incredible Pooh's Hunny Hunt.
Weaknesses: Although it is smaller than its big sister in Florida, the main structure and design of the castle is a carbon copy. The shades of brown do provide some differentiation, but for a park as incredible as this one, it deserves its own unique representation.
Thanks to the now defunct Westcoaster, we have this eye opening shot of Shanghai's massive Enchanted Storybook Castle.
Contents: Everything you want in a castle is here. The Royal Banquet Hall is a sit down restaurant that hosts the Disney characters. There's a small shop and the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique where kids can be glammed up as their favorite princess for a price.
Strengths: The interior of this castle- the largest of all in the Disney kingdoms- is quite remarkable. Large beautiful windows flood the interior with sunlight, and there is plenty of space to stretch out and explore. Enchanted Storybook Castle boasts not one but two attractions. The“Once Upon a Time” experience is a walk through attraction exploring the story of Snow White. The other is a boat ride that goes around the castle gardens and into the structure itself, Voyage to the Crystal Grotto.
Weaknesses: While certainly a landmark in the park, it's massive size causes it to lose in the charm department. Additionally, the boat ride should be a true E Ticket, but instead the journey is through simple gardens with props of statues instead of Audio-Animatronics and has a rather lackluster ending, downgrading its ranking. Making matters worse, this huge castle promises something wonderful on the other side but instead leads into a Fantasyland that is the least cohesive and ambitious the company has ever built. There's not even the classic It's A Small World to be found here. It's a strange mix of attractions. The atrocious appearance of the Alice in Wonderland maze, Tim Burton style, sits nearby traditional European cottages.
#4, Disneyland
My photo above captures Sleeping Beauty Castle in its wintery garb.
Contents: This castle has no restaurant but it does hold one walk through attraction focusing on the story of Sleeping Beauty, the animated film that was in production when Disneyland was being built. It's beautifully done and lovingly crafted using old school movie techniques with layers upon layers of charm. There is the Castle Candy Shop which used to be home to my father in law's favorite treat, chocolate licorice. Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique is in one of its wings, ready to transform kids into castle royalty all for a hefty price.
Strengths: Walt Disney actually walked on this drawbridge and through the castle. There's something so special in this that it almost feels as if his presence is there. As the first one, it holds a tender place in my heart as the one where it all began. The countless times I've walked through at night while "When You Wish Upon A Star" played makes it a sentimental favorite. Walking through the castle leads guests into the most charming of all Fantasylands, a European inspired courtyard and into gardens and attractions based on fairy tales and a mini Alice in Wonderland area.
Weaknesses: It's small. The tiniest castle of them all, and it feels like it.
#3, Hong Kong Disneyland
A lovely photograph with no one in sight!
Contents: Originally, this castle was built on the cheap, a straight up replica of what was found in California. The suits said it was to honor the past, but fans could tell it was just a ploy to cut costs. Wiser heads eventually realized the park needed to be rebranded with a new icon. In place of Sleeping Beauty Castle, the new Castle of Magical Dreams was built on the skeleton of the previous structure.
Strengths: The mountainous backdrop to the castle gives Hong Kong Disneyland's icon the most gorgeous setting ever imaginable. The color scheme is beautifully designed and the Imagineers created something beautiful from what they had to work with.
Weaknesses: There's not much inside, only a small character meet and greet area and a shop. Additionally, this park's Fantasyland is very weak in its attraction list even if the other land's (Mystic Point and World of Frozen) are quite unique and ambitious. What is there is charming and detailed, created to perfectly fit in with the park's lush landscapes.
My photo from a less recent visit before they painted it a putrid pink.
Contents: There's no attraction to be found here, so the headliner is Cinderella's Royal Table, a character dining experience that offers rather good food for this theme park and wonderful views of the nightly fireworks show from its leaded glass windows. Of course, here is the original Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique.
Strengths: Imagineer Dorothea Redmond created the beautiful mosaic murals that tell Cinderella's story. A beautiful fountain rests in the courtyard. Perhaps its greatest plus is the fact the castle can be seen from the Seven Seas Lagoon as park visitors are making their way to the Magic Kingdom.
Weaknesses: The once shaded and beautiful area in front of the castle has been replaced by astroturf with many of the trees removed. Also removed is the moat waterway that used to host the Plaza Swan Boats attractions. This relaxing journey offered kinetic energy as these graceful craft took riders on the canal past the entrances of each land and in and around the Swiss Family Tree House in Adventureland.
Even a dreary gray day in Paris can't diminish my photograph of the greatest Disney castle of them all.
Contents: Le Château de la Belle au Bois Dormant (Sleeping Beauty Castle) is not the largest but it easily packs the most rewarding of experiences, including two ways to tour it. There are two shops for trinkets to purchase and one sit down restaurant in its inner courtyard but not inside the castle itself.
Strengths: The design its unique, never to be duplicated. Based on the look of the movie it's drawn from, the hillside it sits on feels like France's incredible Mont Saint Michel. The interior of it is no less spectacular. A tour upstairs takes guests past hand made tapestries and stained glass windows designed using Old World artisan techniques. The viewing gallery into the courtyard provides an outlook unavailable in any other park. Perhaps the self-guided tour under the castle is the most incredible. A full sized fire breathing dragon is found in the caverns below at La Tanière du Dragon makes this a one of a kind attraction not found anywhere else. Bringing even more magic, the Disney Imagineers designed a secret entrance to the lair beyond the visible ones exterior signs point to. Where is it found? Look inside the Merlin l'Enchanteur shop for a hidden pathway from a nondescript door just inside.
Weaknesses: The castle is in France, and the competition with other real French castles means that many people will never see it!
There you have it! The Disney park castles ranked bottom to top. Each are incredible in their own way and worth a visit. How would you have ranked them?
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