News Disneyland Paris Updates & Features

This one, though, you’ll already be familiar with. With Disneyland Park remaining open until 10pm over the main Christmas holidays, the longest opening hours ever operated during this season, the entertainment department is getting ready to balance out the day’s entertainment. Just as the 11pm closure in the Summer season causes times to be shifted later in the day, the park’s new Christmas hours are pushing back the times of The Legend Of The Lion King, The Enchanted Fairytale Ceremony, Disney’s Fanillusion and even Disney Cinema Parade.

Most interesting of all, The Christmas Parade has been pushed back to 5.30pm, nightfall in Paris during this season, actually turning the parade into a daily “nighttime” event for the first time ever. Only on New Year’s Eve in past years has the parade been performed under the glow of the park’s lighting rigs.

The Enchanted Fairytale Ceremony will then follow at 7pm, with Disney’s Fantillusion at 8.30pm, adding up to many magical nights of exclusive Christmas entertainment for the Paris resort.

You can see the latest times in full here: Entertainment Performance Times

Unfortunately, the Christmas version of Winnie the Pooh and Friends, Too advertised by the resort’s official website to begin on 16th December has yet to appear on any schedules. Has Pooh Bear made a last minute cancellation to his festive tea party, or are they for whatever reason hiding this show in the same way as the hushed relaunch of the Summer version?

Beginning, like most guests, as the entrance to Disneyland Park, let’s take a moment to marvel as the fully completed refurbishment of Disneyland Hotel. With its original, warm, pink colour returned, the hotel is glowing with magic once again. The next job for the crew will be to replace the scores of blown bulbs across the rooftops, but aside from that, the envy of every other Disney Resort has never looked more stunning.

Deep inside the park at Fantasyland, those fences just won’t budge from the Wishing Well. Work has been going on here for at least two months, and, as you can see, there hasn’t been much of a rush to get it finished. Also in Fantasyland, Le Pays des Contes de Fées and Casey Jr. are closed during the low season, with walls in place whilst the usual Winter refurbishment goes on.

Over in Frontierland, it seems they’re having trouble ridding the park of the Pumpkinmen, with a gathering of green fences still to be found around the site of the Pumpkin Paint Tower. With a quick change of parks, the refurbishment of Front Lot’s buildings continues, with Studio Photo revealing its newly refreshed colours and Studio Services getting the white basecoat treatment. Once repainted, the refurbishment project should finally be complete, unless they plan on starting on Disney Studio 1…

And finally… the atmosphere in Disney Village feels a bit deflated recently. Can you find a reason why? Those balloons were less than a month old – it should only be a few more days now before the (rather sleek) new red ribbon decorations on the second entrance drop off aswell.

For more of the latest photos, check Photos Magiques »

The event took place earlier today, with the dome lifted from the backstage area behind Studio Tram Tour: Behind the Magic to the top of the tower and fastened in place to several vertical metal fixings which have been visible for several months. The dome is actually only the first of three to be used in the design of the Pueblo Deco Hollywood Tower Hotel (the design used by California and Paris). The second is located on the front-left of the large showbuilding whilst a third sits atop the Art Deco tower at the front of the construction (which is currently still a black metal framework).

Further progress elsewhere on the Tower has also been made in recent days. Surprisingly, scaffolding has now been fully removed from the right-hand balcony section at the top of the tower. Whilst this section is now sporting pale yellow paintwork and a darker trim on the faux pueblo tiling, it still requires much more work before completion. The base of the section, which juts out from the tower’s tallest point, is clearly unfinished, and the entire section is still in need of weathering and ageing to give it a colour and effect similar to the darker, more sinister finished design.

The advancement of primer and early paintwork across the entire left side of the building has continued, with a large portion now under the wrapping of white sheets, suggesting more intense work is now starting on the detail and finish of the walls.

With the dome in place, colour arriving and details still being added, the Parisian tower is beginning to resemble the finished design quite spectacularly.

All photos above from www.lesamisduvaldeurope.com via TheOneWhoKnew at Disney Central Plaza forum.

