So I finally made my way into the expansion of Fantasyland this weekend. We were able to get into the area on Sunday night to get a few rides in on the Little Mermaid, as well as sight-see the area. It truly is a beautiful area, which I never doubted from the get-go. The small attention to detail is very evident in Mermaid queue.
The ride itself does not change my opinion from the DCA version. There's a few tweaks here and there, but overall the ending still kills it.
We did do Enchanted Tales with Belle, since it was a 20 minute wait, and my g/f was dying to do it. The AA's in the attraction (The mirror, Wardrobe, Lumiere) are some of the best I've ever seen. Besides that, meh. My g/f's thoughts, since she was looking forward to this most:
"I mean, it's cute! But I don't think we'll do it again, especially if the wait is so long. I just wish I would have been able to meet Belle, especially if you waited longer than 20 minutes. All we did is watch other kids re-enact the story in 5 minutes and she's up and gone after a couple quick phots with the participants. I wonder if other parents will feel the same way?"
While waiting for Belle, we got into a conversation with a grandfather taking his grandson in. My g/f, being the social butterfly she is, asked the little boy if he was excited to meet Belle. The grandfather replied "Wait, this isn't a ride?"
"No, it's a pretty much storytime with Belle, and you meet her at the end."
The man looked at his grandson, then asked "Where's the new ride?". Pointed him in the direction of Mermaid, and they left.
We got into a couple conversations with folks, with children, about this after checking out the attraction and all pretty much agreed. "It's cute for what it is, but it's not worth that wait time. Once is enough." One of the parents was a Disney pro and compared this "Tales with Belle" with the old one by the castle. She said that it "was different because Disney is making a big deal of Belle in the new area" whereas the old one was "just another thing you can do while visiting the park."
The Be Our Guest Restraunt was fantastic. We had lunch their on Monday and was pleased to see the ordering system work fluidly. Out of all the additions to the Expansion, I believe this will be the biggest hit of them all. My only beef with the area is that castle's perspective looks off.
Gaston's Tavern is ok. My g/f's first reaction was "Can we get Butterbeer here?".
I do like LeFou's Brew, but only because the Mango/Passion Fruit foam is delicious.