Disneyland Paris: General Discussion

[Dave]

I think he means that running with just 4 with no breakdowns, would be better than running with 5 trains WITH breakdowns.

Yeah I got that, it just wouldn't be a long term solution. I don't know why they don't do that now though.

 

[thefatone]

French. They love doing no work.

I am like Astro. I really really want to enjoy Paris. There's just something about it which... well Disney Village sums up how I feel about the Resort. Tacky, cheap, and not a great experience (anything which looks visually impressive doesn't ride well).

 

[Rob]

I am like Astro. I really really want to enjoy Paris. There's just something about it which... well Disney Village sums up how I feel about the Resort. Tacky, cheap, and not a great experience (anything which looks visually impressive doesn't ride well).

I agree, Disney village does look cheap and tacky. I don't really like it. But there's no way Disneyland Park is tacky, cheap and not a great experience. I've been twice, in 2012 and 2014 and had brilliant experiences both times. The park is of a very high standard. Yes there is some wear and tear here and there but it's hardly cheap and tacky. In terms of theming it is on a level that no other European park meets.

I am looking forward to visiting Magic Kingdom later this year to see what differences there are.

 

[Benzin]

Disney Village also has Earl of Sandwich, instantly making it one of the best Park resort offerings available... Also King Ludwigs is faaaaab <3

The majority is still stuck in the 90s though, but I'm not entirely sure who actually owns/runs it...

 

[thefatone]

I agree, Disney village does look cheap and tacky. I don't really like it. But there's no way Disneyland Park is tacky, cheap and not a great experience.

To be fair - I wasn't thinking of Parc too much - in my mind was the awful budget Disney Hotels, Studios excluding TOT and the ride quality of Space Mountain.

There are some good parts.. but areas which look good have poor rides (IMO) which results in Paris failing to live up to the Magic Kingdom standard.

 

[Lordy]

I don't get all the hatred for the Village. I quite like it, always has a good atmosphere.

 

[jon81uk]

To be fair - I wasn't thinking of Parc too much - in my mind was the awful budget Disney Hotels, Studios excluding TOT and the ride quality of Space Mountain.

There are some good parts.. but areas which look good have poor rides (IMO) which results in Paris failing to live up to the Magic Kingdom standard.

Whereas I was disappointed by ToT (and RnRC) at WDS compared to the one at Hollywood Studios Florida. The unique attractions at the Paris are better than the clones in my opinion. Cinemagique is fantastic and Armageddon is better than it first looks.

 

[James]

I've quite liked the Village on my visits too. The park is brilliant. Although I agree with the hotels, on my last visit that was the only part of the resort I found incredibly tacky.

 

[Sazzle]

You pay for budget, you get budget... I've never paid through the nose for Cheyenne and therefore find the quality matches what I've shelled out for. I did once stay in Newport and found that quite run down, but I believe the whole hotel has now been renovated. Sequoia is my absolute favourite and I had no complaints about my stay there - well kept, well themed and well priced.

Parc I don't find to be too offensive in its state, though renovations and touch ups wouldn't go a miss in a few places (GET RID OF PIZZA PLANET!!). Studios needs an overhaul and I'm hopeful we'll see this come to fruition with the new plan in place.

I also wish Disney as a whole would install anything other than Vekoma...

 

[AstroDan]

The main park may not be offensive in its state but I can think of a lot which could be far better.

The whole place is stressy. And peripheral purchases are ridiculously priced.

Pizza Planet, the back of Frontierland, the fast food outlets, most of the WDS walkways, reliability on half the rides, closing rides off peak to save money thus diluting the product, cutting Fantillusion, special effects broken on loads of rides, Disney Village..

It just isn't good enough and they need to rectify these things QUICKER.

I am not returning till 2017.

Also - hotel prices are appalling in holiday periods.

This is DISNEY. Expect THE ABSOLUTE BEST.

 

[Lordy]

I'm certain we could all sit here and pick holes through most Disney parks. In fact, any park. It's hard to come across perfection, but Disney take a damn good shot at it.

 

[TheMan]

This is DISNEY. Expect THE ABSOLUTE BEST.

This is a serious question. Why?

They're a business like any other, and let's not forget the "second only to Disney" comparison.

I know you're far from a Merlin apologist, so in actual fact this is probably THE most pointless post I've ever written.

