From Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs on, Disney’s greatest achievements have typically been based on fairy tales. Perhaps it’s that early success that has made castles such an identifying feature in Disney Parks. From 1955 on, castles have played a pretty big role not only as awe-inspiring park icons, but as attraction entrances, meet-and-greets, and more. We’ve collected 8 of the most compelling in a list below.
While this list is by no means exhaustive and doesn’t even begin to touch on the cancelled castle concepts out there, it’s a nice reminder of the magical places Disney can create and the palatial structures that are so common there. Some are huge, some are small, and some are so small you’d hardly believe it. But that’s the magic of Disney, right? Read through the list and tell us which fairytale castles you think are missing from the parks!
1. Sleeping Beauty Castle
© Disney
Location: Disneyland and Hong Kong Disneyland
Inside: Sleeping Beauty Castle Walkthrough
There is perhaps no park icon more simple and appropriate for Disneyland Park than Sleeping Beauty Castle, named after Walt’s 1959 animated film (which opened in theatres four years after its namesake castle). While forced perspective allows the pink and blue wonder to look a little taller than it really is, the structure is still pretty small, all things considered – only 77 feet. Still, the delicate castle is perfect for the cozy, compact parks it resides in, in California and Hong Kong.
2. Beast’s Castle
Image via disneyandmore.com. Click for source.
Location: Magic Kingdom
Inside: Be Our Guest Restaurant
Disney storytelling would have you believe that two massive attractions (Be Our Guest Restaurant and Enchanted Tales with Belle) take place inside the Beast’s Castle, perched high above New Fantasyland amid snow-covered mountain peaks. In fact, the castle is a clever visual trick. While it might appear that the daunting castle resides many miles away, the truth is far less impressive. Beast’s Castle uses forced perspective to appear far away and magnificently tall when in fact it’s only about thirty feet from gate to tower. The front door is about a foot tall. Don’t believe us? Check out this photo for spoilers!
3. Cinderella Castle
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Location: Magic Kingdom and Tokyo Disneyland
Inside: Cinderella’s Royal Table (Orlando) / Cinderella’s Fairy Tale Hall (Tokyo)
When Walt and his Imagineers began brainstorming for the Florida Project, they intended to take much of what worked at the original Disneyland Park and supersize it, given practically unlimited land and a much more cushy budget. Disneyland’s itty-bitty Sleeping Beauty Castle wouldn’t do here, so it was replaced with a Renaissance fortress that appears to be made of white brick with royal blue and gold turrets. Cinderella Castle is dizzyingly tall, at 189 feet!
4. Rapunzel’s Tower
Image by Matt Stroshane, © Disney.
Location: Magic Kingdom
Inside: You don’t want to know
Disney didn’t make much of a fuss when it opened a new Tangled-themed rest area at Magic Kingdom, apparently part of New Fantasyland even if it’s physically distant from the expansion area. The quaint corner is a nice break from the madness of Walt Disney World, providing restrooms, phone charging stations, and a pleasantly distracting just-for-fun game of locating Rapunzel’s pet chameleon Pascal as he blends into rocks, plants, and buildings around the plaza. Rapunzel’s tower rising above the plaza may not technically count as a castle, but we’ll let it slide.
5. Le Château de la Belle au Bois Dormant
Location: Disneyland Paris
Inside: La Tanière du Dragon
Every Disneyland-style park in the world has a castle at its center, but the designing of Disneyland Paris forced some re-thinking. While Americans marveled at Sleeping Beauty Castle and Cinderella Castle, there are real castles all over France and Europe, most of which are much more spectacular than Disney’s forced-perspective varieties!
Imagineers put their heads together and ultimately decided a castle would still work, but with a twist. Paris’ is by far Disney’s most fairy-tale-like, with sweeping turrets, spiral stairs, stained glass windows, and geometric shrubbery built into the side of a rocky hill. Lurking in the dark dungeons beneath in La Tanière du Dragon is one of Disney’s most intimidating animatronics… a sleeping fairytale dragon who is easily disturbed.
6. Atlantica
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Location: Tokyo DisneySea
Inside: Mermaid Lagoon
When Tokyo DisneySea opened in 2001, it shocked theme park fans with its details, stories, and incredible settings. It’s only fitting that the nautical park devotes an entire land to Disney’s The Little Mermaid, and in their expected style, the Japanese went all out. Mermaid Lagoon is contained almost entirely indoors and could be a theme park in its own right, but it can only be accessed by stepping into Triton’s undersea palace – embedded in the volcanic wall of Mount Prometheus – and descending down to an under water kingdom. At night, Triton’s castle glows with gold fiber optics as water reflects off its pastel surface.
7. Prince Eric’s Castle
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Location: Magic Kingdom
Inside: Under the Sea: Journey of the Little Mermaid
One of the most stunning additions to the Magic Kingdom’s New Fantasyland wasn’t a ride at all… it was the addition of Prince Eric’s Castle from The Little Mermaid, set back into beautiful grassy hills along a trickling stream fed by waterfalls. A faithful recreation of the Prince’s seaside palace from the film, Prince Eric’s Castle and the shipwrecks, waterfalls, and grottos surrounding form the queue for the land’s new dark ride. Still, physically seeing the castle, then traveling through the ancient vaults beneath it to the ride’s loading area is one of Magic Kingdom’s highlights.
8. Enchanted Storybook Castle
Location: Shanghai Disneyland
Inside: Boat ride, walkthrough attraction, meet and greets.
Instead of honoring only one character, the new castle under construction for Shanghai Disneyland is an Enchanted Storybook Castle that is home to all princesses and is visually a sort of combination between Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella’s. Inside, the building will contain a boat ride, Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique princess makeover experience, and Once Upon a Time Adventure, a large-scale, walkthrough experience.
