Despite the insane princess craze that's ensued over the past several years, I can't completely hate on the princesses. Like many of us do, sometimes I get sick of seeing them. And sometimes I get tired of the focus put on them. BUT! I think a lot of people are forgetting the fact that the princess section of Fantasyland is NOT the only addition. I feel like that's where a lot of the negativity is coming from.
Because the circus side of things had an earlier opening and not as much focus put on it, it feels like this has made people kind of forget about it. Especially if you're someone without children. You may not take the time to walk through and check it out. To look at the fantastic theming that's been put in or the smaller attractions that have been added. My point in this being, the entire Fantasyland expansion IS NOT completely princesscentric. Yes. A lot of focus is over on that side of things, the two bigger attractions are princess themed and those are they ones that required more time and thus, being exposed as the final part of the "New Fantasyland" through soft openings along with passholder, and CM previews.
My passholder preview is set for next weekend, but last weekend I ended up caving and spending the day at the Magic Kingdom. When we got there on Saturday afternoon, we strolled to the back to see if anything was up and running. We were met by a gaggle of cast members informing guests that there was a special preview going on that day for Imagineers and their families. We shrugged it off and went on our way, enjoying the rest of the park for a bit. I mostly wanted to go check out the newest edition to Pirates of the Caribbean.
I'll hop off topic briefly to tell you that I absolutely love the little addition they threw in. It's enough to not take away from the original ride, not distracting from the nostalgia. The mermaids are projections in the water, just swimming along in and out. It's very brief. They also added a mermaid skeleton in on the beach. Kind of morbid, but kind of awesome. The only other thing to change is the soft singing of the song from the movie. It is, in my opinion, a very eerie and beautiful touch.
As I mentioned before, we walked through the new area where Mickey's Toon Town Fair had been. I've been down this way a couple of times and I've shared how lovely I think the new dual Dumbo spinners are. The retheming for the Great Goofini is adorable in my humble opinion. The new set up for the meet and greet seems very well done too. Lots of shaded areas to escape under. The Casey Jr. Splash zone is there for kids to play and cool off in. I really do think it's very nicely done.
We were headed over to the Haunted Mansion when we couldn't help but notice a small line along the construction walls hiding the work being done on the mine coaster. We checked with a cast member and sure enough a few minutes later, we found ourselves headed inside. We headed into the Be Our Guest restaurant first. I'm honestly a lot more excited about the lunch menu than the dinner. It looks nice, but the choices seem very limited.
As a fan of the movie, I adored it. I'm a huge geek for Disney's rock work and they didn't disappoint. Next to the building, below Prince Adam's castle, is a tumbling waterfall built on a "mountainside". There's a walkway leading up to the restaurant and you're greeted by a very lovely and well carved entrance. The theming is absolutely beautiful. The stained glass set up is gorgeous, everything I saw just took my breath away. It really is like walking into the movie. You half expect Mrs. Potts to come hopping up next to you and start singing Tale as Old as Time.Next was Gaston's tavern. More great theming. They weren't kidding when they commented about antlers everywhere. The portrait of Gaston hanging over the mantle is another little scene that sticks you straight in the movie, especially when you glance over and see Gaston's chair sitting nearby. We didn't sample the food there, but the cinnamon buns smell delicious. I did try out LeFou's Brew. Now, i'll admit how skeptical I was when Disney announced this little concoction of theirs. It was, and I still think is, Disney's answer to Butterbeer. Is it going to sell as well as Universal's frozen treat is? Probably not. But I tell you what....it was damn tasty. I'll definitely be returning back with another glass. Quite possibly with a bottle of apple schnapps or some sort of vodka. It'll be fun to experiment with. The gift shop was similarly themed, A lot of general beauty and the beast merch. Some of it was really quite pretty, especially some of the nicer cups and glasses that they had there.
The animatronics are beautiful on this ride. There's a few cute little tricks they do with projection and lighting that are really cool. The first is that as you're riding back in your shell, you can look down and it looks like waves washing up on the shore. The further back you go, the higher up the water rises on the back of the shell in front of you, until you are completely underwater. The rest is a recreation of the movie, little scenes and songs.
We did stop by later to meet Ariel in her grotto, which is really just the same thing that had been put in after the closing of 20k. Speaking of 20k (what was once my favorite ride in the park!) Disney...for some reason...held onto vials of water from the original ride. A few days before my visit, they emptied those vials into the water outside of Ariel's new ride. I thought this was kind of neat. Uniting the past with the present and what not. Anyways, it was a cute little meet and greet. I'll tell you a secret, I kind of actually like the meet and greets when you're dealing with a face character that can play their part well. It's a silly experience, but they can definitely make it fun. When we met Ariel, it was our second go through the expansion and it was about five minutes until midnight. I think she was one tired little tuna.
We also paid a visit to Belle in Maurice's cottage. Kris was not particularly thrilled about waiting fourty five minutes to see Belle. Fortunately, I have an amazing boyfriend who, for whatever reason, puts up with my insane love of the mouse. Yet again, beautiful themes, beautiful attention to detail. This is actually a really neat attraction. Again, I wasn't sure about this one. I had seen the video though and it really did look worth checking out. This was originally a tiny little show performed on the side of the castle a few times a day. Belle would show up and use the kids in the audience with a few basic props to tell the story of how she and the Beast fell in love. This is the same basic concept, but on a much bigger level. You start in Maurice's cottage and are trasported via a very bad ass Magic Mirror to Beast's castle. There you are greeted by Madame Wardrobe and a cast member who tell you that you're going to surprise Belle by acting out a story. Little kids are taken from the Audience and they're all briefed on which part they will play. Then you head into the library where Lumiere helps you surprise Belle and they all act out the story together. I really don't think I can tell you enough about the AA's in this ride. You really do have to check them out for yourselves.
I'm sure there's a lot left to see. And yes, it's a lot of cheese. But you also have to remember that fantasyland has always been geared towards the little ones. It just so happens that a lot of us are kids at heart and still enjoy the rides and attractions there!
I will tell you one thing though. Even if I DO enjoy the occasional meet and greet with a character and even if I don't mind the idea of progress....I still think it's BS that they pulled out Snow for this Princess Fanfaire whatever the hell it's going to be. And there's my little piece of negative feedback!
