περιπλάνηση: 4/17/13 The New Fantasyland Expansion

So, the one part that Samantha was really sore about missing was seeing the new Fantasyland expansion, a $700 million dollar project that is still ongoing. I was happy to report to her that, she isn't missing much, at least not yet. Once the Snow White Seven Dwarfs Mine Train opens in 2014, we'll be in business.

Here's just a snippet of the ride's mock-up. It looks like a Wild Mouse type of construction, although we don't get to see the whole coaster, so I'm just guessing.

What it looks like now:

All around the massive walls are pictures of the dwarfs

Near Be Our Guest is Dopey as the Beast, with Lumiere making a cameo

Across from the Winnie the Pooh ride:

Across from the Mat Hatter Teacups

They've also set up a spot where you can see from the ground level what's going on behind the walls.

And near the new Storybook Circus Land (that replaced ToonTown) is Dopey with the magical Dumbo feather.

(for some reason I only shot this the first night with the phone and never again...)

There are now two Dumbo rides, with fastpass and pagers involved to minimize waits.

Anyway, back over into the Fantasy Expansion...

There are two sides of turretted walls to invite guests into the new area. To the left is Enchanted Tales with Belle, which is geared for the little princesses to meet and interact with Belle and her talking objects. The line grows fast and there were a lot of people on our early entry morning making a beeline to get over there first thing to avoid a long wait.

Details on the turrets

Centered up the walk is the new Be Our Guest restaurant, which we also didn't go into.

Around the right is Gaston's Tavern, a counter service spot with antlers in all of the decorating.

From there, it's down to the new Ariel ride, which is the same ride we took in at Disneyland's California Adventure, so, again, we skipped it. At the very end is Ariel's grotto for a meet and greet.