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Disneyland Paris


James6

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  • 4 weeks later...

Going back to Disneyland this year the week before Christmas. Has anyone been on the updated hyperspace mountain, star tours or POTC? If so how did they find it? Big thunder mountain was shut when I went last time so look forward to that at least.

 

Excited by the changes to come to Disneyland, the magic kingdom in WDW has had quite a lot of work done to it with the new enchanted forest section, it would be nice for Paris to get some updates too as there are some rides in Paris that need retiring (like Pinocchio...). I am also very jealous of California's version of the haunted mansion which features the nightmare before Christmas!

 

The studios is a bit soulless and run down, so I hope it gets a major overhaul.

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A Beauty and the Beast dark ride would certainly work and be ideal, given it's location, as would a water attraction for Frontier.

 

Aside from the New York Marvel rethrme (which I feel mixed on), I think the Studios Park will be getting fixed up first as the park is in a somewhat confused state bar a few attractions. Whilst all good, the future of Tower does concern me which could become a Guardians Clone.

 

Swear there was a rumour of a Frozen dark ride being built and one they were thinking of spiting the Snow White attraction. I hope not.

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1 hour ago, MarkC said:

I'm off to Disney end of September for the first time ever with my other half! Any tips at all?

Make the most of the park, get to the shows and parade early plus allow time for shopping.

 

Must do attractions in the parks are:

 

Parc Disneyland

Big Thunder Mountain 

Phantom Manor

(Hyper) Space Mountain

Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters

Star Tours-The Adventure Continues

Pirates Of The Caribbean 

It's A Small World

Peter Pan's Flight

 

Disney Studios

Ratatouille 

Tower Of Terror

Rock N Roller Coaster

Crush 

 

Make most of Magic hours if you are staying on site. These are usually from 8am in the main park which includes the Fantasy and Discovery attractions. If you are not  staying onsite you won't be able to access them unless you get an annual pass.

 

For food, I always find the best places are in the Disney Village. Planet Hollywood and Annette's are good calls. Earl Of Sandwich is one of the best places too.

 

 

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Annette's Diner was probably both the worst meal of my life and the worst customer service of my life, I strongly cannot recommend that. Planet Hollywood is equally spiteful.

 

Earl of Sandwich is a damn good shout though. Cafe Mickey does really nice food and you can get into intense bread stick fights with Chip or Dale.

 

Disney Dreams, their night time castle projection show is absolutely amazing, you have not done Disneyland Paris if you miss that.

 

Grab the free, return when it's your time fast track tickets from outside major attractions and do lesser ones while you wait for your time to ride.

 

Be prepared for the French, smoking up in most queuelines and trying to queue jump through the smoke screen they have created.

 

If you're staying on site, remember a Disney 4 star (at least in France), probably equates to a UK 2 star hotel.

 

Final bit of advice would be pace yourself, when I went we did 3 non stop days, 10pm park close every day, midnight bed, up at 6 for magic hours and it killed me.

 

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11 hours ago, MarkC said:

Was looking at the ratatouille restaurant and pirates of the Caribbean, any good?

 

I'm a big fan of the Ratatouille place, you need to book a few days in advance I find as they increasingly close the place early at Studios. It's relatively affordable for a sit down meal and the steaks are good. I would say the chances of burn out aren't too high for the time of year you're going as Disneyland Park closes at 20:30, Studios 18:00. 

 

My only advice would be to take your time. DLP isn't like Florida where you have to rush through the park to get on everything. You can take things at a leisurely place and make sure you do things like the submarine in DIscoveryland, the dungeon under Sleeping Beauty's castle or exploring Pirates Cove in Adventureland. Also, with Illuminations the firework show, I've always turned up about 5 minutes before and got a good viewing spot. Unlike Dreams, you don't really need to see the projections because things like Star Wars and Pirates are just blurs on the castle.

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Earl of Sandwich is great for quick food! I enjoyed Walt's when I've been in the past. The steak was excellent. I always tend to go left first...you can get up behind the shops on Main Street if there's a crowd and go through the Fort to head for BTMRR first (which is what I would recommend.) Always worth doing it late in the evening/at night too.

