Transformative Multi-Year Expansion Announced for WDS Paris

LondonTom

Well-Known Member
Rumour is Aladdin is on the move. If it’s to here or the area west of ToT I don’t know yet.
They could at least do something proper with the crush queue then I guess 👀😂
One of the things that strikes me as unusual in the concept art for the additions to the studios is that, by the looks of it, the existing Hollywood facades will be taken down and you will wander out of Studio 1 to be greeted by a looooong tree-lined path perhaps with some stalls/stands stretching to the lagoon with Frozenland way off in the distance. I guess you will have ToT and Animation (such as it is) on either side, but it's hard not to imagine it looking like a lot of empty space between the entrance and Frozenland.
I guess at least it will have plant life rather than the current car park 😂
 

LittleMerman

Well-Known Member
One of the things that strikes me as unusual in the concept art for the additions to the studios is that, by the looks of it, the existing Hollywood facades will be taken down and you will wander out of Studio 1 to be greeted by a looooong tree-lined path perhaps with some stalls/stands stretching to the lagoon with Frozenland way off in the distance. I guess you will have ToT and Animation (such as it is) on either side, but it's hard not to imagine it looking like a lot of empty space between the entrance and Frozenland.
I'm guessing they're leaving room for new lands or expansions of current lands. There's easily enough room for additional lands between Tower of Terror and Star Wars and then between Frozen and Toy Story. I'd also guess that they wouldn't want to cluster the new lands at the front of the park and have nothing around the new lake, which they will use as a focal point and entertainment, so for a while, there will probably be empty lots.
 

mrflo

Well-Known Member
I got the chance to see the teaser trailer for "Avatar - The Way of Water" in the IMAX theatre yesterday. While they are not showing much about the actual story, the visuals look very impressive and are a major expansion of the cinematic world of Pandora. Enough for me to look forward to this movie in December.

With all the additional Avatar movies already lined up for the next couple of years, I am wondering whether DLP should skip the light version of SWGE after Frozen for now and focus on bringing Pandora to the WDS instead. At least they still have time to see how the Avatar sequel does at the box office before going ahead.

They could consider adding a smaller indoor version of Pandora - think of the Mermaid Lagoon in TDS - with rock work and waterfalls on the outside and a nighttime version of the Bioluminescence forest inside. Flight of Passage would provide an amazing e-ticket ride and introduce an upgraded Soarin' ride system that makes the already existing copies in other European parks look inferior.

I also enjoyed Rise of the Resistance and think that it's scale and technology is very impressive. Though being based on the sequel trilogy, I am not sure how exciting this would be in 4-5 years from now. Especially as it does not include any of the classic characters or the new ones from the Mandalorian.

What do you think?
 

cjkeating

Well-Known Member
I got the chance to see the teaser trailer for "Avatar - The Way of Water" in the IMAX theatre yesterday. While they are not showing much about the actual story, the visuals look very impressive and are a major expansion of the cinematic world of Pandora. Enough for me to look forward to this movie in December.

With all the additional Avatar movies already lined up for the next couple of years, I am wondering whether DLP should skip the light version of SWGE after Frozen for now and focus on bringing Pandora to the WDS instead. At least they still have time to see how the Avatar sequel does at the box office before going ahead.

They could consider adding a smaller indoor version of Pandora - think of the Mermaid Lagoon in TDS - with rock work and waterfalls on the outside and a nighttime version of the Bioluminescence forest inside. Flight of Passage would provide an amazing e-ticket ride and introduce an upgraded Soarin' ride system that makes the already existing copies in other European parks look inferior.

I also enjoyed Rise of the Resistance and think that it's scale and technology is very impressive. Though being based on the sequel trilogy, I am not sure how exciting this would be in 4-5 years from now. Especially as it does not include any of the classic characters or the new ones from the Mandalorian.

What do you think?
I much prefer Pandora to Galaxy's Edge and would much rather have Pandora at WDSP... the cost of ROTR is about equal to the entirety of Pandora as well.
 

marni1971

Park History nut
Premium Member
Hell no. Rise is far better than FoP, not to mention entertains more guests simultaneously. More bang for the buck.

Not to mention one is still a hot IP and owned by the company. Of course if Bob feels brave he’d build both - the park will still need more - assuming he didn’t want something original (who am I kidding)
 

yensidtlaw1969

Well-Known Member
Hell no. Rise is far better than FoP, not to mention entertains more guests simultaneously. More bang for the buck.

Not to mention one is still a hot IP and owned by the company. Of course if Bob feels brave he’d build both - the park will still need more - assuming he didn’t want something original (who am I kidding)
It's amazing to me that so many of these parks are getting Billion+ Dollar expansions where afterward the park will "still need more".

Like, it's true that a Theme Park is an ever-expanding venture, but you'd think after a Billion Dollars they'd be able to say "That oughta hold us for a while". Parc Disneyland had a healthy, substantial, well-rounded menu of attractions within 3 years of opening. DSP is 20 years in and still won't be there after this expansion. It still won't command a full day the way Parc Disneyland can.

Same for DCA post-Rebrand, Animal Kingdom post-Pandora, and EPCOT post-whatever you'd call what's happening there. Does a Billion Dollars really not go far enough to turn a park into a self-sufficient gate?
 

UNCgolf

Well-Known Member
It's amazing to me that so many of these parks are getting Billion+ Dollar expansions where afterward the park will "still need more".

Like, it's true that a Theme Park is an ever-expanding venture, but you'd think after a Billion Dollars they'd be able to say "That oughta hold us for a while". Parc Disneyland had a healthy, substantial, well-rounded menu of attractions within 3 years of opening. DSP is 20 years in and still won't be there after this expansion. It still won't command a full day the way Parc Disneyland can.

