Wednesday, March 14, 2012

DLP CEO Philippe Gas announces TWO new attractions scheduled to open at WDS in 2014 ! Plus: Bob Iger confirms that Marvel rides are in the plans !

DLP CEO Philippe Gas announced in an interview in the french daily newspaper Le Figaro that TWO new attractions will open in 2014 at DLP Walt Disney Studios. In an answer at the question “What will you do to avoid the park reaching saturation?”, he said:

"Knowing that a customer is satisfied when they can see at least six attractions in a day, we estimate our maximum capacity to be 17 million visitors annually. So we still have room for improvement, but we must grow. In January, our banks have given us 150 million euros in new funding to build two new attractions, which should open in 2014 in our second park, Walt Disney Studios. In 2010, we also obtained the agreement of the State to build a third park. We are looking at it very seriously, even if the decision won’t be made until 2020. We will also build new hotels, restaurants and shops."

We already know that one of the two will be the awaited Ratatouille dark ride, but what is the second one? We might know more next friday as a ceremony for the WDS 10th anniversary will happen, with a promise of surprises. That said with, if i can say, "only" 150M euros we probably can't expect the second attraction to be another E-ticket as a big part of these 150M will go to the Ratatouille ride. As for the third park, as expected it is confirmed that no decision will be taken before 2020.

Edited: I've been told that we must not expect any announcement about these two WDS attractions during the WDS 10th Ann celebration which will happen tomorrow. Basically, tomorrow will be the usual DLP Ambassadors show and we might have to wait until DLP 20th press event on March 31st to know a bit more about all this.

Editor's Note: Guess what? Apparently the journalist who did the interview of DLP CEO Philippe Gas did a mistake in the transcript and in fact Gas never mentioned in the interview two new attractions for the Walt Disney Studios but only ONE...which of course will be the Ratatouille ride in 2014.

In the meantime, don't miss below my second part tribute to Jean Moebius Giraud with stunningly beautiful artwork.

Edited:
Bob Iger told shareholders today that “preliminary design work” is under way on adding Marvel to the parks: “We’re working on some concepts and it’s our hope that in a few places around the world, Marvel characters will appear either in attractions or lands or in some form to provide entertainment, like our Disney characters do.”

Of course, all the question is "where?" and i'm placing my bets on at least two locations: Shanghaî Disneyland and DLP third theme park although i won't be surprised to see some Marvel rides opening in others Disney theme parks. Note that Bob Iger also confirmed that the AVATAR land is still coming to Disney's Animal Kingdom, with a 2015 opening, ending recent speculations that the AVATAR land project was on the way to be cancelled.

Finally, talking about Disneyland Paris, I remind you that you just have four more days to order your collector copy of the Disneyland Paris book with the pre-order price and save 20% on the final price. All infos about how to order and proceed to the payment are HERE and you can see pictures of the printing which happened last week HERE. Paypal or bank wire transfer payments are welcome.


15 comments:

Anonymous said...

The second new attraction will be Mickey's PhilharMagic. You heard it here first.

Alain Littaye said...

It would be a good idea, there is literally years that i'm preaching for a replacement of Animagique by Mickey's Philarmagic! Hope you're right!

Marco Antonio Garcia said...

That is excellent news! Just hope they don't forget that the first park, the one that attract the public, also need new E- ticket attractions.

Regarding new hotels and stores, I think that DLP don't need anymore, especially after the opening of the World of Disney Store, and I think that 7 hotels is enough for one park and a half...

Parc-O-Rama said...

Have the WDS suddenly became so big and full with rides that they already need to replace some of them?
Unless Animagique has a low or negative feedback to the guests, I don't see any reason for DLP management to replace it.
By the way, a few years ago, they had troubles to "publicize" Cinémagique inside the park. Guests didn't know there was a (fantastic) attraction inside the building. I hope they solved that problem because I really don't want Cinémagique to be replaced by Philarmagic - or anything else.

So hopefully they'll get rid of Animagique. Even for the kids, I've always thought this show was pretty cheap and tacky.

