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Disneyland Paris: General Discussion

Disney Village was very 90s. Such is the march of time and changing ideas of what is cool design.

The restaurant area looks far better now. I think the decision of perpetual night doesn't help though. Studio 1's day/night cycle was subtle but allowed for a bit of dynamism to the area.

The wall is certainly a design choice. You still get the reveal of the boulevard area but not as instant. The mural on the other side looks good though.
 
I'm surprised how little it has changed. I thought they were gutting the whole thing and starting over.

Not that I'm even sure how you'd fix this entrance if you did gut it. There's simply nothing inspiring about entering a theme park through a giant soundstage.
Maybe if they were going for a Warner Brothers Studios Leavesden big reveal (having the screen part to reveal the Great Hall) it could work, but then you literally have to batch people into the park.
 
A few Pirates of the Carribean behind the scenes photos for anyone who's interested. Found them on my old hard drive.

The first two are 100% Paris. I have a feeling the last two are California.

Slightly off topic, but I found the 1974 operators manual for the Californian ride if anyone is interested. Very interesting to see how Disney uphold their high standards on a granular level.

Things such as, the well as seen below in the first and last photo, if the well animation broke with the animatronic in the up position, they could open the attraction, or stay open. If the well animation broke with the animatronic hidden in the well, they close the attraction or keep it closed until it is fixed. Things like that, I found very interesting from the manual.

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A few more, sorry for the double post. These are all construction photos from POTC @ DLP. These were lying on my hard drive. Not sure if I posted these before or not.

Credit goes to designing disney, ill caption the photos as captioned on their website. The page is worth checking out for anyone interesting in this sort of thing.

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This construction photo shows the load/unload area under the queue which is above. The ride boats would be going left to right from the caves onto the belt. The "Blue Lagoon" is on the right.


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Here you can see the first drop ramp from the "Flooded Fort" down into the pirate galleon battle.

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This photo shows the upramp being installed with the train track tressle overhead.


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Here you can see the window openings in the train tunnel that will look into the cave scenes.
 
MattBTP said:
Awesome, love these construction pics!
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If you like those, davelandweb has some cool photos of POTC from May of 1991. More than what I post below.

The website doesnt caption the photos, I am pretty familiar with the ins and outs of the ride, so ill do my best to caption the photos from said website below.

As is normal during construction, the ride system would have been tested before show installation. Hence why you can see water and boats in some photos, while the show and scenery is half built.


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I believe this is the very start of the ride, the blue lagoon, viewed from the station area, roughly where the control tower (operators cab) is located.

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This is the bottom of the first drop, with the drop being to the right of this photo, boats will travel right to left. You can see rock work and the struts for what will become the fort that is under siege from the galleon taking shape.

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Moving the camera to the right, you can see the bottom of downramp 1. The concrete 'wall' seen above the tunnel, is the wall of the upper basin that holds the water for the flooded / burning fort scene, which you enter on the top right of this photo, after ascending the first lift. When on the ride and after you have got to to the top of lift one, you can breifly look to your left and you will be looking over that concrete wall in the photo above, down at the galleon and fort, before the boat makes a right hand turn, into the flooded / burning fort. Named as 'battle overlook' in the ride layout below.


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The bottom of down ramp number 2, this will be a cave scene once finished. The metal 'bridge' above the drop, is the track for the Disney Railroad.

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Said caves, taking shape further down the rides route.

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The galleon put into place, like most of the scenery for this ride, the galleon was built in the UK and shipped across to Paris for installation. You can see the trough for the boats in this photo too, the fort would be to the right of this photo.

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The broken galleon at the very start of the ride, the boats travel through this, to the left of the photo, before going up the first lift.

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Looking back at the station, from within the blue lagoon at the very start of the ride.

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Part of the burning town scene taking shape. Very early on.

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Another angle looking from the station to the start of the ride. The photographer would be stood on the exist platform here.

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As one final photo, here's the layout of the attraction as is in Paris. Quite a beast of an attraction.
 
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DistortAMG said:
If you like those, davelandweb has some cool photos of POTC from May of 1991. More than what I post below.

