Guests heading to Disneyland Paris in the coming months and years will have plenty of new things to look forward to after Europe’s premier theme park announced details of several exciting projects.
Disneyland Paris this week took its turn to showcase investment plans, amounting to around €2 billion, following the Universal UK announcements, and, in Orlando, the imminent grand opening of Universal’s Epic Universe theme park.
Some details - notably that the Studios park will be renamed Disney Adventure World next year alongside the opening of the Frozen area - were already known, first announced in 2018, whilst other elements may be a nice surprise to some.
Natacha Rafalski, Disneyland Paris president, highlighted that more than 90% of the ‘second park’ will have been re-imagined by the time all the updates are done - including World Premiere, Adventure Way, Adventure Bay, World of Frozen, and the later Lion King area.
World Premiere
Guests can look forward to the first new addition to Disneyland Paris as soon as next month, with the launch of ‘World Premiere’ - the newly rethemed and updated entrance to the ‘second park’.
Disneyland Paris described it as “a major transformation” of the former Disney Studio 1 soundstage (previously home to dining, retail and a walk-through from the entrance gates into the main theme park area).
The second park’s entrance has been completely reimagined, featuring newly crafted décor and a storyline that sets guests in an authentic Hollywood boulevard.
“When guests set foot in this impressive building, they will become special guests of a glamorous film premiere in the heart of Hollywood, under a sky full of stars no matter the time,” Disney said in a statement
It will be home to ‘The Hollywood Gardens’ restaurant, which will allow guests to dine under the LA stars no matter what time of day it is.
Themed as an ‘outdoor’ Hollywood dining experience, the indoor restaurant will be a quick-service food spot with a picturesque dining area, as well as a take-away kiosk for peckish guests keen to stay on the move.
World Premiere is also home to the ‘Mickey’s of Hollywood Boutique’, designed as an immersive and unique retail experience, themed as a ‘classic American department store’ of the 1920s.
As before, the building will be the transition point from the park entrance to the theme park, which is itself being reimagined into a hub-and-spoke series of lands surrounding a central lake.
Once through the World Premiere building, guests arrive in the World Premiere Plaza, continuing the classic Americana - inspired by old-time Broadway - it is home to several theatres, hosting many of the popular Disneyland Paris live shows celebrating Disney and Pixar stories.
Adventure Way
Moving down from World Premiere Plaza, the guest journey will transition to ‘Adventure Way’.
It will draw guests into the heart of the re-imagined theme park.
Disneyland Paris says this promenade was ‘dreamed up as a crossroads between the front of the park and the new immersive worlds’.
It will be more than a mere promenade, however, as it will have attractions of its own too.
There will be a ‘flying carousel’ inspired by UP, the favourite Pixar movie.
Also in this area will be the ‘Raiponce’ (or Rapunzel) Tangled Spin, a new spinning ride based on the 2010 animated Disney movie, that’s due to open in 2026.
Adventure Way will be home to a special new character dining experience too, with the planned Regal View Restaurant & Lounge set to give guests the chance to meet Disney Princesses.
And, a clue is in the name, as Disney says that Regal View will give guests a place to watch a ‘breathtaking new nighttime spectacular’ over the Adventure Bay lake - so, it is probably safe to say this will be a dining ticket that’ll be in hot demand.
The nighttime spectacular in the lake, meanwhile, promises fountains, water ‘screens’ and drones. If it's in any way as impressive as Disneyland Paris’s drone shows to date, guests will be very much in for a treat.
Frozen: Arendelle
Easily the most hotly anticipated part of the Disneyland Paris expansion, excitement for this new ‘land’ has been building for many years - originally slated for a 2023 launch, the development project was put on the back burner during COVID.
Now scheduled to open in 2026, the unveiling of Frozen will be the real watershed in the park’s re-imagination.
The Frozen expansion promises a deeply immersive theme park experience, raising the bar on the excellent corner of Epcot’s Norway pavilion, in Orlando, that houses the Frozen Ever After ride.
It’s a large-scale project that recreates the kingdom of Arendelle complete with a ‘fjord’ view across Adventure Lake.
Arendelle will have two rides - its very own version of Frozen Ever After, the iconic and much-loved boat ride through the movie’s favourite scenes, and, a family-friendly roller coaster called Wandering Oaken's Sliding Sleighs.
Also planned are two Frozen-themed live shows, character meet-and-greets, and an immersive dining experience - and, it probably goes without saying, but there’ll be plenty of retail too.
The Lion King: coming in the future
The reimagining of ‘the second park’ will be fully complete in the future, with the addition of the Lion King area. Which will also overlook Adventure Lake, and will be built next door to the Frozen park area.
Construction work is due to start later this year, in the Autumn.
Disney says this new project will include ‘an all-new attraction blending a spectacular water experience with state-of-the-art Audio-Animatronics technology will plunge guests into the heart of the Pride Lands’.
Artist impressions of the attraction and the accompanying press release describe a 37-metre high, ‘Pride Rock’ - it is presented as a water ride that looks not entirely dissimilar to Magic Kingdom’s Splash Mountain (aka, Tiana’s Bayou Adventure).
Indeed, Disney’s description of the attraction isn’t massively unfamiliar either. The ride will take guests on an “adventure through iconic scenes and sceneries from the beloved animated movie, navigating a path with three exciting slopes”, with a blend of animatronics, special effects and an unforgettable soundtrack.
“All of the Imagineers who work on this project have their hearts set on paying a vibrant homage to this timeless masterpiece by creating unforgettable memories for all our guests,” said Walt Disney Imagineering’s Michel Den Dulk.
Updating hotels
Two of Disney’s favourite hotels are also being updated alongside the exciting developments in the parks.
Disneyland Paris aims to follow the success it had revamping Hotel New York, which benefitted from a super retheming and redevelopment, from top-to-bottom, in 2021 to become ‘Hotel New York - The Art of Marvel.
Next up, it plans to transform the Sequoia Lodge and Davy Crockett Ranch resorts, with work beginning in 2026.
At Sequoia Lodge, a major refurbishment is planned to ‘enhance and elevate’ the guest experience. It will see the refurbishment of the hotel’s rooms as well as its public spaces.
According to Disney, the hotel’s redesign will ‘pay homage to the beauty of nature’, and will be ‘reinvented as an ode to wildlife, offering the perfect environment to unwind and let one’s mind wander’.
Davy Crockett Ranch will be upgraded substantially, with new and improved ‘bungalow experiences’ that are being gradually replaced and rethemed.
These new accommodations will feature classic Disney character theming - including Donald Duck, Daisy Duck, and the Junior Woodchucks. The first of the new bungalows will be rolled out this June, for stays starting this summer.
Lots to look forward to
With so many long-standing plans now coming to fruition at Disneyland Paris, there’s a lot for guests to be excited about.
These incoming updates mean that there’ll be plenty of new experiences for even the most avid Disneyland Paris fans.
When will you be booking your trip to Disneyland Paris to check out the upgrades? And what will you be looking forward to the most?
