Enchanted Tales With Belle

I was at Magic Kingdom on Sunday and I was lucky enough to go inside the new area of Fantasyland to experience Enchanted Tales With Belle. When I walked through the door and saw Maurice's cottage, the feeling was amazing. I don't think you could have wiped the smile off my face. At one point I was actually holding back tears. Beauty and the Beast is my favorite movie and I have been looking forward to the Beauty and the Beast section in the new Fantasyland. There were some things about Enchanted Tales With Belle that I loved and some that I didn't.

Here are some pictures of the outside of Maurice's cottage. As you can see, it was raining. The pictures aren't very good but I'm hoping to be able to go back on a nicer day to get more pictures.






 

Here is where the queue started. One side was the entrance and the other was the exit.




Some of Maurice's projects were turned into light fixtures along the way. Other things were on display along the fence.










 



Once you step into the cottage, an umbrella holder is to the left of the door.


A bowl of peaches sits on a table.


Canisters sit on the mantle.


A portrait of Belle and her mother hangs on the wall.




There's a shelf of the wall.


 Here, you can see how Belle has grown over the years.


The next room you enter is Maurice's workshop. Once you enter this room, you are not allowed to use flash photography for the rest of the time that you're in there. They made that announcement after I had already taken a picture with flash.


Our attention is given to the mirror on the wall. You ask the mirror to take you back to the day when Belle and Beast fell in love. The mirror then starts to glow and grow until it opens and you walk through it.




In the next room you get to meet Madame Wardrobe. She lets you know that you're going to surprise Belle and do a story with her. A CM will hand out parts (Chip, Mrs. Potts, Maurice, and others) to kids and a few adults.






Next, you're brought into the library. Everybody sits on benches while Lumiere lets us know that we're going to yell "Surprise" when Belle enters the room. When Belle comes in everybody yells "Surprise" and she is amazed that there are people waiting for her. She then acts out some of Beauty and the Beast with the participants that were chosen in the room with Madame Wardrobe. Once they're done, each participant gets to take a picture with Belle. Only the participants can get a picture with her.









Some things you should know when going into Enchanted Tales With Belle.

• It is not a meet and greet.
• It's in a testing phase right now which means it's not open every day.
• Once you enter Maurice's workshop, there is no flash photography for the rest of the time you're in there.
• Only the people selected to participate in the show will be able to take a picture with Belle. So, if only one of your kids are chosen, only they get a picture with Belle.
• A photopass photographer takes the picture of you/your kid with Belle. The photographer will not use your camera.
• The picture with Belle is very short. They seemed to be in a hurry with the participants, shoving them up to Belle one after another for photos.
• The two men that are selected to be guards will be in the same picture with Belle. I thought that was kind of odd.

My thoughts:
I loved Maurice's cottage. It was amazing to see it for the first time. Madame Wardrobe and Lumiere were really well done. They were animated and worked flawlessly. I was very surprised at how nice they looked. The magic mirror in Maurice's workshop was stunning. I stood there in awe as it grew and then opened up. I did not like the story part of the experience. Most of the kids didn't seem to know what they were doing. The photos with the participants were very rushed. I didn't like the no flash photography rule. The lightning was pretty bad so it was tough for me to get decent shots. The worst part was that it's not a meet and greet. I think they're going to get a lot of complaints about that.