Passholder Preview (Enchanted Tales with Belle)

I'm going to break down my opinion of the Passholder Preview of New Fantasyland by attraction. First up: Enchanted Tales with Belle


Hopes are still through the roof at this point. The queue looks like there might be some interactive elements, turns out, they are not any.



The attraction takes place in the Inventor's house. The mountains are in the background and the Beast's castle is on top of the mountain. Zoomed in shot of the Beast's castle.

 





The first internal queue is in the main room of the house. I did not take any pictures; there were too many people in the room. There was a portrait of young Belle and her mom on a wall, a growth chart for young Belle (I am taller than 18 year old Belle!) and various odds and ends. Pretty cute, but I'm still waiting to find out what kind of ride this is. The next room has a big mirror in it and the Cast Member told us to look into the mirror and repeat something like, "Take us back to the night that Belle and the Beast fell in love." (Short person complaint time! Make the floor sloped so that when a family of giants is in the front row, other people can see.) We said this and the mirror turned into doors and we walked into the room pictured below.

 

The wardrobe talked and said that we were going to act out the night that Belle and the Beast fell in love. The cast member opened the wardrobe and started handing out cardboard "costumes" to the guests who wanted to be part of the play. The prison bars the cast member is holding represented Belle's father, who got locked in the dungeon by the Beast. The little boy in the red cape is the Beast; the man holding the knight's head is a guard. 



Once all of the parts were assigned, we were brought into the final room, the library. The guards were told to stand on either side of the fireplace and the story began. Lumiere was on the mantel and spoke throughout the experience.

Belle came in the library in her fancy gold dress and did a quick recap of the movie. You know, the Inventor leaves the house with the horse, the horse comes back alone, Belle follows the horse to the castle, Belle finds her father in prison, Belle trades places with him, Belle meets the enchanted footstool/ dog, etc. Every character in the plot synopsis is being played by a guest with a piece of cardboard and while this is happening, a cast member is talking pictures and syncing them with individual PhotoPasses so the guests can buy pictures. Belle and the Beast (the little boy in the red cape) share a dance and then all of the children follow Belle in a conga line. Then she says she has to go meet the Beast and leaves. The End.

Pros: Super interactive (character to guest), different from expected.

Cons:  Line was long and not interactive, not short people friendly, felt like an excuse to sell PhotoPass pictures.

This will not become a must do attraction for me.