UPDATE 26/11/2006 23:14GMT:

The domes didn’t stop there! Over the following 24 hours, the final two domes were lifted and fixed into position on the future Tower of Terror, completing the trio.

Remarkably, the small art deco tower at the front of the building which supports the third dome has yet to become any more than a simple metal framework!

Also since the last update, some news which I’ll quote from WDS Fans:

La Terrasse: That’s a Wrap?

The concept of a small number of false Hollywood facades in the space between Disney Bros. Plaza and Studio Tram Tour has been rumoured for some time, but now new plans are also calling for the demolition of La Terrasse, to make way for a true Hollywood entrance for the Tower of Terror.

La Terrasse is the partially covered seating area in front of the Tower of Terror construction site and is located right at the heart of the park, open from Day 1 as an outdoor dining area and a teaser of things to come. If green-lit, these new plans, confirmed by Kinou on the WDS Fans magicforum, would transform this area with a small series of “movie set” Hollywood façades similar to those seen in Hollywood Pictures Backlot at Disney’s California Adventure park.

Latest photos from thebatman_1 on MagicForum.

Close your eyes, make a wish, and see it come true in our birthday year – this is a party where everyone’s invited! The party treats are all wrapped up and ready, so what are you waiting for? Don’t miss this magical chance to share in Disney’s past, enjoy the “presents” and celebrate the future.

This is the 15th Birthday Official Brochure 2006/2007…

Front Cover

The front cover is truly stunning. They’ve taken the centred, circular design from the previous two brochures and applied a shiny, glossy, Disney-character-filled 15 logo. The choice of colour is brilliant – not a “true” gold (which would have clashed with Disneyland’s 50th), it fades from a yellow-orange to yellow. And, unlike all previous brochures, the front and back covers are both glossed and very shiny.

Fold-Out Welcome Page

Again, this is stunning. We haven’t had fold-out pages at the front of a brochure for a few years, but they’ve used it exceptionally well here, giving a nice “reveal” to all the 15th Anniversary magic. The fully-extended page is truly a work of Disney (marketing) art!

Contents / Experiences

The contents page is filled with even more characters and is, as usual, very well-designed. The page also intoduces the 15 icon, which you’ll spot throughout the entire brochure wherever there’s something new or special for the anniversary year.

The whole brochure uses an embossed effect in the design that gives a very bright, glossy look to all the pages that looks both magical and modern. After looking at this brochure for a while, the rest of the world suddenly looks much gloomier.

Disney Parks

Donald makes an appearance to introduce the Disney Parks. This is probably the only disappointing page in the brochure, using a bad photoshop image of the Castle and Earful Tower – there’s no character decorations and apparently CinéMagique is now located beneath the walls of Sleeping Beauty’s kingdom.

Disneyland Park

Disneyland Park opens with a bang, using the full Disney’s Once Upon a Dream Parade visual to fill the entire page, almost as if they designed it solely for this brochure. Also mentioned is the “Daily Party Ceremony” and more Disney characters, whilst the second double page lists the key attractions, beginning with 2006’s Buzz Lightyear Laser Blast.

Walt Disney Studios Park

Kicks of with a very eye-catching double page dedicated entirely to Crush’s Coaster and Cars Race Rally. The good use of the Crush visual makes it clear this is the key attraction here, whilst the second page puts Moteurs… Action! in the spotlight.

Seasons

Despite this brochure only covering the Summer and Halloween seasons, there’s still something fun to see on the Seasons page – a new, updated version of the Stitch Halloween visual. Unlike the original, which can be seen here, this one features a more 3D Stitch clutching to the top spire and swiping at the Pink Witches with his claws… King Kong, anyone?

Beyond the Parks

Beyond the Parks begins with a very magical page featuring lovely colours and a nicely contrasting Dumbo visual. Disney Village is the same as ever, whilst the resort shows its new, hip side with the options for “Chillin'”. It’s ok, that photo of Notre Dame is nice enough for them to be forgiven for sounding like an embarassing parent.

