Hello, and welcome back to Dateline Disney World! This week, we have a huge Magic Kingdom update for you, with lots of new photos of areas of the new Fantasyland expansion which have just been revealed this week! We also share lots of other news happening around the park, so let’s get started!!
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Welcome to the Magic Kingdom!!
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Starting over at the new restroom area, there is tons of progress!
A chimney is visible now.
The view from Columbia Harbor House is quite revealing.
We obviously can’t judge this until it is finished, but it looks nice now, and I for one, am excited to see it completed.
Over at the Castle Wall, it is getting more and more clear that we are only a short time away from New Fantasyland opening.
New lighting was installed this week.
This opening is now available to guests at all times.
While standing under this arch, I took these two shots. One is facing old Fantasyland, the other facing the new section.
Pretty cool how the difference happens right there, like the wall acts as a portal to the new world.
Over at the Beauty and the Beast area, things are really close to being completely done, and I got a chance to see almost the whole land this week since almost all the walls are down in there.
Here’s the new signage for Enchanted Tales with Belle.
Also at Belle, the water wheel outside the cottage is now running.
Moving on to the Be Our Guest restaurant, the main drag was revealed this week. In a word, it is stunning.
The forced perspective of the castle works wonderfully from this angle.
The gargoyles hold up the lamp posts.
And the entrance area is amazing.
All the waterfalls on the Be Our Guest restaurant are now running as well.
Signage.
Garbage cans.
Walkway on the bridge to the restaurant.
The is the sign that will hold the menu.
I cannot say how beautiful this looks now that we can actually see all of it. Between the rock work, the waterfalls, the remarkable details, it all just really comes together, and has a serious wow factor to it. It was hard to stand near the waterfall area and convince myself that I was still in the Magic Kingdom. It just puts other parts of the park to shame, and makes them look weak by comparison. Big thumbs up, and I really hope the restaurant is up to the standard the exterior has set.
Moving on to the village, you can now see Bonjour! Village Gifts head on.
It looks very nice. The popcorn cart in the area is called “Maurice’s Amazing Popping Machine”, which is very clever.
This is the walkway from Be Our Guest to the village. The detail is remarkable!
I bet the photos from that bridge with the waterfalls and everything will be awesome to take.
Here is Gaston’s.
If you look closely, you can see the waterfalls from Under the Sea working in this photo.
Lastly, here is a wide shot of the Be Our Guest entrance leading towards Bonjour!
Moving on to the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, things keep growing!
More spiky things.
At Under the Sea, there was some more painting going on, which will eventually be covered by grass.
The signage for Ariel’s Grotto is also out.
Heading into Storybook Circus, the area is really starting to flesh out with all the foliage, and is starting to look like a park, which is fantastic.
Some Big Top shots.
Pete’s Silly Sideshow also opened up last week.
The outside is wonderful looking.
They put this umbrella up to shade the Cast Members, but it kind of doesn’t fit with the theme, and more likely was just backstage when they realized the CMs were baking in the Florida sun and used it.
Pete’s for me is the first (and only) thing in Storybook Circus that let me down. I expected a larger scale thing going on in that tent, but it was just pretty small, and featured characters you can see anywhere. I’ve likened it to the Epcot Character Spot but with circus attire. They have posters for obscure characters, why not just use them?
Also in Storybook, they added this thing to the end of the track that leads to the Casey Jr. area.
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Lots of walls up in the park this week, like at Monsters Inc.
Also in front of the Flying Carpets attraction.
The Crow’s Nest gift shop has been behind walls for a long time, anyone know why?
This happened a while ago, but I never reported on it. These “idiot-proof” rails were installed on the bridge to Tomorrowland.
I don’t know exactly what an extra 6 inches of railing will do to save a child who is climbing on it anyways, but they have to comply by the law, so oh well.
Well, that wraps things up for this week’s Dateline. Are you guys as blown away as I am by the level of detail in the New Fantasyland? Or are you upset that the offerings don’t include more attractions? Let us know in the comments!!
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October 13, 2012 at 10:44 am
The figures holding the up the light posts are not actually gargoyles. They are called grotesques, gargoyles are used to divert water. But whatever you call them, they are awesome!
October 13, 2012 at 10:59 am
I had a question in regards of Pete’s Silly Sideshow. It said: “Pete’s for me is the first (and only) thing in Storybook Circus that let me down. I expected a larger scale thing going on in that tent, but it was just pretty small, and featured characters you can see anywhere. I’ve likened it to the Epcot Character Spot but with circus attire. They have posters for obscure characters, why not just use them?”
It would be wonderful to use those obscure characters, but what of the regular characters? If they removed Donald, Goofy, Minnie and Daisy from this section, where would you go to see them?
October 13, 2012 at 12:05 pm
It looks good, if not better. Granted they should have built a BatB dark ride, but I think it would have been an underpar version, like the Little Mermaid Platinum DVD ride-through, so well’ll just wait and see if they notice a problem in front of them and maybe by then, they’ll think of building a BatB dark ride, (but probably after the Sea World Orlando opens their Antarctica trackless attraction.) I think a permanent meet’n'greet indoors is nice from outside the Floridan weather, no?
Timekeeper
October 13, 2012 at 9:53 pm
the tland railings are an attempted to keep people from standing on top during the fireworks. Several guests have fallen in the past…
October 15, 2012 at 10:52 am
I was there on Saturday and they opened the whole land up to us. It is visually stunning overall. Enchanted Tales with Belle has some great animatronics and effects, plus wonderful detail, but is totally for kids and primarily girls. Be Our Guest is stunning but feels kind of small. Gaston’s Tavern is pretty small and not as well themed at the counter as the Three Broomsticks at Universal. The food seemed to be well received. The gift shop is well themed and at least carries some specialty items (and has a nice picture of the VP of parks and resorts on the wall). The themeing on the popcorn cart is also very nice. Mermaid cue is absolutely stunning and has some clever interaction, but the ride is a total letdown. I was so hoping, since they were building the ride from scratch, with basically unlimited space, they would fill in the glaring holes in the California version… they didn’t.
My party’s assessment is, until the coaster opens, everyone will go check it out and then the land will be relegated to families with kids and the adult crowd will probably avoid it except for dining. The coaster will breathe some life into it, but it’s not going to compete with Potter in the long run.
If Disney’s smart, they will keep building back and use this extension as a gateway to a villians extension, so everyone passes through it to get to the villian areas.
October 15, 2012 at 9:06 pm
[...] to go inside the restaurant. The picture above, though, was shot by daylight by Cory Disbrow for his Dateline Disney World update on Mice Age last friday, where you will find plenty of others great [...]
October 16, 2012 at 12:08 am
All these comparisons to Potter at IOA are comparing apples to oranges… I just got back today from WDW and got a chance to see the new Fantasyland in person… it is an amazingly themed addition that was long overdue for Magic Kingdom… but they were not going for a Potter killer with this land… they were simply finally making some improvements to a park that sorely needed it. Potter was a whole new land for IOA, this is just an improvement to an existing land and simply addition of a few more rides, restaurants and attractions. I don’t know how many of you have actually experienced both Potter and the new Fantasyland in person, but I have just done both this week, and there should not be a comparison between the two… they are just two different things created for different reasons. And the LeFrou brew is not a reaction to Butterbeer… its basically the same thing already served in CarsLand with the Apple Freeze (and it was good as was the pork shank).