Field Trip! The Disney Store in Times Square

Although I've been meaning to get to it for quite a while, I just finally managed to visit the Disney Store in Times Square.  I had read other reviews of the new "interactive" store and desperately wanted to check out some of the features.

First, and I know this is weird to say about a store in Times Square, it was smaller than I expected.  It wasn't small by any means, but I guess the other reviews had me thinking it was this big WOW bright and shiny TA-DA! moment.  It blended in fine with the other Times Square stores - it didn't stand out.  Nevertheless, it was still sparkly:

When you first walk in, you are confronted with a bunch of displays. The merchandise didn't seem much different than the products you can get at any other Disney Store or in the parks, but then I'm not really a merchandise girl (unless it is vintage).  The displays, however, are kind of cool.  One had mannequins of children and characters like Minnie and Tigger sitting in swings that rotated around on top (kind of like a much slower, much smaller Silly Symphony Swings)

Here's a view of the swings from the escalator:

There's also some cut out trees and a model of some of New York's landmark sky scrapers with pretty lights:

The side wall by the escalator portrays a night scene.  Occasionally, a pair of sneaky-looking eyes will be projected on to the black shadowy bushes (they jump from place to place).  You hear some audio like "Pssst!" and the eyes look back and forth.  I tried to capture it on camera but they were just too quick for me!

When you head up the escalators, there is of course more merchandise and displays.  To your right is a large gazebo in which kids can sit and watch Disney stuff on TV.  When I was there, they were playing the Cars 2 movie trailer.  Not sure if they ever play full movies or non-commercial-y things.  Parents also seemed to be watching.  :)

But the best part was the princess castle.  It is a floor-to-ceiling castle where all the princess stuff is displayed.

A clock tower displays some products.  Tragically, I saw NO pink, sparkly Sleeping Beauty dresses.  Um, what?

The beautiful, sparkly chandelier (I like sparkly things.  Preferably pink and sparkly!):

The most interactive thing I saw was this magic mirror:

When you waved the bar code of one of the packaged princess dolls over the gems on top, the mirror would come alive.  My mirror was acting very finicky and I couldn't get it to work, but another patron waived her Sleeping Beauty doll and here's some stills of what we saw:

I need to go back and get video (and help figuring out the skills it takes to enliven the mirror).  Here's one last shot - from the Little Mermaid doll/mirror:

And Mickey and Minnie are there to thank you for coming as you head back down the escalator!