Transformative Multi-Year Expansion Announced for WDS Paris

[Toni25]

From what I've heard we'll get in 2025 the WDSP rededication ceremony with the updated version of Studio 1 and the light Studio Theater placemaking, two $20 million flat rides, a $62 million nighttime spectacular, a new daytime parade going from the future Lion King land all the way down Hollywood Blvd and then towards the left side of the former Soarin' pad, a $86 million table service restaurant and Arendelle + Space Mountain : aux Confins de l'Univers in Disneyland Park.

There are a few things here I haven't heard or followed before.
1. First of all, what about that Studio Theater placemaking? Are they renovating the building/changing production courtyard?
2. The new Space Mountain retheme...will it have something to do with Star Wars again? Doesn't that sort of translate to Galaxys Edge?
3. Do you have any idea what the renovation of Studio 1 entails? What exactly are they doing to it?

 

[Moon knight]

1. Do you remember how they "transformed" the Disney Theater in Hollywoodland (DCA), same level of ambition here for the different theatres... The layout of this land will feel more organic and definitly more Parisian than Hollywoodian. I mean what they're planning is quite nice, the line between this Theater District and the Lake Promenade will be blurred but it won't match the authentic historical accuracy that Buena Vista Street has since its conception.
2. The retheme will have nothing to do with Star Wars.
3. I invite you to check my previous posts.

 

[mrflo]

2027 will be the 35th anniversary of the resort and the opening of the Lion King Land. If greenlit the Star Wars coaster would be part of the 35th Grand Final package with an opening date by 2028, Pandora would open in WDSP a year or so later..

What makes me sceptical about this timeline is that this would mean we get four new (mini) lands (Frozen, Lion King, Star Wars, Pandora) within roughly five years. This would be highly ambitious even for TDL which does not shy away from major investments. The same time we are discussing all the budget limitations and how Avengers Campus had to cut corners, Frozen only getting one ride, etc.

And as I have mentioned before - Hagrid’s Motorbike Adventure is an amazing coaster but was very expensive. So if DLP is trying to have something in the same quality & scale, it will not be cheap. Considering also the complexity of that ride and how much downtime it initially had, it is probably not the best choice if potential break downs is one of the reasons to choose this over RotR.

When you see the European DLP competitors in Europe, they basically say: "Disney is for kids we offer real coasters ! ". Here it will be the opportunity for DLP to show its thematic superiority by proposing a coaster that, unlike Europa Park, conceals everything that could be considered "bad show".

DLP would have a great opportunity to convince visitors who currently think it is just for kids by launching a major new land & attraction like Pandora with FoP directly after Frozen. Now DLP is doubling down on its existing image by adding mainly Princess and animation IPs to the new WDS expansion area for the parks 25th anniversary.

 

[Parkatm]

I am also not in board with the Lion King but if all the rumors are true and if they come to life, the overall plan is quite positive and probably the best we had since 1992.

As I understand the rumor for Star Wars, the new SW sort of mini-land discoveryland extension will be a way to contain the SW IP in a specific location while letting the rest of Discoveryland finding the way back to its primary identity. I am surprised that you already have the name of the experience for Space Mountain that is very specific and if happens to be true, you’d be building a serious amount of trust for future projects ^^.

As for the SW coaster, please remember that Disney coasters and especially the tracks are not supposed to be metaphorical like we can see in a non immersive and non story-centered design (for example Hulk, Velocicoaster or Hagrid at IoA). Yes even Hagrid with all the themed elements has no real explanations for the tracks. So I guess that if the imagineers would design a motorbike coaster for Star Wars, they’ll do it in a way that either the tracks are part of the story or they will try to hide them from your view.

 

[Rush]

So I guess that if the imagineers would design a motorbike coaster for Star Wars, they’ll do it in a way that either the tracks are part of the story or they will try to hide them from your view.

Indiana and Jones: The Temple of Peril as well as Tron have no thematic explanation for the exposed track and it's the rumored (rethemed) SW coaster.

