or the marquee, or the covered passage, or that huge victorian Crystal Palace placed over Main Street. Let’s look how Tokyo Disneyland’s own World Bazaar is so unique that it stands among the greatest piece of Disney architecture.

Contrary to the other Main Street which are one street with alleys giving the feeling of a genuine crossing, World Bazzar works as a real junction that leads to three different lands. So the Marquee doesn’t only cover a street, but two plus the large empty space left by this massive crossing. The importance of the structure can be seen on the google earth snapshot. The left side leads to Adventureland and the right one to Tomorrowland.

The roof is mainly supported by the shops buidlings so poles are only needed for the exit opening leading to the castle and the structural gap over the crossing. They are beautiful Victorian pillars similar to those holding in place the canopies of many 19th century european train stations.

And as those exisiting constructions of the world this glamourous victonrian marquee impresses with its grand allure, towering the smaller buildings around it. It gives a certain grandeur to the landscape and interestingly defy the castle opposing its exit.

It also affect the general feel of the land by cuting short the Main Street pespective, though this is a different kind of wow you experience walking inside and up World Bazaar Canopee, suprisingly it really blends with the main street atmosphre and even overplay the themed immersion.

On a more confort note, let’s add that the infrastructure can be heated in winter and cooled in the summer making it for sure a great addition to any Kingdom.

Don’t think it the Canopy diminishes the beauty of Main Street, it juste changes it, pushes it toward a slightly different direction, that is not only one of the boldest Disney ever take, but also quiet a astonishing one.

It’s been officialy announced by DLRP Management, the same service provided by Walt Disney World through Google Earth 3D will be available for Disneyland Paris starting martch 28th.

This is wonderful news for all those who couldn’t visit the European restort already. Parks, hotels and transportation, everything will be modelised and tagged just like for it’s floridian bigger sister.

Thanks to this detailed 3D services, Disney fans around to world can either explore or reminisce ! I can’t wait for them to reach the other 3 resorts !

Get ready to discover or rediscover this unique Kingdom on March 28th 2009 !

Tokyo Disneyland holds many restaurant locations faithfully replicated from the American parks, but Only in Tokyo can you experience a meal in Grandma Sara’s Kitchen !

This counter service restaurant in the middle of Critter Country has two main entrances and a very small one on the side, perfectly matching Critter’s Country theme of scattered doors and small houses.

The interior is pretty much like being inside a giant rabbit’s lair. Earth and chunk of wood laid on the walls out sets the decor for this interesting culinary experience. It is the only place among the Kingdom to offer the restaurant version of Splash Mountain, a real treat !

The place spans on two floors making it one of the largers counter service of Tokyo Disneyland.

Grandma Sara’s Kitchen must be on your restaurant A list for anyone visiting this Kingdom. It is truly the hang out for anyone one addicted to Splash !

The week-end before Christmas, Disneyland Paris, in an unprecedented move had to pull out the SOLD OUT sign three days in advance, warnning its upcoming guests that only visitors with a dated ticket would be allowed in. The rest either better cancel their trip, or settle for the resort’s second gate : Walt Disney Studios.

These are the 5 estimation of the maximum capacity of the 5 Magic Kingdoms.

Disneyland Park: 49,000

Magic Kingdom Park: 90,000

Tokyo Disneyland Park: 90,000

Parc Disneyland: 85,000

Hong Kong Disneyland Park: 35,000

Every 5 Kingdoms are different in superficy and crowd capacity. It is merely impossible to calculate the real crowd capacity of the parks, so this article only list the numbers at which point, park management will shut the valvle and not let anyone else in.

Those figures were hard to come by as most sources differ.

• For Disneyland my sources are from the most recent article of Al Lutz .
  
• For the Magic Kingdom, it’s from the various reports of this holiday shut down where attendances were said to be between 83,000 to 100,000. I’m therefor guessing that the 100,000 figure always given is a bit overestimated.
  
• Tokyo’s numbers are only a guess, but the park holds very large areas capable to hold many without congestion. So it has to be equivalent to Florida’s Magic Kingdom
  
• For le Parc Disneyland, it’s a well known number that’s frequently reached and always spoken out by castmembers on those particular days.
  
