The Disney 100 Exhibition in London

“No adventure is either improbable or impossible”

Walt Disney

Disney lovers rejoice! The Walt Disney Company has opened their vault of treasures to bring us The Disney 100 Exhibition to celebrate 100 years of magic. 

After the world premier in Philadelphia and European premier in Munich, the exhibit arrived in London and quickly sold out. But due to popular demand the exhibition will re-open on the 6th March through to the end of April for those who missed it the first time around. After London it looks like it will be heading to Chicago and Kansas City.

Getting There

The exhibition is held at ExCel London. I got the train into London Waterloo and then the Jubilee line to Canning Town. After a quick change onto the DLR to Custom House, it’s just a few minutes walk to the exhibition. It took roughly half an hour to get there from Waterloo.  Don’t worry there are signs everywhere and you can’t miss it. 

Price

Various tickets are available including adult (17+), children (5-16), OAP, student and NHS, group bundles, flexi fast track and VIP. I paid £21 with NHS discount. 

I bought my ticket through Fever and have linked the page for you here to see the full list of prices and time availability. 

The Experience

Now onto the exciting stuff!

Once you arrive for your time slot you are shown into a room to watch an introductory video. The dim lights and light projections all over the walls gave me such a hit of nostalgia. I felt like I was right back at Walt Disney World. 

The exhibit comprises 10 themed galleries including Where it All Began, The Magic of Sound and Music, Innoventions and We Are Just Getting Started. 

The galleries take you through the entire Disney story. Beginning with Walt’s childhood and earliest creation, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, right through to the latest movies and what we can expect next. 

We see the newest family members Marvel and Star Wars, the Disney theme parks, innovations and ground breaking early technology. There are interactive displays and authentic movie props.

It’s pure magic everywhere but I don’t want to give away too much. It’s much better in person. 

Of note I did feel quite claustrophobic during the first gallery. Of course when you step through you want to stop and take everything in, but quite a few groups were being moved through at the same time so it ended up being a bit of a bottleneck. And it was quite warm so I would advise taking plenty of water. Also it’s important to know that there are no bathrooms in the actual exhibit itself. 

Another thing to be aware of is the gift shop prices. I think it’s normal to want to leave with some memorabilia but it was very expensive (although I was expecting this). 

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If yo’re a Disney fan, or just a fan of movie making, I would absolutely encourage you to get a ticket if you can. All in all I spent just over two hours here and it was well worth it.

Have you been? What did you think?

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Looking for more Disney? Check out these posts from my recent trip to Orlando.