Transformative Multi-Year Expansion Announced for WDS Paris

[Pizza Moon]

You say “throw avatar money at it” but is there anything wrong with arendelle? The land is thematically perfect (well at least Hong Kong’s is) while Tokyo’s is an absolute mess that makes no structural sense. Would throwing more money at the theming have led to a better arendelle? Or just a better ride?

Because again FEA is arguably not enough for the entire back half of WDS but arendelle itself is much better than Tokyo, so what do you value more

It needed a bigger budget so it could have a second ride or an actually incredible main ride. The land also should be bigger. At the very least the rides could’ve been addressed.

It needed to be Indiana Jones Adventure good to anchor the park’s revitalization. It feels like Disney is almost congratulating themselves early lol. Just wait for Lion King.

 

[Supersnow84]

still you seem to be arguing two conflicting points

1) why did this take so long
2) why is this all we have

Which while both within context are true you also have to understand that they conflict with each other. Let’s say Disney had 3 options based on their timeline when DLP reopened post Covid

1) reopen WDS with frozen as the new anchor land in 2026 and do lion king in 2028
2) delay frozen till 2027 and open it with a proper anchor attraction and delay anything after it to 2029 at the earliest
3) don’t open the back half of the park till lion king is done

1 becomes the obvious best solution because WDS reputation couldn’t get any worse so “not quite good enough right now should be better later” becomes better than more years of WDS

And I’m still not sure what you want out of fantasy springs, it’s an awful land with 3 good rides, fantasy springs is exactly NOT the direction Disney should go in and it’s a rare L for OLC

 

[Pizza Moon]

still you seem to be arguing two conflicting points

1) why did this take so long
2) why is this all we have

Which while both within context are true you also have to understand that they conflict with each other. Let’s say Disney had 3 options based on their timeline when DLP reopened post Covid

1) reopen WDS with frozen as the new anchor land in 2026 and do lion king in 2028
2) delay frozen till 2027 and open it with a proper anchor attraction and delay anything after it to 2029 at the earliest
3) don’t open the back half of the park till lion king is done

1 becomes the obvious best solution because WDS reputation couldn’t get any worse so “not quite good enough right now should be better later” becomes better than more years of WDS

And I’m still not sure what you want out of fantasy springs, it’s an awful land with 3 good rides, fantasy springs is exactly NOT the direction Disney should go in and it’s a rare L for OLC

I already laid out why I believe that to be irrelevant and why if you go back and read my posts lol

 

[marni1971]

I just don’t feel

Which is fine (despite the reasons given by others). But I’m bowing out of this one. I’m not running round in circles.

 

[Pizza Moon]

Which is fine (despite the reasons given by others). But I’m bowing out of this one. I’m not running round in circles.

The reasons given are completely irrelevant. I had counter points to every single one which were ignored by you and the other poster it seems.

It’s not just an “I feel,” it just is.

 

[Supersnow84]

your “reasons” and “counterpoints” basically amount to “if should he better because it needs to be better” which while nobody disagrees per say isn’t really itself a reason

We all wish Disney had unlimited money and unlimited drive and we all think FEA is insufficient but just saying “it should be better because it should be better” isn’t really saying much at all

 

[Sir_Cliff]

Honestly, the settling down to more reasonable wait times for FEA reminds me a little of the opening of Avenger's Campus when they planned to limit entry into the area after it opened. That proved entirely unnecessary after, I think, literally the first day. I'm not sure how they feel internally, but I haven't seen many people suggest that addition has been a disappointment despite the fact it settled in as a normal part of the park almost immediately. It might also speak to some difference between the general DLRP guest and those of other resorts that you don't see big hype bubbles around new additions.

Again, I think @wdrive is probably onto something in terms of the layout of the park right now that will leave the first half feeling busy most of the day and the lake area relatively empty. That just seems logical to me as there are so many things to keep guests busy there relative to the lake area, even if the new additions lead to a rise in attendance. Overall, the park also does have a reasonable number of attractions now but still has a way to go in terms of attendance before it is likely to feel busy as such across what is now quite a large expanse.

I suspect the additions will probably do what's needed in terms of bumping up attendance and extending people's time in the park until Lion King opens, but it was probably just as unrealistic to imagine World of Frozen to be mobbed as it was with Avenger's Campus.

