Saturday, July 30, 2016

Disneyland Paris Update: Park Renovations, New Prices for Annual Passports, and more...

I've got a new Disneyland Paris update for you this week-end, as usual thanks to great pictures from Max, D&M contributor and DLPWelcome webmaster. We'll have a look at the parks renovations but first, for those of you surprised to see me posting when i said i was stopping and wonder if it was a joke or not - as i said so many times i was stopping and came back after - here is an important note: actually, it was not a joke, i mean: each time i say i'm going to stop is never a joke, either because i'm really tired at that moment, or plan to do something else, etc... So, what happen is that after a few days i recover or some delay happen in what i want to do and then i decide to come back for a while. As a friend of mine Imagineer has said "You have done more retirement farewells than Frank Sinatra and the Rolling Stones together!". But the truth is, when i come back it's not specially - or "only" - because i love theme parks, but because i love even more to "communicate". 
I also remind you that the Disneyland Paris book Summer special offer at 60€ ( + 15€ shipping worldwide ) is still going on. For reasons of holiday season we won't be able to ship the book during all August but your orders are always welcome and the books will be shipped on Sept 3. For more details see the post above about the book, at the top of the right column or send me an email at: neverlandeditions@gmail.com.


Let's go and have a tour of all the park renovations!
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With the reopening of Main Street Station and the summer weather, it is very nice to go on the panorama space created during the last renovation, from which you have a sensational view on Town Square, Main Street USA and DLP Castle. 

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Early July we noticed Catherine Powell, new CEO of Euro Disney, accompanied by Daniel Delcourt explaining the situation of parks and ongoing renovations. 


Speaking of renovations, the work continues on Big Thunder Mountain with the appearance of scaffoldings on the houses and the lift B. Meanwhile, Phantom Manor tries to survive with more and more effects out of service. Its renovation after the 25th celebration will be a priority in view of its state of disrepair. 
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The Cowboy Cookout Barbecue restaurant ended its outdoor renovation of the facade and roof. Apart from a new (and horrible) sign, restaurant stays in its original theme with its animation, and it’s nice to see it! 
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All access to Frontierland reopened despite renovations still going on.
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At the entrance of Adventureland, the renovation of the bird nest is now finished, the egg is now in place and the nest finally remade after several years of neglect. 
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At Colonel Hathi Pizza Outpost, the outdoor furniture has finally arrived. 
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They start to withdraw the scaffoldings on Skull Rock as well as the scaffolding of the Swiss Family Treehouse.
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The freshly renovated Peter Pan's Flight ride is still stunning. 

Finally, at the entrance of Discoveryland some rocks have been removed to facilitate the guests flow and for a complete renovation of the entrance. 
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At Star Tours, a new structure is rising as shown on the Concept art of the future zone. 
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The renovation of the castle which is entirely repainted during all summer continues with a pink color paint on a good part of the park icon. 
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New speakers have been installed. They renovate the entire parade route audio and lighting system which activates at the passage of the floats. Thus, each pole (structure with audio and lighting) can be activated independently of others, in functions of passing floats. 
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A new sound and light pole with a third audio speaker has been also installed on Central Plaza.
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For the Bastille Day - July 14 - Disneyland Paris has proposed a new and wonderful Fireworks. The result is perfect. But we are still waiting for France national anthem « La Marseillaise », a bit of patriotism would not do much harm. 

Disneyland Paris is currently conducting polls on annual passports with proposals for new packages including new pricing and advantages in addition to new ones. Those are only polls done by Disney, but it reveals the direction that the company wish to go and the arrival of DLP new CEO Catherine Powell is no coincidence because its former position within the WDC Australia was to upmarket the brand in premium. You will understand, whatever happens that the annual Passport will evolve you in the years to come! Here is one of the many proposals for annual Passport in one of the Disney polls that we compare with the currently available passport. 
PA Disney - DLPW
Our opinion : it is too expensive for the french and European market. In the United States, these prices for DLP annual passport would be perfect but the opposite is not true for Europe. We must compare what is comparable. Annual passports of the two first DLP competitors, Europa Park and PortAventura do not exceed 185€! The good deal is probably to propose a DLP annual passport for €260 without advantages, except all year access to Parks and carparks. Why? done like that, DLP would cancel less expensive passports on which DLP don't make profits and it will offer an alternative between the prices of the surreal polls and the existing passports. A single annual passport, at a cost for the European market which will not compete with 2 or 3 days tickets sold at the parks counters. And we don’t even talk about the lack of attractions, rides, street animations… and of investments comparing Disneyland Paris with the American parks…
Finally to end this article, here are some photos of Mickey and the magician, a must see if you come to the parks. Don't miss the DLP book Summer special offer right below!

