Transformative Multi-Year Expansion Announced for WDS Paris

[Moon knight]

I like the idea of the lake area having distinct biomes; where you have a snow-capped landscape, a desert one and a rainforest for example. You could have Cars Land or Galaxy's Edge for the desert and Avatar for the rainforest to go with Frozen's mountains.

An alternative would be to have the four seasons represented with the restaurant/Tangled area being Spring, Frozen for Winter and then lands for Summer and Autumn.

Technically they can't : the 90 million dollars Art Nouveau restaurant of the WDS lake will be the Disney Princesses' Summer pavillon and "Arendelle : the World of Frozen" is also set in summer (cuz the summer snow day storyline of FEA in EPCOT will be reutilized here).

Here other pieces of Information I've recently gathered :
* The Lion King has been chosen as the theme of the 3rd land. The main E-ticket will be the long awaited flume ride of DLP. Rafiki will be the narrator just like Scuttle in the Little Mermaid ride attraction. 30 next-gen AA will be featured within the 10 main scenes of this ride alongside dozens of animated props and critters. The final lift will be the "Battle for Pride Rock" between Simba and Scar and the grand finale 'The Circle of Life" segment. The land will be divided into three main parts : the Jungle of Timon and Pumba, the Pride Rock and the Elephant's Grave. The never built animal carousel of DAK has been proposed as a potential secondary attraction, the mechanism of the Flying Carpets would be in this case reused and obviously rethemed as the animal pyramid of the "I can't wait to be king" segment. Emmanuel Curtil is set to reprise his role as the french voice of Simba.

* The nightime show will be far more spectacular than any previous Disney show. The TDS Fantasmic floats, purchased by DLP 3 years ago, have been attached to one another as some sort of train... The tech has been improved with retractable LED screens, more fire and water effects, pyro and next-gen drones. Some drones might even be puppets or flying gallons ! The ongoing partnership between DLP and Dronisos will enable them to do wonders and set themselves aprt from the other Disney Parks !

* In the years to come WDS 2.0 will propose more festivals inspired by EPCOT. Their version of "Food and Wine" (les Rendez-vous gourmands) proved to be very popular. The "Flower and Garden Festival" will be next to be adapted to the european audience once the Lake Promenade will be completed in 2025.

* "Avatar : the World of Pandora" is seriously considered for WDS between the Frozen land and the Cars Road Trip pads. Although even in the best case scenario it wouldn't open before 2029/2030. A raft ride would replace Navi River Journey.

* Star Wars is no longer planned for the WDS expansion, if it ever comes to fruition it would be constructed on the Discoveryland expansion pad area with a bike coaster as the main E-ticket. The Dicoveryland Theater building will be torn down by 2029. Current construction works backstage are reducing the CM parking lot footprint...

 

[J4546]

Hmmm. Interesting about lion King land....not really a fan of another animation based land but could still be cool. Or is lion king land going in disneyland?

 

[cjkeating]

Technically they can't : the 90 million dollars Art Nouveau restaurant of the WDS lake will be the Disney Princesses' Summer pavillon and "Arendelle : the World of Frozen" is also set in summer (cuz the summer snow day storyline of FEA in EPCOT will be reutilized here).

Here other pieces of Information I've recently gathered :
* The Lion King has been chosen as the theme of the 3rd land. The main E-ticket will be the long awaited flume ride of DLP. Rafiki will be the narrator just like Scuttle in the Little Mermaid ride attraction. 30 next-gen AA will be featured within the 10 main scenes of this ride alongside dozens of animated props and critters. The final lift will be the "Battle for Pride Rock" between Simba and Scar and the grand finale 'The Circle of Life" segment. The land will be divided into three main parts : the Jungle of Timon and Pumba, the Pride Rock and the Elephant's Grave. The never built animal carousel of DAK has been proposed as a potential secondary attraction, the mechanism of the Flying Carpets would be in this case reused and obviously rethemed as the animal pyramid of the "I can't wait to be king" segment. Emmanuel Curtil is set to reprise his role as the french voice of Simba.