For what it's worth, this is what I see on the app for 16:45 on Saturday:

 

[TrainsOfDisney]

For better or worse, the answer to this resort remains to ignore Disneyland

Definitely for the better. Disneyland is a masterpiece and the less they change the better.

improvements and updates (like the rivers of America and storybook) are wonderful of course.

 

[marni1971]

Honestly, the settling down to more reasonable wait times for FEA reminds me a little of the opening of Avenger's Campus when they planned to limit entry into the area after it opened. That proved entirely unnecessary after, I think, literally the first day. I'm not sure how they feel internally, but I haven't seen many people suggest that addition has been a disappointment despite the fact it settled in as a normal part of the park almost immediately. It might also speak to some difference between the general DLRP guest and those of other resorts that you don't see big hype bubbles around new additions.

Again, I think @wdrive is probably onto something in terms of the layout of the park right now that will leave the first half feeling busy most of the day and the lake area relatively empty. That just seems logical to me as there are so many things to keep guests busy there relative to the lake area, even if the new additions lead to a rise in attendance. Overall, the park also does have a reasonable number of attractions now but still has a way to go in terms of attendance before it is likely to feel busy as such across what is now quite a large expanse.

I suspect the additions will probably do what's needed in terms of bumping up attendance and extending people's time in the park until Lion King opens, but it was probably just as unrealistic to imagine World of Frozen to be mobbed as it was with Avenger's Campus.

For what it's worth, this is what I see on the app for 16:45 on Saturday:

View attachment 915081

110 minute wait now. If that’s due to down time I don’t know.

 

[Supersnow84]

I don’t feel like any expansion to WDS was going to make a “destroy the park’s line system for a year” style splash à la disneysea with fantasy springs simply because of its attendence

Again similar to Hong Kong Disneyland they could have put out the best ride and expansion you’ve ever seen but it takes a long time to flip a parks reputation around especially when it’s as bad as WDS was

I can see lion king making a bigger splash because it’ll take the park from “well at least I can see where they were going” to “not immediate pick for last place in a parks ranking” and a new expansion on a park with a correcting reputation will always hit bigger than an expansion to correct a floundering park, same as how arendelle was a bigger hit than mystic point/grizzly despite the latter being better

 

[Sir_Cliff]

I don’t feel like any expansion to WDS was going to make a “destroy the park’s line system for a year” style splash à la disneysea with fantasy springs simply because of its attendence

Again similar to Hong Kong Disneyland they could have put out the best ride and expansion you’ve ever seen but it takes a long time to flip a parks reputation around especially when it’s as bad as WDS was

I can see lion king making a bigger splash because it’ll take the park from “well at least I can see where they were going” to “not immediate pick for last place in a parks ranking” and a new expansion on a park with a correcting reputation will always hit bigger than an expansion to correct a floundering park, same as how arendelle was a bigger hit than mystic point/grizzly despite the latter being better

Yes, I would imagine this is more about maintaining the incremental growth that has been occurring post-COVID since Avenger's Campus opened rather than a sudden surge in attendance. Perhaps equally important is encouraging people to spend more time in the park and to have their meals there rather than going back to Disneyland and their already over-saturated dining options after hitting the main attractions.

Again, I do also think the park has a pretty strong attraction line-up which can absorb its current attendance level quite well. Unusually for modern Disney, it is also relatively evenly balanced between thrill rides and big family attractions.

 

[Aramar]

The parks are sold out these days, so if the queue time isn't huge like Tokyo DisneySea it doesn't mean it's not a success. Frozen Ever After is getting high waiting times similar to the other most popular rides like Big Thunder Mountain, and during big part of the day it has the longest waiting time. Crush might have longer waits sometimes, but we all know the capacity of Nemo's ride is nothing like Frozen's capacity.

Frozen wait time falls a lot in the evening, but I think that's because the park still does not have enough offer to keep all guests 13 hours in the park from 9:30 till 22:40, especially when most shows finish around 18:00. It makes sense that towards the end of the day visitors go back to the front side of the park where there are more restaurants and shops, since for the moment Frozen is a bit isolated. There's a cavalcade coming this summer, a second flat ride next year and a big Lion Attraction being built. This is a long term project and the park it's on the way, but again, with the parks being sold out, I don't think we can say Frozen is a failure.

