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9. Carthay Circle Theatre

Image: Disney

Where: Disney California Adventure

The Story: Set at the end of Disney California Adventure’s 1920s-themed Buena Vista Street, Carthay Circle Theatre is a picture-perfect icon to represent the electric optimism of the sunset-colored City of Angels. Of tremendous importance to both California history and Disney history, the Carthay was where Walt took his biggest gamble, premiering Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs as the first ever full-length animated feature film. At 89 feet tall, the Carthay Circle Theatre is 12 feet taller than its sister, Sleeping Beauty Castle, at Disneyland Park, which stands straight across from it.

Carthay Circle Theatre wasn’t the park’s first icon. Or second. Or third. Through the park’s infamously rough history (chronicled in Declassified Disaster: Disney's California Adventure) and its many changes since, California Adventure’s icon has changed along with it. Originally the tepid metallic “Sun Icon,” it was soon replaced by the towering Grizzly Peak. As its renovation kicked up in 2007, the park became associated with the new and refreshed Mickey’s Fun Wheel before Buena Vista Street and the Carthay Circle Theatre officially opened during the park’s grand 2012 rededication. You can read more information about each in our Demolished and Demoted Lost Icons of Disney Parks feature.

Inside: On the first floor of the theatre is a speakeasy and lounge. The second floor contains the upscale and magnificent Carthay Circle Restaurant, serving gourmet Southern California fusion cuisine. Only the elite can enter the secretive Club 1901, a Disney California Adventure take on Disneyland’s exclusive Club 33.

10. Mount Prometheus

Image: Disney

Where: Tokyo DisneySea

The Story: Mount Prometheus is a towering, rumbling, very-much-active volcano, which spews smoke and flame throughout the day and night. The volcano – which disappears from certain angles by disguising itself as a grassy mountain – serves as a fittingly awe-inspiring icon to what some call the greatest theme park on Earth.

Mount Prometheus is 189 feet tall – exactly the same height as Cinderella Castle at Tokyo Disneyland next door.

Inside: A massive and all-encompassing rock caldera affixed to the mountain’s side contains the park’s signature land, Mysterious Island (based on the Jules Verne book of the same name). Indeed, Verne’s work carries through the land. The entire land is filled with metallic paths hoisted up around the circular caldera, with a lagoon of bubbling, boiling water and leaping geysers within. The mountain itself contains one of the most incredible and sought-after rides Disney has ever created – the Modern Marvel: Journey to the Center of the Earth

11. Enchanted Storybook Castle

Image: Disney

Where: Shanghai Disneyland

The Story: For their third Disneyland-style park in Asia, Disney has changed everything. From the “traditional” layout of themed lands to the contents of those lands, almost everything has shifted. We chronicled all the details in our In-Depth: Shanghai Disneyland walkthrough. Shanghai Disneyland is a reinvented park. That’s the case with the park’s icon, too. Leaving behind Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella and sort of morphing their styles together, Enchanted Storybook Castle is a brand a new take on the castle classics and is proudly trumpeted as the largest Disney castle ever built. Towering and elegant with oxidized domes, teal towers, and ornate decorations, it truly is unlike any castle to come before. Whether bigger is always better has been hotly contest among fans, but the Enchanted Storybook Castle is still a sight to behold.

Inside: Stepping into the castle, guests find themselves in a glowing, ethereal rotunda with a stunning chandelier and mosaic artwork showcasing Disney Princesses. Meanwhile, the lower level of the castle contains show scenes for the park's one-of-a-kind Voyage to the Crystal Grotto, a sort of Jungle-Cruise-style Fantasyland adventure past sylized vignettes of Disney classics.

12. "Princesses Castle" 

Image: Disney

Where: Shanghai Disneyland

The Story: Something altogether unique is taking shape at Hong Kong Disneyland... Spurred by the opening of the second Chinese Disney resort in Shanghai, Hong Kong government officials started to get serious about their miniscule park – one of the final, low-budget, cop-out parks produced at the end of Michael Eisner's penny-pinching era. Sure, the park had already undergone a massive expansion to open three new mini-lands, Disney's first Marvel-themed E-Ticket, and the Modern Marvel: Mystic Manor, but more would be needed if Hong Kong's park were to stand a chance against the much larger Shanghai juggernaut.

A surprising expansion will bring about a full Marvel land (carved out of a corner of the park's Tomorrowland), a New Fantasyland centered around Frozen, and – perhaps most surprisingly – a new castle. The concept art reveals that Sleeping Beauty Castle will remain mostly in-tact, with a towering, stretched palace of mish-mashed towers essentially being grafted onto it. The castle – so far unnamed – appears to attempt to represent the castles inhabited by each Disney Princess, though fans are distinctly divided on the final product and its promise to be the tallest Disney castle yet.

Inside: It's almost certain space will be set aside within for something, and a pricey restaurant seems most likely. But we won't know until this new, expanded castle lowers is drawbridge in 2020.

Ideal Icons

They inspire awe. They overwhelm. They excite. Just when you think they can’t possibly come up with another, a new incredible park icon takes center stage. Which of the icons we’ve explored are your favorites? What makes them so incredibly moving to us?

 
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Comments

I still enjoy sleeping beauty castle in Disneyland. Its very nostalgic an I love that it the first.

Also less known parks have their icons. I specially like the entrance of Efteling, Netherlands. Just Google: huis van de vijf zintuigen (house of the five senses

In reply to by Albert (not verified)

Yeah, Efteling has an amazing entrance way which leads to a great entrance of the park; one of the best entrances to a themepark I think :)

In reply to by Albert (not verified)

I'm not suee exactly why but this web site is loading verey slow for me.
Is anyone else having this problem or is it a issue on my end?
I'll check back lateer on and seee if the
problem still exists.

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