 

[cjkeating]

Nonsense of the highest order. Furthermore linking a motorcycle coaster to the 'Star Wars' franchise is stretching it. Cheap theme parks in the USA do this - you know the drill, paint the coaster blue, put an 'S' on the front of the coaster, get a Superman maniquin in the queue - and hey bingo you have a Superman coaster. It's the most horrific cheap nonsense inflicted on the intelligence of the theme park visitor.

If you venture to the Galaxy’s Edge forum a common remark is “why didn’t they just build a speeder bike coaster” so your opinion may be in the minority.

 

[cjkeating]

Indiana and Jones: The Temple of Peril as well as Tron have no thematic explanation for the exposed track and it's the rumored (rethemed) SW coaster.

Indy is a mine cart like in one of the films? Tron is just inexplicable.

 

[SplashJacket]

If you venture to the Galaxy’s Edge forum a common remark is “why didn’t they just build a speeder bike coaster” so your opinion may be in the minority.

Fully against a Hagrid's style coaster in Galaxy's Edge with an exposed elevated track.

However! Imagine a speederbike simply floating above the ground. That would be incredible! But how would they do that? We live in the real world, not fantasy!

May I introduce you to the Donkey Kong Coaster where a vehicle runs on a faux track and is instead connected via a steal beam to a real hidden track?

Now imagine, if instead of riding on a faux track, it just rides on nothing? Only a small slit in the ground like RSR or Test Test, but without the big spaces on the sides for the tires.

A small structure could hold the speeders to the real track below, and since the vehicle is basically just a vehicle on a stick, the real track could get closer to the faux-themed flooring (either foliage or another surface) to simulate a jump. Just imagine going through foliage and ridges in this vehicle and an intense sequence where a pair of troopers chase you followed by one crashing into a faux-tree, culminating in an explosive fire-effect, leading to the other trooper to ride off.

 

[DonniePeverley]

If you venture to the Galaxy’s Edge forum a common remark is “why didn’t they just build a speeder bike coaster” so your opinion may be in the minority.

You have a small minority (but vocal) theme park fans that love roller coasters. You could literally build wall to wall coasters and they would demand more.

A Mickey Mouse attraction - these set of people would like a tripple inverted coaster. An attraction based on Dumbo the Elephant, yeah they'd like a loop on loop, speed of light, a few hundred loops, and the coaster in a constant upside position throughout it's journey.

Thankfully these are a minority, and they don't represent the vast majority of tourists that come to visit these wonderful theme park that offer WORLD CLASS ATTRACTIONS, not tatty roller coasters that you will find at most local theme parks.

 

[LittleMerman]

Updated concept art with Frozen, English Garden, Tangled attraction, new shop and restaurant.

 

[SplashJacket]

Updated concept art with Frozen, English Garden, Tangled attraction, new shop and restaurant.

Interestingly, a cropped version seems to have been released in September 2022

The full image seems to have been originally released/leaked in its entirety in January

 

[fradz]

The full image seems to have been originally released/leaked in its entirety in January

It was made by the Twitter user you are quoting, it’s not an official update to the concept art. @LittleMerman : credit for the edit goes to Twitter user Kevin De Vos

 

[SplashJacket]

It was made by the Twitter user you are quoting, it’s not an official update to the concept art. @LittleMerman : credit for the edit goes to Twitter user Kevin De Vos

I figured it was made by him, but browsing through his LinkedIn and various pages, it seemed like he did official work for other parks, so wasn't sure, so I figured I would let someone else sort it out. Thanks.

 

[Parkatm]

Indiana and Jones: The Temple of Peril as well as Tron have no thematic explanation for the exposed track and it's the rumored (rethemed) SW coaster.

I don’t know for Tron yet (i suppose the tracks are part of the software) but there are explanations for Indiana Jones et le temple du péril, they are part of the equipment of a “trapped temple” (like it would be for spears, poisoned arrows or a large boulder following you in a cave).
edit : yes a mine cart, I was looking for the term.
The explanation is not always perfect or convincing but it is supposed to be one for every coaster Disney makes.
How would you know about this rumored coaster anyway??

 

[marni1971]

May I introduce you to the Donkey Kong Coaster where a vehicle runs on a faux track and is instead connected via a steal beam to a real hidden track?

Didn’t Uni patent this ride system?

 

[mrflo]

Didn’t Uni patent this ride system?