 

[Pizza Moon]

your “reasons” and “counterpoints” basically amount to “if should he better because it needs to be better” which while nobody disagrees per say isn’t really itself a reason

We all wish Disney had unlimited money and unlimited drive and we all think FEA is insufficient but just saying “it should be better because it should be better” isn’t really saying much at all

No, I laid out how they're leaving money on the table, among many other things, I won't list exhaustively, I'll give like two examples, you can re-read the rest lol.

I accurately called on these forums that FEA would not be as popular as people thought, too, so. Pattern recognition is all that matters.

I do not believe it is in their business interest to take the approach they have, with a "they'll come no matter what" approach. It didn't work for Galaxy's Edge, and it didn't work for New Fantasyland, but this product is significantly weaker than those and was paired with a multi-billion-dollar transformation that should be punching at a weight more like Radiator Springs Racers, FEA needed to be a draw into itself. I wish you would mention I made those points, but alas.

 

[marni1971]

I accurately called on these forums that FEA would not be as popular as people thought

How popular did people think it would be and how popular is it? With proof please.

 

[nickys]

I accurately called on these forums that FEA would not be as popular as people thought, too, so. Pattern recognition is all that matters.

I wish you would mention I made those points, but alas.

It’s been open less than a week.

Can you quote me what you actually said, I can’t seem to find it (maybe it was buried in a lengthy post and I missed it).

 

[Pizza Moon]

How popular did people think it would be and how popular is it? With proof please.

Post in thread 'Transformative Multi-Year Expansion Announced for WDS Paris'

Jan 29, 2026

Imagine if they plopped the Ariel miniland at MK at the back of World Showcase with a quick-service restaurant. What would the reactions on here be?

I've read in the French forum/discord that Worlds of Pixar is being remodelled next with the big refurbishment for Crush Coaster, changements to the façade to remove the studio 5, new floors in the area and changing the horrible Pixar background in the meet and greet area. They are also taking advantage of the changes to Animation Celebration to do the works. This should be done for the 35 anniversary next year.

If true, game...

• Pizza Moon

• 

I’ve posted more about it for a while on my personal X account tho.

 

[J4546]

i wish theyd get rid of that aladdin spinner while theyre at it and replace it with a nice carousel surrounded by trees

 

[cjkeating]

Just a couple of things I don’t think have been mentioned…
1) FEA currently doesn’t have Premier Access One which will increase wait times when it becomes available
2) DAW now has park hours that matches PDL. So the park has numerous extra hours of extra ride capacity versus prior years that will help reduce overall wait times across the day. FEA at DAW is open for 14 hours a day,
longer than any other park with a Frozen attraction and it’s the park with the lowest attendance.
3) A lesser point but wait times at DLP are typically much more self regulating when compared to WDW which people tend to be most familiar with as a comparison. If a time is too long people just come back later versus wait there and then. There are a couple of exceptions but they are low capacity rides like Crush or Peter Pan.

 

[marni1971]

Post in thread 'Transformative Multi-Year Expansion Announced for WDS Paris'

Jan 29, 2026

Imagine if they plopped the Ariel miniland at MK at the back of World Showcase with a quick-service restaurant. What would the reactions on here be?

I've read in the French forum/discord that Worlds of Pixar is being remodelled next with the big refurbishment for Crush Coaster, changements to the façade to remove the studio 5, new floors in the area and changing the horrible Pixar background in the meet and greet area. They are also taking advantage of the changes to Animation Celebration to do the works. This should be done for the 35 anniversary next year.

If true, game...

• Pizza Moon

• 

I’ve posted more about it for a while on my personal X account tho.

Errr… there’s nothing there to back up your claims.

 

[Supersnow84]

I accurately called on these forums that FEA would not be as popular as people thought, too, so. Pattern recognition is all that matters.

I don’t think you are arguing a point anyone made. Few people on here thought that FEA was enough. You say “I called on these forums that FEA would not be as popular as people thought” but who are these “people”, almost everyone agreed FEA wasn’t enough

You ask why nobody is highlighting your points but it seems to be because you are having an argument with an imagined person. Like I don’t think FEA is enough, but I’m more in the camp of in lieu of pie in the sky “they just should have done more” (which yes they should) this is the most pragmatic thing they could have done with what they had

I want more as well but just saying “it’s not enough do more” doesn’t really achieve anything especially when you are arguing it like anyone else is outright defending it saying “no what they have is perfect”