I'm going to split our tour of Disneyland Paris' Fantasyland into two posts today, so that we can devote an entire post to the park's Le Chateau de la Belle au Bois Dormant.
Disneyland Paris' Sleeping Beauty's Castle includes two attractions - a second-floor walk-through retelling of the Sleeping Beauty story, in stained-glass windows and tapestries, as well as an animatronic dragon in the dungeon below.
Let's start upstairs.
The concept of this display should be familiar to anyone who's toured the original Sleeping Beauty's Castle at Disneyland in Anaheim. But where that display employs small dioramas in California's pint-sized castle, Paris' larger castle uses large stained-glass windows and floor-to-ceiling tapestries to tell Princess Aurora's tale.
The fairies present their gifts.
But someone wasn't invited to the party,
And she's not happy.
Faced with Maleficent's curse on his daughter Aurora, the king orders all the land's spinning wheels burned.
A spinning wheel burns in the fireplace, as the storybook tells of Aurora's move to the forest.
Take a look around - you'll find detail everywhere inside the castle.
Don't touch that spindle!
The fairies cast a sleeping spell over the kingdom.
Aurora awaits her hero,
Who battles Maleficent,
And awakens Aurora with a kiss,
So they lived happily ever after.
You can step out on the rear balcony and get a rare, up-close, second-floor view of a Disney castle. I liked being able to see some of the detail up close, but the castle walls looked a little plain so close, and the forced perspective is lost from up here.
Take a narrow spiral staircase back down, and you'll find plenty of spacious corridors surrounding this castle.
But don't forget to turn the corner and look for the dungeons.
That's where you'll find Merlin's dragon...
Who stirs from his slumber every few minutes. Take a look:
Later today: Alice's Curious Labyrinth and the rest of Disneyland Paris' Fantasyland
Previously: Main Street USA, Frontierland, and Adventureland
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Beautiful art work; nice animatronic. This must be the best castle of them all.
Been waitin for this post Robert, and it did not disappoint. Thanks for sharing.
I liked this column, but dang, Robert, you gave away the ending without even a spoiler alert! ;-)
That dragon is great, although I'm not sure why Merlin's dragon is in Sleeping Beauty's dungeon. I love how his fing - uh, his claws move.
The dragon underneath the castle is amazing and very scary for the young ones, my two year old couldn't wait to get out of there!
It's the little touches like this that make DLP such a great place.
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Wow! It looks beautiful. That dragon looks amazing! Thank you so much Robert for posting in such detail your trip. I've always dreamed of going to DLP. Since it doesn't seem like I will go anytime soon, it is wonderful to read and see all about it.