Battle of the Castles: Ranking All The Disney Park Castles

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. 

#5,  Shanghai Disneyland

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.

#2, Magic Kingdom

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. 

#1, Disneyland Paris

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?

Favorite TV Couples

It seems only appropriate to take a look at some of our favorite television couples on Valentine's Day! Let's start with one that's been debated ever since the end of the series: Monica and Richard on Friends. This was the real love affair that should have lasted. Tom Selleck's character brought charm and confidence, and he was the perfect foil to Monica's anxiety and her overbearing need to control every circumstance. Chandler and Monica? Well, they was almost as bad an idea as Joey and Rachel.

He didn't' deserve her.

Fast forward a few years. Castle's greatest strength was always in its relationship between witty playboy novelist Richard Castle and the beautiful, smart detective Kate Beckett. The drama was good, the backstory compelling, the supporting cast first class, but the tension between Kate and Castle commanded center stage. Nathan Fillion and Stana Katic brought depth to what could have been stereotypical characters. It's too bad that their bad blood in real life ruined a great television show!

He didn't honor her.

Who didn't love Lucy? Desi Arnaz certainly did on the show- but in real life his "romantic connections" beyond his marriage eventually doomed it to failure. When will we learn it never pays to break our marriage vows? Lucille Ball remained a beloved icon all of her days for good reason. She was funny, smart, talented, and a great business woman. A woman ahead of her time.

Bringing out each other's best.

The Crawleys of Downton Abbey are high on the television couples list. Matthew's strength and kindness - with a determination to do what is right- played magnificently against Mary's often shrewd, cold, seemingly heartless pragmatism. Like true love always does in a marriage, the best traits are brought out in each partner as they walk down their road together. However long or short it may be.

He worked hard to get her.

Wade and Zoe. Season One of The Hart of Dixie certainly makes you think it will be "Golden Boy George Tucker" who will win her affections. My wife and I really enjoy this take on Doc Hollywood as we love the South with all its peculiarities. Some of the supporting characters are our favorites on the show, but I was always rooting for dark horse Wade Kinsella to win Zoe's heart.

It took him awhile to see who she was, but he got there.

I'm still pissed that NBC cancelled this show. (Yes, I meant to say that!) Timeless was one of the best series to hit the airwaves in years. Lucy and Wyatt. You knew it was going to happen, Ma'am. You really did. It's too bad a pending cancellation caused the writers and producers to rush the story line. And it robbed viewers of what should have been years of great historically based time adventure stories. Sometimes television's modern business demands for instant profitability are worse than those from Rittenhouse. 

He grew up, too.

Marlo Thomas did have a career before playing Rachel's mother on Friends. She and Ted Bessell, played Donald and Ann Marie to 50's/60's relational sensibilities (wise man, childlike woman) but there was a sweet relationship there where each brought more to the relationship than what was seen at first glance. No worries, friends, television would attempt to correct this problem, eventually swinging the pendulum to the other end of the extreme. Men became buffoons and women the wise keeper of sanity and the family unit. One day, they will get it right and present a balanced realistic view of what each partner contributes.

My favorite TV couple? The one who sits on our couch watching these shows! None of these women remotely compare to my beautiful and wise wife! My Valentine's Day blind date years ago. Happy Valentine's Day to my one true love...

Castle Redux

Hardened cop with a painful past meets charismatic creative, and they partner to fight crime in the big city. Sound familiar? It should. The writers of Castle have concocted a new show, Take Two. This time, roles are reversed. The cop is a man, the sidekick is an actress. Eddie Cibrian and Rachel Bilson star in place of Nathan Fillion and Stana Katic. Will lightning strike twice? After watching three episodes, it's hard to tell. 

Maybe in Another Era- It's Over for Timeless

The time has passed. Unless there's another miracle renewal, fan favorite- and in this household too- Timeless has been cancelled. With so many awful to mediocre series being renewed, I shouldn't be surprised that such an elegant and intelligent show would be cancelled on network television.

Thank you to the incredible cast and crew and writers. Special call out to two villains- the wonderful Goran Višnjić, playing one of the most complex and sympathetic bad guys ever; and the deliciously evil Emma, played by Annie Wersching. (She had us mesmerized as Dr. Kelly Nieman on Castle as well.)

Not to say the Good Guys weren't great! This season showed the depth of each character due to some fine acting all around. 

Favorite "fun" episode- Probably "Party at Castle Varlar"...

... or maybe "The Lost Generation", but they are all so, so good! 

Both Season One and Season Two finales left us with a "I can't believe that happened" jaw-dropped mouth. Great writing, great acting, great stories. 

Thanks again, everyone. Well done.

#RenewTimeless

After last night's epic Season Two finale, is there anything left to do than to renew Timeless? It's smart, focused, and full of great performances. Particularly last night, Abigail Spencer's striking portrayal of the ever-changing leader, Lucy and the feud with baddie Emma, expertly played by Annie Wersching. (Man, she was deliciously evil on Castle as well!) . C'mon NBC! Get to it and renew this show!

Castle's Stana Katic No Longer Absentia

Are you looking for something new and fresh to brighten up your television viewing? The very talented actress Stana Katic debuts in a brand new series, Absentia. With an intriguing plot line and a more than able supporting cast, this may be just the thing to mix it up. I won't tell you more, but I will say, you won't be disappointed.

Timeless Shows Potential

What on earth could Abraham Lincoln, Frank Sinatra, and James Bond have in common? The answer: Seeds for a potentially captivating television series.