 

Crush's Coaster usually has big queues so quite often I'll try and get there for opening to avoid them.

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  • 2 months later...

I was doing some reading as I visited Paris Disneyland a month ago now and I must say when I was there you can really tell the difference in size and scale to other parks I've been to Tokyo first and then Florida, so I wasn't surprised to read that the Paris park hadn't had much invest but I was surprised to hear it had been struggling financially.

I don't think it helps that compared to the other parks its so much smaller and it does show, I went for 4 days and at times it got to the point where it was like ok we've done that quite a few times now, what haven't we been on so much.

I feel sad for the park really as you'd think being the only park in Europe they would want to do more with it. Considering that China has 2 parks (granted it is a very large country) that are from what I can tell much more on par with Florida and Tokyo's scale it seems odd to not have as many attractions for the European counterpart.

I was reading that the financial/investment struggle was blamed to shared holders and now they've pretty much brought them out they can start putting more in. I really hope this is the case as to me it kind of feels like the one park that's being left out when you see all of the plans for Tokyo, Chinese and American parks.

It could really do with more unique rides to like Ratatouille was amazing but soon that won't even be there own signature ride with the opening in Florida.

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All in good time.. The financial struggles have certainly hindered the parks progress but the place has come on leaps and bounds since I first visited four years ago and I would guarantee some investment starting to come in ride hardware before the 30th. Unlike Florida and California though, I find Paris the more relaxing of the Disney parks. I don't feel like I have to rush around and plan every second of the day just to get the best out of it. Whilst some wouldn't like that there's not much to do, I find the place always fills up 12/13 hours easily. 

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China =/= Hong Kong

 

As Mark said, the financial troubles the park got into due to various problems were the main cause of the stagnation... Plus a fair few last minute budget cuts towards park opening...

 

There's still a lot of land available for playing with, Indiana Jones dark ride, Fantasyland dark ride, Soarin in the Studios are just 3 potential additions we could see used in the future as sites, let alone doing something with the boring end of Frontierland and a potential removal of the Tram Tour opening up even further potential...

 

Though of course we'll just get Autopia removed for Star Wars Land...

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I strongly believe many of faults of the park were as a result of the early years. When the park opened it was a financial flop and the crowds received were nowhere near high as expected to the point the park was at the verge of closing on several ocassions. 

 

Though things started picking up around the late 90's/early 00's, when the park changed from Euro Disney to Disneyland Paris, the parks were still struggling (having inherited millions in debt), and Eisner (Disney's CEO at the time) was making short-term and on the cheap instalments. Hence the messy Walt Disney Studios opening, which is perhaps the weakest Disney park by far.

 

I have no doubt about it, that after years of decline, the park has a more optimistic future now, especially with the WDC now technically having full ownership now. The main park is looking considerably better after numerous recent renovation projects and featuring more entertainment and life in general. And I think once these are all completed (Phantom Manor upgrade, Small World interior?) there will be much more focus on fixing the Studios park. The place desperately needs sorting as it lacks much Disney flare, particularly the backlot area around Armageddon. 

 

Chances are they will probably invade invade that section of the park with Marvel and perhaps inherit more Pixar onto the other side. Whilst I think this will improve the overall product, I have strong concerns over Tower's future as current trends and rumours suggest as early 2018/2019 it will receive the Guardians treatment, which given where these sources are happening are very likely to be true. Hotel New York is also set to receive a Marvel retheme after it closes for refurbishment late 2018, which is a mixed development.

 

When I last visited this year, the park seemed really full of life and entertainment and the resort (particularly the main park) looked in generally excellent condition and the cast members seemed noticeably more friendly and helpful than previous trips. Though there's some way to go, the place certainly seems to be on the up.

 

 

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  • 2 months later...

They're refurbishing it.

 

(I was just going to leave it there but I'll be nice)

 

We don't really know although if there was to be a change in the rides theme I think we would have known about it by now. They've said the tours will continue when it reopens. There's been rumours that the Vincent Price voice-over would be bought in and I'm assuming the exterior will get a repaint as it was looking a wee bit bare when I last went.

