Disneyland Paris continues with their
construction projects and so we carry on with construction update videos! In today’s
video we’ll go around the resort with high quality photos and videos to really dive into
the latest when it comes to these projects but also compare their progress with photos from
previous updates, from Disney Village to the huge Walt Disney Studios expansion! Before we
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are in the description. Let’s dive in then! Very well then, let’s start at Disney Village
where, unfortunately there hasn’t been much change since our last update in July. The soon-to-be
Lego Store, the Disney Home Store and the Disney Lifestyle Store have remained pretty
much the same these past months. It’s unclear why progress has suddenly stopped
here, as Disney announced back in April that these would be open by the end of the
year, if they want to keep that timeline, work needs to restart very soon.
We’ve
seen that some construction has happened behind these buildings, so perhaps it has
something to do with structural issues, leaks or even asbestos removal, as this used to be
very popular back when the buildings were built, either way, when this is complete the works should
be quite straightforward and fast so hopefully it picks up nicely. Construction on the new security
zones of Disney Village from the hotels continue and new walls have been put up to carry on with
the repaving of Village by Rosalie Brasserie too.
The biggest change in the shopping and dining
area of Disneyland Paris however is by far the ghost of Planet Hollywood. In our last update
the restaurant remained the same as when it had closed, but since, demolition has begun and we
can see the famous globe has been dismantled, this will be the goodbye of this now iconic sight when
arriving at the resort. While the deconstruction of the restaurant happened, Disney announced
what will replace it. In partnership with Group Bertrand, the same group behind Rosalie, The Royal
Pub and Rainforest Café, Casa Giulia will rise from the ashes of Planet Hollywood. This will be
a large-scale Italian restaurant offering classic Italian dishes with a gourmet twist to suit all
tastes. The restaurant promises to use seasonal ingredients for a fresh menu.
This 500-guest
capacity over two floors will give great views of Disney Village and what sounds like a great
menu. I believe the architecture of the building looks quite nice and will fit with the new concept
for Village very well, it’s set to open in 2026! Well then, let’s make our way to Disneyland Park
to check how the few projects happening there are going. At the back of the park, Storybook Land has
reopened and has never looked so good. The whole area received a new coat of paint with the rails
and lights all looking brand new and of course a new pavement, continuing the amazing efforts that
have happened all around the resort which really elevates the experience and land compared to the
previous concrete. As you’ve probably seen by now, the book was completely refurbished with a
new design and some scenes were changed in the Le Pays de Contes des Fees ride with Winnie
the Pooh, Up at the end and Frozen with the snow topped peaks of North Mountain. Overall, it was
a needed and well-done refurbishment of the area that makes it quite more enjoyable, it remains as
one of the quieter and calmer parts of the park! Over on Main Street USA, works have been
slow but finally progress has been made on the Casey’s Corner terrace.
A sizeable part of
the left of Central Plaza has been walled off for several months now, this because there are
two small projects going on here, one being a new character meet&greet location with a gazebo
and small queue to shelter from the elements. The gazebo is nearly completely done, as you can see,
with similar theming to that of other structures around Central Plaza like the popcorn locations
or the “gardening” house that holds the show equipment room. The second is the Casey’s terrace,
announced alongside the gazebo, this will offer more comfort while you eat those footlong hot
dogs, according to the concept art and permits, it’ll be well themed and fit Main Street quite
well.
So, as you can see here, the metal structure was installed some time ago and now we’re seeing
theming being added as well. The reason why it took so for the project to reach this stage could
lie with the concrete and foundations, which you can clearly see the shape of in the ground.
The roof of it has also started installation, however it doesn’t look like what we saw in the
concept nor model showcased by Imagineering, so we are still to see how they final product
will look like. These works here are set to end by January of next year, according to unofficial
information, so it shouldn’t be much longer for Casey’s and the left side of Central Plaza to be
rid of walls! Closer to the castle, the Castle Theatre refurbishment continues, they’re expanding
its backstage and redoing the entire floors and some of the back walls where the projectors
are located. The castle bridge also now has some walls as there’s been some damage caused by
the fountains that should hopefully be fixed soon. Discoveryland is where we need to go next, here,
HyperSpace Mountain’s backside is surrounded by walls and construction equipment.
The whole side
has a themed tarp hiding the works happening in this part of the façade, it’s unclear what kind
of works are happening however this appears to be much more than just the maintenance garage
expansion we reported several months ago. According to rumors, Disney is installing a
completely new, and hopefully more reliable, lighting package but still, it doesn’t appear
to be the only thing going on here. If we take a closer look at the construction, there’s a
plastic sealing everything making me think they’re refurbishing the façade with a brand-new coat of
paint. A large temporary stairway also leads to the top of the dome, this could be to reach and
change the lights up there such as the round neon blue ones of the sparkling that follow the trains.
