 | Happy 9th Birthday Walt Disney Studios Park! |
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| DisneyDan
Wednesday, March 16, 2011 11:59:00 AM |
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Today is the 9th anniversary of the grand opening
the Walt Disney Studios Park at Disneyland Paris.
When the park opened on this day in 2002 at the then named
Disneyland Resort Paris, it featured just nine attractions, even though the
guide map would have you believe it was eleven! Even now they include Studio
One as an attraction (but then most Magic Kingdom parks usually include City
Hall… but that’s another story!), but the other attraction was not to be found.
Number nine was completely missing. A ploy perhaps to encourage people to think
there was more than there really was?
With no Hollywood Boulevard, no Tower of Terror, no Playland
or Toon Studio, Walt Disney Studios was a grey, open concourse of scattered
attractions. To its credit those attractions were amongst the best that Disney had
done in a long time. Animagique and Cinemagique wooing and wowing people, Rock ‘n’
Roller adding that thrilling edge, and the whimsy of the Flying Carpets,
amongst other attractions all added to the diversity that the Studios had to
offer. But the fans were disappointed, and so they should be. Beyond the
beautifully executed Studio One, the park was nothing more than just a street
with some buildings.
Armageddon stands alone on an empty street (above), while Studio One stands majestic (below).
As time passed, people began to wonder what kind of future
would lie ahead for the compact park, but in 2007 their disappointment was
finally turned to excitement as the park opened two brand new attractions in
what was a newly labelled sub area – Toon Studio – Crush’s Coaster and Cars
Race Rally. Cars Race Rally turned out to be a Cars themed Alice ride involving
some hair raising near misses, but Crush’s Coaster would go on to become one of
Disney’s most popular attractions ever. Even to this day people wait before
park open to get in, and at park open the mad dash to the attraction to avoid
the regular two hour lines beats even the Japanese’s insane park opening feats
of super human speed! (You would have had to have read my Tokyo trip report to
get that one)
Today the park stands as a testament to that age old Disney
saying “if you can dream it, you can do it”. And do it they did. The park now
has a total of sixteen attractions, the same number as Hollywood Studios in
Florida (if you exclude the perpetually closed Sounds Dangerous and the
two-night-a-week Fantasmic). The one thing that the Studios in Paris still does
lack though, despite the same number of attractions, is the consistent theming.
Maybe in the future with the addition of the much anticipated Ratatouille ride,
there will come some water features and more trees and greener open spaces.
Moving to entertainment and parades, from the park’s opening
year the park featured the Disney Cinema Parade which showcased film classics
such as The Lion King, Mary Poppins and 101 Dalmatians. Ending a couple of
years ago, the park was paradeless for a while, but later received Stars ‘n’
Cars from Hollywood Studios in Florida. The parade was altered to better fit the
Paris park, and now included a rather large scale show stop right at the heart
of the park.
The above two images show the old Cinema Parade, and below the new Stars 'n' Cars.
Other character features that have come and gone include the
briefly appearing Chicken Little meet ‘n’ greet area, the Incredibles meet ‘n’
greet, Mickey’s caravan and the much loved Toon Train.
Other random characters have come and gone too, from Singing
in the Rain Goofy, Bellhop Goofy and the Ratatouille stars.
The park also once featured a smaller morning parade, Good Morning
Walt Disney Studios. This was pretty short lived, as was the popular Catch the
Wave show and all the old entertainment happenings such as the CineFolies.
Maybe one day we’ll see a return to these more random happenings across the
park, as things like that certainly add more personality.
Two restaurants also were re-themed over the years. The
former Rendez-Vous des Stars (now simply Restaurant des Stars) restaurant became the hottest place across the
parks when it premiered the brand new living character technology Chef Remy.
The Backlot Express, which became Blockbuster Cafe, was also given a new look, and now has two distinct rooms
from two of Disney's biggest franchises – Pirates of the Caribbean, and High
School Musical. Depending on the day and season, you can even meet Jack Sparrow
and High School Musical Mickey and Minnie at the restaurant.
The addition of the Hollywood Boulevard area and Playland
certainly has added depth to the terminally bland park, and has reignited the
fans interest in once what was dubbed Disneyland Paris’s biggest failure. Lines
at the new Playland attractions are nearly two hours every day, Crush still
pulls in the numbers too, and with special events such as Terrorific adding a
new chilling dimension the park is well on its way to becoming the hit that the
Imagineers hoped for. The park’s more recent success has been so overwhelming
in fact, that they have extended the main gates to include new extra turnstiles
at either side!
Of course though it still has a long way to go, but for now
we should celebrate the park’s ninth birthday, by remembering all the things
that have come and gone, and to the bright future that lies ahead. Happy ninth
birthday Walt Disney Studios Park!
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