Disneyland Paris Update - Part One

I have a long Disneyland Paris Update for you today, with many pictures shot last week by a friend of mine. So many that the update will be divided in two parts, today is the first part and the second one will come later tomorrow.

Those who arrive to the resort going through the Disney Village will see some Christmas decorations as DLP put some christmas trees, big christmas gift boxes as well as a small christmas stage. There is also a little christmas village as we will see later in the part two of this update. But for an unknown reason the trees seems to be concentrated in the middle of the DV, which is quite odd.









More interesting is to have a look at the huge World of Disney Store which will open next year - and be part of "what will be new" during DLP 20th anniversary. The works are well advanced now and if everything goes fine they should be ready to open the WOD store on time.







At the entrance of the park guests will always find the welcome sign placed on Main Street Station, and yes, the Mickey's Winter Wonderland show is back this year at Frontierland Chaparral Stage.





The giant Christmas tree on Town Square is back too, as well as christmas decorations on Main Street buildings.







Talking about Main Street shops and merchandise what is really new is the arrival of Duffy the bear, who began its merchandise career at Tokyo Disney Sea and then to DCA. Guests will find quite a lot of Duffy merchandise and, strangely, also inside Story Book Shop which is normally a shop dedicated to books and CD's merchandise as well as stationery. Whether you'll be outside or inside the shop, you can't miss Duffy!







Duffy even stands now where Tiger was at the entrance of the store...











On Central Plaza, the freshly repainted castle looks great and around the center of the plaza you'll find other christmas trees. However, as the giant stage is not yet removed - it should be next year - it's hard for DLP to put more decorations on the plaza as they used to do a long time ago... You'll note also some fences around the area located in front of Casey's Corner, some refurbishment for sure...and also that the Dragon Grotto under the castle is closed for now, probably for the same reasons. The day these pictures were shot Big Thunder Mountain, Space Mountain and Autopia were also closed, which, considering that BTM and SM are two of the most popular coaster rides, is may be a little bit too much at the same time.









We will end this first part with a great picture of the glass sculptor inside the castle shop, and don't miss the part two, as i have interesting pics for you!



All Pictures: copyright Disney and more


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Shanghaî Disneyland : The Surprise behind the Christmas Tree

Bob Weis, the WDI Imagineer who has supervised the huge placemaking of Disney's California Adventure and who is now at the head of Shanghaî Disneyland creative development - has posted on his blog on December 8 the above picture in a post called "Shanghai Christmas Tree at Site Office".

Well, we're happy to learn that SDL Imagineers are ready to celebrate Christmas but as you can guess it's not the christmas tree in this image that drew my attention. It's what is behind it. Of course Bob took great care that what is on the wall of the SDL office can't be seen in details and the image was posted in very small size and low resolution. But let's have a look anyway to see if we can learn more from this image when we make it bigger.



Right behind the tree are displayed pictures and what is it written above them? : "Government Works". And indeed it is pictures of the works on SDL site. As we know currently they're preparing the ground and nothing is built so there is nothing of big interest for us in these pictures. BUT, what do we see right in the middle? That's right, a Shanghaî Disneyland map! And it would be difficult to have a better source as the picture was shot at SDL site, and, thanks to the christmas tree, we know that it was shot very recently, probably a week ago. It will be difficult if not impossible to have a map more up to date. The only problem is that the map, partly hidden by the tree, shows only 60% of the park in addition to the lake and the land around it, and that it is a low resolution image, as i've said. Now, let's blow up the image and give it even more pixels to try to see better.



The pictures above and below might look the same than the other one above but in fact they're bigger so click on them to see them in bigger size. On the one below i've put numbers to help you to locate what is what. Number 6 is the park entrance, 7 is the castle, 8 is Adventureland, 9 is Fantasyland and 10 is Tomorrowland. Now, Tomorrowland and part of Fantasyland are hidden by the christmas tree but not the rest of the park. Although it's impossible to guess any attraction there is some interesting elements, specially the parts which are in light green color. If you look for instance at the numbers 1, 2 and 3 they show lands located in the back of Fantasyland or Adventureland and it seems that these parts are not expected to be built - at least right now. It doesn't necessarily mean that nothing will be built there on opening day, but so far it seems that they keep these pieces of lands for a future SDL expansion. Same for the land number 4 at the south of Adventureland although this one might be for the SDL Hotel. And we can see the vegetation limits between these lands and what is sure to be built. Also interesting are the three lands number 5 located around the lake. Will they build new hotels there? Might be, it would be a good location for future hotels.



