Fantasyland Expansion Update: Aerial photos and video of the Magic Kingdom – Fall 2010

We recently had a chance to go high above the Magic Kingdom to bring you these aerial photos and video of the construction progress of the Fantasyland expansion. Click on any of the photos to view them larger.

The Fantasyland expansion was first announced at Disney’s D23 Expo in California a little over a year ago. The construction walls went up earlier this year. Since the construction has now gone vertical, we bring you this first of many updates from above.

Let’s start with our video footage:

This view shows toontown at the top and the existing Fantasyland to the right. The large building near Toontown at the top is a Little Mermaid dark ride called Journey of The Little Mermaid AKA Ariel’s Adventures. At the bottom left is Beast’s castle, a Beauty and the Beast restaurant called “Be Our Guest”. Although the rest of the expansion was originally said to be princess meet and greet areas, Disney has announced they’ve tweaked those plans, but they haven’t said what the changes will be.

This view shows just how big the expansion is compared to other areas of the park.

Here’s a closer look at the Little Mermaid ride building.

And here’s a closer look at the Beauty and the Beast restaurant. This area is also said to house a new meet and greet area for Belle and the Beast.

This isn’t related to the expansion, but I thought it was a cool view of Cinderella Castle and the hub area. Notice the guests watching the castle stage show.

From this view it looks like the castle is on fire. The fireworks just went off to end the castle stage show.

Thanks to Mauiva Aerial Tours for taking us up.