* The nightime show will be far more spectacular than any previous Disney show. The TDS Fantasmic floats, purchased by DLP 3 years ago, have been attached to one another as some sort of train... The tech has been improved with retractable LED screens, more fire and water effects, pyro and next-gen drones. Some drones might even be puppets or flying gallons ! The ongoing partnership between DLP and Dronisos will enable them to do wonders and set themselves aprt from the other Disney Parks !

* In the years to come WDS 2.0 will propose more festivals inspired by EPCOT. Their version of "Food and Wine" (les Rendez-vous gourmands) proved to be very popular. The "Flower and Garden Festival" will be next to be adapted to the european audience once the Lake Promenade will be completed in 2025.

* "Avatar : the World of Pandora" is seriously considered for WDS between the Frozen land and the Cars Road Trip pads. Although even in the best case scenario it wouldn't open before 2029/2030. A raft ride would replace Navi River Journey.

* Star Wars is no longer planned for the WDS expansion, if it ever comes to fruition it would be constructed on the Discoveryland expansion pad area with a bike coaster as the main E-ticket. The Dicoveryland Theater building will be torn down by 2029. Current construction works backstage are reducing the CM parking lot footprint...

Hey. Thanks for this. Just to add in two things.

1) Everyone has their 'sources' but so far no-one I speak to has suggested the Lion King land is anything other than a fan theory that gained legs and somehow become spoken to as fact. If it is Lion King then people are really trying to keep in secret for some reason.

2) The Discoveryland construction works backstage are building a new staff building and a multi-storey car park. This will allow costuming to be transferred for select lands (I think Discoveryland and Fantasyland) over there from WDSP so they will be expecting more Cast Member to park over there in addition to the car parking space lost. So I wouldn't connect dots between that and the Discoveryland pad being used. Again could be wrong but I see Discoveryland as the last land in DLP to receive an expansion.

 

[SplashJacket]

A raft ride would replace Navi River Journey.

Ah yes, now that DLP has seemingly warmed overnight, let’s build the most temperature prone ride out there, instead of an enclosed climate controlled attraction!

 

[Sir_Cliff]

I commented on this in the HKDL thread, but I am a little concerned that the sides and structures behind the Frozen mountain facade are way too visible. This doesn't seem a case like Splash Mountain where they have taken great care to wrap the mountain around the supporting structures so the structure looks three dimensional from the park.

Hopefully this won't be the case at WDS, as such bad show from the front and presumably the side view of the mountain will just reiterate the perception that the park is lower quality compared to the incredibly detailed theming of Disneyland Parc.

 

[Moon knight]

Hey. Thanks for this. Just to add in two things.

1) Everyone has their 'sources' but so far no-one I speak to has suggested the Lion King land is anything other than a fan theory that gained legs and somehow become spoken to as fact. If it is Lion King then people are really trying to keep in secret for some reason.

2) The Discoveryland construction works backstage are building a new staff building and a multi-storey car park. This will allow costuming to be transferred for select lands (I think Discoveryland and Fantasyland) over there from WDSP so they will be expecting more Cast Member to park over there in addition to the car parking space lost. So I wouldn't connect dots between that and the Discoveryland pad being used. Again could be wrong but I see Discoveryland as the last land in DLP to receive an expansion.

1. This is more than just a fan theory, you may not believe me but I was the first to tell you about the Rapunzel attraction months before DLP confirmed. So yes the theme may have become an open secret but it's nothing new that DLP only breaks the silence a few weeks before the building permits are released. We're talking about the company that officially announced Ratatouille only a few months before its opening, when it must have been more than two years since construction began.

2. I'm just pointing out that the new multi-story parking lot was saving quite a bit of space for a potential Discoveryland expansion at that location. A Star Wars Miniland was already scheduled to be built at this location around 2015/2017 for the reopening of Star Tours 2, so it's not really about adding parking spaces. The Cast Members are not numerous to come by car, they come in majority by bus or by the RER A, they often have a company house a few kilometers away. This multi-storey parking lot is rather linked to a contract with the RATP which uses a certain percentage of this parking lot for its buses following a former agreement with DLP. The construction of this parking lot should allow to stabilize the situation, by reducing the surface on the ground, the RATP can no longer claim more parking rows.

 

[J4546]

So will that giant building beside ratatuioe be filled with a cool exclusive dark ride based on aristocrats or what?

