Cinderella Castle

Limited Time Magic: Cinderella Castle Suite Tour

21 October 2013 by Suzannah Otis Leave a Comment

Note: This post was originally written by Joe Morisco as a guest blogger for zannaland back in April of 2013. Enjoy!

As part of the ongoing promotion Limited Time Magic, Walt Disney World has been giving extremely limited tours to lucky winners through an email contest. I was lucky enough to win a spot on a tour for arguably the best tour given out at the Magic Kingdom. The winners of the tour met at the Magic Kingdom at 8:30 AM. What was supposed to be a group of 25 ended up being only 15, with 10 no-shows. The group was then split, with half going to tour the suite, the other half heading over to Be Our Guest at Beast’s Castle.

This tour with an Imagineer was a 1 1/2 hour tour. The highlight of the tour was the Cinderella Suite, since this is not normally accessible to any day guests. The Imagineer that worked on the suite walked us through, pointing out all the tiny details. I included a photo gallery below of everything we saw in the suite. After being in the suite for about 45 minutes, we were brought over to Be Our Guest and through each room in the restaurant. The Imagineer explained the theme for each room as well as details that you may overlook. At the end of the tour, they brought out a dish of “grey stuff” for us. Overall, this was a great experience that we could not normally partake in!

Cinderella Castle Suite Elevator Art Work

Floor going into Cinderella Castle Suite

Stained Glass windows tell the Cinderella Story

We hope you enjoyed the photo tour – keep watching the Disney Parks Blog for future Imagineer Tours as part of Limited Time Magic!

The Magic, The Memories and…US!

20 January 2011 by Suzannah Otis 8 Comments

I was recently invited to attend the media preview for the Magic Kingdom’s much anticipated “Castle projection show”. The show was announced some months back along with the 2011 campaign – “Let the Memories Begin“. The show and campaign itself received much criticism from cynics, assuming Disney was just using other people’s photos and videos so they didn’t have to come up with something on their own. Many objections to “YouTube videos on the castle” were heard over the interwebs.

Ever the Disney-supporter, I posted on twitter and facebook about how I supported this campaign. Really, I’m the kind of Disney fan that doesn’t think we are “owed” anything, yet many critics compare each year’s promotion to the Year of a Million Dreams or the What Will You Celebrate? campaigns, which were overflowing with extras, freebies and one-of-a-kind experiences. Last year, you still got a free ticket – if you volunteered for it. This year, however, the focus is on families – no matter what that consists of, and the memories created at Disney Parks throughout the world. After all, aren’t the best “extras” the intangibles that you hold in your heart and mind for years to come?

Despite my understanding and excitement about Let the Memories Begin, I still wasn’t sure how the Castle would fit in to this equation. After all, people don’t typically like when Cinderella Castle is messed with. (I happen to be one of the few people in the universe that thought it was cute – but totally understand those that were upset at its appearance for their visits; a year is a long time for bright pink.) Would this be something that most guests couldn’t relate to if their pictures weren’t selected? Would it disrupt the magic of the kingdom? Well, all my fears were assuaged Tuesday night when I experienced “The Magic, The Memories and You” first-hand.

First we were treated to a press conference with Park executives Al Weiss, and Meg Crofton. We were told about the upcoming news at the Parks (Wild Africa Trek, La Hacienda, Via Napoli, Star Tours 2). Alan Bruun, Associate Creative Director Walt Disney World Entertainment then gave us a behind-the-scenes glimpse at how the new castle show was created. The castle was actually graphed with a grid for the 3-D photo imaging required to ensure seamless projections and special effects. We were shown the locations for the 16 projectors used in the show. In addition to videos pulled from the Let The Memories Begin site where guests can submit their family videos, 500 photos taken in-park that day will be hand-picked to appear in the sometimes twice nightly show on the castle. As Bruun was quoted that night, “it’s a heck of a lot more than a slide-show on the castle”. Since seeing is believing, we all headed over to Cinderella Castle to experience the show for ourselves.

Going Bananas at Walt Disney World Since the 70’s

30 August 2010 by Suzannah Otis 12 Comments

In searching for ancient vintage photos from my childhood visits to Walt Disney World, I came across what may perhaps be my favorite. From the looks of my hair, I’m thinking this was around 1st grade, so 1978 or 1979. My Gramma Lucy (my dad’s mom) and I are both enjoying a wonderful Disney treat – a chocolate covered frozen banana. This was once one of my favorites, but I have to admit, I haven’t had one in years. Maybe I need to attempt to re-create this picture so my children can blog about it in 30 years??

wdw frozen banana 1970s — This trip is bananas! B-A-N-A-N-A-S!

In this photo, you not only get to see adorable 6-ish year old me, you get my mom next to me in a long sundress (which is I think back in style today?!) and Jackie O sunglasses, my brother on the other side of me in knee socks and short shorts, and to the far right, you can see part of my sister in a green one-piece tube-top/shorts-set situation. If my dad were in the picture, I can only imagine the fashion fabulousity he would’ve added, given his previous appearances with white pants and reaaaally short shorts.

I think my family is pretty tame compared to the other 1970’s theme-park couture going on, even from behind. Thanks, lady with the matching red pants and vest, lady with the super high plaid bell-bottoms with matching plaid jacket in your hand, and dude behind my brother with his shirt buttoned ALL the way down. You really made this picture worth posting. How did we survive as a species during this time?? Oh that’s right. Disco!