Fantasy Faire Opens at Disneyland With Princess Meet-and-Greet Plus Two New Shows

March 12, 2013— -- Fantasy Faire, a storybook village square and the latest expansion of Fantasyland at Disneyland Park, opened to the public today.

Located on the west side of Central Plaza at the Anaheim, Calif., park, the highlight of the village square is Tangled Tower, a sculpture inspired by the story of Rapunzel. After dark, Rapunzel's hair, twisting around the tower sculpture, comes to life with twinkling lights.

"I hope when guests walk into Fantasy Faire they'll be amazed by the amount of detail we put into it," said Michel Den Dulk, creative director, Fantasy Faire, Walt Disney Imagineering. "There are really nice details like Clopin and Figaro and the Tangled Tower, and I think our guests will feel that this is a great new location at Disneyland."

READ: Magic Kingdom Expansion Focused on Boys

PHOTOS: New Fantasyland Opens at Magic Kingdom

READ: New Fantasyland Takes Magic Kingdom from One Castle to Three

For aspiring princesses, the main attraction will likely be Royal Hall, a series of spaces where visitors can meet up to three of their favorite Disney princesses. On the path to the attraction, guests encounter Geppetto's cat Figaro dozing (and occasionally waking) on a window sill, and "Clopin's Music Box," an interactive mechanical toy representing the Feast of Fools from "The Hunchback of Notre Dame."

Another main attraction is the Royal Theatre, featuring two shows: the retelling of "Beauty and the Beast" and "Tangled," two of Disney's most popular recent princess movies, by a pair of vaudeville-style renaissance storytellers and appearances from some of the characters themselves.

Between Royal Theatre and Royal Hall is Fairy Tale Treasures (gift shop) where guests can buy the costumes and accessories seen on their favorite Disney royalty at the attraction. For visitors who love to look for "hidden" elements on their Disney vacations, look for the acorn treasure chest that hangs above the doorway. According to Den Dulk and reported on the Disney Parks Blog, the acorn is a nod to the creatures of some of Disney's classic fairy tales.

"I was inspired by several of our classic fairy tale films like 'Cinderella' and 'Sleeping Beauty,' where woodland creatures, critters and birds interact with humans to help make clothes or help dress someone," says Den Dulk. "For those critters and creatures, our human valuables, such as gold, diamonds, crowns, etc., probably don't mean much, but a beautiful shiny acorn on the other hand, does. So we tied in the theme of a squirrel adoring the acorn as a treasure, which is something that was fun to create and also ended up being an underlying motif in the shop."

The Walt Disney Company is the parent company of ABC News.