February 27, 2018
Breaking news! Disney has announced that three new lands are coming to Walt Disney Studios, one of two parks that makes up Disneyland Paris. These lands include a Marvel area, Frozen area, and Star Wars area. Each will include new attractions and entertainment experiences.
Disneyland Paris Introduction
The Mouselet’s have visited Disneyland Paris (DLP) twice, and we loved both parks. The first park is Disneyland Park, which is similar to Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida.
The second park is Walt Disney Studios, which is most similar to Hollywood Studios at Walt Disney World. It’s official sister parks are California Adventure and Hollywood Studios.
This park map shows the basic attractions that are in the park, including some favorites from Hollywood Studios: Lights Motor’s Action, Tower of Terror, and the Studio Backlot Tour. There’s also some unique attractions to this park including the Crush Coaster, a Ratatouille Ride (coming to the France Pavilion in Epcot), and carnival attractions in Toy Story Playland as well as other attractions.
The park has four themed areas including the Front Lot, Toon Studio, Production Courtyard, and Backlot.
Front Lot
Front Lot is the park’s main entrance, which opens up with three large soundstages. It is home to most of the shops and services in the park, as well as the classic Earful Tower.
Toon Studio
Toon Studio includes classic Disney and Pixar Animation characters. The lot features characters such a Crush, the Genie, Mater and Lightning McQueen, Ratatouille, and characters from Toy Story.
The best part of Toon Studio is the Ratatouille area. It’s themed after a town in France (fitting, since this park is in France), and has an amazing trackless ride and a Remy themed restaurant.
Another themed area is Toy Story Playland. This area shrinks you down to the size of a toy, similar to the Toy Story Land coming soon to Hollywood Studios. This land is cute, but it feels like it was rushed and has an amusement park vibe.
We also love the Crush Coaster, which is an attraction unique to DLP. A quick tip: don’t go single rider on this attraction. We waited almost twice as long as the stand-by line.
Production Courtyard
Production Courtyard is themed around Hollywood. It includes both the production of Hollywood movies, and Hollywood myths like movie legends. There are two parts to the land, Hollywood Boulevard and Place des Stars.
Hollywood Boulevard has Hollywood-inspired street sets, The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, and the Studio Tram Tour.
The other area is the Place des Stars, themed around the production facilities of movie lots. It includes several attractions including Stitch Live and Disney Junior.
Backlot
The last land of this park is the Backlot. The Backlot is themed after actual movie backlots with an industrial theme and is very plain. It showcases the high thrills of movies and has three attractions. The attractions include Armageddon – Les Effets Speciaux which is a walkthrough attraction to demonstrate special effects.
There is also Moteurs…Action! Stunt Show Spectacular which is identical to the Lights, Motors, Action show that used to be at Walt Disney World. Lastly, there is a version of the Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster, however it does not incorporate the story that Hollywood Studios does.
New Lands
Today, Chairman and CEO of The Walt Disney Company Robert A. Iger announced plans for a 2 billion euro, multi-year expansion for Disneyland Paris alongside French President Emmanuel Macron at the Palais de l’Elysée in Paris. This is the first expansion to Walt Disney Studios since its opening in 2002.
Originally, the park was meant to have more lands, attractions, and space, but due to major budget issues this never came to fruition.
There are few details released about the new lands today. However, we do have some facts that were previously announced, as well as some concept art. Rock ‘n’ Rollercoaster will be redone completely reimagined as a high-speed, hyper-kinetic adventure, in which guests will team up with Iron Man and their favorite Avengers.
In addition to the three new areas, the expansion includes a new lake, which will be the focal point for entertainment experiences and will also connect each of the new park areas. The first phase of the expansion will be completed in 2021.
Here’s a closeup of Star Wars Land from Jedi News. It looks like it will be similar to the land coming to Hollywood Studios.
The new Frozen land looks like it will be amazing, and the first of its kind. You can see the Frozen village and castle in the image below, and we are beyond excited to visit it!
The Marvel Land is going to be as elaborately themed as the other two, and is sure to get Marvel fans excited. The following image is from Hong Kong Disney promo art, but it can be expected the two lands will compliment each other.
Wrapping It Up
We are beyond excited for these new lands coming to Walt Disney Studios. Disneyland Paris is an amazing park, and completely different from the parks in the USA. It gets a bad rep, but we had one of the best trips of our lives there! Have you been to Disneyland Paris? Are you excited for these changes? Let us know in the comments!