Disneyland: Fantasyland

 

No matter how many cool things we have already covered, Fantasyland feels like the essence of Disney. Perhaps it is because so many of the rides are tied so closely to the movies, and you can just kind of step into them.

You enter through a castle, and suddenly a carousel is in front of you, and you are flanked by four movie rides, which even though they all reflect and appropriate architectural style for their movie, still seem to belong together, and then more rides just keep popping up. It is a magical place.

Sleeping Beauty Castle: As well as creating the perfect entrance to Fantasyland, you can also walk through the castle and view scenes from the "Sleeping Beauty" movie. While the walk does involve going up and down stairs, there does appear to be a wheelchair accessible version.

King Arthur Carrousel: The spelling bugs me, but apparently carrousel is an accepted variant of carousel. Anyway, it is a merry-go-round filled with white horses. Although the name, and the anvil with the sword stuck in it at the front indicate it relates to "The Sword in the Stone", there are painted scenes from "Sleeping Beauty" inside, and the tune is "Once Upon A Dream". It works.

The next four rides are the movie ones that I mentioned. Honestly, the ones on the right are better, but they all have some sentimental value, and we ride each of them every time. I will go through them from left to right.

Pinocchio's Daring Journey: Ride around the puppet show, Pleasure Island, an ocean with Monstro the Whale, and end up in Geppetto's toy shop.

Snow White's Scary Adventures: Mine cars named after the dwarfs take you through the mine, their cottage, and the scary woods.

Peter Pan's Flight: This is one of my favorites, as the scenes, especially as you fly above London at night, then come in over Neverland, are so beautiful. You ride in flying pirate ships. This one tends to have longer lines, but it's worth it.

Mr. Toad's Wild Ride: Here you ride little cars named after characters from "The Wind in the Willows" through Toad Hall, the town and countryside, and even a brief trip through Hell!

Dumbo the Flying Elephant: One of the cutest Disney characters gives you one of the cutest rides, as you circle around in a flying elephant. You control the height with a lever. The lines stack up for this one too.

Casey Jr. Circus Train: This is a very small train, designed more for kids. Adults can ride, but usually only do if they are taking their children. It can be fun to ride in a monkey cage, but we prefer the full-size train. This one does allow you to get a different view of some of the Storybook Land scenes.

Storybook Land Canal Boats: In mentioning all of the boats of Frontierland, I forgot that you also have two boat rides here (not counting the flying pirate ships). For this one, you get in boats named after Disney heroines (we rode the Alice, decorated with a picture of the Cheshire Cat). Through Monstro's mouth you enter a a waterway with miniature cottages and castles on both sides, depicting scenes from various movies and cartoons. The guide is narrating, but instead of the corny jokes of the jungle cruise, there tends to be more interaction with the guests.

It's a Small World: I know there are people who find this ride annoying, and I'm not saying that the song won't get stuck in your head. When people have other songs stuck in their head, I know singing this one will push the other one out (not that they necessarily appreciate that). Still, I think the scenes are all really cute, the exterior decorations and topiary are interesting, and I am not so jaded that the message of unity and international understanding bothers me.

Mad Tea Party: And here's where you ride in the tea cups, to the strains of the Un-birthday song. You have three levels of spinning, with the main platform going round, three smaller wheels within that platform also revolving (and the cup transferring between them), and the turning of the cup itself, which you can exert some control over by turning the wheel inside. I mention this because if you have any tendency towards motion sickness, this might not be the ride for you. If that is not an issue, and you are wondering about using the wheel, I would say the amount of exertion required does not really pay off in increased velocity, so it makes more sense to lean back and enjoy the ride.

Alice in Wonderland: This is similar to the four anchoring rides at the entrance, in that you ride an appropriate craft (in this case, the caterpillar) through scenes from the movie. It is built on a larger scale though, and is perhaps a little more interesting, and the different time period of the movie is reflected in a different color scheme, where it's just a little more psychedelic. (The movie's art director, Mary Blair, was also the designer for It's a Small World.)

Matterhorn Bobsleds: This bobsled ride roller coaster may not fit in as obviously to the themes running through the rest of Fantasyland, but I am glad they have it. I guess it is kind of a fantastic thing to have the Abominable Snowman show up in the Alps instead of the Himalayas. Anyway, it does kind of go with a Disney movie; does anyone remember Third Man On The Mountain?

Village Haus Restaurant: This is our favorite place for hamburgers on both sides of the park. The interior is decorated with a Pinocchio theme and the food is really good.

This is really the main restaurant for Fantasyland. Otherwise, in addition to snack carts, there is Edelweiss Snacks across from the Matterhorn, where you can get turkey legs and cobs of corn, and
Troubador Tavern, which is in an area where we never really go.

As you head towards Toon Town, you pass It's a Small World on the right, and on the left there is a path to the Fantasyland Theatre. At one point there was a Snow White musical. At another, this was where you got all of your princess merchandise, but now it is the location for Mickey and the Magical Map. It sounds interesting, but we have never seen it.

Princess makeovers have now been moved over to the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique. Yes, they do sell other things there, but it seems to be mainly about the packages. Our love for Disney extends more towards the anthropomorphic animals than the princesses, so we aren't really into this, and we also did not try too hard to check out the Fantasy Faire. To be fair, it seemed like it was still under construction, and probably next time we will look around, but it has a definite target market that we are not a part of. If you want to meet the princesses, though, they do facilitate it.