I guess it is a safe bed to say everybody heard about all those incredible expansion plans for Disneyland Resort Paris’ future, isn’t it? Some of them are actually very interesting, shedding light on what DLRP’s future might actually hold, as well as proving creativity isn’t just a gift Walt Disney Imagineers have! You see gang, even if legends and myths are simply fantasy based, most legends (as we have all learnt in school) have actually some elements of truth in them. What actually happens is that many people who know something actually start talking about it … and you know what happens when you start telling something to someone who then tells it to someone else, who then tells it to someone else… Well, in the this case it means in the end that “Disney is thinking about adding a C-ticket ride to the Studios” becomes “Disney will add a cheap copy of an E-ticket thrill ride it already has running but it wont be half as good”.

Got the idea? Experienced this first hand in your daily life? Well then reconsider this interesting list of rumours (and I’m only including the ones from the last three years):
- a dark ride will be added soon to the Studios
- the Tower of Terror will be constructed behind La Terrasse
- a 3-D movie will be added to the Studios
- a kid oriented land will be built in the Studios
- the Tram Tour station will be moved
- a water ride will be added to Fontierland
- a dark ride will go into Fantasyland
- Discoveryland will see Autopia refurbished
- Adventureland will see a new E-ticket added

Ok, up to this point the list of rumours is actually based on obvious considerations, past expansion strategies unveiled, or simply by looking at what has happened in the past. But now have a look at what these rumour have become in the meantime:
- a Buzz Lightyear ride will go into Production Courtyard
- the Tower of Terror basement has already been constructed and is simply covered with earth so to make for a faster construction
- Muppet Vision 3D will go into the Studios
- Toon Town Studios will see the light of day
- the Tram Tour station will be moved and the whole tour will change route
- Splash Mountain will be added to Frontierland
- Winnie the Pooh will be built in Fantasyland
- Autopia will become a Test Track like ride 
- Indiana Jones will go back to being a front facing ride

As if this wouldn’t be enough each of these rumours is available in countless variations: Buzz Lightyear going to replace Autopia (far fetched I assure you), the Tower of Terror being "moved" to a different location, Bug’s Life or Philarmagic instead of the Muppets Vision 3D being placed in the Studios, Mermaid Lagoon instead of Town Town Studios, the Tram Tour staying where it is and instead bridges being constructed to get guests over the track to access the expansion area, a water coaster or a water ride not based on Song of the South (as is Splash Mountain) is going into Frontierland, a Little Mermaid attraction going in Fantasyland and the Winnie the Pooh ride instead into the Studios, … this list could be continued at infinitum.

Truth is my friends that at both, the Glendale headquarters of Walt Disney Imagineering and the Marne la Vallee offices of ED-I/SETEMO, many projects for both parks are thrown on the discussion table each day. Imagineers actually have been holding meetings at all WDI offices (including the Orlando ones) to try and find a way of adding rides to the Studios and Disneyland Park next door to generate, if possible, a huge positive impact on attendance at a sustainable cost for the EuroDisney SCA coffers. Financial results for the company are not that good right now, nor have they really ever been - though from 1995 to 2001 the company was seeing a brighter period that time passed soon after the catastrophic world wide effects of 9/11 on world tourism - so every expansion plan will inevitably have to be balanced with the dire money situation. But then also remember that the Walt Disney Company is behind the resort, and there is no way it can keep this situation forever. 

Lack of money and a world wide recession, which still doesn’t want to fade away, and in case of the expansion plans for the Studios also land limitations in the form of the woods behind the Tram Tour that are part of a nature reserve and therefore protected are what is keeping the Disneyland Resort Paris from finally blossoming, though signs of recovery are foreseeable and believed by management to be coming. Andre Lacroix, new CEO of the company, has reportedly been saying repeatedly that he is not seeing the Walt Disney Studios as a complete park and seems to has been trying to figure a way to finance a quick and effective expansion plan.

