New Fantasyland opens at Disney’s Magic Kingdom

Florida theme park expansion blends classic characters, modern favorites.

LAKE BUENA VISTA, FLA. — Derrick Weitlich and his friend Leslie Martinez arrived at the Magic Kingdom at 5:40 a.m., wanting to be among the first to visit the park’s New Fantasyland.

Getting up early was worth it, said these Melbourne, Fla., Disney fans, who estimated that they have visited the park some 180 times.

“I love Beauty and the Beast,” said Martinez, while standing in front of the new Gaston’s Tavern restaurant. “And I’m very picky when it comes to details about ‘Beauty and the Beast.’”

Martinez and Weitlich weren’t disappointed. From the antlers lining the walls in the tavern to the animatronic Ariel in the Under the Sea-Journey of the Little Mermaid ride, they were impressed with the New Fantasyland, which opened last week.

It’s the largest expan- sion project in the park’s 41-year history. The new spaces are built on what was once the site of the 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea experience, and the expansion doubles the size of the original Fantasyland.

The central Florida theme park near Orlando is blending classic Disney characters (like Dumbo, the flying elephant) and newer, popular hits (like “The Little Mermaid”) with the multimillion dollar expansion.

“It’s really about immersing people in a number of stories, characters and music that they love,” said Walt Disney Parks and Resorts I follow, live-tweeted the funeral of a friend. The deceased was a heavy social media user and the family appeared to be fine with the public updates about the memorial service. But others were critical of the act, suggesting that the focus shifted from the departed to the reporter and that he couldn’t have been emotionally present for the funeral while posting micro updates.

Elias Aboujaoude, a Stanford University psychiatrist and author of “Virtually You: The Dangerous Powers of the E-Personality,” says that in a time of rapid technological disruption, the social mores around grief and mourning are bound to change.

“These situations are now hardly unusual as the technology moves faster than our ability to develop proper etiquette for using it,” Aboujaoude said. “What used to horrify us only a couple of years ago, such as texting while driving or texting in the middle of a nice dinner at a nice restaurant is now Chairman Tom Staggs.

New Fantasyland sits just past Cinderella Castle, with two sections: Enchanted Forest, where visitors will find Belle from “Beauty and the Beast” and Ariel from “The Little Mermaid,” and Storybook Circus, which is inspired by the Disney film “Dumbo.”

Among the highlights: a ride called Under the Sea-Journey of the Little Mermaid, which tells Ariel’s story, and Enchanted Tales With Belle, a walkthrough experience that features a magical mirror and costumed characters.

Staggs said that the expansion allows families to “be a little more entirely commonplace.”

Aboujaoude believes that since we express every other emotion virtually, it’s natural that we take our grief online as well. But it can make our grief interactive in unexpected ways (inviting, say, horrible anonymous comments from trolls) or keep us disengaged as we try to process loss.

“Grief is hard work and requires a certain degree of focus and devoted attention. Since these are in short supply in the virtual world, we tend to experience grief differently in cyberspace than we do offline,” he said.

Since the rise of the Internet, there have been online support groups to express grief and connect with others who are mourning. But social media has accelerated the input and output of even that kind of information. Is it possible that such a highvolume medium is beneficial to the grieving process beyond simply making someone feel more connected when they might otherwise feel alone?

“Grief can be isolating for people,” said Barbara Jones, an associate professor and co-director of the Institute for Grief, Loss and Family Survival at the University of Texas at Austin’s School of Social Work. “Using the web to memorialize someone you care relaxed” while in the park, calling the spaces “more enjoyable.”

The grand opening happened twice: once for media and bloggers in front of Gaston’s Tavern and then again on the steps of Cinderella Castle, with cheering park visitors. Staggs was joined by actress Ginnifer Goodwin, singer Jordin Sparks and, of course, Mickey Mouse. Sparks sang a medley of songs from Disney movies.

Two of New Fantasyland’s highlights have yet to open. A ride called Seven Dwarfs Mine Train is under construction, as is Princess Fairytale Hall — where guests can go to meet all of their favorite Disney princesses at once. Disney officials said the princess experience will open next year, with the ride set to open in 2014.

Many of the park’s longstanding beloved attractions like Cinderella Castle, and rides based on “It’s a Small World” and “The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh” remain.

Be Our Guest Restaurant is new. It also serve wine and beer with dinner, which is the first time alcohol is being sold at the Magic Kingdom. about means that your grief is seen and witnessed by others. The person you cared about is still virtually living in some way.”

Perhaps counter-intuitive to the idea that the online world can be a cold, impersonal place, Jones says some research suggests that grieving online can have some clear benefits. “Technological connectedness can in fact mitigate symptoms of depression and post-traumatic stress,” she said. That can be dependent on many factors including the circumstances of the death, the grief-stricken person’s existing relationship with technology and how they typically communicate with loved ones.

In the same way that tweets and status updates never really go away even if you delete them, online memorials may be one way to keep a person’s memory alive, a kind of post-mortem social networking. Many online memorial sites now exist to post photos and comments when someone dies, and on Facebook there’s a way to convert a person’s profile into a memorial page after they pass away.

Jones says that it seems to align with the fact that grief never really goes away. “We don’t stop loving or missing the person who has died,” she said.