Hotels & Resort Map

The Disney Hotel pages are a vast improvement over those of the earlier Autumn/Winter brochure, with each hotel now getting a full page to itself and the design simplified and beautified with better photos, more colour and some nice graphics. The Other Accommodation pages have only changed very slightly, the most major change being Hotel L’Élysée (a Euro Disney SCA Hotel) given its own page.

The Resort Map has also been updated. Not only with a beautiful new starry background, but in its actual design, since the detail of the two Disney Parks has been increased massively and the biggest surprise – Toon Studio is now featured! You can find a full article about this here.

Booking

The characters continue to dominate on the Booking pages, which go on to feature details of Half Board, Extra Magic Hours, etc. in the same design format as the parks and attractions pages earlier.

Price Guide / New Eurostar Page / Magical Options

The well-designed Price Guide from the Autumn/Winter brochure has been retained and has (like most pages) been sprinkled with references to the anniversary. A new, colourful page has been introduced to advertise the direct Eurostar service to the resort, which was recently made more magical thanks to a live band, character appearances and a greater Disney presence at London Waterloo International.

2007 Calendar / Contact Details

The calendar is no longer as full as it used to be in years gone by – these days the resort prefers to simplify to seasons only, to save re-prints if show and parade details change. The final page, featuring contact details, is nice and up-to-date, already featuring a screenshot of the new official website.

Back Cover

The back cover borrows from last year’s Happiest Celebration On Earth, with the final slogan – The only one missing is you! – in a modern and fun design.

So there we have it – the Official 15th Anniversary Brochure. If they’re producing something this good for their 15th, imagine what we’ll get for the 25th!

Celebration Score: 10/10

The best print advert for Disneyland Resort Paris ever created. Fun, well-designed, full of Disney characters and previewing two new attractions, a brand new parade and so much more. It’s everything we’ve wanted for the past 5 years.

I guess that proves dreams really can come true.

You can order the new brochure by clicking here. International versions may vary in design, and should also start becoming available to order between now and January.

(Marne-la-Vallée, France) In the place where dreams come true, Christmas is the season for not only magic, but also for generosity. On 18 November, just a few days before the anniversary of the Convention for Children’s Rights, 150 disadvantaged children from the Seine-et-Marne department were the special guests of Disneyland Resort Paris.

Together they helped assemble Frimousse dolls for UNICEF under the watchful eye of the event’s patron, Laëticia Hallyday. The Frimousse operation was created in 2001 to provide children in developing countries with vital vaccinations.

Like their creators, each Frimousse doll is unique. Aided by volunteers from Disney and UNICEF, the young people of Seine-et-Marne will use their creativity to bring hope to other children. All of the dolls will be given to UNICEF, who will then put them up for ‘adoption’ for a minimum donation of 20 euros – the equivalent of a child’s vaccination program. Disneyland Resort Paris hopes to offer 250 dolls.

This exceptional event seals the almost fifteen year partnership between UNICEF and Disneyland Resort Paris. Disney Cast Members had been working several weeks on making this an unforgettable affair, with many of the special Frimousses already crafted by Disney VoluntEARS.

News from Euro Disney SCA.

You can find out more about UNICEF here, and see the 2003 Disneyland Resort Paris charity CD Single “needmag?c” here.

Dude! This Parisian climate is like totally cool, but totally not in a good way for my shell!

As Winter sets in, some welcome shelter has been given to the quickly progressing outside queue for Crush’s Coaster. Much like Buzz Lightyear Laser Blast, opened at Disneyland Park earlier this year, Crush will be given an extended outdoor queue in addition to a smaller, highly themed indoor queue space. Unlike Laser Blast, however, this one will thankfully be almost fully covered.

Grandmath at Disney Central Plaza forum has just posted the latest construction photo, showing the new corrugated metal roof. Sure, it doesn’t look glamorous yet, but this is a Hollywood attraction – all the beauty will be on the outside… well, sort of. Preliminary concept sketches showed a queue themed to a dried-up Australian fishing pier (you can see an image of this at WDSFans.com), but, as you can see the concept, the corrugated look is destined to still be there in the final design. Either this will be a way of explaining the attraction is only a filmset, or the fishing pier will be more industrial – the lights drawn on the roof appear similar to those at Armageddon: Special Effects.