Looking at the rumours, keeping in mind some obvious considerations (such as money, time and past expansions), making some educated guesses and doing a little bit of news & rumours hunting based on some “friends in the know” lets now go through what “will probably” happen in the next few years:

The Studios will see a big expansion starting summer 2004 and finishing in 2007, which in this three year period transform the park into a true one day destination and not the half day experience it is now. The Tram Tour station will be moved to the Backlot so to allow for major parts of the current route to be incorporated into the expansion area as the station area becomes the park’s new hub and the giant area behind it (currently hidden from view by a grassy mound) an area for additional sets and show buildings. Looking at the park in a bird’s eye view one immediately realises that behind the grassy mound (where an event tent had been erected during the previews) a giant area is available for future expansion. This clearing was (in the 1992 Disney MGM Europe plans) to be the home to some New York and “World Street” sets, much like those found in the Disney Studios Park in Florida. Back then the space occupied currently by the Tram Tour station area was to be the entrance to the Great Movie Palace - a clone of the Great Movie ride from Orlando with a European twist on some scenes.

That area will one day, towards the end of the expansion, see various sets and show buildings added but the first areas to be used for the upcoming expansion will obviously be the much rumoured three cleared areas adjacent to the main road of the park: the area between the Art of Disney Animation and Aladdin’s Carpets, the area behind La Terrasse and finally the area between Cinemagique and the Disney Channel Studios, which had an Sound-FX-Studios building pencilled in on the earliest plans released with the announcement of the park. Without question it has become obvious that the Studios are in desperate need of some kind of kid oriented area, some marketable thrill ride to pack in the (teenage) crowds and as much atmospheric themed areas inviting guests to explore them close up as possible to actually give people something to look at whilst they are browsing around.

Certainly these considerations have been done by the Imagineers and the EuroDisney management. The whole team realises pretty well that the Studios need these expansions in order to raise there attendance levels, but please bear in mind that the financial situation does not permit lavishly spending without considering the budgets and also bear in mind that when the park was conceived management didn’t really see it as more than a half day experience, and therefore stayed short even on shops, restaurants and merchandising in general. Still the current considerations – and with them all expansions to come – proof that the scope of the Studios, the goal of the project has changed: the Studios are no longer looked upon only to provide a half day experience meant to get guests to stay one more night at the resort and spend more time dinning and shopping at the Disney Village. The Studios are now meant to become a true one day experience actually motivating guests to dine and shop at the park well after the present closing time of 06:00 pm.

The major planning of these expansion will therefore be on the lines of an announcement of expansion by Lacroix later this fall (earliest possible date would be the end of September) which should also provide a rough timeline for sets and interactive play areas opening behind the current Tram Tour track and for moving the station to a new location behind the Café de Cascadeurs. The kid oriented area will be built in the Animation Courtyard, expanding right up to the Costuming Building and should be opened by late summer / early fall 2005 whilst there is still discussion on what dark ride and where to install it.

From that point on the area behind “La Terrase”, already sealed of by a themed fence toward the main road and a “movie strip” wall toward the Tram Tour track, will become the construction site of the Paris version of the Tower of Terror, which should see the light of day (no jokes intended) by late 2006 / spring 2007 although featuring a slightly different themeing and execution compared to its three predecessors. During the whole expansion phase this time various new shops and restaurants will open throughout the park. Also additional streetmosphere and entertainment elements will be added allowing the park slowly to become a full fledged one day experience. Ultimately this will include the addition of some form of night time entertainment to keep the guests in for the night (and therefore spending more on dinning, shopping inside the Studios and eventually even staying on for another extra night at the resort). Though it is too far away to actually know what night time entertainment will be offered most predict some double use amphitheatre, possibly with some water areas / elements, located near the park’s new hub, allowing for the staging of concerts or special events as well as night time Disney magic!

Hopefully these considerations and knowledge shared will help keep the nauseating whirlwind of rumours from over expanding … and hopefully everything will go as smoothly as I wrote here ;-) (Buzz Lightyear on the Autopia track … now that is a bit over exaggerating isn’t it ;-))

See you during the expansion!

For now it's TTFN - tatafornow

MickeyFantasmic

P.S.: maybe what I wrote here is just another bunch of rumours to be added to the ever flowing river of gossip … or maybe not! This is up to you readers to decide … and please remember that Disney has the wonderful habit of changing ideas even after they have built the foundations for rides ;-)