Sleeping Beauty Castle

Inspired by Neuschwanstein Castle, a picturesque 19th-century castle in Germany, Sleeping Beauty Castle at Disneyland Park in Anaheim, California, reaches nowhere near its European counterpart’s 213 foot height. Yet, despite its more intimate scale, the 77-foot-tall structure seems to tower over Main Street, thanks to the fact that design elements like the bricks in the walls get progressively smaller as they reach greater heights, imposing a forced perspective that exaggerates the castle’s size. This iconic symbol of the park dates back to opening day in 1955. The interior of the castle, which opened to visitors two years later, includes dioramas that tell the story of “Sleeping Beauty.” Fanciful features include imposing arches, a French-inspired golden crest (a rendering of the Disney coat of arms) above the entry, a drawbridge that has been lowered only twice, and below it, a moat known as Lake of the Swans.

Enchanted Storybook Castle

Opened in 2016, the Enchanted Storybook Castle at Shanghai Disneyland Park offers walk-throughs of exhibits representing all the Disney princesses and is the tallest of the six Disney castles, reaching close to 200 feet. Hewing to the mantra “authentically Disney, distinctly Chinese,” the tallest of the eight towers is topped with a golden peony finial symbolizing China above a stream of shooting Disney stars; one of the remaining spires has a gold finial shaped like a magnolia (an important flower for the Shanghainese), and another carries a crown representing the Disney princesses.

Phantom Manor

The Disneyland Paris equivalent of the Haunted Mansion at Walt Disney World and other Disney parks, this dark-ride attraction opened in 1992 in Frontierland in the French park in Marne-la-Vallée. Though it promises glimpses of 999 “happy haunts,” its imposing exterior is forbidding enough to give visitors second thoughts about dropping by. Built in the Victorian Second Empire architectural style, the house also took inspiration for its deliberately dilapidated look from the Fourth Ward school building in the old mining town of Virginia City, Nevada.

Tokyo Disneyland Hotel

Opened in 2008, this Victorian-style accommodation in Urayasu, Japan, is the largest and perhaps most striking of the three Disney hotels in Tokyo Disney Resort. The nine-story hotel with a sweeping entryway and ornate dome manages to blend the early 20th-century Victorian architectural style that Walt Disney embraced throughout his career with that of World Bazaar, the first themed land to greet guests as they stroll into Tokyo Disneyland.

Flo’s V8 Cafe

Patrons of Disneyland in Anaheim can fuel up at this retro diner in Cars Land that opened in 2012 and serves up American classics like fried chicken alongside architectural eye candy. A replica of the eponymous cafe in the hit Disney film “Cars,” itself named in honor of the V8 engine, the car-themed canteen incorporates design elements resembling pistons, spark plugs, and even an air filter.