Disneyland Paris: General Discussion

[Hid]

The main Disneyland Paris Park never gets new rides its been nearly 2 Decades since the last new ride. Such a shame as the main park is Beautiful

 

[Bowser]

The main Disneyland Paris Park never gets new rides its been nearly 2 Decades since the last new ride. Such a shame as the main park is Beautiful

It’s a shame but when they’re still comfortably getting 10m visitors a year versus Adventure Worlds 5m you can see why they’re not in a rush and choose to focus on maintaining it.

 

[PhalanaxOperativeA1127]

See, I personally disagree with that criticism; I view the 2 parks as one big resort (which, of course, they are), so, for me, as long as they're getting investment between them then I personally don't care where they go, or what park they go in. As long as Paris as a whole is getting new investments and ride hardware to enjoy.

If I'm going to Disneyland, I'm not going to visit just one park - if that makes sense?

The one criticism I do have, is I don't like these one-ride lands. As immersive as I'm sure they'll be, they do need some supporting rides (sounds familiar) within that vicinity.

 

[Benjsh]

See, I personally disagree with that criticism; I view the 2 parks as one big resort (which, of course, they are), so, for me, as long as they're getting investment between them then I personally don't care where they go, or what park they go in. As long as Paris as a whole is getting new investments and ride hardware to enjoy.

If I'm going to Disneyland, I'm not going to visit just one park - if that makes sense?

The one criticism I do have, is I don't like these one-ride lands. As immersive as I'm sure they'll be, they do need some supporting rides (sounds familiar) within that vicinity.

Pretty sensible way to look at it.

Most people who visit tend to have park hopper ability and it really doesn't take that long to go from park to park either. As you say investment is welcome wherever they put it.

If they build the Avatar world that would be really cool but we're looking at 2032/33 realistically at the earliest. Quite a wait.

 

[Benjsh]

Sorry double post but there are multiple reports that DLP heavily suggested that an Avatar expansion will follow Lion King in Adventure World:

LEAKED: Plan for Avatar-themed Land at Disney Adventure World

It looks like Disneyland Paris may have inadvertently leaked plans for an Avatar-themed land for Disney Adventure World theme park

blogmickey.com

Disney-fans in rep en roer: technische tekening Disneyland Paris lijkt te wijzen op Avatar-uitbreiding

Gaat Disneyland Paris een Avatar-themagebied bouwen? Sommige fans vermoeden van wel na het zien van een technische tekening. Maandagavond kwamen...

www.looopings.nl

Hopefully this is correct! Seems like the park is finally coming into its own. Does seem plausible they're ramping things up due to Universal. Just need to put the TRON coaster in next to Lion King

I was a bit underwhelmed by TRON in August. We had two rides on it (one day and one night time) and it was a bit 'meh' really. The initial launch is good but I didn't think it really did a great deal after.

Hugely popular attraction though so wouldn't shock me if they clone it everywhere but I'd much prefer a coaster on the level of Guardians if we're going to get a Florida coaster duplicated in Paris.

 

[Benzin]

What's more annoying is that the main park has at least 3 areas set aside for additions which they've never used.

Indy dark ride, Beauty & Beast clone and something for Frontierland (since Lion King is the Log Flume) would be my dream. Alas, unlikely we'll get anything anytime soon.

Also bleh Avatar.

 

[Hid]

Disneyland Paris Park is also missing many staple water rides of a castle park from Jungle Cruise and Splash Mountain come to mind

 

[John]

As eluded to above, the space reserved in Frontierland was widely regarded to be for Splash Mountain. I guess in theory they could put Tiana's in there but why build a new ride that doesn't fit the area theme when you're already putting a similar ride type in the other park?

The Parisian climate being "too cold" was supposedly a reason for the lack of a log flume type ride. I don't think they'd build something like Jungle Cruise nowadays, it's a ride from a different era.

 

[Bowser]

Most people who visit tend to have park hopper ability

I don’t know if this is true if the main park is getting 10m visitors a year and the other 5m though obviously we’d need an actual breakdown of unique visitors to know either way.

Anecdotally I know people who only visit the main park and Studios certainly didn’t have a great reputation, regularly considered the worst Disney park out there.

 

[Benjsh]

I don’t know if this is true if the main park is getting 10m visitors a year and the other 5m though obviously we’d need an actual breakdown of unique visitors to know either way.

Anecdotally I know people who only visit the main park and Studios certainly didn’t have a great reputation, regularly considered the worst Disney park out there.

I couldnt visit DLP without going on TOT. It's sacrilege.

 

[Bowser]

I couldnt visit DLP without going on TOT. It's sacrilege.

Oh absolutely! I enjoyed the "Studio Park" when we went. TOT is the best ride in either park, Avengers is basically Space Mountain and Ratatouille was fun. Very much looking forward to going back when it's not a building site.

