I stopped by Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom today, hoping to catch a glimpse of the new Fantasyland improvements. I wasn’t disappointed!
(Note that due to technical difficulties, some of the pictures below may be resized incorrectly. Until this is fixed, you can see an undistorted view of any image by clicking on it. Sorry for the hassle!)
The entrance to Enchanted Tales with Belle. 35 minute wait around noon.
Courtyard area in front of the new Gaston’s Tavern quick service eating location. I love the architecture and attention to detail back here!
Gaston himself, signing autographs!
Close-up of the entrance. “I use antlers in all of my decorating…”
Menu highlights posted outside…
Here’s the full menu for Gaston’s Tavern.
LeFou’s Brew. Anyone else think this looks EXACTLY like Red’s Apple Freeze at DCA? Sorry to say, this isn’t quite as good as the DCA version. Although the basic taste and texture is quite similar (including the foam!), Red’s Apple Freeze is carbonated, giving it a little extra kick!
Not to digress to much, but here’s a picture of Red’s Apple Freeze from DCA. A better beverage, in my opinion. Both of these seem to be something of an imitation of the Butterbeer concoction at Universal, but I prefer Disney’s take on this.
The building housing the new Little Mermaid ride. Very nice detail here!
Here’s the standby entrance for the Little Mermaid attraction. 20 minutes doesn’t seem too bad for as crowded as this area was.
Yes, the ride does offer FastPass. Unlike the recent Dumbo and Barnstormer FastPass additions, these machines ARE connected to the rest of the FastPass network. So when the ticket says another FastPass will be available after the time shown, they really do mean it. You can ignore this blurb on the Dumbo and Barnstormer FastPasses, at least right now. Meaning, you can get FastPasses for Dumbo, Barnstormer, AND another attraction all within minutes of each other, or as quickly as you can walk between the FastPass machines.
The Little Mermaid FastPass machines are located back over at the entrance to PhilharMagic, alongside the Winnie the Pooh FastPass machines.
The walkway leading up to the new Be Our Guest restaurant.
Nice architectural detail here too!
Be Our Guest Restaurant menu, page 1. (Sorry about the glare!)
Menu page 2.
Looking back toward Fantasyland from the entrance to the Be Our Guest restaurant.
Beauty and the Beast stained glass, just inside the restaurant entrance in the left alcove.
To the right, a hallway containing menus, I think. This area wasn’t open to the public today, as they weren’t serving food today.
The seating area for the new Be Our Guest restaurant. This is a really beautiful area, full of rich detail. I’m looking forward to eating here!
All in all, I had a nice tour of this new area today. It’s very nicely themed, and the extra space in Fantasyland is a huge improvement.
Note that by the time we returned to use our FastPasses for the Little Mermaid attraction, they had closed the ride, so I’ll have to save that for later. I guess it goes to show that if you do happen across this area and find the ride running, it may be best to simply hop in line, rather than bothering with the FastPass. The attraction has such a HUGE guest capacity that the line should move quickly, and you never know how long they’ll keep things open during this “dress rehearsal” period.
I’m looking forward to these attractions officially opening in early December, but until then, these soft openings are a great way to see this new area!
