In February 2003, King Arthur's Carrousel at the original Disneyland in Anaheim, California re-opened after a lengthy, extensive refurbishment. During this refurbishment, the horses, scenery panels, and rounding boards were all extensively restored. The carrousel platform and structure were almost completely re-built and the ride mechanism was upgraded with a new, computer-controlled system that always stops the ride at the same spot. A wheelchair ramp and bench were added to accommodate disabled guests.

King Arthur's Carrousel was originally manufactured by the Dentzel Company in 1922. It was located at Sunnyside Park in Toronto, Ontario, Canada from 1922-1955 and was moved to Disneyland just prior to the park's opening in 1955. At that time, the 3-row carrousel was expanded to 4 rows and modified so that all of the horses were jumpers. In order to accomplish this, some of the horses were obtained from other carrousels. The original chariot benches were removed and were used as cars on the nearby Casey, Jr. circus train.

Disney has themed the carrousel with a hybrid of themes from two of their 1950s animated films. The scenery panels all depict scenes from "Sleeping Beauty" while the name and other elements are related to "The Sword and the Stone"

All of the photographs and the video on these pages were taken on February 16, 2003, shortly after the ride re-opened to the public.

View Photographs
Watch video of carrousel in motion (3.5MB download)

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