I am deviating from our personal travels for a little while to indulge another of my passions – Disney theme parks – as opposed to the movie franchises. This series of posts is inspired by my post comparing Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom to Disneyland Park at the Disneyland Paris Resort.
If you know me well, you will know that my brain likes to draw comparisons between similar things. This doesn’t mean I always think one thing is better than another, simply that I like to note similarities and differences. As I’ve had a passion for Disney for a long time, I’ve often searched for information comparing the different Disney parks. As the internet has increased, the information is more prevalent, but there still aren’t many places that show all 5 (soon to be six) parks in one place. So this is my attempt. I’ve tried to use pictures that were in the public arena and not copyrighted. However, if you see one that I missed that belongs to you, please let me know and I will remove it.
So on with the show….
There are currently five Disney resorts around the world with number six under construction in Shanghai China. Four of the resorts (Disneyland Resort, Walt Disney World, Disneyland Paris Resort, and Tokyo Disneyland Resort) host more than one park. This series of entries is only going to focus on the “Magic Kingdom” park at each resort (though the only park to officially carry that name is the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World in Florida).
This will need to be several posts, rather than one single go – since there are so many rides and different pieces of the Magic Kingdom. Hopefully there is someone out there who will also find this information interesting and/or useful. If not, it has still been fun to compile this for myself. So here we go….
The first thing you ever see at any park is an entrance. Looking at the entrance below you can see some very similar and very different approaches at the various Disney Kingdoms around the world.
The biggest difference is in Paris. Disneyland Paris (originally EuroDisney) was the first Disney park to attempt using their hotel as the entrance to the park (Disney’s Grand Californian has an interior entrance into Disney’s California Adventure). The hotel gives a very different look to the entrance in Paris as compared to California, Florida, and Hong Kong. There is a train station behind the hotel, but I chose the hotel picture as the entrance because I defined “entrance” to mean where you can see the giant flower Mickey face.
Disneyland Paris train station behind the Disneyland Hotel.
Tokyo Disneyland entrance...where's the castle?
Tokyo has its own peculiar quirk – a covered Main Street – actually known as the “World Bazaar”. It is covered due to the amount of rain that Tokyo experiences. I’m not sure whether I’m going to do a post on “Main Street” itself, but the Tokyo World Bazaar definitely changes the face of Main Street and therefore the entrance of the park. As a matter of fact, even though Cinderella Castle is giant, it is hard to see over the glass arcade of the Bazaar.
Of course it seems that the train station in Florida also obscures it’s own Cinderella Castle, but not to the same extent from distant views (not shown). The train station at the Magic Kingdom in Florida is also the only one of its kind – symmetrical and much more imposing than its counterparts in either California or Hong Kong. Where the look of Tokyo Disneyland was modeled very closely upon the park in Florida (except for the entrance/Main Street), Hong Kong Disneyland was much more influenced by the original in California. This is evidenced in the exact copy of the train station and the castle (the only “new” castle to be smaller than previous castles).
Speaking of castles….
The Disney Castles are interesting things. Three of them are named Sleeping Beauty Castle (Disneyland, Disneyland Paris, and Hong Kong Disneyland) while two are named Cinderella Castle (The Magic Kingdom and Tokyo Disneyland). The original castle in California was small out of necessity – they didn’t have enough money to make it any bigger. On the flip side, when Walt Disney World was built in Florida, the castle’s size was only limited by the airplane flyover limit (the castle is just shy of needing a blinking light on top). So it seemed natural when Tokyo Disneyland used the Cinderella Castle in Florida as its model – bigger = better, right? The most notable difference between Tokyo and Florida is the color scheme and the turrets (which are visible from wider shots). What is unclear is why, with all the princesses out there in need of a castle, why Disney decided to repeat the name.
Cinderella Castle in Tokyo with turrets.
They kept with that tradition in Paris by naming the new castle Sleeping Beauty – to even out the score. It was an interesting mix of the previous three castles. The color scheme and look resemble its namesake in California, but its size is more akin to its Cinderella cousins. The Paris version also has another new addition – the Dragon’s Lair – located underneath the castle. It is also built up to look like it is on a rocky outcrop with grassy knolls and sculpted trees.
Sleeping Beauty Castle in Paris on its rocky outcrop.
When it came to build park number five in Hong Kong, the scale was pulled back to the original California park – partly due to the size of the property.
Sleeping Beauty Castle in Hong Kong, nestled among the mountains.
Having not been, I don’t know how it feels, but it certainly looks more intimate than Florida (and Tokyo – knowing that Tokyo is actually bigger than the Magic Kingdom in Florida). It is also interesting to see a Disney castle nestled among mountains. The background is definitely stunning.
So now Sleeping Beauty Castle is back in the lead (for the first time since 1971). Up next is park number six – the new Shanghai Disneyland Resort being built in China. According to published reports, they not going intimate this go round. As a matter of fact, this will be the biggest castle yet – and it will be very different than all the rest. Instead of sitting behind the “hub” as the entrance to Fantasyland, this new castle – which so far has been referred to as Enchanted Storybook Castle – will sit on top of the hub as the actual physical center of the park. Guests will also be able to go into the castle for exhibits and shows, rather than just walk through it as with the rest of the castles. This is really the only major news they’ve given about the new park, except that there won’t be a Main Street as there are in the rest of the parks. But as there aren’t any pictures, this is really the only Shanghai references I plan to make.
Enchanted Storybook Castle in Shanghai
So we’ve entered the park and been drawn to the icon of all Disney Parks – the castle. Future posts will focus on attractions in the different themed lands – Frontierland, Adventureland, Fantasyland, Tomorrowland, and ToonTown….where the magic begins…
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