Is this Disney's most beautiful Fantasyland?
The heart of any Disney castle park must be its Fantasyland. After all, the castle that defines these parks is the entry to Fantasyland - the land themed to the feature animation films that made Walt Disney and his company famous.
Disney fans can find six Fantasylands around the world:
- The original at Disneyland in California
- Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom in Florida
- Tokyo Disneyland in Japan
- Disneyland Paris in France
- Hong Kong Disneyland
- Shanghai Disneyland in China
Having visited now all six, I found that last one - Shanghai Disneyland's Fantasyland - to be the most beautiful of all the Disney Fantasylands.
Several of the animated classic that Walt made were set in forests. Shanghai Disneyland's Fantasyland does the best job - by far - of making guests feel like they are walking through a forest when visiting this land.
Shanghai Disneyland's Fantasyland
That's extra impressive when one considers that this park is just 10 years old. Disney's communications team arranged for me and three other U.S. based reporters to tour the park yesterday with three Imagineers. So I had to ask about Fantasyland's impressive tree canopy.
"The first thing you do when building a theme park is plant the trees," one of the Imagineers told me. But you don't plant the trees on the construction site. That simply would not work, with all the earth movement and construction equipment. Instead, Disney planted its trees off site, at a tree farm, where they could grow for the five years that the park was under construction.
Once all the buildings and pathways were in place, then teams could move the trees over from the farm. A few additional, full-grown hero trees from other sites completed Imagineering's arboreal design for the park.
Shanghai's Fantasyland is fronted by Disney's largest castle, the 200-foot Enchanted Storybook Castle.
Me, at the side of Shanghai's Enchanted Storybook Castle
This was the first Disney castle to be designated as the home for multiple princesses. The original in Anaheim as well as the Paris and Hong Kong castles were Aurora's, while the Orlando and Tokyo castle's are Cinderella's.
In 2020, Hong Kong Disneyland transformed its Sleeping Beauty Castle into the Castle of Magical Dreams, expanding its copy of the original Disneyland castle with a backpiece that extended its height from 77 to 167 feet. That one now also is themed to 12 Disney princesses and the two Arendelle queens.
In Shanghai, the castle is home to two attractions, a Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique, and a restaurant, the character dining Royal Banquet Hall.
As for the attractions, the Once Upon a Time Adventure follows the same concept as the Sleeping Beauty walkthrough at Disneyland. This time, we are following the story of Snow White, told not through diorama but mixed media installations. Some Pepper's Ghost illusions enhanced the delivery, but the biggest difference may be the many, many more steps you will have to walk up and down to scale this 200-foot castle's interior.
Just behind the castle, Voyage to the Crystal Grotto starts like Disneyland's Storybook Land Canal Boats, but in Jungle Cruise-like boats.
Disney has upscaled the show pieces from what guests will find in Anaheim's land of miniatures. The water fountains that emerge in each scenes only amplify the sense that this is Storybook Land with a Vegas makeover.
Near the end of the journey, the boats sail into the Enchanted Storybook Castle. There, under the castle floor, we discover why this attraction has its name, as we enter the Crystal Grotto. The giant crystal that gives the grotto its name is the source of the castle's magic, Executive Creative Director Ali Rubinstein explained.
If you visit the castle, look up at the chandelier as you walk through on the ground level. Hanging from it, you will see a second crystal that receives and broadcasts the magic from the larger one in the grotto.
Crystal in the Enchanted Storybook Castle
A new age twist for a tale as old as time? Perhaps. But now we have WDI's explanation for what generates its Disney magic.
That, and trees. A lot of mature, shade-providing trees.
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