Gaston has arrived in Belle’s Village – well, a statue of him has, anyway.
Our friends at Walt Disney Imagineering are excited to share this latest milestone as Gaston arrived on site earlier this week, and they even snapped this pic for us to share exclusively with our Disney Parks Blog readers.
This bronze work of art will be a focal point in Belle’s Village, appearing as part of a larger fountain that also features Gaston’s sidekick Lefou right outside of Gaston’s Tavern.
Here’s what we can expect Belle’s Village to look like when it’s complete. (For reference, Gaston’s Tavern is on the left and Bonjour Gifts is on the right).
We’ll be back Tuesday morning with another update on New Fantasyland. In the meantime, what part of New Fantasyland do you want to see next?
Keep an eye on the Disney Parks Blog and follow @WaltDisneyWorld on Twitter for the latest on the New Fantasyland expansion. While you’re on Twitter, join in the conversation by using the hashtag #NewFantasyland.
Comments
If “Be Our Guest” is opening on Dec 6th… how do you make reservations for the dinning plan?
I am beyond excited to see the new Fantasyland. We are arriving in mid November and I’m hoping we will get to dine at the new “Be Our Guest” restaurant. I read that it will be quick service dining during lunch and then table service for dinner. Do you know if it will be a character dining experience during the dinner hours?
Thanks Jennifer. We are planning our January 2013 trip and I CANNOT WAIT to see all of New Fantasyland. But, if I’m being honest, I’m mostly excited about the new food. 🙂
Any word on whether Gaston’s Tavern will be on the DDP? Or the food/beverages served there? Is it actually a restaurant or more of a snack shop?
I have a request in to learn more about Gaston’s. This update will probably come from our food author, Pam Brandon.
We’ll just have to wait and see. 🙂
Oh what a guy that Gaston. Does he really use antlers in all his decorating?
Tami: When I was attending the Not-So-Scary Halloween party last year, Gaston WAS there for meet-and-greets! Lots of the villains attend the party, even though you normally can’t meet them in the parks.
I hope Disney is working on a Gaston character for a meet & greet! Wouldn’t THAT be fun!!!!
Really excited about all this, its just unfortunate that I have about 3 years until my next trip.
Feel free to follow along right here, Anthony. We’ll make you feel as included and “in the know” as we possibly can!
I hope there’s a book store in Belle’s village. What a great way to get children interested in reading!
That would be great. When I was a pre-teen, I loved both books at “Beauty & The Beast.”
I would LOVE to see more of The Little Mermaid areas of the expansion. We haven’t heard anything about Ariel’s Grotto or Scuttle’s Scavenger Hunt. I would also love to see a photo of the statue of Ariel that will be located outside Prince Eric’s Castle. We’ve seen so many updates regarding Beauty and the Beast releated areas, it would be nice to give us Little Mermaid fans some juicy new details too.
These are all things on my list – stay tuned!
For everyone complaining about the missing musket, look very close and you can see it’s there. How, do you think, the holes got into the barrels?
Right. And now he’s saving the barrels so all the nice lemonade that’s in there isn’t going to waist.
Gaston looks fantastic and we cannot wait to see all of the latest additions to Fantasyland in person! Hopefully we will in late November, but if not, we will be back in 2013! Thanks for all of the wonderful updates Jennifer!
Thank you, Danny!
I’m thinking the second barrel as opposed to the gun will add an additional water element to the fountain. It makes more sense to have water flowing from a keg than from a gun.
Anyway, this looks fantastic!!!! Can’t wait to see it all open! While we’re on the topic of what we would like to see next, I’d love more information about Pete’s Silly Sideshow and the Big Top Souvenir Shop. =) Thanks for a great article again Jennifer!
You may like next week’s update then, Nicole!
cant wait to see what is going on, ill be there in 71 days.
Fun!
Allie, it’s on the Passholder home page after you log in to your account on disneyworld.com. No official date yet, just November.
I’m sure this statue was created well before July, but in light of the recent tragedy in our country, it was probably good insight to replace the gun with barrels instead. I would imagine Disney will be even more sensitive with violence and gun reference in theme parks and possibly movies… So Gaston is my favorite villain anyways – he can look good with anything! LOL 🙂
Im comeing Nov1st for 8 days , I check everyday to see if theres any updates on the opening of the BOG restaurent
Jonathan, where did you hear about a passholder preview in November?
Jennifer, can you confirm this or provide more information?
All we know at this point is that Annual Passholders will have some sort of preview in November. No specific dates have been announced yet. Keep watching.
guess I will have to plan another trip when it opens. 😉
love it..But I would have stick to the concept drawing,is his character.. the idea jennifer from MI said about the beer jar is even better than two barrels. and I will on anyway, have kept the musket down on the right, in a vertical position, and the beer or barrel carried on his left.(if you wanted to connect the tavern to the fountain and focus on it) ..But never! Never! left the musket out!!!. Two barrels are very repetitive elements on both arms…
The musket was probably replaced with a barrel to tie in with the tavern theme. There must be root beer inside that barrel 😉
Hey – that’s a good point. He’s out there promoting his own product!
All of your posts just make me think the new areas shown are “essentially” complete…I would love for a committed date to be announced.