So, while the scope of this project is unclear, it looks like it’ll be quite a long time
until Space Mountain gets ride of walls, and rumors about a major refurbishment
to the ride itself are also appearing, saying a retrack could take place in the next few
years.
The same thing with Big Thunder Mountain, so we could be looking at these iconic
rides having a lot of work done soon. Going back to Space though, as you can see in these
images, it’s been needing quite a bit of care, the cannon is falling apart when you look close
enough, so it’s great to see they’re starting some kind of large-scale project. I might have a Space
Mountain video coming soon, so look out for that… Very well then, let’s finally pass through the
gates of Walt Disney Studios Park and see how everything is going over at the second gate of
Disneyland Paris. Studio 1 remains closed with no information of how far progress is in the
inside, it closed down this April and shouldn’t be ready to open until next Spring.
However, if
we go to the other side of the large building, we see the new awning that will not only split
the crowds but also allow for much better light control inside the dimly lit World Premiere,
making it more immersive inside. The awning’s metal structure is quite large and being there in
person really puts it in another perspective. This will also cover up the old studio green windows
and will then receive large posters of the shows to be found around the park such as Mickey and
the Magician and Together. This should move quite quickly into the final product and will be sure to
be a good change! After that, the World Premiere Plaza comes into play, since our last update, not
much has changed here. The works are mostly to do with the installation of new planters with trees
and greenery, new lampposts and the repavement of the whole area.
We’ve seen the first part of
the new areas to appear, just by the Cinemagique Theatre where new railings have been added not
long ago, in an art deco and Hollywood style. The walls have moved slightly, showcasing new
parts of pavements but overall, there hasn’t been much change, with only one slim corridor
still connecting the two sides of the park. Over at Avengers Campus, the Theater of the
Stars has closed for the season alongside Alice and the Queen of Hearts Back to Wonderland show,
meaning we’ll have to say goodbye to the views of the expansion from that side. On Toy Story
Playland, the works can be felt quite a bit, as a large new area themed to Toy Story is
being built as a connection to Adventure Way, the large street leading to the lake.
From RC
Racer, we can see a wall has been built to the side of the queue, this is in fact to hold the
large berm. This is something like 3 meters tall and alongside the already planted trees will help
a lot with the noise and the visual intrusion of RC from the Tangled area that’s just to the
side of the berm. If we take to the skies, we see these trees will truly separate Toy Story
Playland from this area, which is great! While the wall is quite noticeable from the queue, bamboos
are being planted as seen here, which will help to hide it. We can now also better make out the
new part of Playland as seen here, the berm we just talked about is being expanded all the way to
Adventure Way, which will also separate this new part and Tangled. Here, large figures of Woody and
Jessie will be present, just like other theming elements such as the amazing Christmas lights,
alongside a new Meet&Greet location for, what will probably be characters from this world, I
believe its foundations are what we can see here. From Toy Story Playland we can spot the top of the
Tangled attraction, which wasn’t up there when we last talked.
In fact, the progress made is great
as the structure is nearing completion with all the roofs installed both in the queue and on top
of the ride itself. In front of Raiponce Tangled Spin are its gardens, the large pond soon to have
the boat recreating the famous scene appears to be fully built with some waterproofing already
in place, the foundations of the planters have been installed as well, this will create a garden
like layout with plenty of greenery. Back in July, none of this was in place neither the Toy Story
expansion nor the Tangled gardens as you can see, and if we go slightly more back in
time, here’s the landscape this March, there was nothing there! No, the tangled
building, no Adventure Way and no Toy Story. Well, let’s turn to Adventure Way, the large
promenade leading to Adventure Bay. There’s been a lot of progress here, we see that a big
portion of the pavements are already in place, with the gorgeous flower like pattern nearly all
built! The pavements then go all the way to the English Gardens, this is a huge difference since
our last update 3 months ago! Alongside the sides, planters are in place with many already
having trees in them.
Looking at all this from Parachute Drop, you really get the scale
of everything, it’s something we’ve never seen in Walt Disney Studios. Well then, the English
Gardens now have a quite large berm with adult trees surrounding them, this place will have
even more trees in it and a small gazebo in the “stage” where pop up shows are expected
to happen. It doesn’t have flooring just yet. Moving forward, we see that construction on the
rest of the floors of Adventure Way continues and that the base for what will be a large avenue
connecting it to Avengers Campus and the Theater of the Stars has started being put in place, just
like other large planters. We eventually come across one of the Pavilions around the lake, as
you can see it’s nearing completion with all the roofs in place and the show control room, which
will be on top of it, also progressing well. To refresh your memory, a large portion of the inside
is reserved for staff while it also offers guest restrooms and an indoors snack location. Outside,
a seating area will also be present. Speaking of toilets, on the other side, after passing through
the Regal View Restaurant and the Tangled ride, the guest restrooms building is going nicely
with a good part of the theming installed.