 

A new rumour has emerged that Tower of Terror will no longer be getting the Guardians makeover. Instead, a new story will be developed for the Tower and it will lose all references to the Twilight Zone. It's structural refurbishment will still happen this year.

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  • 1 month later...

Love it or leave it but the WDC are on an IP adding spree of late, adding popular properties into parks. Marvel in particular. 

 

Following on the likes of Pixar Pier and Mission Breakout, the next attraction to receive the IP treatment will be Rock-N-Rollercoaster which is expected to be rethemed with an Ironman theme sometime around 2019.

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concept art- courtesy of the DLRP Facebook page. 

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Although it’s already been confirmed, the park have also released new concept art for the reimagined New York Hotel which is to be receiving a new Marvel theme. Certainly looks rather modern and different from other hotel rooms.

 

I'm very mixed about Rock N Rollercoaster’s retheme. I’m a bit sad one of the original attractions is going (especially being a musician) but the design ideas sound interesting. Also if this is the first phase to develop the lacklustre backlot area of the Studios Park it can only be more of a good thing surely.

 

The last I heard on Tower was, it’s ‘currently’ now safe from the Marvel treatment and  there are rumours the facade will be getting an overhaul in the near future.

 

Edit- Mr9 has beaten me to it.

 

 

 

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8 minutes ago, ste193 said:

Next we can expect to lose Tower of Terror to the awful Guardians of the Galaxy re-theme.... Paris could really do with some originality and unique rides not carbon copies of attractions elsewhere if that's the case I'm sure people would just rather head to America. 

 

Confirmed as not being a thing...

 

Plus Paris does have some originality in a fair amount of their attractions, it's more a Disney overall trait than Paris itself (where else can you find one park with 4 (FOUR!) Flying Jumbo rides?). Florida is stealing Ratatouille so I guess they should be more original :rolleyes:

 

Regarding Tower, I've heard it's something to do with the contract for Twilight Zone ending, which would explain the quick turnaround of the California version... But after the reaction to GotG Disney aren't too sure on retheming the other two Twilight Zone towers to it...

 

If that's the case, there's only one option for these two:

 

 

 

;)

 

 

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  • 3 weeks later...

Yes Yes Yes! DLRP/WDS finally gets a much needed expansion and upgrade.

 

The concept art look great and it looks like Motors and the Tour will also be spited which is no real loss, plus there looks like a new lake too. Tower’s appearance is some reassurance too.

 

I believe the expansions are starting from 2021 which makes sense since RNRC will become Ironman next year and New York will reopen with it’s Marvel retheme. Maybe there will be a time in the future where can for sure no longer call WDS the weakest Disney Park.

 

Only minor downside is prices for tickets and passes will probably sky rocket but can’t have everything.

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Just now, Timber Creek said:

The concept art look great and it looks like Motors and the Tour will also be spited which is no real loss, plus there looks like a new lake too. Tower’s appearance is some reassurance too.

Agree to disagree. Motor Action is one of those shows which actually pulls people in a bit and is one of few scalable shows that Paris currently offers. So without this, I’d dream/hope to see Fantasmic and/or World of Colour added into the mix to replace it as a night offering at least, if not another ‘daytime’ show. Likewise with the tram tour, it wasn’t great but at least it was something a little different for Paris.

 

Re: the Tower. As much as I want you to be right, it doesn’t mean anything. Benin is right if the licensing has/is ending then the Tower will change. As this is yet unannounced if/when/how it will change it makes full sense to show it in its current form on the concept art, otherwise they’d be announcing change that hasn’t been publically confirmed.

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Glad to see such expansion for Disneyland Paris finally, just wish Disney as a whole would start doing more Unique attractions. I guess you can argue that not everyone can get to other parks around the world but if you can there's not really any reason to go to Disneyland Paris. 

Star wars land is basically going to be at every single other park Disney has and so it seems Marvel will to and Frozen land is coming to some parks as well, I wish they would do more unique things like they did with Ratatouille as if every park is pretty much for those of us who can go to America or Asian parks there's nothing different to draw your attention to Paris.

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