An Annual pass preview was announced for November…I guess that kind of rules out it being open in October… 🙁
Keep in mind that these photos are VERY close-up. Work is still going on all over the site. What is finished so far is amazing.
When we were there in January I was hoping by the time we returned in August it would be opened. We arrive next week so we’ll be waiting until 2014 to see it.
Is it safe to assume that any official opening dates will be announced at least 45 days in advance before vacations need to be confirmed? Also, if everything is ready ahead of time, does Disney tend to stick to the announced opening date or do soft openings in advance?
I think since the quick service restaurant in Belle’s village will be called Gaston’s Tavern, they decided to put more emphasis on the “tavern” association in the fountain statue. The concept art is done so far in advance of the final plans that there are always deviations from the initial concepts. I’m sure inside Gaston’s Tavern his musket as well as his trophies will be present.
I’d like to see more of the interior of the Little Mermaid attraction, plus something from Bonjour! Village Gifts.
I also hope that Jennifer will give us some sort of answer as to why Gaston lost his musket in the final version of the statue.
I’ve already requested an update on Bonjour Gifts from our Merchandise friends. 🙂
We will be attending Thanksgiving week and are so excited and hopeful that New Fantasyland will be open! Will the “A New Fantasyland Milestone” become a regular or semiregular series similar to “All in the Details”? I hope so! Maybe that will mean we are getting closer to an opening date announcement 😀
Thanks so much for the updates. I’m with some of the others that mentioned the exact dates. We are going the week after Thanksgiving so I’m hoping that falls into the “2012 Holiday Season” 🙂
I’m very excited about the New Fantasyland. Having grown up in Florida ad frequenting the Disney parks several times throughout the year, it’s nice to see changes.
It’s going to be amazing. Also, I hope that they don’t cancel Avatar…as nobody is talking about it anymore.
In a next update I would love to see the roads.
The “old” Fantasyland as now a lot of concrete to handle traffic. I understand why that’s done but how will it be in the Fantasyforrest part?
Also I would love to see how transitions are made. The plants over there and the athmosfeer are very different from attration to attraction. Will we see a palmtree next to a pine tree, I guess not but how do they do that?
Hmm, that is an interesting idea, Otto.
I would love to know more about the opening dates? My daughter loves Belle and I grew up loving Ariel so this addition is perfect for us. We are visiting the first of Nov. I would love to experience a part of it then, but if not it would be a great reason to plan another trip to Disney in the near future. 🙂
I am SO excited about the Fantasyland Expansion. We are locals and we are in the parks a lot, so we’ve been watching the construction. Hoping for an annual passholders preview of some sort?…..My 5 kids agree, that would be awesome! Can’t wait to post all about the new Fantasyland on my blog.
It’s about my life with 5 kids and our love of Disney!
We’re hoping to have info on openings soon! Stay tuned.
I’m so excited to see this. This is what I was looking most forward to about New Fantasyland. No one stands on a fountain like Gaston!
That’s true!
If I get to choose what to preview next for the new update of the expanded new area of Fantasyland would be the Little Mermaid attraction and any of the Audio-Animatronics. Any of them come in yet and are placed on the attraction?
That’s a good question about the Audio-Animatronics. I’ll ask.
Why was the gun from the concept art replaced with a barrel?
Looks great but Gaston holding the musket would have been funnier and been more in character. Dont really understand it since toy guns are sold in the Pirates gift shop.
Have they started work on the Seven Dwarfs mine train ride? And, in the original plans on youtube they considered adding a pixie hollow somewhere, is that changed or down the road?
Yes, the mine train is well under way. Even though there’s a construction wall around it, it’s very hard to miss!
Natasha – All of our jobs are listed right here: http://disneycareers.com/en/default/
Are there any job openings?
“My what a guy, that Gaston!” 🙂 I can’t wait to see the New Fantasyland and admire all of the Imagineers’ details in person. Disney Imagineering does such a fantastic job bringing the movies we love to life in the Parks. I’d love to see any new parts of the Fantasyland Forest.
I get that someone didnt want a gun I guess portrayed in Fantasyland…but Gaston is a hunter. “Picture this, a rustic hunting lodge……my latest kill roasting over the fire…” I mean, it is still all a wonderful addition but the image of Gaston with the musket is so much more iconic.
I’m so impressed that you can quote Gaston. 🙂
I would love to see pictures of the West Wing!
It would also be great to see what Bonjour Gifts will look like on the inside and what type of merchandise they will sell @StevenMiller
Here’s hoping for the Lumiere, Cogsworth, and Mrs. Potts sets that were released for the Beauty and the Beast diamond-edition DVD (that some of us didn’t get a chance to buy!) 🙂
Why did they replace the musket on his shoulder (in the concept art) with another wooden barrel?
Cool, but I would have preferred it to be more accurate to the artists rendition.
This just keeps getting more and more amazing by the day!!! Please, can we have the exact dates of the openings? My friend and I are going there for Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party and we’re praying it’s open by then!
This just gets more exciting everyday! In 126 days I hope to see all of this :o)
It truly does!
Looks great, cannot wait to see everything in person this Holiday season! So far we’ve seen stuff from the attractions & restaurant. I’d love to see a post about the plant life, trees, etc.
The part of Fantasyland I want to see next is an official opening date for everything as opposed to “Holiday 2012”.
Fingers crossed we’ll have something soon.
Comments are closed.