Disney World Castle

The Disney World castle, also known as Sleeping Beauty’s Castle, has been around since July 17, 1955 and is the oldest of all the Disney castles. It reaches a height of approximately 77 feet and used to feature an empty upper level that was never intended to be used. Walt Disney was not satisfied with the wasted space and challenged his Imagineers to find some use for the space. Starting in April of 1957, visitors were able to walk through the castle and view several dioramas depicting the story of Sleeping Beauty. The walkthrough was closed in October 2001 and though no one was ever given a real reason why, many people think it had to do with the terrorist attacks on September 11th 2001 and they wanted to eliminate the potential dangers.

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Disney announced on July 17, 2008 that it would re-open the Sleeping Beauty Castle walkthrough. The walkthrough re-opened November 27, 2008 and drew incredibly long lines to get in. Unlike in the past, guests who were unable to walk through the castle and climb stairs could now experience the magic “virtually” in a special room on the castle’s main floor. The room is well decorated and presents the closed captioned CGI walkthrough recreation on a high definition television.

In celebration of Disney’s 50th Anniversary, the castle was repainted and five turrets were decorated with stylized crowns, each representing a decade in the park’s history. The drawbridge of the castle used to be functional but was rarely ever used. It was publicly lowered on two occasions, once when the park opened in 1955 and once when Fantasyland was rededicated in 1983. The gears that control the drawbridge were removed during a refurbishment in 1966 and have not yet been replaced. Disney accidently referred to the castle as Snow White’s castle which sparked false speculation that the castle was originally to be called Snow White’s castle, but was changed to coincide with the release of Sleeping Beauty.

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