The website doesnt caption the photos, I am pretty familiar with the ins and outs of the ride, so ill do my best to caption the photos from said website below.

As is normal during construction, the ride system would have been tested before show installation. Hence why you can see water and boats in some photos, while the show and scenery is half built.


1000007616.jpg
I believe this is the very start of the ride, the blue lagoon, viewed from the station area, roughly where the control tower (operators cab) is located.

1000007617.jpg
This is the bottom of the first drop, with the drop being to the right of this photo, boats will travel right to left. You can see rock work and the struts for what will become the fort that is under siege from the galleon taking shape.

1000007629.jpg
Moving the camera to the right, you can see the bottom of downramp 1. The concrete 'wall' seen above the tunnel, is the wall of the upper basin that holds the water for the flooded fort scene, which you enter on the top right of this photo, after ascending the first lift. When on the ride and after you have got to to the top of lift one, you can breifly look to your left and you will be looking over that concrete wall in the photo above, down at the galleon and fort, before the boat makes a right hand turn, into the flooded fort.


1000007622.jpg
The bottom of down ramp number 2, this will be a cave scene once finished. The metal 'bridge' above the drop, is the track for the Disney Railroad (90% sure on that last one).

1000007628.jpg
Said caves, taking shape further down the rides route.

1000007623.jpg
The galleon put into place, like most of the scenery for this ride, the galleon was built in the UK and shipped across to Paris for installation. You can see the trough for the boats in this photo too, the fort would be to the right of this photo.

1000007620.jpg
The broken galleon at the very start of the ride, the boats travel through this, to the left of the photo, before going up the first lift.

1000007626.jpg
Looking back at the station, from within the blue lagoon at the very start of the ride.

1000007619.jpg
Part of the burning town scene taking shape. Very early on.

1000007627.jpg
Another angle looking from the station to the start of the ride. The photographer would be stood on the exist platform here.
Click to expand...
That's awesome thanks for the link, will check it out! DLP was the park I visited as an impressionable 8 year old that got me into theme parks (as well as the early days of the Tussaud's parks).
 
DiogoJ42 said:
What strikes me most about these pictures, is that the framework for the theming is steel and concrete. Most parks would build the lot out of wood and paper mâché .... then wonder why it rots after a few years.
Or burns down.
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So true, I remember Pirate Adventure at Drayton, the whole thing was pretty much made of OSB chipboard. As soon as you walked off stage so to speak, it was all just bare and unpainted as you would see in on the shelf in B&Q.
 
I remember (and am still) fascinated in how they built Big Thunder at DLP. The creativity and engineering involved is incredible. "Lets put the rollercoaster on an island, and build underwater tunnels to it". Its still one of my favourite rollercoasters to this day. Amazing stuff!!
 
AstroDan said:
Any new rides at the main park?

Not been in a few years.
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Maybe by 2040. I expect more parade's, shows and refurbs! It's a big reason why I stopped going. Even with the investment in studios it's 3 new rides by 2030 and 2 cheap fairground rides.
- Spiderman
- lion king
- frozen
- Teacups
- chair swing (possibly second hand from DCA)
 
Uuuuh, Looopings have reported a severe data breach:
A huge amount of sensitive information from Disneyland Paris has been leaked due to a data breach. Hackers managed to get their hands on no less than 39,000 internal documents, worth 64 gigabytes of material. The confidential files are now floating around on the dark web, where they can be viewed by anyone. The leaked files mainly relate to construction and renovation work at the Disney resort between 2013 and 2025.

It concerns designs, financial information and behind-the-scenes images. The data is said to have been obtained via a partner company of Disneyland. Hackers share online plans for the new Frozen attraction that will open next year, but also information about Pirates of the Caribbean, Big Thunder Mountain, Autopia, Buzz Lightyear Laser Blast, Orbitron, Phantom Manor, Crush's Coaster and Ratatouille.

Detailed blueprints
On their X account @Anubis__media, the hackers give a sneak peek at the intercepted material. For example, they boast about "detailed blueprints for attractions, including a 395-page technical plan for the Frozen attraction, internal specifications, contracts, geological reports, safety requirements and more than four thousand photos and videos from behind the scenes" .
Click to expand...
 
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