 

[Hid]

I do feel Walt Disney Studios is incredibly underrated its not a bad park and has some great ride it has the best version of Tower of Terror having done all 4 Versions of that ride

 

[Tim]

Admittedly it's been over 10 years since I was last at DLP. But I have 2 main issues with the studios park:

1st there's no clear identity holding the park together. In the main park you have very clear themed lands which offer multiple rides that all fit in with each other. The headline rides at the studios park are great rides in themselves but they don't belong together. Compare ToT and RNR in Florida vs Paris. In Florida they sit side by side at the end of Sunset Boulevard. You feel like you are in a romanticised version of Hollywood, in which a grand abandoned hotel and fancy record studio could exist side by side. In Paris ToT is awkwardly placed so close to the park entrance that there's no build up to the attraction, and RNR just existed behind it. Now RNR is Marvel themed it fits better with the area around it, but that area feels even more out of place with ToT.
This I don't think the new additions will fix. If anything rebranding to "Adventure World" just makes the park feel even more fractured.

However the massive expansion to the park might fix my 2nd issue, which was the more significant of the two. The last time I went was a 4 day trip. I remember getting so much done on the 1st day, during which I didn't enter the Studios park. In a single day I managed to do nearly all the major rides. But the other 3 days all started in the Studio park, stuck in long lines trying to get on ToT, Crushes Coaster, RNR ect.
In hindsight the trip would have been more satisfying if Studios didn't exist and we'd just spent 2/3 days at the main park.
That's why I'm excited by this expansion, as the addition of the lake and Frozen finally makes this park... an actual park with more to it than just random attractions. It's still disjointed, and I'd like to see more side attractions and areas just for exploration. But it's a start.

 

[Benzin]

Studios was just badly designed from day 1. Much like with California Adventure Disney have then had to spend millions more bringing it up to standard.

It's definitely more complete now than before the Pixar themed attractions. But even then will still suffer with hellish queues on Crush and Frozen, especially with the lake area being surrounded by further construction/empty plots of land.

 

[Llama]

The difference is California Adventure had a much higher floor and they put way more money and effort into fixing the bad parts. The areas around Soarin' and Grizzly River Run, as well as the entire boardwalk area with California Screamin', were for the most well-designed and unique in terms of both the rides and the environment. The truly terrible parts, like the entrance area with that weird metal sun fountain, were razed and replaced. The big new marquee land as part of this expansion was Cars Land, including Radiator Springs Racers, both of which are surely on the shortlist of the best things Disney ever built. In any case, I think the decent foundation they had under the corner-cutting and terrible puns about Hollywood is what makes California Adventure a pretty solid park now even though the guiding principle for a decade has been the same as Adventure World: the overarching theme, if there is one, is that it's a place where you can find lands and rides based on a dozen Disney-owned intellectual properties you might have heard of.

The Studios/Adventure World park has been so abysmal since inception that it would take at least this much effort to bring it up to the general Disney standard and while your opinions may vary I don't think anything they've built or announced thus far is even close to what they did on Buena Vista Street or in Cars Land. The 4th international Frozen boat ride (but a copy of the weaker ones and not the superior Japanese version) plus Splash Mountain Tiana's Bayou Adventure Simba's River Excursion do not seem exactly revolutionary to me.

 

[jon81uk]

I don't think they'd build something like Jungle Cruise nowadays, it's a ride from a different era.

I also think a major reason Paris never got Jungle Cruise is the language issue. Jungle Cruise in the US relies on the corny jokes. If you did this in Paris would it be in French or English, what humour would you target and in what languages?

 

[Bowser]

The 4th international Frozen boat ride (but a copy of the weaker ones and not the superior Japanese version) plus Splash Mountain Tiana's Bayou Adventure Simba's River Excursion do not seem exactly revolutionary to me.

For those in the know it's a shame the Japanese one wasn't copied but for the majority of European people who will likely never visit Japan (or any other Disney park) i'm sure they're delighted to be getting a World of Frozen and a Lion King land. It's easy to forget that many people rarely get to visit Disney parks, often once in a lifetime.

 

[GooseOnTheLoose]

It's easy to forget that many people rarely get to visit Disney parks, often once in a lifetime.

And on the one occasion that they do, they may find themselves wandering aimlessly around the coach park, waiting for their party to return, because their ticket didn't scan at the turnstiles and the staff were unwilling to help / were French.

 

[Bowser]

And on the one occasion that they do, they may find themselves wandering aimlessly around the coach park, waiting for their party to return, because their ticket didn't scan at the turnstiles and the staff were unwilling to help / were French.

 

[flyingguitar]

I do feel Walt Disney Studios is incredibly underrated its not a bad park and has some great ride it has the best version of Tower of Terror having done all 4 Versions of that ride

No way, totally at Hollywood studios (florida) is better imo, the trackless portion adds quite a bit to the experience.