Disneyland Dream Suite

As mentioned previously in my blog, Walt Disney never liked to stray far from his creation when Disneyland was being constructed and renovated, which is why he had an apartment created for him within the walls of the Magic Kingdom. However, his tiny apartment was not quite big enough to house his VIP guests.

His solution was to create a luxury apartment above the Pirates of the Caribbean ride in New Orleans Square, called the The Royal Suite. Disney brought in a set designer from Gone With the Wind, to design the apartment and left the decorating to his wife, Lilly.

However, Roy Disney brought the apartment's construction to a halt by in 1966 after the death of Walt. The Royal Suite was later transformed into the Disney Gallery in 1987 and remained open for guests to peruse through until it was shut down in 2007 in order to bring Walt's original purpose for the space back to life.

Disney's Imagineers got to work on creating the Dream Suite, using Dorthea Redmond's original drawing as their inspiration. However, this time the Suite was going to be for randomly selected guests to enjoy instead of Disneyland VIPs.

Throughout the year 2009, called the Year of a Million Dreams, Disneyland has appointed special employees to pick random visitors to stay for a night in the Dream Suite, and some families have been featured in Disneyland's Backstage Pass magazine to share their experience.

The Dream Suite includes two bedroom, two bathrooms, a living room, and an open-air patio that overlooks the park, each with it's own Disney theme. From the balcony, guests have the best view "in the house" of the Fantasmic water show.

Each winner of the giveway is given a free dinner at the Blue Bayou restaurant, act as the Grand Marshal of the parade, and also get a two-hour tour of the park after it is closed.

For those of you who want to see more of this $3 million project, here's a video tour for Disneyland's new (and gorgeous) Dream Suite.