Land of the Rising Mickey
Page 12 of 13

Arabian Coast

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Set in roughly 1200 A.D. , the backstory states that "Arabian Coast is the storybook realm created by the Genie from Disney's classic animated feature, Aladdin". I had no idea he has so much taste. He must have been having a very good day.

With so much artistry at DisneySea, how does one go about choosing its most beautiful area? It's not easy, but if I absolutely had to choose one, it would be Arabian Coast. There's so much exquisite architecture and such an incredible amount of meticulously hand painted detail, most of it based in Islamic and ancient Persian designs. It's all comes together so perfectly to create a charm that transported me away to this (inexplicably muggy:) desert shore.

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I could spend days just wandering through its minarets and domes... exploring the Palace Courtyard... discovering the area's many layers of symmetry and detail, with occasional breaks to pass through the fortress walls and take in the magic of...

Sindbad's Seven Voyages

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There were some things I already knew before riding, like - it uses a ride system very similar Pirates of the Caribbean (but the attraction itself is quite different), it has over 160 Audio-Animatronic figures...(163, to be precise - more than any other Disney attraction), most of the figures are about three feet tall (one is over 15 feet tall!), it takes a fanciful rather than realistic approach to its storytelling... there were a few other little things here and there.

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The first aspect I wasn't ready for was the movement... there's so much of it! More than that, I found it a fascinating, and in retrospect, long overdue, blending of two concepts - the small scale figures of a classic dark ride (which feature very limited movement) and the subtle and fluid movement of state of the art Audio-Animatronics. The effect is startling! Sindbad is lushly detailed fantastical scene, after lushly detailed fantastical scene, each one filled with characters who's movement is unsurpassed in the field of three-dimensional animation. Those movements and the characters' expressive design imparts upon them an exceptional amount of personality.

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But there's something else about the attraction that's really effected me. It's something that's far harder to describe... The magic of it. I feel more than any attraction in DisneySea, Sindbad's Seven Voyages holds the traditional charm that in the past I've only felt at Disneyland in California. I don't think there is a higher compliment I could pay.

Facts at a Glance