Hello Everyone, here is a long Disneyland Paris Update with plenty of pictures thanks to good friends from the Disney Gazette and Disney Central Plaza forums who have been very helpful as i am not in Paris right now and couldn't take the pics myself. As you will see the park is getting ready for the 20th and the last refurbishments are now over for the future enjoyment of all Disneyland Paris guests.
However let's begin by something which is not totally finished yet but will be soon, i.e the World of Disney mega-store located at the entrance of the Disney Village. The giant dome color bronze is now in placed at the top and the store which should be finished and ready to open its gates next September.
Close to the World of Disney Anette's Restaurant is closed for refurbishments until April 6.
Let's move to the Disneyland Park now, where everything is getting ready for the 20th anniversary. On your way to the entrance you can see the new 20th anniversary banners!
In Adventureland, after months of works the new Captain Hook ship is now finished! And it looks more beautiful than ever, with plenty of "gold" color which were not there in the previous version on DLP opening day, including on the figurehead. To help you to see the differences here is two pictures of the ship shot in the 1990's...
And now, a selection of pics of the brand new ship, thanks to photographs of Disney Gazette. The ship looks pretty different with its new colors, doesn't it? The new look is a bit more "threatening"...
Nearby, in Frontierland, the Riverboat pier refurbishment will soon be over while the Mark Twain awaits its major refurbishment inside the recently built wooden shed near the Rivers of the Far West.
On Central Plaza the works to remove the big stage on the hub are finished and on the picture below posted by Steven Davison you'll see that there will be plenty of space to welcome the thousands of guests who will watch the show every night, starting April 1st.
Around Sleeping Beauty Castle the final preparations for the Disney Dreams show are now over and flame thrower structures which will be used for the fire effects appeared recently.
In Fantasyland, the long refurbishment who took place on the Alice's Curious Labyrinth is now over and apparently all thuya hedges have been replaced which is good news as they were in bad condition. Labyrinth characters have also been repainted.
And we arrive to the big event of the week: the Nautilus has been fully restored this week! I've shown you in a previous article in which terrible condition the Nautilus was - the exterior part in Discoveryland lagoon - and now this is just a bad souvenir from the past as they did what has to be done, i.e empty the lagoon, clean the whole submarine and repair and repaint it where it needed to be done. Let's begin this series of pictures by showing the sub in its previous condition when the lagoon, before the works began. The first picture below is from Fourche of Disney Gazette.
Next pictures are from DLRP-Welcome from DCP Forum.
And now let's have a look at DLP maintenance and painters at work on the Nautilus restoration. these first pictures are from MaxIllusion from Disney Gazette.
The next pictures are from Tristos from DCP forum.
The two next pictures show the Nautilus now restored and are from MaxIllusion from Disney Gazette.
And these last ones from Engineer of DCP forum.
Looks like they've done a pretty good job on the Nautilus. And the walls all around the lagoon as well as the bubble air system have been refurbished too. The lagoon will be re-filled soon as the refurbishment is scheduled to be finished on March 25th. With this last ship and the Mark Twain currently under restoration all DLP ships are now restored, and the park will look fresh and new for its 20th anniversary which will begin April 1st!
Inside DLP shops the 20th merchandise is arriving little by little and one of my favorite so far is this retro style items! You can see different styles of 20th merchandise items on Disney Gazette HERE, at the bottom of the article.
The highly awaited Disney Dreams show will have its premiere in 8 days from now, so the next DLP update will be dedicated to it!
In the meantime i remind you that that you still can order a collector copy of the DLP book. the final price now applies but we're doing a FREE SHIPPING for each order placed before April 31st ! So, go ahead and place your pre-order now for a collector's edition copy while you can get this special offer on this wonderful book!! To know how to order and send your payment please go HERE. Paypal or bank wire transfer payments are welcome and below is a video which will show you the entire book!
Pictures: copyright Disney Gazette, Fourche, MaxIllusion, Engineer, Tristo, and Max Fan whom i thanks a lot for their precious collaboration!
I haven't heard anything yet but wondered if they will get the Greatest Water Show going again over on Thunder Mesa Plateau with the Geysers. I always enjoyed it from the train, ships or even the Phantom Manor Boot Hill vista. That would be great to see on the 20th Anniversary.
ReplyDeleteHave you any idea if the Pirate ship will get aged down? I doubt if Captain Hook,Jack Sparrow, or Long John Silver and crew would polish the gold trim. Glad they were able to keep the ship's side lapping details and textures.
ReplyDeleteProbably not. Paris weather will take care to "age" the ship along the years!
ReplyDeleteHey Alain, do you know if the geysers will ever be functional again? I haven't seen them working for ages.
ReplyDeleteWow! I LOVE those plates! The retro merch is awesome- Id like to own some. I wonder if it will be available online to order?
ReplyDeleteI'm in the USA, there's no chance of me visiting Paris anytime soon to pick it up myself! :(
Deena, DLP has a mail order service through which you can order by phone the park merchandise. Hopefully it will be possible to order these retro items too!
ReplyDeleteI don't remember their number but you might be able to reach them by calling DLP switch board at 33 164744000 and asking for the mail order service. Good luck!
Excellent update, thanks a lot!
ReplyDeleteIt's very nice to know that this beautiful park is looking better than ever! And I'm particularly glad that they have refurbished all my favorite things at the park.
I'm really happy that they have repaired the Nautilus, as I'm a huge 20,000 leagues fan, and love that they have the Nautilus at the park. I just think that they should have covered the lagoon in order to restore it, it spoil the magic for park goers to see that it is just a half submarine, without it's "spear" at the front, and that you don't actually go inside it.
I'm also very glad to see the new Pirate ship, it's wonderful that they didn't remove it like they did at Disneyland, and it's looking better than ever, by the way, it doesn't look like a realistic Pirate ship, and I don't think that it's supposed to look Anonymous. I'm also glad that they restored the Alice Labyrinth, it's something beautiful and unique to Paris, and Alice is one of my favorite Disney animated films.
All that restoration is great and partially compensate the lack of new attractions for the 20th anniversary, just hope that now they maintain the park like this, and never again allow it to be like it was before (Pirate ship, Nautilus...).
Regarding the merchandise, I also really like the vintage style, but I didn't see anything interesting in those pictures, just cheap park merchandise. What I look to buy when I go to a Disney Park is high end collectibles, like the ones that Kevin Kidney designs for Disneyland, for instance, very nice, "different" apparel, and good books like the Disneyland Paris one from Alain, and I didn't see any of these things in the pictures.
To Tai: I don't know if the geysers will work again this year but i wouldn't bet on it. So far what i've heard is that the problem seems to come from the underground machinery and it seems that to repair it would cost a looooot of money. I wouldn't be surprised if spending this amount of money to have the geysers working again was not the priority of DLP, so the geysers might wait a bit more to be back in Frontierland's Rivers of the Far West.
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