Well, the Regal View Restaurant, which will be one
of the largest on the park and offer impeccable views of the lake, has progressed quite a bit
too with much of its roofs, in a similar style to Tangled and the Pavilions, installed as
well as HVAC systems. From Cars Road Trip, we can see that there’s still some work to be
done here, but it really is progressing well.
Now we get to Adventure Bay, the lake appears
to be nearing its maximum water level and all around it, paths are being put in place and many
lampposts alongside them. You can already see so many of these all around the lake. Then,
the three large awnings have been placed, these can be seen in the models shared by
Disney this D23 Expo, in fact, if you want to learn more about everything Disneyland Paris
announced make sure to check this video here! Also installed around the lake were these Art Nouveau
elements, these aren’t just random pillars, in fact they hold much of the show equipment for the
future nighttime spectaculars in the lake. Also, note the different types of lampposts, some have
a box which is likely to be speakers to play all kinds of sounds from background, parade or show
music. All around the lake, the walls and paths are themed and near World of Frozen one of the
larger awnings has also appeared and theming has started being installed.
Closer to Cars Road
Trip is the smaller Pavilion, this that was just the bare concrete slabs in July as seen in this
photo, it’s roof is nearing completion and much of the theming has been installed, here’s a closer
look from the queue of Road Trip. These photos taken by Skyam are a couple of weeks old, but
share a good look at the lake from Alice in Wonderland, with the small pavilion we just
talked about, the awning in front of it, similar to the one by Frozen and just all
the activity going on around Adventure Bay. Well then, let’s finally get to World of Frozen!
On the other side of Adventure Bay, on the shores of the lake lies Arendelle but before showing
how it currently looks, let’s quickly step back in time. In October 2022, exactly 2 years ago,
this was how the Walt Disney Expansion looked, large dirt piles and a dug-out hole where the lake
would be.
A year later, on September 30th I took this photo. This is what the expansion looked
like a year ago, the Tangled ride was a hole in the ground, the lake was nearing complete
waterproof and Arendelle was some concrete walls with bits of theming creeping through, no
Regal View Restaurant, no pavilions. Well, a year later, this is what everything looks like, what
an incredible development. So, since July what’s new? Well, several buildings have been completed
and no longer have scaffolding, starting with the castle itself, which looks like it already has
many if not all of the ice decorations installed, notice all the little details it really looks
incredible. The forced perspective buildings close to it are also complete, becoming
smaller as they get closer to the castle. The port building between the marina and
the village has also changed quite a bit, with the roofs now complete and starting to
receive theming on its walls, the Toy Shop looks like it’s complete too, however that only needed
some details back in July.
Most importantly, the clock tower has finally been unveiled and
looks gorgeous and so do the smaller buildings to its left, this is a part of the queue for
Frozen Ever After. The other buildings are where most of the focus is now but there’s been
quite a bit of development here too, especially in the ones to the left. There are still other
buildings that haven’t appeared but should do so in the coming months, with one just breaking
through. When it comes to the mountain range, there’s been a lot of development, the ones
closer to the castle which will also be closer to the guests are not only completely shaped
but have also received much of the theming with paint and the grass, it’s amazing to see it like
this.
A new big portion has gotten the concrete and its shape too and should move to the next
theming phase soon, to the left nearly all the showbuilding is hidden behind the metal structure
and the taller parts have also been installed, with a special mention of the North Mountain
itself which was put up there just some days ago! You can see the shape of the North Mountain
from many locations around the park and it really does look amazing. Disney Imagineering celebrated
this milestone the other day and released these images that also give us a closer look at
Arendelle itself, all very exciting to see! When it comes to The Lion King, which Disney
officially announced this summer, construction is set to start next year, so there won’t be a huge
wait like what happened with Frozen. The expansion was announced in 2018 but only began construction
in 2022, this being the main reason as to why it’s taken so long! The opening timeframes for all
we discussed here are still to be revealed, however Disney announced World of Frozen won’t
open until 2026.
The works are to finish by the end of 2025, but then comes a whole different
step from training cast members to testing all the equipment and the nighttime spectacular.
There’s still a lot to be done and with everything Lion King coming soon, I’ll be following
it all right here, so join me! With that, we come to the end of the video and now, as
always, thank you for watching and That’s a Wrap!.