In fact, I am open to changing my mind based on considering others opinions sensibly.

In this case I disagree with myself monumentally.

YOU HEARD THE MAN!

EXPECT THE BEST.

 

[Benzin]

Disney pretty much set the standard of a theme park (purely because they were the first major one in the world at the time)... As a result of this, and the quality they have produced over the years, they pretty much ARE the best quality parks in the world (of course, there are some exceptions to this, but for every Dinoland USA there's a Tower of Terror)...

The Disney standard should be expected, and indeed is something Paris lacks sometimes, predominantly as a result of the large debt it's suffered with effects and food quality... Whereas the Studios requires a fix up bigger than California Adventure's to be deemed "Disney Standard", although Ratatouille is a step into that direction for certain...

 

[Sam]

From some shareholder thing Disney did today. Sounds like the SMM2 refurb will be more substantial than Looopings said, but probably not a complete re-imagining. A positive sign that they intend to work on making the staff better. Amusing that WDS barely gets a look-in in that video! They know it's crap!

 

[AstroDan]

Why expect the best? Partly because the net ticket price to access a Disney theme park is substantially higher than everyone else.

It costs €80 (£64) for a 1-day hopper for the two parks in Paris. Now, of course there's the 'two park' debate, but ultimately if you're intending to experience the equivalent number of rides offered by most major theme parks - you'd have to go to both in one day. This price is around double the price of most other major European theme parks gate price (with exception to the absurd UK market where discounting rules supreme).

That alone is enough to expect the absolute best.

As ever, I commend and applaud the things said in the video and other pointers we've seen of late - but the time is now to put words into action and let the product do the talking.

Till then, it's very much an inferior Disney experience overall.

 

[Rob]

It appears the the Disney and More blog is ending, which is a shame as they have produced some fantastic articles! Alas, they have posted a final article relating the the future of DLP. It is a massive post so I'll try and summarise it below.

Firstly, they have confirmed all the ride closures in Disneyland Park between now and 2017:

- Casey Junior and le Pays des Contes de Fées : All January 2015,
- Space Mountain and the Nautilus : from mid-January 2015 till the end of July 2015,
- Dumbo : from mid-February 2015 till mid-April 2015,
- Phantom Manor : most of March 2015,
- Carrousel de Lancelot : from mid-April 2015 till the end of July 2015,
- Reopening of Chaparral Stage with a new Frozen show: end of May 2015,
- Reopening of Vidéopolis with the Jedi Training Academy : mid-July 2015,
- It's a Small World : from the end of July 2015 till mid-December 2015,
- La Cabane des Robinson and Adventure Isle : from late August 2015 till mid-April 2016,
- Disneyland Railroad : from late August 2015 till end of February 2016, but Main Street Station will remain closed until the end of August 2016,
- Big Thunder Mountain : from Novembre 2015 till mid-December 2016, but beware as a change in the dates could happen,
- Molly Brown and Mark Twain : from Novembre 2015 till the end of Avril 2016, a change in the dates is possible too,
- Captain EO : from mid-December 2015 till end of February 2016,
- Peter Pan : from January 2016 till the end of May 2016,
- Star Tours : from mid-March 2016 till mid-March 2017,
- Space Mountain ( Phase 2 ) : from January 2017 till end of February 2017,
- Pirates of Caribbean : from January 2017 till end of June 2017.

That's a pretty extensive list!

This is what is happening to Space Mountain during the current closure:

- "Space Mountain" as it will be its official name without "Mission 2" will reopen July 11, 2015 at the latest. This is the currently set dead-line - and by the way, on July 19 we can say bye-bye to It's a Small World which will close the next day for its refurb.
- The ride show or the trains will not be changed, but all projection systems will be replaced by new and better quality projectors ( DLP has bought a large package of them for different projects) and, as announced during yesterday's annual stockholders meeting, there should be new special effects.
- Space Mountain dome will be fully cleaned outside and its colors slightly modified for more flashy colors, like the castle, which went from pale pink to pink candy in 2012 ( Ndr: let's hope not too flashy... )
- The Canon will be rebuilt to finally work at 100%: door system, inclination of the sun, recoil system, smoke effects.
- The catapult sequence should be reviewed and will resume to its original format in two times.
- The queues will be fully reviewed to finally solve the many problems: too limited room inside the dome causing a large unprotected queue, the fast-pass entrance currently in the way of the future Star Wars Land will be changed to be located through the ride main entrance, and they probably will add a single rider line. It should be noted that in addition to all this the mezzanine should, after the works, be finally reopen again and that a cooling system should be added to the queue inside the dome.
- Also,the ride exit could be reviewed to direct the guests to the center of Discoveryland and not to the back of the land as it is right now.
- All the Space Mountain area should regain its original background music ( with among others The Rocketeer soundtrack )
- The interior of the dome should be fully cleaned and dusted.
- All computer systems of the attraction will be changed and upgraded: control computers, sensors, etc...

