Disneyland's Fantasy Faire Simply Magical!

The new princess meet and greet for Disneyland, entitled 'Fantasy Faire' opened Tuesday, having gone through different sets of previews last week. I decided to enjoy it like the average visitor instead and had quite a lovely time on opening day, and wrote a review for it here.

As this is a princess blog, it shouldn't be that big of a surprise that I love the new offerings. But I am a die-hard Disneyland fan, so I'm also from a group of fans that tend to get a little picky about things like theming, paint and whether or not that audio-animatronic is working properly. When a figure from its a small world goes missing since before the holiday overlay last year, I notice (I'm looking at you, yodelers).

That said, we fans debate on these issues extensively and do not always agree. I've noticed a significant amount of griping coming from MiceChat over this new area, and I have to say that on this issue, I have to disagree with them. I hear complaints ranging from the new Royal Theatre tent's colors being too bright that it intrudes on Sleeping Beauty Castle drawing your eye to criticizing the area for aiming specifically towards girls, to which I say the California sun will tarnish that tent's colors rather quickly and that as we are a patriarchal society, we constantly devalue anything that is inherently geared towards the female gender while ignoring the fact that most things we do have are aimed at a white male audience (Carsland, anyone?) and receive very little criticism for it.

Look, we're not all going to enjoy the same things. It is impossible to please everyone at the same time. Walt was very noble in attempting to create a place where families can enjoy something together as a family, and even though not all of you will appreciate the new Fantasy Faire, there will be many more that do, and Disneyland is still a place where families can go and enjoy the day together. I'm sorry that the Carnation stage is underneath everything and swing dancing has been moved to Downtown Disney, but really, is it honestly the end of the world when a prime piece of Disneyland real estate remains dead for most of the day and suddenly gets some new life into it that we all know will be enjoyed by a significant percentage of visitors? There are plenty of places to swing dance. Honestly, you could swing dance anywhere if you really wanted to. My boyfriend has chosen to be cute on many occasions by randomly dancing with me in places like the mall parking lot. But you can't meet Belle from Beauty and the Beast just anywhere, and it's cruel to expect families to wait in 45 minute lines out in the Anaheim heat with no protection or relief from the elements while Aurora is dying in her velvety heavy long-sleeved gown.

Swing dancing may still come back to the area - Disney hasn't made any sort of official announcement yet. This is a new area that they are displaying to guests and they need time to access the area for any tweaking or additions they wish to make before complicating things with dancing on the floor every night. Then add to the fact that the new Tangled Tower has a very beautiful effect at night that you can only really appreciate if it's quiet and not too bright out there. Let the new area stretch it's legs a bit before crying foul play.

In short, I'm sorry you're upset if you feel a piece of Disneyland history has been taken away from you, or that a tradition that you've celebrated in that area is no more, or at least on hiatus for the time being. But Disneyland is not just for you, it's for everyone, and Disney has to play to it's major audiences. Far more critical to the Disneyland experience is meeting your favorite characters, and for a great deal of people they are the princesses. This gives the heroines a royal set-up for families to enjoy, and it has been themed very well. The stage is now also actively being used and is doing what a theatre should do - bringing the magic of live performance to an audience. The new shows are actually very well done, and you should come out to see them, no matter what age or demographic you are.

Disneyland will continue to change. It cannot stay the same forever if Disney wants to continue to entertain guests. That doesn't mean that change should happen for change's sake. In this case, the change was logical and has proven to be a successful one. Now if you really want to gripe, just take a look at Tomorrowland and look at the remnants of 1998... ;)


Thanks for taking the time to stop by. Be sure to subscribe to me here and at my new site (you'll find the link through the link at the top of the article)! See you at Fantasy Faire!