D23 Expo

An birds eye view of the extended Fantasyland 2012

Okay so i am aplogising in advance for this Blog as i am stupidly exciting right now!!! I knew that the arrival of The Wizarding World of Harry Potter would mean changes to Disney World but never could i have imagined this! After the purchase of Marvel i assumed that was there big up yours to Universal Studios and they were going to use the superheroes to aim alot of new things at older boys/teens. However they have completing gone in a different direction, an extension of Fantasyland! Now any Disney fan know Fantasyland is ever little girls dream castles, smaller rides for children and lots of Princess themed things! I could never have dreamed they would run with this but they are creating areas for each famous Princess!

Visitors will be able to visit Cinderella in her Mansion and see many characters from the film also. This is pretty much the only information they released on Cinderella's area which makes me assume it will mainly be a greeting area or similar to Minnie and Mickeys houses in ToonTown.

You can help plan Auroras Sweet 16 birthday party by creating cards for her and then throwing a suprise party. This seems to be a similar event to Belles Storytime where Aurora comes and talks to the children.

Wow as a huge Beauty and the Beast fan this area blew my mind! Enter Belles cottage (where it appears they will be placing storytime with Belle) and using a magic mirror travel to the Beasts castle where you can visit the "Be Our Guest resturant"!!!! WOW Looks similar to Cinderllas Royal Table style resturant! Then visit the town centre (where theres an awesome Gaston statue!) and visit Gastons Pub (antlers in all of his decorating!) for a less formal dining experiance!

Ariel is probably the most visited Princess as she has her own area (Ariels Grotto) created for the sole purpose of greeting. The wait time for Ariels Grotto can sometimes be hitting the 2 hour mark! So obviously Disney has run with this and creating a new Ariels Grotto including Sebastian and other characters as well as Prince Erics Castle which will hold the long anticipated Ariel ride! Disney have been dabbiling with this for YEARS i first seen the concept CGI run through on my special edition Little Mermaid DVD and was loving it! It's a very similar concept to the Peter Pan, Snow White and new Finding Nemo rides where you sit in a themed carriage which takes you through scenes from the film. Love it!

California recently destroyed Ariels Grotto greeting area to create Pixie Hollow! As you walk through Pixie Hollow you appear to shrink to Pixie size! Think Honey i Shrunk the kids play park in Hollywood Studios, giant grass etc! Then you can meet all the Pixies! I was never a big Tink fan but i really liked the new films and Disney are making ALOT of them so they are obviously getting a good response! Pixie Hollow won't open until 2013.

This i was suprised by! The most popular ride in Fantasyland is Dumbo with huge waits they have decided to triple the size of it! Which means less wait time obv but to make it even better they say "no wait at all". What they have decided to do it create a big top cirus area where you play games etc whilst you wait therefore seeming like there was very little wait! Hmmm not conviced by that! haha! But thats not all....

Star Tours in Hollywood Studios is being closed in October 2010 (thank god after i have been!) to create Star Tours 2 in 2011 (demanded by Darth Vader, youtube it V funny video from the expo with loads of Storm Troopers. Have to hand it to Disney they don't even to conferenced without all singing all dancing!) Star Tours will be similar so still a simulator but now in 3D!