Cinderella Castle
Cinderella Castle is a fairy tale castle at the center of two Disney theme parks: the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World, and Tokyo Disneyland at the Tokyo Disney Resort. Based on Cinderella's fairy tale castle from Disney's 1950 animated feature film, both serve as the symbol and flagship attraction for their respective theme parks. Along with Sleeping Beauty Castle, the Castle is a main symbol of the Walt Disney Company.
Exterior
Inspiration and design
Cinderella Castle was inspired by a variety of real and fictional palaces. These included in the Castle Such as Alcázar of Segovia, Schwerin Castle, Hohenzollern Castle, Château d'Ussé, Château de Saumur, Pierrefonds, Chambord, Neuschwanstein Castle in Bavaria and Craigievar Castle in Scotland. Other sources of inspiration include the castle such as spire of Notre-Dame de Paris, the Moszna Castle in Poland, built in the 18th century, and the Týn Church in Prague, Czech Republic, built in the 14th century. The chief designer of the castle, Herbert Ryman, also referenced the original design for the castle in the film franchise Cinderella and his own well-known creation— Sleeping Beauty Castle from Disneyland in California and added Paris.Construction
Magic Kingdom
Cinderella Castle was completed in July 1971, after about 18 months of construction. The castle is tall, as measured from water-level. By adding the depth of the moat, at the bridge, it totals.File:Sleeping Beauty Castle Main-Street.JPG|thumb|Sleeping Beauty Castle from Disneyland
Cinderella Castle is more than taller than Sleeping Beauty Castle from Disneyland in Anaheim, California. The set-building trick of forced perspective makes the castle appear larger than it is. At higher elevations, its proportions to full scale are reduced for elements such as stones, windows, and doors. This castle and its near-twin in Tokyo were the tallest Disney theme park castles until the completion of the Enchanted Storybook Castle from Shanghai Disneyland Park.
Cinderella Castle is designed to reflect the late-Gothic, flamboyant style of the 1400s. Unlike Disneyland's castle, no gold is used on the exterior; all gold colors are anodized aluminum. Despite its appearance, no bricks were used in its construction; the inner structure consists of six hundred tons of steel-braced frame construction, with a reinforced concrete wall encircling the structure to the full height of the outermost stone-like walls. All of the steel and concrete works are supported on a concrete drilled caisson foundation. Much less fiberglass is used than is popularly believed. Rather, most of the exterior is a thick, very hard fiber-reinforced gypsum plaster that is supported by light-gauge metal studs. Most fiberglass work is reserved for the exterior walls of more ornate upper towers. The roofs are not fiberglass, either. They are shingled in the same type of plastic that computer monitor shells are made from, attached to a cone of light gauge steel sheeting over the steel sub-frame. These towers were lifted by crane, then welded and bolted permanently to the main structure. Contrary to a popular legend, the castle cannot be taken apart or moved in any way in the event of a hurricane. It would take months to disassemble, it would be too dangerous to operate the crane required in windy conditions, and there would have to be a more structurally sound building to keep it in. As with every other building at Walt Disney World, it was simply efficient enough in design to handle a hurricane. It can easily withstand the 125 mph wind speeds in Central Florida.
Cinderella Castle is also surrounded by a moat, which contains approximately of water; however, unlike the drawbridge at Sleeping Beauty Castle in Disneyland, Cinderella Castle cannot raise its bridge. There are a total of 27 towers on the castle, each numbered 1-29—tower numbers 13 and 17 were cancelled before construction when it was discovered that they could not really be seen from anywhere in the park, due mainly to the other Fantasyland buildings. The tower with the clock in front is number 10, the tallest is number 20. Number 23 is the other golden-roofed tower.
Originally, a suite was planned for the Disney family and executives, but since Walt Disney died nearly five years before the park opened, it remained unfinished, and eventually was turned successively into a telephone call center, a dressing room, and is currently a hotel room. There are three elevators inside the castle. One is for guest use and goes between the lobby of Cinderella's Royal Table and the second floor restaurant. The second is for restaurant staff use, and is located in tower 2 to the left of the drawbridge. It has landings in the Utilidors, the mezzanine level in a break room, and on the second floor in the kitchen. The third elevator is in tower 20, and services the Utilidors, the breezeway, the kitchen of Cinderella's Royal Table, and the Cinderella Castle Suite. The suite is about below the level where the zipline cable that Tinker Bell "flies" on for the fireworks show is attached to tower 20. Access to the cable is by ladder. From January 2007 to December 2009 the suite was used as a prize for the Disney Dreams Giveaway at the Walt Disney World Resort during the Year of a Million Dreams/35 anniversary celebration.
Cinderella Castle was designed so that it was tall enough to be seen from the Seven Seas Lagoon in front of the Magic Kingdom, where many guests took ferries from the parking lot to the gates of the park. In theme park jargon, Cinderella Castle was conceived as the primary "weenie" that draws new entering guests through Main Street, U.S.A. towards the central hub, from where all other areas can be reached.
