Thank you! You came and dreamed a dream with us, now our HD video of the Disney Dreams! World Premiere has just become both the most watched video of the show on YouTube and officially the first to celebrate a staggering 50,000 views! Read More…
2012
Monday, 7th May 2012
Pin Trading May 2012 releases
Click the image above for the full collection
Entering our third month of 20th Anniversary Disneyland Paris Pin Trading releases, May 2012 sees the start of what could be two new monthly pin series for the occasion.
Mickey’s 20th Anniversary Train is the classic idea of a series of carriages, each featuring different characters, joining up to form a complete set. Whilst Mickey’s engine will cost you €19.99, the subsequent carriages appear to require a monthly investment of €12.99, all limited to just 600 editions. Similarly limited is the Jeu de Pins 20 ème Anniversaire, a €39.99 board game with collectible additional pins, all in the fabulous new “Retro” merchandise style. The first additional pin, also limited to 600 editions, features Mark Twain and Big Thunder Mountain in a retro style, for €14.99.
Slightly more affordable are the quirky “robot” pins, featuring Mickey, Donald and Stitch, available now at €8.99. A new souvenir Pin Trading collectors’ bag, in the 20th Anniversary “Signature” merchandise style, will set you back €44.99. Will you be picking up any of these new Pin Trading items?
Still, all a drop in the ocean compared to the prices (£160 and upwards) that the limited 12th April 2012 pins have been sold for on eBay. Those pins, released on the morning of the big date itself last month, were limited to 1,000 editions but still sold across the resort within hours. Reports from fans who attempted to buy the pins, risking missing the events themselves, suggested that there was no sales limit initially enforced for the €12.99 pins, leading some enterprising folk to buy whole handfulls in one sale, giving one of the few sour points to an otherwise exceptionally managed day.
Monday, 7th May 2012
‘Making the Magic’ TV show reveals backstage preparations for Dreams, Magic on Parade
Neatly timed to coincide with the celebrations of 12th April 2012, Channel 5 in the UK broadcast a special behind-the-scenes “documentary” on Sunday, 15th April giving a unique look at the preparations for the 20th Anniversary. Titled Making the Magic: Disneyland Paris – 20th Anniversary, it will be available to watch on the online Demand 5 player until March 2013, but only within the UK.
Not wanting to let such a great promotional piece for the resort go unseen for everyone else, we managed to record the whole show from a DVR box. Quality isn’t perfect (no need for 720p), but hopefully it’s good enough to enjoy. (And yes, Walt Disney built his first park in 1955, not 1957!)
The show naturally focuses mainly on Disney Dreams!, with exclusive input from Steve Davison, Katy Harris and technical director Chuck Davis, but Disney Magic on Parade! is also featured with Kat de Blois and two British parade Cast Members preparing for the parade’s changeover. We get to see “Team Dreams” making last minute preparations on the same day Steve, Katy and Kat took time out to attend a Q&A session with fan sites, making us even more grateful for that opportunity. Added drama comes as Steve drops into the Dreams control room to announce: “There’s a big blue square which appears in the middle of Jungle Book, which I’ve never seen..!”
Knowing the promotional tie-up between Channel 5 and Disneyland Paris before the launch of the 20th Anniversary, this show is clearly more of a glossy promotional piece than a true “documentary” — but it’s also 22 minutes of the best British TV promotion seen for the resort in years. No CGI, no greenscreen, just letting the magic — and the people behind the magic — speak for themselves.
Meanwhile, across the Channel, French viewers recently got to enjoy the far less glossy but rather more revealing “Disneyland et ses Secrets” feature-length documentary on France 3, which can also be found in full on YouTube.
Monday, 7th May 2012
FIFTEEN More Updated 2012 Restaurant Menus, from Auberge to Victoria’s
Here are no less than FIFTEEN more fully-updated Disneyland Paris Restaurant Menus. Added to our original five, plus the following ten last Sunday and a further ten on Thursday, that now gives us a grand total of FORTY menus updated for 2012! Read More…
Thursday, 3rd May 2012
Now 25 Fully Updated 2012 Restaurant Menus – Check the Latest Ten Here!
Our mega Disneyland Paris Restaurant Menus update rolls ahead with a further TEN restaurants added to the list of those menus fully refreshed for 2012, giving us a total of twenty-five updated dining guides. Read More…
Tuesday, 1st May 2012
Park Hours Now Available to Mid-June 2012 – Late Nights Ahead!
What a Dream this year is turning out to be. We’ve already seen the previously unheard-of appearance of 11pm closing times in April, and now it looks like that extended hour is going to be norm from Thursday, 24th May right through to the end of summer. Read More…
Sunday, 29th April 2012
Ten More Restaurant Menus Fully Updated – Is Your Favourite Here?
The major update of our popular Restaurant Menus pages for 2012 has continued over the past few days. Read More…
Saturday, 28th April 2012
Last Chance to Save up to 40% with 20th Anniversary Launch Offer
So, you’re tempted by Disney Dreams!, you don’t want to miss all the special 20th Anniversary events… but you haven’t booked yet? Read More…
Thursday, 26th April 2012
First Five Restaurant Menus Updated with New Page Design, Information
Along with five and a half hours of HD video (and counting) of the 20th Anniversary events, we took the chance during two trips earlier this month to walk the entire resort from end to end, through every land, park and hotel, collecting new photos of each and every menu for a major update of our popular Restaurant Menus section. Read More…
Sunday, 22nd April 2012
Park-exclusive ‘Disneyland Paris: 20 Years of Dreams’ book on sale tomorrow, 23rd April
Couldn’t quite make it for the 12th April 2012 celebrations? You weren’t the only one. Slightly delayed from the shelves of Disneyland Paris boutiques was the new 192-page book all about the history of the resort. We reported its impending arrival late last month amongst the flurry of 20th Anniversary news, and it looks to be an impressive tome indeed. Available as a single 192-page book with both French and English text, it features over 500 images from the history of the resort, charting 20 years of progress and expansion from 1992 to today. And, though the publisher couldn’t quite meet the historic date itself, the book does now have a release date: tomorrow, 23rd April 2012!
The official blurb reads:
“Twenty years ago, Disneyland® Paris opened and Walt Disney’s dreams came to life in the place where the stories that inspired him were born. Since then, Imagineers, artists and Cast Members have worked together every day to share those dreams with more than 250 million guests. Relive, year by year, highlights from two decades of dreams and innovations at Disneyland Paris, through rare and never-seen-before artwork, photographs and interviews. From Walt Disney Imagineering to the expansion of Val d’Europe, peek into the life of a company that serves the area and those around. 20 Years of Dreams is both a must-have souvenir of Disneyland Paris and a family album covering the first twenty years of Europe’s number one tourist destination.”
Titled “Disneyland Paris: 20 Years of Dreams” (or “20 Ans de Rêves”) and priced at €49.99, it will be on sale exclusively at the following boutiques: The Emporium, The Storybook Store, Harrington’s, Walt Disney Studios Store, The Disney Animation Gallery, La Boutique du Château, The Disney Gallery, Disney Store, Galerie Mickey. You can see a glimpse inside here.
If you’re not planning to visit or revisit the resort again soon you can also get your hands on one of the 5,000 copies from the first print run via the official mail order service. Call +33 164744486 or +33 164744848 or email dlp.mail.order@disney.com. Note that Annual Passport and other discounts are not available on books.