The flooring of the queue has also progressed this week, with the outline of the path and some turquoise pieces now visible in the concrete foundations.

There has been a remarkable touch of progress at Cars Race Rally this week. Despite the ride system, vehicles and general attraction area still being a long way from ready, the first real signs of desert themeing have already arrived.

The brick wall WDSFans.com reported being built back in October was later given an extra layer of wire mesh and themed to a sandy desert rockface in a similar way to the rocks at Crush’s Coaster. Now, before the ride itself or any real infrastructure (paths, etc.) arrives, the sandy canyon-side has been given a quick blast of warm ochre red paint.

Grandmath again presents the first photos, which show not only how this red colour scheme bounces well off the blue of Crush, but also a large new block of formed concrete next to the attraction. The purpose of this is currently unknown and it does not appear on any plans. Therefore, it is likely to also be a part of the themeing work, perhaps as the base foundation for the further, much higher, canyon hills to be placed on this spot.

Finally, it’s interesting to note that the recently installed arabian-style lampposts around the new Flying Carpets Over Agrabah oasis have been packaged up in a protective plastic coat, suggesting that the construction fences around this area won’t be receding anytime soon.

News originally posted by WDSFans.com, all photos by Grandmath.

Well, I can’t be sure, but it’s probably a bit more complex than just finding the right pieces and sticking them onto the towering concrete mass. Either way, it’s fun to see an Imagineering creation literally come together like a jigsaw puzzle of architectural details.

The front of the Tower is now following the same pattern of construction as the rear, with new white moulds being added to create the details of The Hollywood Tower Hotel. Whilst the vertical white cladding was added a few weeks ago, a new, jagged white section has now appeared at the very top of the building, which will eventually be part of the faux tiled roof.

The left of the building has progressed the most in recent weeks, with some true art deco details of the final attraction already clearly visible, matching well with the existing details of the “Toilets of Terror”.

The magnolia back of the Tower is still shining brightly in the Winter sun, far from the weathered, beaten look of the final design. More jagged faux roof sections can be seen here, the lower section of which was recently given some odd dark brown colours that don’t seem to quite match up yet.

Finally, in an homage to the Imagineer’s cut and paste Parisian creation, here’s a full cut-and-pasted round up of the current state of construction compared to the finished Californian product…

Photos above by Joel’s Photo Hunt, photos in the “Cut & Paste Guide” by Kyoto, Wikipedia, DLRP Today, Joel and J. Thaddeus TOAD (for photo credited unknown).

Walt Disney World‘s new “Where Magic Lives” 2006/07 Official Album features a good number of new tracks, the most interesting of which for Disneyland Resort Paris fans being the “Lights! Motors! Action!” suite. The music was, of course, originally composed and created for the Parisian attraction, but with its duplication for the Floridian Disn ey-MGM Studios the music flew across the Atlantic too.

This isn’t just a small snippet of music like we’re used to in Paris, either – the track runs a whole 11 minutes 12 seconds and features the full soundtrack of the show’s key stunt sequences. The Ballet Chase, Blockade, Motorcycle Ballet, Pre-Show music and more – it’s all covered. The trademark “dun… dun dun dun!” is most certainly there, as are the high-pitched electric guitar pinches of the Burning Man sequence, the tension-filled bass beats of the Blockade and countless hints of Bond.

It says something about the effort Disneyland Resort Paris puts into its music releases that it took almost five years and a whole other Disney resort for this original, Disney-licensed music to become available. With a 15th Anniversary Album rumoured for 2007, this track would be a simple and easy way to finally bring new music and a breath of fresh air to the resort’s stagnant CD collection. Whether Paris will take this not-so-top secret envelope remains to be seen.

So until then, you could try Walt Disney World mail order: wdw.mail.order@disney.com

Image source: MagicMusic.net Forums

You can see the new CD’s full tracklisting here.