Another 6 month closure of Space Mountain is scheduled for the first half of 2018. This is when the new trains and a redesign of the ride show back to the orignal theme/story but using the effects for Mission 2 is planned for. Reverting back to the orignal onride music has not yet been decided but it could happen in either the current or the 2018 closure.

Star Tours will close in 2016 to be transformed to Star Tours 2. However it is expected that DLP will recieve Star Tours 2.5 straight up as it seems Disney plan to include some new Star Wars stuff from the seventh film into Star Tours. The rumoured budget for this is €150 million, but that should be taken with a pinch of salt as it seems a heck of a lot!

Big Thunder Mountain is scheduled to close in November 2015 however due to recent technical set back this may be brought forward to the end of January or February 2015. It sounds like they may be planning on doing the work in two stages if this happens so that they are able to open BTM in the busy Halloween and Christmas period. Now the changes to BTM:

- The boarding room platforms should be lengthened to accommodate an extra wagon for each train.
- The entire track will be reviewed and corrected to allow trains to finally travel empty, thus simplifying the procedures in case of breakdown and it'll help to shorten the time when they have to restart the ride.
- The 180° turn just before the "LiftC" ( when we're going up and see a TNT explosion and landslides ) would be lengthened by going further over the water. Reducing the risk of having two trains in the same area and therefore a breakdown, but also to allow guests to be in perfect straight line before starting the last rise and to have a better enjoyment of the show
- The second part of this huge renovation will see scaffoldings on Big Thunder Mountain, and the return of its beautiful original orange color.
- A new queue with interactive elements ( a Single rider file is being thought to be added, but is so far not approved yet )
- New show elements in the ride itself like what WDI already did in California. In two words we can expect the lava wells during the first Lift to be brighter than ever, a striking TNT explosion with a mapping effect in the last Lift, and a cloud of bats particularly lively in the great final descent

There is lots more information in the Disney and More article including details of the Peter Pan's Flight refurbishment and the Paris version of Disney's NextGen project (i.e. Magic Bands etc) being introduced in 2017 at the expense of Walt Disney Company and not DLP (it appears Bob Iger decided the park needed it when he visited for Ratatouille's opening and saw how much paperwork was involved in ticketing).

Also, it appears that Studio Tram Tour at Studios park will be re-worked for 2017. The station will be set back a further 100m and new scenes are set to be flown in from the now closed Florida version.

All very interesting, still wish a major new ride was on the cards for Disneyland Park but Star Tours 2 should feel like a new ride.

 

[jon81uk]

Wow, lets hope that does all happen and the park is shiny and new looking for the 25th.

Only part I can't get excited about is the tram tour, it just seems pointless at a non-working studio, unless they are planning to add something along the lines of Kong (at Universal Hollywood), the current two "shows" on the tour are a bit boring. Better to bulldoze and start over I think on the tram tour.

 

[DiogoJ42]

Better to bulldoze the whole of both parks and build a sewage works.

Fixed that for you

I know work needs to be done, but that's a hell of a lot of rides closed fot a hell of a long time. There are going to be a lot of upset kids and angry parents.

 

[Rob]

The park is a no go zone until 2017!

 

[QTXAdsy]

With Space Mountain, I'm a bit disappointed with that list. Yeah it's quite an extensive list they have planned for SM which is nice to see they have a game plan, but I really would've had the new trains on if I were them. Even if we did have the Moon story back, the ride experience would still be hellish with those old trains as it is getting rougher each time I visit, pretty much put them on for safety sake's.

With another refurbishment planned for 2018, would we call the current refurb as Part 1 and the next one as Part 2 then? Bit strange to have it like that IMO. Though the hope that in the next refurbishment the original story will return does sound promising, though being me, I'm not holding my breath just yet.