It’s been nearly eight years since Disney announced their 1.5 billion dollar upgrade for the Walt Disney Studios Park. The announcement concept art then teased worlds of the Avengers, the Frozen world of Arendelle and a smaller Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge. Some things shifted with several variants of that art being changed over time. With the next goal in the crosshairs of time let’s take a fresh look at the current state of Disneyland Paris and what’s coming in the next year and beyond.

Thanks to the global pandemic, war and crisis, it delayed the construction until July 2022 for the transformation of Backlot to Marvel’s Avengers Campus. Immediately afterwards Disney started construction on the next expansion and its nearing completion. Fans can make their diaries as on March 29th 2026 we will see the much anticipated opening of World of Frozen.

Not only will we see a brand new part of the park opening instead of retheming, we will also see a major rebranding as the park itself will get rechristened Disney Adventure World (read more about that announcement here).

The Studios

Walt Disney Studios Park opened in March 16th in 2002 as a contractually obligated expansion of a then failing resort. The deal with the French government forced Disney to open a second gate or lose the lease to that land, thus the park was built as cheaply and quickly as possible, with just four rides and three shows. The idea? A backstage look at the world of Hollywood, just like the then-named Disney–MGM Studios Theme Park in Walt Disney World (currently Disney’s Hollywood Studios), but without the working studio component. Despite a large marketing campaign, fans quickly loaded the park and it very quickly became known as the worst Disney park to visit among fans. Imagineering Chief Creative Executive Bruce Vaughn recounts in The Imagineering Story that on his first visit he found the theming so barebones that he didn’t realize he was actually ‘on stage’.

Additional rides did not fix the park’s many flaws and it took a takeover of The Walt Disney Company from local operator Euro Disney S.C.A (Disney held a 49% minority share) and a massive cash injection to get things pointed in the right way.

When World of Frozen opens, we will get the biggest expansion this park has ever seen, with a new ‘Main Street’ called Adventure Way. It will feature background music specially composed for the area by French composer Philippe Rombi. This is the first time since the Disneyland Park opening in 1992 that a new background loop is composed for a land in the resort. Lined with lights, greenery and impressive sightlines it is designed to beckon guests deep into the new heart of the park: Adventure Bay. The 7.5 acre lake will be the new heart of the park with nightly entertainment with fountains, fireworks and air and water drones. (EPCOT’s World Showcase Lagoon is roughly 40 acres for comparison) For the first time since the second gate’s opening the opening hours of both parks will be identical with both their nighttime spectaculars playing simultaneously.

At the end of Adventure Way we find a charming Zamperla tea-cup styled ride based on Tangled (Raiponce Tangled Spin). Guests will swing in boats under a lively orchestration of ‘I See the Light’ and ‘Kingdom Dance’. To keep in theme new spiels have been recorded by Mandy Moore, the original voice of Rapunzel. Opening later on the opposite way of the street will be a wave swinger themed to ‘UP!’. It’s the first ride themed to the movie, also built by Zamperla. Both will bring a lot of needed kinetics and capacity in the area.

Also opening around Adventure Bay is an Art Deco styled restaurant The Regal View Restaurant & Lounge, offering character dining (seating 250 guests) and a first for the French parks: a bar inside the park called Regal View Lounge. Around Adventure Bay guests will also be able to find food at fifteen take-away spots.

There have been some thematic interesting choices made with the park upgrade. While the park itself is a place “to celebratory theaters and adventures that come to life in immersive worlds”. Its entrance is once more a tribute to Hollywood. With the main entrance building completely overhauled past year, it’s more cinema than you can throw your hat at. However, the rest of the park remains a combination of Disney’s most popular IP’s. A bet that we will have to see if it pays off. Either way, the construction is at an impressive level of quality.

On the other side of the lake lies the World of Frozen. Straight when exiting of World Premiere you can see the 36 meters (118 feet) tall North Mountain with the little village of Arendelle.

Keys to the Kingdom (of Paris and Arendelle)

A new park area is not the only change happening. Since 2001 Disneyland Paris’ creative direction was in the hands of Imagineer Tom Fitzgerald. May 2024 saw the reigns to the French Kingdom got handed over to Michel Den Dulk.

Den Dulk is mostly known in Europe for his iconic additions to the Dutch theme park Efteling, where his additions became unanimously lauded. For a while he was seen as heir-apparent to “European Theme Park Legend” Ton van de Ven. After internal struggles he was let go, but quickly found work at Europa Park. After a short but impactful career there he was personally hired by Tony Baxter as his protégé at Walt Disney Imagineering. His first gig there was the creation of Fantasy Faire in Disneyland. In 2014 he was handed the the keys to another kingdom: Arandelle. Converting EPCOT’s Maelstrom into Frozen Ever After. After that success story he was also responsible for successfully bringing Frozen to Hong Kong Disneyland (2023) and Tokyo DisneySea (2024).

Hong Kong Disneyland got an improved copy of EPCOT’s Frozen Ever After together with a new family coaster (Wandering Oaken’s Sliding Sleighs). Tokyo on the other hand got a new interpretation with the boat ride Anna and Elsa’s Frozen Journey as part of the Fantasy Springs expansion. Interesting detail is that these new rides also bring full face animatronics instead of the inner-projection style in EPCOT. Ironically enough these changes will be brought back to EPCOT before Disney Adventure World‘s Frozen Ever After even had the chance to open. However, this hyper-themed area is something that was severely missing in this second gate, and the buzz surrounding the project is full of anticipation and positive.

