Was this really Cinderella Castle?

[primax]

Can anyone explain to me what am I lookng at and when did this happen? Was this really Cinderella Castle and what was the purpose?

http://www.wdwinfo.com/photopost/showphoto.php?photo=98&papass=&sort=1&thecat=502

 

[MulanMom]

It's what we referred to as the Pepto (Bismal) Castle!!! Indeed it is Cinderella's Castle. This was done to celebrate WDW's 25th anniversary.

 

[TinaMedley]

Yes, it was Cindy's Castle. The made it look like a birthday cake to celebrate WDW's 25th anniversary. It lasted for about a year and half. Hope they don't do again anytime soon. Either people liked it or they didn't. I really didn't care for it myself.

 

[primax]

Thanks for the replies. Oh my ..... that is horrible. I thought it was the 25 anniversary castle but I could not beleive they would do that. The Castle as it is STANDS FOR DISNEY!

Could you image if the decorated Walt Disney statues and pictures like that for 100 years. LOL

It looks like a candy land castle!

 

[hopemax]

We always called it the Cakesle.

A big problem was all those couples that paid thousands of dollars to get married at the Wedding Pavilion. They did not pay all that money to have that pink thing in the background of their pictures. Disney had to have a special stained glass window made to fit in the window that normally frames the castle.

 

[Donalds_best_pal]

I got be in the 25th annivarisary show, being in it was pretty cool. Unfourtunately my parents werent able to get pictures of me because they were in the show to holding sign. Mickey and minnie grabbed my hands and ran me up onstage, i will always remember that. I acutually thought the castle looked pretty cool, its amazaing how they transformed it.
matt

 

[Jeff in BigD]

I hated it.

 

[deirdrefitch]

The pink thing was there for our very first trip. Imagine our disappointment. I too hope they never feel the need to go pink again!

 

[HauntedMansionFan]

Ugh. Enough said.

 

[one_cat]

We never saw it but we had heard the stories.

 

[Welsh *Disney* Girlz]

We saw it and it didn't look too bad. The idea was a nice one, we suppose, but they went a bit OTT with the whole thing and it ended up looking stupid rather than colourful and Disney-like.

 

[OnWithTheShow]

I also thought it was pretty cool, but it got gawdy very fast. It is also quite amazing that it was the same building and that they made it completely modular and temporary. The process of installing it was fascinating because at first I had no idea what was going on. One day segments of the castle began to be painted pink. The cake in a way earned the castle a major cleanup because after it was taken down they gave the castle a new and improved paint job and also re-lit it.

 

[Greg K.]

True fact from 1997.

While the castle was all caked up, the folks at the Wedding Pavillion had a problem. The chapel is designed so that, behind the altar, through the window, guests see a perfectly framed fairy tale view of the castle. What to do?

They came up with an ingenious solution. They created a stained glass window that, if the bride chose, could be slipped into place to cover the pink monstrosity.

Now, the folks out in Disneyland may be facing a similar nightmare...with reports circulating that the Sleeping Beauty castle will be redone somehow in GOLD for that park's 50th.

Really. I'm not making this up.

There's no accounting for taste.

 

[joyceharris]

Funny joke that made the Disney rounds during the bleak pink castle days...

Did you hear that Mickey and Minnie got a divorce and that Barbie bought their house?

All I remember is the permanent crane fixture on the back of the castle for 18 months. Seems the nightly fireworks would shoot cinders over towards the castle and it would poke small leaking holes into the "air blown" fixtures on the castle and they would have to make almost nightly repairs. I have a series of pictures over several months with the stupid crane,

Wonder whatever happened to the brillant person that came up with this idea?

jhh

 

[Evil Princess]

Ever notice that besides the horrible color scheme and over all ugliness of this "birthday cake", it just didn't look right?

The castle was designed using forced perspective. As the castle gets higher, the details get smaller, giving it the illusion of being bigger then it really is.

All those terrible blown up decorations didn't really tie into the forced perspective thing. As a result, I think the castle looks smaller than it normally does.

But maybe its just me...either way, a bad decision. Thankfully that was not the first year I went to WDW...I knew when I returned in a couple of years it was gone. Now all is right with me and the castle

 

[Dznefreek]

The castle was designed using forced perspective. As the castle gets higher, the details get smaller, giving it the illusion of being bigger then it really is.

Actually MS was designed this way. The castle is a 1:1 scale: 189'-0" tall.

 

[KNWVIKING]

I actually kinda,sorta liked it. Sure it was campy and over the top, but what else are birthday cakes supposed to look like ?

 

[DawnCt]

Count me in as another one whose vacation was marred by the pink monstrosity. Actually, it looked better after dark but not by much.

 

[Micca]

I found it a travesty. I hope they never touch the castle again.

 

[sgtdisney]

I don't know how much validity there is to this, but we took a backstage tour shortly after the castle reverted back to it's normal state, shortly after the 25th anniversary ended. The tour guide told us that the Pink Castle was a huge problem with complaints and they had something like 20 to 1 complaints to compliments. He went on and on, I suspect it was not a pleasant time. He told us management has said that they will never change the look of the castle again because of this. Who knows how true it was, but it made for an interesting tour.