Fantasyland: the Disney fairy tale land

Fantasyland is one of the five lands of Disneyland Park and opened on April 12, 1992. It lies beyond Main Street U.S.A., behind Sleeping Beauty Castle. The concept, first imagined by Walt Disney for Disneyland in California, takes guests into the world of fairy tales and Disney animated movies.

For the Paris version, the Imagineers, led by Tom Morris (the land’s art director) and Tony Baxter (the park’s art director), chose not to theme the land after the castles of the Loire Valley, which European audiences already knew well. They preferred to lean on the Disney movies themselves. The land has a feature found in no other Disney park: its layout mirrors the countries where the tales come from. South of the river are France, Germany, and Italy, to the north is the UK, and off to the side is the Benelux area with the Netherlands (the Old Mill zone).

Sleeping Beauty Castle is the centerpiece. Inspired by Mont Saint-Michel and the castles of the Loire Valley, reimagined in a more stylized way, it sports pink and blue colors to stand out against the often cloudy Paris sky. It faces due north so guests aren’t shooting their photos into the sun. The building has 16 towers (Aurora was 16 in the movie). Its golden spires are decorated with snails as a tribute to the Burgundy region. Its Gallery features stained-glass windows made with a twelfth-century technique by a specialist who came out of retirement for the job. Under the castle lies La Tanière du Dragon, home to the largest Audio-Animatronics figure at Disneyland Paris (27 meters, 2,500 kg).

The land’s main attractions include Blanche-Neige et les Sept Nains, Les Voyages de Pinocchio, Peter Pan’s Flight, Dumbo the Flying Elephant, Mad Hatter’s Tea Cups, Alice’s Curious Labyrinth, Le Carrousel de Lancelot (its 70 horses are arranged by the colors of the rainbow, around the central Big Nelly organ taken from an early twentieth-century carousel), it’s a small world, Casey Jr - le Petit Train du Cirque, Le Pays des Contes de Fées, and Sword in the Stone. Le Théâtre du Château, Princess Pavilion, and Meet Mickey Mouse round out the lineup, along with a Disneyland Railroad station.

For dining, there’s Auberge de Cendrillon (table service, French cuisine), Au Chalet de la Marionnette (Pinocchio decor), Pizzeria Bella Notte (Lady and the Tramp decor, whose terrace mosaic contains fragments Tom Morris salvaged from an original Mary Blair work destroyed at Disneyland in California in 1985), Toad Hall Restaurant (English countryside, fish and chips), The Old Mill, and March Hare Refreshments. The stores include La Boutique de Merlin l’Enchanteur, La Boutique du Château, La Chaumière des Sept Nains, La Confiserie des Trois Fées, La Bottega di Geppetto, Sir Mickey’s Boutique, and La Petite Maison des Jouets.

The land feels like stepping into the pages of classic Disney tales. Sleeping Beauty Castle is the gateway that invites guests into the world of each story: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Pinocchio, Peter Pan, Alice in Wonderland, Sleeping Beauty, Dumbo, and many more.

Think of the whole land as a storybook come to life. Walking from one fairy tale into the next is a bit like flipping through a collection of stories, and along the way you cross paths with the heroes, whether on a themed spinning ride or a dark ride that tells their story.

The land by the numbers, pulled from across the site for a quick visual summary.

On opening day, April 12, 1992, Fantasyland already had Sleeping Beauty Castle at its center, surrounded by Peter Pan’s Flight, Snow White, Pinocchio, "it’s a small world", Le Carrousel de Lancelot, Dumbo, and Mad Hatter’s Tea Cups.

New rides joined the lineup on March 26, 1994: Casey Jr. - le Petit Train du Cirque and Le Pays des Contes de Fées, which first went by the name Storybook Land Cruise. Before that, La Galerie de la Belle au Bois Dormant had welcomed visitors in 1993. Much later came Princess Pavilion, in July 2011, followed by Meet Mickey Mouse in April 2012.

Les Pirouettes du Vieux Moulin closed in 2002 because its boarding capacity was too low. Two projects first planned across from it’s a small world, one based on Beauty and the Beast and the other on The Little Mermaid, never got off the ground. The carriage on display in the courtyard of Auberge de Cendrillon was a gift from Walt Disney World Resort for the park’s opening.

To dig deeper: all the secrets and fun facts about Fantasyland

The land draws on the Fantasyland at Disneyland in Anaheim (1955), Magic Kingdom in Orlando (1971), and Tokyo Disneyland (1983). The Paris Sleeping Beauty Castle is one of a kind, with architecture inspired by Mont Saint-Michel and the castles of the Loire Valley.