Design Detail: Disneyland's Fantasy Faire

On my recent trip to the Disneyland Resort, you would think all I did was run from attraction to attraction. After all, I rode 26 of them in one long day- and 18 of them were "E Tickets". (How I did it is coming in a post in the next week or so- as well as the last of my trip reports from our recent Walt Disney World vacation.) 

But as usual with every single Disney park visit, I stopped to take in all the incredible little details that make Walt's original kingdom as sweetly charming as it is.

The concept art is equally charming.

Fantasy Faire is a relatively new piece of the park, an area next to the castle that was once the home of the Carnation Plaza Gardens. In spite of the objections of those two think Disneyland should never change, like the Disneyland Historical Preservation Society, Imagineering created a place that fits in wonderfully and creates a much needed space for another theater show and a princess meet and greet. Change is great as long as it is done well and retains the "spirit" of the park's origins.

But there's much more there than that. If you take time to look around, there's a wanted poster for Flynn Rider on the back wall. High above at rooftop level, there's more detail. Figaro the cat from Pinocchio playfully engages the bluebird in a cage. No, they're not static figures but simple Audio-Animatronics. It's touches like these that keep theme park geeks like me coming back for more. And there should be more details like this found in the park next door. Much more effective overall than hitting us over the head as with unneeded transitions like Pixar Pier. 

(Photograph copyright Mark Taft.)

Little Gems May Bring Some Magic

Now that the New Fantasyland has opened at Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom, following the opening of Buena Vista Street and Cars Land at Disney California Adventure, there's really nothing too big on the horizon for the US parks. But that doesn't mean there aren't "little gems" of enhancements taking place.

Starting with Walt Disney himself, this practice of "plussing" the parks has been a steady business over at Disneyland for most all its years, except for when a truly evil empire ruled the land in the late 20th Century. (Forget the backstory to the New Fantasyland! This era was when evil really ruled, destroying much of the magic.)

As you can tell from all this concept art, Imagineering is making some pretty drastic changes to where the Hub meets Fantasyland and  Main Street U.S.A. For better or for worse Carnation Plaza Gardens is giving way to a place made just for princesses and those who love them.

Charming is one of the adjectives most used to describe the Anaheim kingdom, and it is the little touches like these that add to the overall atmosphere. If you can get past the loss of a piece of Disneyland history, the proposed changes really are quite beautiful and fit in nicely with Sleeping Beauty Castle. Not that a little imagination couldn't have found other purposes for the space, but during the day, this section of prime real estate sits empty. Turning it into a glorified meet and greet may really assist in making a Frontierland expansion possible in the near future. And that would be truly magical.

(Art copyright The Walt Disney Company.)