My dear readers,

I had been MIA on my blog last week after suffering from heat exhaustion. I’d forgotten that I’m very sensitive to heat and have learned that spending more than 5 hours in the sun greatly affects my health. So I’m going to start this week with some photos from my visit to the Disney UK Store on Oxford St in London, England back in April 2015.

Visitors to the Disney UK Store are greeted with a banner inviting them to Ella’s Royal Ball.

Banner and Staircase

The Cinderella castle is in the basement, with Cinderella (the Disney animation version) standing in the middle of the balcony.

The staircase leading to the ‘Royal Ball’ is dark blue and sparkly, as if one is walking down a glittering night sky. Sadly, my photo does not do the staircase (or the castle, for that matter) any justice.

Once visitors have arrived at the castle, they can hear the film score by Patrick Doyle as they wander around the kitchen to see the bell pulls and the great pumpkin carriage.

The bell pulls

As you can see from the photo of me inside the carriage (below), half the carriage is gilded whilst the back is an enormous pumpkin!

Bibbidi bobbidi boo! The back of the carriage is a giant pumpkin! Can you spot Ella’s mice friends?

Visitors can also see a replica of Ella’s glass slipper in a display case. However, I noticed that the slipper in the store did not sparkle as much as the one I’d seen in a toy store in Munich. 😦

My short visit to the Disney UK store on Oxford St was nothing short of magical. I hope the castle and carriage are still in the store for all Disney princesses and princes to enjoy for months to come!

Costume Drama Update

Cinderella (2015) will be available in Blu-Ray, DVD, digital HD on 15 September!

P.S.

In August, I noticed that Rapunzel stood in Cinderella’s place at the castle:

During my recent visit to the Disney store in October, I noticed these fleur-de-lys tiles behind the castle: