Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
90-second flight. Anything that a 4-year-old would wait for that long and that
patiently must be pretty special.
TOURING TIPS
This is a slow-loading ride that we recommend you bypass unless you are on
a very relaxed touring schedule. If your kids are excited about Dumbo, try to get them on
the ride before 10 a.m., during the parades or
Fantasmic!,
or just before the park closes.
Also, consider this advice from an Arlington, Virginia, mom:
Grown-ups,beware!Dumboisreallyatightfitwithoneadultandtwokids.My
kids threw me out of their Dumbo and I had to sit in a Dumbo all by myself.
Pretty embarrassing, and my husband got lots of pictures.
Fantasy Faire
DESCRIPTION AND COMMENTS
Once a sleepy corner off the Main Street hub, mainly
known since the 1950s for weekend swing-dancing parties, the Carnation Plaza Gardens
wasgivenapink-and-purple princess makeover in2013andemergedastheFantasy Faire.
Purists may bemoan the loss of history and liberal application of eye-popping pastels, but
don't bother telling that to the kids running to meet their royal role models. Even if you
aren't enamored of the princess marketing craze, you can't help but admire the loving
details applied throughout this mini-land, from a snoozing animatronic Figaro kitty and
crank-operatedClopinmusicboxtothetwinklinghaironthecourtyard's
Tangled
-inspired
tower. (Boogie and jive fans, don't get jumpy: the weekend swing-dancing parties have
relocated to a stage in Downtown Disney and return to Disneyland, on its original dance
floor, which was preserved during the renovation, on select summer nights.)
The two main components of the Fantasy Faire are the Royal Hall and the Royal
Theatre. Royal Hall is an indoor meet and greet with three princesses always on duty
(usually Ariel, Aurora, and Cinderella). The usual Disneyland queue (mercifully mostly
shaded) must be endured to meet and be photographed, but while the queue at the former
FantasyFairelocationregularlyreacheda45-to60-minutewaitatthepeakoftheday,this
new incarnation typically sees somewhat shorter waits. The trick is that the Royal Hall's
intimate wood-paneled interior actually houses two identical meeting areas with duplicate
trios of princesses (perhaps the product of an Epcot cloning experiment?) for double the
greeting capacity.
Royal Theatre, which once hosted jazz greats such as Dizzy Gillespie, now houses a
rotating pair of 20-minute stage shows dramatizing the tales of
Tangled
and
Beauty and
the Beast.
The
Tangled
show is usually performed at the first three showtimes of the day,
with
Beauty and the Beast
typically taking the stage for the remainder. If you can pick,
Tangled
has the better script.
Rapunzel (with Flynn Ryder) and Belle join in their respective reenactments, accom-
panied by narrators Mr. Smyth and Mr. Jones, milkmaid stagehands, and a live pianist.
Rather than straightforward retellings, these fast-paced comic condensations capture the
anarchic slapstick of a Renaissance fair trunk show. Witty enough to keep adults, who are
far outside the target demographic, awake, the Royal Theatre's shows are the sleeper hits