After the disappointment of what happened to Castle- an end of a series less than idyllic- I was skeptical we would find a television show of much interest, something with substance, humor, heart, and style. Then along came Timeless. 

Missing the first half of the premier episode was not a good way to begin judging a show for long term viewing. As my wife turned the channel to it, I was captured by the late 30's focused episode about the Hindenburg. Granted, the music of the era is truly timeless and the fashions beyond cool (the fedora is still being worn today), but I was still not 100% sold. 

Abigail Spencer's Lucy Preston is a likable if nervous history professor turned spy. She balances a fine line between compelling and not yet being the focus of the show. On the other end of the spectrum, Wyatt, played by Matt Lanter, started off written as fairly one dimensional. The most interesting of the trio so far is Rufus, Malcolm Barrett's hero caught in the middle of some spy on spy melodrama. 

I was satisfied enough to give the show a second viewing... and a third, and a fourth. The series continues to get more interesting as the characters grow richer, deeper, more complex. The artistic direction is beautifully done, and the tales increasingly of interest- even if history is altered a la Forrest Gump. 

Overall, it's not Beckett and Castle, but it is what it is. Who knows? It could end up being a favorite of mine. With likable characters, stylish representation, growing humor, and limitless ideas to draw from, the series could last awhile. The possibility of it becoming this fan's favorite new show increases each week. Unlike so many others, I'm happily willing to give this one a chance. 

Castle Once More

Just watched the last show, the very last episode, of Castle once more. What a great team Stana Katic and Nathan Fillion were...

The Right Decision: Goodbye Castle

Often, the right decisions are the hardest ones. Certainly applies in this case as television's Castle has not been renewed for Season Nine. It's a good thing as the chemistry between lead actors Nathan Fillion and Stana Katic made the show work. 

Cast and crew of Castle.

That's not a jab to downplay the wonderful ensemble cast at all- but the ongoing Castle / Beckett romantic tension gave the series a spark that did not go out even once the two finally married. 

Stana's goodbye note via Instagram.

ABC Television under the leadership of the Walt Disney Company could have done what they have done to other Disney divisions under the leadership of Robert Iger: Let the series continue without Stana so they could go on stuffing their pockets with more cash. (Just look at the state of the U.S. Disney parks in Florida.) However, for once, common sense and perhaps the respect of the art won out. Castle would not continue without Stana. Or perhaps Disney had no choice...

Can the suits make the same decision for The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror and not convert it into a Guardians of the Galaxy attraction? Probably not.

Castle Without Stana

So... ABC plans to kill off Captain / Detective Kate Beckett during the season finale of 2016's epic series Castle. All due to budget cuts? Really! Haven't they made ABC or Robert Iger and board enough money already?

No, I'm not happy. It's the chemistry between the two that makes it work. Nathan Fillion and Stana Katic are the reason it's all so fun and engaging. Will I watch Castle post Stana? Maybe. Will Nathan do the smart thing and leave the show as well? I hope so.

Castle Jumping the Shark?

Perhaps it happens to all television shows. Is it inevitable? I'm not sure. Could Castle be the exception?

Let me say this upfront: I love this television show. Like most of the ones we watch, we did not come to follow it from its inception. We were stuck at home on a wintery day, and we wanted something fresh to watch. We have loved Friends, Criminal Minds, and Downton Abbey, but frankly, we were a bit bored. 

Gotta love the 40s!

I stumbled upon Castle. Of course, I knew of it, but we had never really watched the show. Not that I can remember the episode, but I can say we were taken by Nathan Fillion's charm as Rick Castle and the sharp and savvy take on Detective Kate Beckett played by Stana Katic. So we decided to check out the series from the beginning- thank you, Netflix. Instant win from episode one.

Of course, we have our favorite episodes! We love the suspense of the continued storylines of serial killers (3XK- could there have been a better ending!?! No. Absolutely perfect!) and crooked senators. The humorous stories are great fun! I love the retro episodes, Blue Butterfly and Once Upon A Time in the West, among many others. 

Season Eight, however, is leaving us wanting more. Why they have split makes sense from a network ratings standpoint, but it does not make sense from the storyline itself. Episodes One, Two and Three left me cold. I'll say I don't trust one new recurring character and don't like the other. But here's hoping the series redeems itself...and brings Kate and Rick back together were they belong.

No Surprises for Disneyland's 60th

A new castle with diamond stud strings and a fresh paint job.

From a different angle.

 Brand new fireworks show.

Paint the Night parade from Hong Kong Disneyland.

California Adventure's Carthay Circle even gets in on the act. (OK, that was new to me.)

When you add this to the dark ride enhancements coming to Fantasyland, and a few nostalgia fueled items, what do you get? Not much, but the park's will look nice. Tonight's Disneyland 60th announcement is no big deal...we've heard it all- for now. I'm sure during the season, more announcements will be made, but for now, nothing spectacular.

(Art copyright The Walt Disney Company.)

New Shanghai Disneyland Concept Art

Look at this beautiful new piece of concept art for the castle at Shanghai Disneyland! The combination of water elements and gardens will make for quite the show. Let's just hope the planned attractions contained within are just as special.

(Art copyright The Walt Disney Company.)

State of the Walt Disney Company

What is the current state of the Walt Disney Company? What lies ahead for Disneyland and Walt Disney World? Will California Adventure's $1 billion Pixar focused remake bring in the guests? How do things look in the television and movie portion of the kingdom? Are there blue or dark skies ahead? Come back tomorrow for one man's opinion.