TechyDad

When you walk into the new Fantasyland area of Walt Disney World, you are magically transported into the storybook land of Beauty and the Beast, The Little Mermaid, Dumbo, and (in 2014) Snow White.  As you enter, you pass by a humble cabin that belongs to an inventor named Maurice.  Some (I’m looking at you Gaston) call him "crazy old Maurice", but Belle calls him father.

The entry room contains many reminders of the humble family that lives here, including this nice touch: a painting of a young Belle reading a book with her mother.

Leaving the entry room you enter Maurice’s workshop.  Here are many of Maurice’s failed inventions, pressed into service for other uses or just saved in case he needs it in the future.

Your guide points out the one feature that seems completely out of place.  A golden mirror hanging on the wall.

The Beast gave Maurice this mirror so he could see Belle at any time.  Magically, the mirror stops showing reflections and instead rapidly travels through woods to the Beast’s castle.  As it focuses on the doors, it grows bigger and then the doors open.  At this time, you realize that the mirror has opened too.  You step through and are no longer in Maurice’s cabin.  You are now inside Beast’s castle and you meet up with the enchanted dresser.

The dresser is incredible.  It really looks like the Disney Imagineers pulled her right out of the Beauty and The Beast movie and stuck her in the attraction.  Her eyes are the most amazing feature.  My guess is that they are LCD screens because they can’t possible be classic animatronics.

Dresser (and a cast member) ask you to help put on a play to surprise Belle.  You will be recounting the time Belle and Beast fell in love.  Parts are chosen and props are handed out.  What impressed me here is that they have a large amount of props that can be given out.  Even a group with a large amount of children will find parts for everyone who wants to participate.

With this completed, you are moved into another room.  This one contains a mantle upon which rests Lumiere.  He prepares everyone, dims the lights, and calls in Belle.  And then in walks the Disney princess.

With everyone’s help, a play is put on, everyone marches around the room with Belle, and she poses for photos with the play’s "cast members."  As an extra special present, she hands out bookmarks to people who had roles in the play.

I’d recommend this attraction to anyone. Even if you don’t participate, the entire experience was a lot of fun.  I could see our kids having a blast.  NHL has already said the he’d want to be the Beast.  JSL loves putting on shows and would relish the audience (as well as getting to work with Lumiere and Belle).  This is definitely destined to be an instant Disney World classic attraction.

Of course, words (and photographs without the flash since flash photography isn’t permitted) only go so far.  Luckily, Attractions Magazine filmed an entire show and posted it on YouTube:

And that’s only the beginning of the magic that New Fantasyland has to offer.

Disclosure: I was invited to the New Fantasyland media event December 5th through 7th. Disney paid for my travel, our park tickets, room, and a few other items. I was able to take B along as my guest, but we paid for her own travel as well as an extra night in the resort. The opinions expressed above are my own.

From Wednesday to Saturday, I was in Disney World staying in the Art of Animation resort.  During that time, I got to see the newly opened New Fantasyland, the completely redesigned Test Track, and even preview the not-opened-yet Splitsville.  During downtime, B and I enjoyed all the sights, sounds, and tastes of Disney World that we could.  (Especially the Christmas decorations which, even though I’m Jewish, were amazingly beautiful.)

In some ways, it was fantastic.  We left the kids with B’s parents this trip so it was just the two of us.  Though I often thought of items in "what would the kids think of this" terms and missed seeing their excited reactions, we also loved seeing things in a grown-up light without worrying about having to look after two little ones at the same time.

In other ways, it was exhausting.  Disney World isn’t a "just relax" destination.  At least, not when we do it.  I suppose one could stay at the hotel and lounge around the pool for 4 days.  We didn’t even bring bathing suits.  Instead, we walked all around the Magic Kingdom, Hollywood Studios, and Epcot multiple times.  (We skipped Animal Kingdom this time.)  B didn’t have her pedometer so we don’t know how many steps we took.  According to my feet, though, it was a lot.  (Actually, I refuse to repeat the words they used to describe the amount of walking we did.)

There was a lot to take in.  I have 16 gigabytes of photos and videos to go through and a lot of thoughts to organize.  Expect many blog posts about everything we did.  For now though, (as I write this the night before it goes live) I’m going to head to bed to catch up on my sleep.

Before I go, though, here is a small taste of some of the magic we saw during our first day there:

Disclosure: I was invited to the New Fantasyland media event December 5th through 7th. Disney paid for my travel, our park tickets, room, and a few other items.  I was able to take B along as my guest, but we paid for her own travel as well as an extra night in the resort.  The opinions expressed above are my own.

When you come to Disney World, you’re in for an amazing time.  Disney doesn’t just create an experience, but it creates an amazing experience.  It’s the little touches that push it from very nice to magical.

For example, during some downtime before seeing New Fantasyland (don’t worry, I’ll get to that in future blog posts), we wandered around Art of Animation.  We entered the Cars area and saw these "Burma-shave" take off signs.

Of course, the stars of Cars were there.  I was most impressed with Fillmore, though.  Not only was he there, but he had a bunch of bumper stickers on him.  Including ones that referenced Pixar creations.

Heading back to our room, the carpet was littered with animal prints.  I thought nothing of it until B pointed out that they were Simba, Pumba, and Timon’s prints.  Yes, the trio apparently made the rounds all through the halls here.

So when you come to Disney World and look at all of the magical things around you, don’t forget to check out the small touches that bring the magic to a whole new level.

Disclosure: I was invited to the New Fantasyland media event December 5th through 7th. Disney paid for my travel, our park tickets, room, and a few other items. I was able to take B along as my guest, but we paid for her own travel as well as an extra night in the resort. The opinions expressed above are my own.