Those of you who own an iPhone or iPad are in luck today as Apple has updated its Maps App with new HD satellite pictures of Paris AND Disneyland Paris, and the "fly over" function is working on both! The result, as we will see, is stunning views of the park that you can discover from any angle. All you have to do is to go on "Maps", and enter as keyword "Disneyland Paris", choose the satellite view, and then the 3D view.
Not only - picture above - you can have a full view of the park but also you can zoom wherever you want and the first picture below shows Disneyland Paris hotel and the Fantasia Gardens. By the way, definitely click on each of the screen shots below to see them in big size.
From there you'll have a great view of Main Street U.S.A from above...
...then of Sleeping Beauty Castle and Central Plaza...
Let's fly over Frontierland Thunder Mesa and the Rivers of the Far West!
From that point you can zoom on Big Thunder Mountain island and have a great view of it and Phantom Manor...
The great thing is that the multi touch function offer the possibility to "turn" around and change of angles as you want...
Let's fly over the jungles of Adventureland!
...and over Discoveryland's Space Mountain and Autopia...
These great aerial views also allow to discover things that you can't see from the ground. For instance, how close the small cars of Autopia are from the "real" ones parked in the Disneyland Paris hotel parking lot...
Or, for someone who never came at the parks, how near the entrance of DLP Magic Kingdom is from the one of the Walt Disney Studios park.
And also how close the future Ratatouille ride - on the bottom, still in construction - will be from Frontierland river and the geysers. Something you will never guess when you'll be in the parks.
The other thing, even more interesting, that the app allow to see, is where there is land still available for future expansions. For instance, flying over the WDS, you'll see this big piece of land in the back of the park that surely will be used in the future for new rides or mini lands that will be added to the WDS.
At the Disneyland Park you'll see between Indiana Jones Temple of Peril and POTC show building the land that DLP Imagineers are keeping to eventually build one day the long awaited Indiana Jones Adventure...
...or, behind Fantasyland train station the land they intend to use if the Little Mermaid ride is coming someday at DLP Fantasyland.
You will see also the land available behind Space Mountain and in the back of Discoveryland on which will be built the upcoming Star Wars land. Because this one, you can be sure that it's coming. May be not before 2016, but it's coming... The big white tent on the bottom right is the VIP tent used during DLP special events, which of course they can remove.
And, although there is the backstage road behind, you'll see that if they decide to go over it - which probably they won't do, at least at the start - they even have more land available.
So, is this Maps App perfect? Let's say that it is very good as long as you don't zoom too much inside a view, because if you do you'll reach a point where the buildings will start to distort, which by the way is logical as the 3D view is probably done using an algorithm as the original view was obviously shot "flat". But if you respect this rule you'll be amazed and it's also a great way to prepare your next trip to DLP as thanks to the App you'll be able to see the distances between DLP hotels and different areas.
Of course, the bigger the screen is the better is the experience so if you have an iPad choose to watch the pics on the iPad. Also, to avoid any mistake, note that we're talking here of the iOs Apple Maps App, not the Google Maps App. The Apple Maps App is automatically embed in the latest version of iOs, all you have to do if you don't have it is to install the latest iPhone - iPad iOs version, which is free.
Let's end with a last view of the Disneyland park, right at the vertical of the Park!
The second part of the article with others awesome pictures showing DLP hotels and more is now on line HERE!
Don't miss the $45 Discount on the Disneyland Paris book! English and French copies still available!
I remind you that the Disneyland Paris, From Sketch to Reality book, in which you have the whole park in 320 pages with 750 photos including 250 WDI renderings is still available in its english or french edition. French collector signed copies are also always available. And we do a special price right now on it with a $45 / 40€ discount on the normal price, so order your collector copy while we still have copies available as we're really running low on the english copies. You'll find below a one click Paypal button as well as a video showing the whole book. And you can have more infos about this gorgeous 320 pages book HERE.
Pictures: copyright Apple Maps - Tom Tom
"Awesome", but from a distance ! Looks good on thumbnails but on full screen it just remains plain horrible (No offense here, I read your blog on a daily basis and I love it).
ReplyDeleteI just don't understand why trying to achieve photo-réalisme when you just CAN'T do it. Drop it. Let our imagination fill in the blanks.
Guillaume, yes, they still try to achieve photo-realism and here is why the problem is not coming from them:
ReplyDelete3 years ago they were not even able to do what they're doing now with these 3D fly over views. Sure, it's not perfect if you zoom too much, but in 3 or 5 years they will be able to do it perfectly. It's not that they can't do it, it's just that modern human beings now wants everything, totally perfect, and right now! There is just one problem: life doesn't work like this. So, all we have to do is to be patient, knowing that perfection takes time to be achieved, and be happy with what they are already able to do know because five years ago even these un-perfect 3D views would have been unthinkable. That is what we must not forget.
WOW WOW WOW!! Those aerial maps are Super Amazing!!!
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing these pictures. I am one of your blog fans from Cyprus and I visit your blog very often. Keep up this Excellent work you do! :-)
Did you made any aerial screenshots for other Disney parks such as Magic Kingdom Florida?
Thank you ;-)