• Hong Kong is from an article from CHINAdaily.com dating back from 2005 where park management refused to lower their max number of 30,000 despite guest complaints. I believe due to various expansion since opening, this  number must be closer to 35,000 now.

When designing the blueprints of Euro Disneyland, Imagineers thought wise to add covered passage on each side of Main Street. It echoed the famous parisian passages and offered a warm shelter along side Main Street for the rainy/cold winter times of Saint Denis plane. In any weather you could still confortably walk up Main Street or have a quick bite in the many restaurants whose seating space reached inside the arcades.

Above : Liberty Arcade

Two arcades were thought up as hommages. One for the Satue of Liberty inside which you can scroll pass different mock up and early stage plans of the famous statue. The other one is a tribute to the future envisioned by XIXth century contemporate. Its walls are covered with great renderings of what cities like New Orleans, Boston or New York could have looked like if everything had spanned out accrding to their futuristic mind. This is the same “retrofuture” themed thouroughly explored in Disneyland Paris’ Discoveryland.

Above : Discovery Arcade


Both arcades layout are similar exept for Liberty Arcade center piece called Liberty Court, here you’ll find a magnificent red curtain behind which every guest have once poked their head. What lays there is for no one to spoil.

Above : Liberty Court


The arcade are not only convenient during rainy day but also during parades where Main Street is particulary clogged up here in Paris.

Below : Retrofuture Art

Many stuff happened during 2008, and new projects have been anounced even though nothing came to the Kingdoms. Always their “second, third of fourth gates” get the treats. But hey, that can also mean they’re close to perfection and few will disagree. Beside they did took all the attention up until the late 90′s. I know they’ll be taken care of once their littler brothers are contented.

Only Tokyo Disneyland  in 2009 will get its Monster Inc. attraction which is said to have been fused with that Winnie The Pooh effect. Meanning : nothing like we, occidental, have ever experienced before with those characters.

And It’s still gonna be a great year for Disneyland Paris as they just announced recored incomes and attendence for the year 2007. Hotels occupation reached 91% which can only mean that the building of a new hotel can go from the rumor status to sweet “inevitable”.

Although there is one big Kingdom announcement that should pop out during the course of 2009. Let’s hope the crisis don’t postpone that new Disney conquer.

Again, to all of you fans of Disney’s Magic Kingdoms and their amazing sister parks :

Happy New Year !

Of course the trees have always been planned to tag along once the Christmas Season openned. For more than 50 years Disneyland always got itself a live tree in the center of Town Square until this very season when it switched to a very real feeling fake tree.
For decades already every other Kingdoms have used fake trees for their ease of transport and permanent good look.

As for their location, Town Square is the ideal spot. Some parks like Disneyland Paris and the Magic Kingdom in Florida have tried to move it closer to the castle recently but they all came back where they belong, right behind Paris’ gazebo and other’s flagpole. It welcomes the guests with a special Christmas wow that later step aside once you start walking up Main Street.

Only Anaheim and Hong Kong share a very similar tree, other than that, all other Kingdoms build their very own tree.
Disneyland and Hong Kong  decoration hold classical baubles and garlands much like Disneyland Paris whose beautiful snowflakes illuminates among nutcrackers toys and other christmas glitters.
Tokyo also displays a very glamorous dressing with red lights and pearl garlands linked together to massive golden stars.
Walt Disney World on the other hand picked a warmer craftier set with big gingerbread men, popcorn garlands and wax dripping candles.

Juste a quick note to tell you that Disneyland Paris Google Earth imagery has finally been updated. It is now decently recent (Oct. 21st 2007). Check out how everything looks orange in le Royaume Magic…

We can finally see the Tower of Terror in Walt Disney Studios almost completed along with the parking structure over the TGV track. Amazing how the residential areas of the resort grew over the years.

As the Magic Kingdom itself, well nothing’s been build since last Google Eart Imagery… Sad.

Anyway,

Enjoy