However, Disneyland Paris will only see the boatride from EPCOT and Hong Kong Disneyland, which begs the question: will the fans be happy with just a boat-ride with most of the layout copied from a nearly forty year old attraction while other resorts are getting extra rides and brand new versions. Also will this and the two in-fill rides around the lake be enough to take on the influx on new guests on a park already struggling to manage capacity. The worst offender is Crush Coaster with queue times averaging 90 minutes from rope drop until close. With an international campaign coming, all focus will lay on this new expansion.

The Avengers Campus addition to the park also saw one brand new ride (A copy of Disney California Adventure’s WEB SLINGERS: A Spider-Man Adventure) and a retheme of Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Starring Aerosmith’s. Especially that last one saw the most critique with critics mentioning a lack of theming and old rattling trains. The area itself also has gotten complaints over its lack of shade and a design that did not stand up to guests with several areas already seeing changes and refurbishments. The main Avengers logo often gets roped off during rain for slip danger. The new zones, especially Adventure Way is focussed on nature and adding greenery and gazebos.

What’s next after Frozen?

Currently construction is already underway for Disneyland Paris’s first log flume, themed to the 1994 classic The Lion King. Submitted construction plans show an innovative double loading station, combined with 8-seater boats which will add a lot of capacity to the park. However, despite it being announced as a land, only one attraction is planned. Opening dates have not been announced yet, but industry insiders are expecting this to open between 2028 and 2030.

Beyond that, no plans have been announced as of yet. However, at the recent press preview of World of Frozen, Imagineers showed a technical drawings of the new Disney Cascade of Lights nighttime spectacular installation. Each of the four arms of the installation are labeled with some interesting names: LOKI RACER NE 1, LOKI LION SE 3, LOKI FROZEN SW 2 and LOKI NAVI NW 4. The RACER is pointed at the RC Racer in Toy Story Playland, Lion is of course the new Lion King Expansion, Frozen speaks for itself, but the Navi seems to suggest The world of Pandora is coming. This would concur with the recent comments by CEO Bob Iger which hinted at future expansions to other parks in Asia and Europe beyond the already announced Avatar experience coming to Disney California Adventure.

What about Star Wars?

Regular readers will by now know that the teased Star Wars expansion has been cancelled around 2023 in favor of The Lion King. Talks with those in the know confirmed to us that this decision was taken because of several market studies. According to their research Star Wars is not popular in Europe. An interesting conclusion as Star Wars still dominates Discoveryland with Star Tours: L’Aventure Continue and Hyperspace Mountain in the Parc Disneyland.

Though the most hardcore of fans have been begging Disney to remove the once-announced-as “temporary” overlay of Hyperspace Mountain to restore its original glory.

Despite a recent series of merchandise celebrating the original being released and the 2017 addition of steampunk themed trains for the aging Vekoma coaster, a proper return to Space Mountain: De la Terre à la Lune has not been announced. The last time the ride-balance to the Disneyland Park expanded was in fact with the opening of Space Mountain in 1994. The last original addition to the park was in 2006 with Buzz Lightyear Laser Blast replacing Le Visionarium. Originally planned for the Studios, the ride saw a last-minute move to the land of Discovery, starting a design rift in the much lauded land. Even if you count the upgrade of Star Tours, that is still eight years without a new ride for its castle park.

What is happening is a lot of refurbs and small little upgrades like a complete refurb on Buzz Lightyear Laser Blast, new animals on the Thunder Mesa Riverboat Landing inspired by drawings of Marc Davis, a new queue scene for Ratatouille and a new covered queue for Twilight Zone: Tower of Terror. In the Disney Village the complete rehab is also continuing.

Financial Situation

With the additions at Disney Adventure World-to-be also comes a massive price hike in annual passes. The Disneyland Pass for 365 days access is now 799 euro compared to 699 euro last year. (The same Dream pass cost 259 Euro in 2019.) All other passes also around a 14 percent price-hike. Since 2024 single day tickets are subject to flexible pricing, a change also coming to Disneyland and Walt Disney World later next year.

These prices hikes come to an already frustrated fans. When past summer the park proudly welcomed the BDX free roaming droids to the resort, fans where excited about the offer, only for the park to move the previously free offering behind a paywall after a few weeks. Those wanting to meet the droids only could meet them at the Coca-Cola sponsored Lounge Lightspeed.

Using the rooftop of the Meet & Greet location Starport (and part of the often-closed Discoveryland Station), a pop-up experience was created. Playing Oga’s Cantina songs, you could relax with a view over Discoveryland with guests like Boba Fett, Stormtroopers and the BDX Droids passing. However, with capacity limited to just fifty guests, and prices starting at 15 euro for a single coke bottle and two small cookies, it was universally lauded. With no scheduled appearances it was also a lottery on what characters you could meet. The pop-up ended September 17.

Read more about the state of the park and history in our 2017 article and in this Forbes article.

With all these price-hikes and paid offerings, the resort is doing rather well in revenue. Disney’s chief financial officer Hugh Johnston said to analysts that its French resort “is performing strongly” and they expect “to do very well” with its revenue rising to a record €3.1 billion euro. In fact, Disneyland Paris’ performance is often lauded in earnings calls.

Meanwhile the rest of the industry has been using the post-covid momentum for ambitious plans. Today Universal got the green light to start construction on Universal Studios Great Britain. The resort is scheduled to open in Bedford (46 miles north of London) in 2031. Meanwhile Compagnie des Alpes is investing 250 million euro in Parc Asterix (a 45 minute drive from Disneyland Paris) with renewed lands, new rides, restaurants and hotels, all finished in 2028. The Walt Disney Company itself is also aiming to open their Disneyland Abu Dhabi resort in 2031-32, with a high chance of cannibalization of the important Middle East market for Disneyland Paris.

So the question is, will the new offerings come fast enough for the European customers to keep opening their wallets? For the sake of the resort, let’s hope.