They did. Google patents: Boom coaster

 

[Parkatm]

Well there surely can come with other ideas to reproduce the same effect.
They already have the ride system used for Radiator Spring Racer, it’s not totally the same but the idea is to make sure that the vehicle looks like it is riding some other kind of tracks that the one it is already riding : i.e. a real road for Cars or a secondary track for Donkey Kong. I would love one day to race a sort of mountains national park road on a motorbike.
I guess they could so something similar for the speeders in Star Wars but I imagine it would be difficult to make it because like the motorbike it is a one person type of vehicle and it would ne be efficient for the capacity of the ride. You’d have to put 2 people side by side, either on the same speeder but it would damage the searched effect or each on on its speeder but it would mean that both speeders have to look like they are driving on a road while today the Cars ride system can only do that for one centered vehicle (sorry if you have trouble to understand me, english is not my native language).
I think that for the SW rumor, we are more on a standard motorbike coaster like Tron with maybe speeders on it but still with a track underneath. And obviously, it will be complicated to integrate it into the story. I think that because there was a rumor a few years ago that DLP wanted to have Tron in its Discoveryland. I think a motorbike coaster is something they’ve wanted for a long time and it’s not very usual to have this type of coaster in Europe. I did one in Toverland but it was not very sophisticated.

edit : there is actually a park that makes some kind of motorbike coaster on road and it is Genting Skyworlds in Malaysia. the attraction name is « Mad Ramp Peak - Full Throttle Racing ». I’m not sure it is open yet. It seems to link both bikes in the middle and then it’s a single hole in the middle of the road like. I don’t know if this is immersive enough for Disney. But that’s what I would imagine for a speeder race ride. ^^

 

[SplashJacket]

Didn’t Uni patent this ride system?

Yes, and while I am far from a patent lawyer, you could likely circumvent the patent by using a different system. I haven't dug too deeply into it, but the patent filings seem to continuously mention being on a faux track/riding surface but don't mention just not having a fake track at all. It also only shows the vehicle-mounted from the side with a track perpendicular to the ride vehicle, but for what I was suggesting, you would just have a normal coaster track parallel to the vehicle's floor and connected directly below. Effectively, it would just be like a normal coaster train, except it would have a booster bar that elevates the vehicle a few feet off the ground.

From the patent itself, it states
"a simulated ride surface positioned above the track and beneath the passenger vehicle;" it wouldn't have a simulated surface because it's simulating flight. As for track beneath the passenger vehicle, that's any coaster ever (barring inverted coasters)

"wherein the simulated ride surface is configured to imitate a path of the passenger vehicle, the bogie is coupled to a surface of the passenger vehicle via a leg member extending around the simulated ride surface, and the leg member suspends the passenger vehicle above the simulated surface such that the bogie and the track are blocked from a passenger view perspective of the passenger vehicle."

Once again, I'm no patent lawyer, but "the bogie is coupled to a surface of the passenger vehicle via a leg member extending around the simulated ride surface" suggests that it's coming from the side, and not directly from below. I really don't think this patent covers coaster vehicles that are essentially coasters on a stick, but instead covers side-mounted disguised coasters.

Donkey Kong's effects will be awesome, but the side mount is a need specific to it, and not what I suggested. My suggestion would be more inline with the slit on RSR where the car is connected.

The patent specifically says "The boom coaster of claim 18, wherein the leg member is a substantially “J”-shaped boom." which really makes me believe it's fair game to do what I was suggesting as the "J'-shaped boom is pictured below and included in all the patent photos.

 

[lazyboy97o]

Didn’t Uni patent this ride system?

Disney has a patent on their flying theater system but many versions of those are available from a variety of manufacturers, including the one who makes Disney’s. Parents are about a process, not an idea. Come up with a different process and you can be good to go.

 

[marni1971]

Donkey Kong's effects will be awesome, but the side mount is a need specific to it, and not what I suggested. My suggestion would be more inline with the slit on RSR where the car is connected.

But then surely it would be back to square one since the rider would still see an apparent “track” (the slot)?

Personally I would prefer to see the budget spent elsewhere, especially given it would be a coaster next to a coaster. More so I’d still prefer Rise in WDSP. But hey.