5. Le Château de la Belle au Bois Dormant

Location: Disneyland Paris
Inside: La Tanière du Dragon

Every Disneyland-style park in the world has a castle at its center, but the designing of Disneyland Paris forced some re-thinking. While Americans marveled at Sleeping Beauty Castle and Cinderella Castle, there are real castles all over France and Europe, most of which are much more spectacular than Disney’s forced-perspective varieties!

Imagineers put their heads together and ultimately decided a castle would still work, but with a twist. Paris’ is by far Disney’s most fairy-tale-like, with sweeping turrets, spiral stairs, stained glass windows, and geometric shrubbery built into the side of a rocky hill. Lurking in the dark dungeons beneath in La Tanière du Dragon is one of Disney’s most intimidating animatronics... a sleeping fairytale dragon who is easily disturbed.

6. Atlantica

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Location: Tokyo DisneySea
Inside: Mermaid Lagoon

When Tokyo DisneySea opened in 2001, it shocked theme park fans with its details, stories, and incredible settings. It’s only fitting that the nautical park devotes an entire land to Disney’s The Little Mermaid, and in their expected style, the Japanese went all out. Mermaid Lagoon is contained almost entirely indoors and could be a theme park in its own right, but it can only be accessed by stepping into Triton’s undersea palace – embedded in the volcanic wall of Mount Prometheus – and descending down to an under water kingdom. At night, Triton’s castle glows with gold fiber optics as water reflects off its pastel surface.

7. Prince Eric’s Castle

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Location: Magic Kingdom
Inside: Under the Sea: Journey of the Little Mermaid

One of the most stunning additions to the Magic Kingdom’s New Fantasyland wasn’t a ride at all… it was the addition of Prince Eric’s Castle from The Little Mermaid, set back into beautiful grassy hills along a trickling stream fed by waterfalls. A faithful recreation of the Prince’s seaside palace from the film, Prince Eric’s Castle and the shipwrecks, waterfalls, and grottos surrounding form the queue for the land’s new dark ride. Still, physically seeing the castle, then traveling through the ancient vaults beneath it to the ride’s loading area is one of Magic Kingdom’s highlights.

8. Enchanted Storybook Castle

Location: Shanghai Disneyland
Inside: Boat ride, walkthrough attraction, meet and greets. 

Instead of honoring only one character, the new castle under construction for Shanghai Disneyland is an Enchanted Storybook Castle that is home to all princesses and is visually a sort of combination between Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella’s. Inside, the building will contain a boat ride, Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique princess makeover experience, and Once Upon a Time Adventure, a large-scale, walkthrough experience.