What this map seems to confirm is what part of the park we can expect being built on opening day and what will not. It's logical that they keep land for future expansion as they always do but at first sight and if there is no changes in the future Adventureland looks smaller than expected and may be Fantasyland too. However we must be cautious as we don't know the exact proportions of the park and the lands might be bigger than we think when we look at this map. Anyway, i sincerely hope that Disney will have learn from HKDL and that Shanghaî Disneyland will not be too small when it will open in 2016. For those of you who would like to compare this recent map with the official rendering released last April, here it is below in its high-res version.



And if we have a look back at the SDL model which was presented at D23 Expo last August, it seems that this map reflects what the model was showing - if i can say, as WDI took great care that the model precisely shows almost nothing in details!



Anyway, this was one more piece added to SDL mystery, and we might have to wait a bit more before Disney release new official infos about the park.

Picture: copyright Bob Weis, Disney, and Andy Castro

From 1960's Disneyland Rocket Man to 21st Century Jet Man

You may remind the Disneyland Rocket man who appeared in the mid-1960s, flying from Tomorrowland around Sleeping Beauty castle, and back to his launching area. He was wearing a jetpack - or "rocket belt" - and a lot of Disneyland guests were dreaming that in the future they'll be able to fly like him.



It was the good old times when the giant Tomorrowland rocket was still there, and talking about it here is a rare rendering coming from davelandweb.com.



Then, years after years the dream didn't became reality and the main reason why is because it has always been difficult to fly like the Rocket man and eventually dangerous for people like you and me. Add to this that the rocket man couldn't fly very far and that even right now only a few men can still fly like "The Rocketeer". However he did flight all around the world, including near Giza Pyramids..



The last time i saw personally one of the Rocket men flying was for DLP Space Mountain grand opening, back in 1995. Below, you can see the Rocket man in a video coming from the Disneyland TV program aired Disneyland Around the Seasons on December 18, 1966.



Rocketman by donaldtheduckie



Then, we entered the 21st century and the dream came true. Not for each of us, but for Jetman Yves Rossy, former plane pilot, and who developed a new technique which has allowed him recently to do an unbelievable flight. On the next video you'll see him flying for real with jets, and it must really give a sense of power to fly next to them. Even if he may not be able to fly as fast as the jets it is still impressive to see this and specially for anyone who has ever thought of flying like a bird. But, sorry, don't expect to be able to fly like him anytime soon!




Video: copyright Disney or Yves Rossy - Breitling

D&M Archives : A Special Alien Encounter - Stitch's Great Escape Tribute

When the ExtraTERRORestrial Alien Encounter attraction opened at WDW some years ago it was quite an event. Not only it was part of a new re-themed Tomorrowland, but "Alien" was supposed to be a real frightening attraction, the first of its kind in a Magic Kingdom. Well, for the adult audience, it was really fun, and not-so-scary. But for the 12 years old young girls, the 3D sound ,the darkness and in-theatre effects were may be a little bit too scary!

No need to say that WDW executives didn't like at all to see these young girls exiting the attraction theatre crying, and this is probably why this brand new WDI attraction - that was supposed to be built in other Disney parks - remain the only one of its kind... Mind you, still in 1994, Tim Delaney, DLP Discoveryland show producer was still expecting to built it right at the entrance of the land where the room has been kept , on the little hill on the right, between the "Constellations" shop and Autopia.

Let's begin by some rare WDI artwork as well as official pictures of Alien Encounter.



















We all know what happened next: the attraction was re-themed around the Stitch character and is supposed now to be less scary than before. On the pictures above and below, the difference between the two pictures of the same scene is interesting: on the Alien Encounter one the boys are yelling, but on the Stitch one, the boys are younger and smiling. The message is clear: no need to be afraid of this attraction any more, come on in!

Also, note the difference between the two photos of the pre-show sequence , with the small teleportation experiment. On the Stitch version, the S.I.R robot - one of the best programmed Audio-Animatronic i've ever seen - is now dressed in a more cartoonish look. But the really interesting shot above is the sixth from the top, as this rendering show a kind of pre-show "laboratory" scene that finally was never built...

And, last but not least, you may have noticed on the Alien encounter marquee that the attraction was supposed to be a " Sensory thriller from Disney AND Georges Lucas ". Why Georges Lucas was involved in Alien Encounter, you ask? Well, apparently, and if i'm right , it seems that the concept/idea of the attraction came from him during a meeting, and when Lucas have an idea, you better not forget that it came from him...which, i must agree is perfectly legitimate.















And now, on with the show, as below are the Youtube videos of the two versions. The two first videos show the pre-show and the show of Alien encounter and the two last one show the pre-show and the show of Stitch's great escape.














Photos and Artwork: copyright Disney

Videos: Copyright Martin Smith or SaveTheLastRide