On February 17, 2020, in honor of the 70th anniversary of the release of the 1950 Disney animated film Cinderella, Disney announced the castle will be getting repainted within the spring & summer 2020 with dark blue roofs, a slight rose pink color, and will have many gold trim accents on the castle, along with darker stone similar to Disneyland's Sleeping Beauty Castle. Disney has assured that the castle will still be fully visible while the work is on going, and the fireworks shows will continue. However, COVID-19 forced the park to close from March to July 2020 so most of the work was done when the park closed. The paint job was completed in July 2020 shortly after the reopening of Walt Disney World. Originally, the tower spires were painted a bluish-purple, but were painted back to royal blue in Spring 2021 as Disney began installing the 50th anniversary decorations on the Castle.
As of late Spring 2021, Cinderella Castle has been decorated with what Disney calls "EARidescent" gold and blue bunting, ribbons and other decorations. Cinderella Castle was fully decorated with these through April 2, 2023 when the decorations began to be removed in phases following the end of "The World's Most Magical Celebration". In August 2025 at Destination D23, it was announced that Cinderella Castle will be restored to the classic colors. In December 2025, it was announced that Cinderella Castle would be repainted starting in January 2026.
Tokyo Disneyland
In general, Cinderella Castle by Tokyo Disneyland has a near identical appearance to the castle from the Magic Kingdom. However, it has a different color scheme and is slightly shorter, standing at.From 1986 to 2006, the castle hosted a walk-through attraction called the Cinderella Castle Mystery Tour; centered primarily on Disney villains, this was one of Tokyo Disneyland's first unique attractions, and the longest-lasting. In June 2006, the castle was repainted to differentiate it from Cinderella Castle at Magic Kingdom. The castle now has gold trimmings, the rooftops have been painted a different shade of blue, and the white stone of the turrets now has a tan/dirty-pink color.
In 2018, Tokyo Disneyland's Cinderella Castle received water fountains installed for a new nighttime presentation Celebrate! Tokyo Disneyland which premiered on July 10, as part of its 35th Anniversary celebration.
Special decorations
Cinderella Castle has been temporarily re-decorated on a few occasions.Magic Kingdom
- To commemorate the 25th anniversary of Walt Disney World Resort on October 1, 1996, Imagineers transformed the front of Cinderella Castle into an 18-story "birthday cake." Complete with red and pink "icing," giant candy canes and 26 glowing candles, the castle served as the centerpiece for the 15-month-long celebration. Designed by Walt Disney Entertainment Florida and later constructed by the Imagineers, this was no small undertaking. It took more than of pink paint to cover the castle, which was decorated with multicolored "sprinkles," 26 candles, ranging in height from 20 to 40 feet tall, 16 two-foot long candy stars, 16 five-foot candy bears, 12 five-foot gumdrops, four six-foot stacks of Life Savers, 30 three-foot lollipops, and 50 two-foot gumballs. Additionally, more than 1000 feet of pink and blue inflatable "icing" was needed to finish it off. On January 31, 1998, the castle was transformed back to its original state.
- On November 16, 2004, the castle was modified to appear as though it was strewn with toilet paper, and Stitch is King was posted on a turret as faux graffiti to mark the grand opening of Stitch's Great Escape! that day. The material was removed after the park closed that evening.
- To celebrate the Happiest Celebration on Earth in honor of Disneyland's 50th anniversary and was formally unveiled on May 5, 2005. The castle's exterior was adorned with polished gold trim and accents, swags, banners and tapestries. Golden statues of Disney animated characters were also added to the exterior, including Peter Pan, Tinker Bell, and Wendy Darling circling the tallest spire. Other statues included Kaa and King Louie from The Jungle Book, Simba, Timon, and Pumbaa from The Lion King, Sebastian and Flounder from The Little Mermaid, the Cheshire Cat and White Rabbit from Alice in Wonderland, and Victor, Hugo and Laverne from The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Just above the front archway sat an enormous "stained-glass" mirror modeled after the magic mirror in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. The mirror changed images every 40 seconds to feature each Disney castle and the date its park opened: Disneyland, 1955; the Magic Kingdom, 1971; Tokyo Disneyland, 1983; Disneyland Resort Paris, 1992; and Hong Kong Disneyland, 2005. The decorations were removed in late September 2006.
- The castle's most recent redecoration was to celebrate Walt Disney World's 50th anniversary, known as "The World's Most Magical Celebration", which began on October 1, 2021, and lasted through March 31, 2023. The design was first revealed on February 19, 2021, with most of the decorations being installed from March 11 to April 16, 2021. The "EARidescent" pieces, as Disney refers to them, include gold detailing, royal blue jewels, shimmering pearls, draping and ribbons on the castle's turrets. The final decoration is a giant 50th crest that covers the clock on the front face of the castle, which was installed the night of July 22, 2021. The decorations began to be removed the night of April 2, 2023 following the final performance of Disney Enchantment with the removal of the 50th crest, and the last was removed the night of May 22, 2023.