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Max will be back soon for a new DLP update and in the meantime i remind you that the Grand Summer Special Offer has started for the Disneyland Paris, From Sketch to Reality book in English updated or French collector's edition at 60€ only ( + 15€ shipping ), so don't miss it while it last as it is the last copies of the book which will not be reprinted! 


The offer ends on August 31 but please note that all orders shipping will be done now early September for holiday reasons. As we're approaching the last copies please don't wait until September to place your order if you want to be sure to get a copy of this fantastic book! And there is always the great surprise gift coming with each order!

The book is the perfect gift for Disney parks fan! Click on the link below to have a look inside the book and to order your copy or use the Paypal button below! Make sure to send me an email then at: neverlandeditions@gmail.com  to tell me if you order an English or French edition.

Special note to buyers with a shipping address in ITALY or BELGIUM : For shipments to Belgium or Italy, the shipping cost is 25 €.

Do not miss this Summer special offer, and to place your order please send an email to: neverlandeditions@gmail.com  - Please let me know in your email if you want the english or french edition!

You can pay by Paypal, credit card or bank transfer. Paypal payment must be sent to the same email address: neverlandeditions@gmail.com or you can also use the Paypal button below or on the right column, make sure to choose how many copies you want.
The Paypal button works for both french or english edition but confirm me by email or in your Paypal payment which edition you want ( english or french ).
Also note that the Paypal button includes an additional discount for those who want to order 2 or 3 copies instead of one.

If you do NOT have a Paypal account you can pay by credit card, or bank transfer, just send me an email about it at: neverlandeditions@gmail.com

Disneyland Paris From Sketch to Reality Book
 

Those of you who have never seen the book will find below a video presentation of the full book which will show you each of the 320 pages of the book AND you can see more pictures on the book website HERE.

Although you've probably heard about this beautiful book, many of you may have never seen a copy of it. So we've done a video presentation of the full book which will show you each of the 320 pages of the book! The book includes 750 pictures of the park, including 250 gorgeous renderings of Walt Disney Imagineering and stunning pictures of the park seen from above. The book is so big that it took us seven and a half minutes to show you the full book, and that's without stopping turning each pages! So, if you want to have a closer look at a page don't hesitate to stop the video!



 

Videos: copyright Alain Littaye, DLPWelcome

6 comments:

K. Martinez said...

I'm not surprised to see you posting. Your past pattern tells me you were going to continue posting on and off even after saying you were done. That's why I didn't comment farewell to you last time. I had a feeling you'd still be posting once in a while. Anyway, it's always good to see a post from you. Today's post is a really nice once too. Thank you for all you do!

Anonymous said...

Alain,
You may have addressed this question before, but can you tell why Eisner decided not to build Euro Disney in Spain? It seems Spain would have been a much more hospitable country in terms of people and climate. Was it just the prestige of being in France? Disney should not be in a country that doesn't want it. I ask this question because of Shanghai Disneyland. It seems that the Chinese like Disney, but are not fans.

Alain Littaye said...

If i remember it well, and although they really thought about building it in Spain, mainly because of the climate, they in fact not really intended to do it and just kept this option for the negotiations with the French government. From the start they preferred to built it in Paris because of the number of people visiting France each year and of course also because Paris is more in the center of Europe than Barcelona.

Markiewong said...

Wasn't it also the case that they found bedrock underneath the land in Spain, which would make construction more expensive and difficult?

In the end I do like thecentral location of Paris in comparison to Spain.

Anonymous said...

Oh, Alain, it's LOVELY to see you back posting again! :) Thank you so so much for all your hard work!

Alfred

jake said...

I would not pay around £280 for an annual pass to disneyland, Here in the UK you can get a Merlin Annual pass for £209 which allows access to 32 different attractions including 5 different theme parks across the country!