Hi Jason, I think the site looks absolutely fine having a seductive mystical feel to it and I agree the drop down photos on the navbar work well. If it is OK to say there are only two things I would change. (1) I would darken the purple panels just a touch so that they are not so much in your face this would help to show off the pictorial background a little more and make the text easier to read.
(2) I would also lose the Microsoft sunset it’s just so 5 minutes ago (but that’s just me)
There again all in all a great looking sit.
PS. The use of Ariel is a mistake, never mix a Roman Serif typeface with a Grotesque Sans Serif use a typeface such as Frutiger or Gill Sans.