Same for DCA post-Rebrand, Animal Kingdom post-Pandora, and EPCOT post-whatever you'd call what's happening there. Does a Billion Dollars really not go far enough to turn a park into a self-sufficient gate?

Not including DHS in that? I think even after Galaxy's Edge DHS is still in worse shape than DAK and EPCOT, mostly because they both have other ways to spend time (animals and World Showcase).
 

mrflo

Well-Known Member
Hell no. Rise is far better than FoP, not to mention entertains more guests simultaneously. More bang for the buck.

Not to mention one is still a hot IP and owned by the company. Of course if Bob feels brave he’d build both - the park will still need more - assuming he didn’t want something original (who am I kidding)
Due to its complexity Rise breaks down a lot. So I am not sure Rise actually has a higher capacity than FoP. For FoP they could also add another "theatre" like they did for Soarin' in Epcot.

While Star Wars itself has a massive fan base, my question is whether the interest in the characters from the sequel trilogy - which Rise heavily relies on - will be still as high as for the new Avatar movies in five plus years. Of course, all depending on the success or failure of the Avatar sequels. The franchise is now also owned by Disney with the Fox acquisition. Or should Disney rethink the concept of SWGE including Rise and open it up to characters outside of the sequel trilogy?

Of course, getting both would be amazing. Though this seems highly unlikely under Chapek within this decade. Unfortunately I would not even be surprised if they delay the next phase of expansion after Frozen again.
 
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BrianLo

Well-Known Member
Hell no. Rise is far better than FoP, not to mention entertains more guests simultaneously. More bang for the buck.

Not to mention one is still a hot IP and owned by the company. Of course if Bob feels brave he’d build both - the park will still need more - assuming he didn’t want something original (who am I kidding)

You know they own both, right?
 

SplashJacket

Well-Known Member
Truly it just slipped my mind. DHS is totally an example of a Billion Dollar Investment moving the needle a stunningly small amount.
Hollywood Studio’s primary issue is it was a lacking park when it first opened, then they shut down the studios, so they essentially had to build a new park, but they haven’t invested the capital equivalent to a new park. Hollywood Studio’s primary needs (water, more physical space and rides) are not really lackings of a built park, but a new park.

Galaxy’s Edge has transformed Hollywood Studios for the better and moved it in the right direction, we just need the other lands to be built now.

It’s the same issue at WDSP.

Even if we love Fantasyland and Frontierland, Magic Kingdom would suffer drastically had it lacked Tomorrowland or Adventureland
 

BrianLo

Well-Known Member
It's amazing to me that so many of these parks are getting Billion+ Dollar expansions where afterward the park will "still need more".

Like, it's true that a Theme Park is an ever-expanding venture, but you'd think after a Billion Dollars they'd be able to say "That oughta hold us for a while". Parc Disneyland had a healthy, substantial, well-rounded menu of attractions within 3 years of opening. DSP is 20 years in and still won't be there after this expansion. It still won't command a full day the way Parc Disneyland can.

Same for DCA post-Rebrand, Animal Kingdom post-Pandora, and EPCOT post-whatever you'd call what's happening there. Does a Billion Dollars really not go far enough to turn a park into a self-sufficient gate?

I largely agree and this is just another example. So much of these 'expansions' seem to get caught up in fix and replace or infrastructure improvements. Versus something like Hong Kong that had good bones (granted they did just finally waste money on the castle) and largely mostly spent on more attractions and areas.

The optimist in me is that the bones of most of these parks are 'fixed' - so maybe the next round, if there is one, will mostly be for actual expansion? Yes... optimistic.
 

UNCgolf

Well-Known Member
Hollywood Studio’s primary issue is it was a lacking park when it first opened, then they shut down the studios, so they essentially had to build a new park, but they haven’t invested the capital equivalent to a new park. Hollywood Studio’s primary needs (water, more physical space and rides) are not really lackings of a built park, but a new park.

Galaxy’s Edge has transformed Hollywood Studios for the better and moved it in the right direction, we just need the other lands to be built now.

DHS is especially bad because rather than actually expand they just tore down/replaced existing attractions in a park that was already seriously lacking. TSL/GE get somewhat of a pass because they resulted in net adds (i.e. there's more there now than what was replaced), and because the studio was dead anyways and no longer really made any sense. Replacing GMR with MMRR was mindbogglingly stupid, though.

EPCOT did that too, of course, but Energy had to be overhauled regardless (putting aside whether Guardians is a good fit), and they did add Ratatouille as an actual expansion. Tearing down half of CommuniCore only to eventually rebuild part of it looks very stupid, although at least that wasn't the plan from the start.
 
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lazyboy97o

Well-Known Member
I largely agree and this is just another example. So much of these 'expansions' seem to get caught up in fix and replace or infrastructure improvements. Versus something like Hong Kong that had good bones (granted they did just finally waste money on the castle) and largely mostly spent on more attractions and areas.

The optimist in me is that the bones of most of these parks are 'fixed' - so maybe the next round, if there is one, will mostly be for actual expansion? Yes... optimistic.
The bones have more been broken with a lot of basic, poor design choices.
 

BrianLo

Well-Known Member
The bones have more been broken with a lot of basic, poor design choices.

I used the term fixed loosely. But the cores of most parks have been sufficiently messed with that they won’t go back and edit hubs, entrances or night time auditoriums for a while. There seemed to be a lot of wastage of expansion project budgets on non-attraction infrastructure.

Save maybe Tomorrowland in Disneyland and a few one off attractions in WDW. There’s not a lot of major projects that will come up with no added expansion moving forward. Which might mean there are no future projects for a while…
 

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