 

[Moon knight]

Ah yes, now that DLP has seemingly warmed overnight, let’s build the most temperature prone ride out there, instead of an enclosed climate controlled attraction!

Oh gosh, you would be surprised to know how many times a raft ride has been proposed for Disneyland Paris...

 

[marni1971]

Oh gosh, you would be surprised to know how many times a raft ride has been proposed for Disneyland Paris...View attachment 701747

Indeed:

I’ll also add plans already exist from Orlando for an indoor Avatar raft ride instead of the Navi float along.

 

[J4546]

Oh gosh, you would be surprised to know how many times a raft ride has been proposed for Disneyland Paris...View attachment 701747

That looks cool imo but I love river rapids style rides.

 

[J4546]

Indeed:

View attachment 701754

I’ll also add plans already exist from Orlando for an indoor Avatar raft ride instead of the Navi float along.

What's this one supposed to be?

 

[marni1971]

What's this one supposed to be?

The guest side of a Splash Mountain style ride.

 

[Sir_Cliff]

After just being there over a particularly chilly weekend, I kind of think a rapids or Splash-style ride would be a bad idea for Paris. Apparently it works in Tokyo, but it just seems to me there would be too much of the year where the ride would be borderline painful.

That said, I was also pondering the fact that it is surprising so much of the queues are outdoors with no cover considering how much it rains in Europe. Do people just stand in the rain for forty minutes on certain days for Peter Pan, for example?

 

[denyuntilcaught]

Oh gosh, you would be surprised to know how many times a raft ride has been proposed for Disneyland Paris...

I did not know Grizzly River Run was ever considered for DLP. That's wild.

 

[Nonja]

Literally EVERY European theme park has water rides even in countries colder than France. DL Paris not having one is pathetic, it's very needed in summer.

 

[marni1971]

Literally EVERY European theme park has water rides even in countries colder than France. DL Paris not having one is pathetic, it's very needed in summer.

That remains to be seen. Certainly the parks in the UK are closed over winter.

 

[Brummyboy92]

I am a tad confused with the anti water ride mob for Paris, water rides do exist all across northern Europe. In fact, some of the best flume rides on the continent exist in the UK, Valhalla, Storm Force 10, all fantastic attraction where you get absolutely soaked. Rumours have been speculating that Legoland Windsor will become the first resort in the UK, to become a year round theme park, they also have water rides.

I appreciate these parks are seasonal, however I see no reason why Paris could not have a highly themed rapids ride. These rides can be thrilling, without getting you soaked from head to toe.

 

[marni1971]

I am a tad confused with the anti water ride mob for Paris, water rides do exist all across northern Europe. In fact, some of the best flume rides on the continent exist in the UK, Valhalla, Storm Force 10, all fantastic attraction where you get absolutely soaked. Rumours have been speculating that Legoland Windsor will become the first resort in the UK, to become a year round theme park, they also have water rides.

I appreciate these parks are seasonal, however I see no reason why Paris could not have a highly themed rapids ride. These rides can be thrilling, without getting you soaked from head to toe.

Don’t think many are “anti water ride”. Valhalla is indoors mind (and a ridiculous, confusing hot mess when it’s open). Like I said above plans exist for an indoor rapids ride for Avland.


let’s also remember Tokyos Splash was designed with water / splash level adjustment linked to the weather / temperature.

Given a finite budget I’d rather it went somewhere else instead of a full on get you wet ride in Northern Europe. But that’s just me.

 

[Trekkie101]

No one rides Vahalla for around 8 months of the year.

We can certainly have a log flume / splash mountain style ride, but even in Orlando it gets abandoned when it’s cold.

Is this really the best idea?

Paris isn’t “hot” for 6 months of the year, a raft ride that soaks you, I doubt would ever go ahead.

They’ve Star Wars’d Discoveryland so I’d also assume any expansion on the IP would get put over there too.

The night show is definitely the most exciting part I feel. Especially if it’s a fantasmic update.

A night parade would be wonderful too.

 

[marni1971]

No one rides Vahalla for around 8 months of the year.

No one rides it full stop at the moment! Don’t get me wrong, it was admirable ambitious. But even if it is based indoors the wet factor afterwords of something similar in WDSP would have no end of queues for cold and flu drugs afterwards at guest services!