Walt Disney World's Cinderella Castle gets a magical new makeover, honoring its history in Magic Kingdom
Cinderella Castle at Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom Park has a new look, with colors inspired by its appearance on Opening Day in 1971.
Since 2021, during the Orlando-based theme park's 50th anniversary celebrations, the castle has been painted in an iridescent pink and blue. Now, after several months, a team of painters under the guidance of Walt Disney Imagineering restored the structure to a more classic color scheme of blue, gray, and gold, "drawing on historical research and careful planning," according to the Walt Disney Imagineering teams.
This is not the first time the Castle has been given a makeover for a special occasion in the over 50 years the resort has been open to guests. For Walt Disney World's 25th Anniversary in the summer of 1997, it was painted to look like a birthday cake with candy decorations.
Chris Weck, a senior creative director at Walt Disney Imagineering, led the creative side of the work, overseeing the selection of the updated color palette.
The logistical side fell to Nathan Collahuazo, an associate project manager with Disney's Facility Asset Management team. His responsibilities included draining the castle moat and coordinating work at heights of more than 150 feet.
The castle's new look took months to complete
The castle took 18 months to construct and opened in July 1971, at 189 feet tall. It is designed with forced perspective, with smaller bricks as the structure gets higher. The height was capped at exactly 189 feet, due to Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) regulations that structures 190 feet or higher, which has since been modified to 200 feet or higher, must require a flashing red light for incoming aircraft.
To keep the guest experience as normal as possible, crews only worked overnights or in the morning, always wrapping up each day by noon. In a YouTube video posted by Disney Parks showing the behind-the-scenes of their work, it shows that the project began back in January, where that choice proved to be a challenge due to cooler temperatures at night below 35 degrees Fareinheight, due to the kind of paint that was used.
Before revealing the changed color palette, the video shows Disney World's live entertainment team testing the projections used on the Castle for their nighttime shows on the new colors and changing them to fit the palette.
The new color palette is now ready for guests to see and photograph, as Cinderella Castle is widely considered one of the most photographed businesses in the world, according to industry experts, and was formerly recognized by Kodak.