uu27itu: disneyland castle pictures

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Cinderella Castle was inspired by a variety of real and fictional castles. These included Fontainebleau, Versailles and the chateaus of Chenonceau, Chambord and Chaumont, as well as Castle Neuschwanstein, Bavaria, and Alcázar of Segovia, Castile and León (Spain), the oldest of all, which is 9 centuries old. The chief designer of the Castle, Herbert Ryman, also referenced the original design for the castle in the film Cinderella and his own well-known creation — the Sleeping Beauty Castle at Disneyland in California.

Cinderella Castle was completed in July 1971, after about 18 months of construction, and reaches to a height of 189 feet (58 m) tall, measured from the concrete bottom of the moat, which itself is 6 feet (1.8 m) deep at the drawbridge. Cinderella Castle is more than 100 feet (30 m) taller than Sleeping Beauty Castle at Disneyland in Anaheim, California. An optical trick known as forced perspective makes the Castle appear even larger than it actually is. As it becomes taller, its proportions get smaller. For example, using this method, the top spire of the Castle is actually close to half of the size it "appears." Major elements of the Castle were scaled and angled to give the illusion of distance and height, a method frequently used in Disney theme parks around the world.

Originally, a suite was planned for the Disney family and executives, but since Walt Disney died nearly five years before the park opened, it remained unfinished, and eventually was turned successively into a telephone call center, a dressing room, and is currently a lavish Dream Suite hotel room for specially selected guests. There are three elevators inside the castle. One is for guest use and goes between the lobby of Cinderella's Royal Table, and the second floor where the restaurant is. The second is for restaurant staff use, and is located in tower 2 to the left of the drawbridge. It has landings in the Utilidors, the mezzanine level in a break room, and on the second floor in the kitchen. The third elevator is in tower 20, and services the Utilidors, the breezeway, the kitchen of Cinderella's Royal Table, and the Cinderella Castle Suite. The suite is about 30 feet (9.1 m) below the level where the cable is attached to tower 20. Access to the cable is by ladder. From January 2007 to December 2009 the suite was used as a prize for the Disney Dreams Giveaway at the Walt Disney World Resort during the Year of a Million Dreams celebration.

The castle was repainted in the Fall of 2006, and now is a slightly off white, brown and pinkish color, and the turrets are a much darker blue.