Also, I'd be very glad to see Muppets Vision in the WDS but I don't even count on it.

But wait... What if by two attractions" Philippe Gas meant Ratatouille and its dedicated restaurant?
:-/

Alain Littaye said...

There is a good reason to replace Animagique and it's that the building "almost" already exist, and they would save a lot of money on this. I say "almost" because the left and right walls as well as the ceiling is in fact a giant inflatable bubble (same for the Cinémagique building). WDS guest are usually not aware of this, but it's one of the reasons why Philarmagic is not yet installed at the WDS, because in the show opening there is a decor element which is normally disappearing in the ceiling, which so far was impossible to do in the Animagique building...as there is no real ceiling! If Philarmagic finally replace Animagique - which remains to be confirmed - they will need to add real walls and ceiling to the building but a big part of the building infrastructure already exist and it will undeniably reduce the costs. That said, just like you, i hope that Cinémagique, one of WDS best attraction, will stay!

Tom said...

What about any placemaking for WDS?!
Cinemagique NEEDS a worthy entrance, it's the best attraction ever seen in a movie themed park, it deserves a great façade and entrance.
I really hope they will add more than "just" 2 rides ;)

And for Mickey's Philarmagic, I'm all for it, but I think it will cost a lot of money, reworking an existing building may be more expensive than building a completely new one...

The only reason for them to want to get rid of Animagique is cost cutting on Cast Members...

Anonymous said...

The official Euro Disney SCA website says that they can spend 250 million euro (150 new funding + 100 which they had saved) ... so let's hope the second attraction will be something more spectacular than Mickey's Philarmagic.
By the way, is an expansion of Hollywood Boulevard still under consideration? I certainly hope so! But a placemaking project like this is of course not really a "new attraction". Or is it?

Unknown said...

Aloha Alain!

My money is on Disney's Hollywood studios at WDW getting a Marvel themed "Land" This park really needs a boost and the Marvel world fits right into its theme.

A Hui Ho!
Mark HIckson

danielz6 said...

Marvel attractions are fine for Disney studios or even Hollywood land in DCA...just hope they never make it into a Disneyland/ magic kingdom park as they seriously lack the level of charm that these Parks live up to. They don't fit into the themes of the lands either.

Jones said...

I have said it before, and I will say it again: I am not going to set foot in any park that features Marvel characters and/or rides. How can they even consider this! Disney parks are miles ahead of any competition as far as attendance - and that´s because they are Disney! Even IOA cannot touch them - and no Spiderman will ever change that...

Annabelle said...

Actually IOA has and will continue to crush Disney until Disney steps up their game because I can assure you that once a Marvel Studios goes into HWS in WDW IOA will get The Hunger Games.

Marco Antonio Garcia said...

I don't think that Disney can build anything related to Marvel in Florida...

Jones said...

@ Sam: I don´t know what figures you are refering to - there are still worlds between IOA and the MK. True, Potter is a huge success (deservedly so), but to say IOA crushed Disney? There are just no figures to back that, sorry.

Marco Antonio Garcia said...

IOA is taking a lot of people from WDW for at least a day, but in fact I think that this park only have two good attractions: Spider Man and Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey, and two good roller coasters. Universal Studios is ten times better than IOA in my opinion.

Regarding Marvel in Disney Parks, I think that it would be awesome if they build a Marvel land in Parks like California Adventure (to replace Bugs land) and Disney Studios Paris, and then have Marvel characters walking around it. Imagineering could make amazing attractions with the Avengers or the X-Men, better than Spider Man at IOA.

But I would hate to see Marvel characters walking around any Magic Kingdom style park, or to see a Marvel attraction in any of them.

Also I think that it wouldn't be nice to have Marvel characters walking around any Disney Park, outside a "Marvel land", because it just doesn't match in my opinion- just imagine Spider Man greating guests in Fantasyland! By the way, I'm a big Marvel fan...

Owen said...

EDIT: Journalist of the interview made an error. Only ONE attraction for WDS in 2014! Such as shame :(