Happy Birthday, Walt Disney!

Heritage

"I hope we don't lose sight of one thing - it was all started by a mouse." - Walt Disney

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Vision
"It's kind of fun to do the impossible." - Walt Disney
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Magic
"All it takes is faith and trust....and a little bit of pixie dust."

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These images are from postcards that were purchased last April at Tokyo Disneyland. Even though all three are marked "Tokyo Disneyland" on the back, the last postcard displays a photo from Walt Disney World (both parks have a Cinderella Castle.) I believe the second postcard might show WDW as well.

Happy Birthday, Walt!

Ghosts In The Castle

Last week we took a look at the ghosts on the rear balcony of Tokyo Disneyland's castle during their Halloween celebration. Today we go inside the castle to look at a couple more ghosts at play.

The pumpkin-knight scarecrow below can be found just outside the castle in the forecourt area.

Halloween In Fantasyland - The Castle

Another quick post today. This is the backside of Tokyo Disneyland's Cinderella Castle. It gets decorated every year for Halloween with a "Three Musketeers" vignette.....and plenty of orange and black bunting.

In & Around The Castle

This is the view from inside the archway of Cinderella's Castle at Tokyo Disneyland. Off in the distance is World Bazaar (Main St.) with it's glass roof. This photo was taken a few years ago before the Tokyo Disneyland Hotel was built in the parking lot. The new hotel just opened this summer and is now visible over the rooftops of World Bazaar, but it has been designed in a turn of the century style and the two of them fit together quite well.

The sea serpent topiary above sits to the right of Cinderella's Castle, approximately in the same spot as Anaheim's Snow White Grotto. Tokyo does have a Snow White Grotto, but their's is located to the left of the castle, approximately in the same spot as Anaheim's Plaza Gardens.

It's difficult to tell from just looking at the photo above, but the grotto and wishing well sit between the castle and Westernland (Frontierland). As an interesting side note.....neither Tokyo Disneyland or Disneyland in Anaheim list their Snow White Grotto as attractions. Hong Kong Disneyland however, does list their grotto as an actual attraction. My guess is that they do this because they are SO lacking in real attractions (their only "E" ticket-type attractions are Space Mountain, Jungle Cruise and It's A Small World) that they have to really stretch to come up with some way of making people think there is actually more to do in that park than there really is. After all, Hong Kong Disneyland also lists their "island" attraction and their "rafts to the island" as two separate attractions. To me that just WREAKS of desperation. Poor Hong Kong Disneyland! As an additional side note....neither Disneyland Paris or Walt Disney World have a "Snow White Grotto."

The Castle Courtyard

This is the castle courtyard at Tokyo Disneyland. The Sorcerer's Apprentice statue above was dedicated on April 15, 2003, the date of Tokyo DL's 20th anniversary (The park is currently celebrating it's 25th anniversary).

The courtyard is pretty large. The drinking fountains in the lower right corner of the above photo are located in front of a Cinderella statue/fountain. Similar versions of this fountain can be found in Walt Disney World's and Paris Disneyland's Fantasylands.

The Plaza

Tokyo Disneyland has a HUGE Plaza area. It is kind of made up of three sections. There's the first section that guests encounter when they reach the end of "Main St." (actually called World Bazaar in Tokyo...a subject for future posts). This area is where the "Partners" statue of Walt and Mickey is found. The second section is beyond that and contains a huge central plaza area with a large round floral planter that is also used for holiday and special event displays (the Anaheim equivalent of this planter is where the Partners statue is located).

The third section is a huge paved area that is used to set up seating for stage shows that are held in front of the castle (again...holidays and special events).

The Plaza is SO big, that it contains FOUR of these large stand-alone castle turrets. Two of these turrets contain production booths with spotlights, projectors, etc. for the stage shows. The other two contain equipment for pyrotechnic and fire effects.

The banners and decorations on the castle are in honor of the park's 25th birthday which is being celebrated all year long.

Happy 25th Birthday, Tokyo Disneyland!!!