Some time ago we have reported about different renovation works in Adventureland, including Captain Hook’s Galley.  At Christmas it was again possible to see changes at the Galley.
As can be seen on the photo, the scaffoldings are dismantled at the ship’s masts and the interchanging between the masts is also already available.
In the Disney Village the construction for the first Earl of Sandwich restaurant in continental Europe continues to race toward the scheduled opening on June 1st. In the meantime another light-up signage has been added on the facade facing toward the main street of the Disney Village. Also further decorative elements have been added to the facade, even so it is not yet complete. Also the final railing has replaced the tempo rare construction railing on the roof. In front of the facade facing toward the main body of Lake Disney the steel structure for the outdoor staircase leading up the the restaurant’s terrace was added and the actual steps are now put in. While not visible in the photo it can be expected that the workers inside are just as busy…
Across the Lake Disney up the river a new refurbishment project has begun in the area of e Disney Hotels. The larger pedestrian bridge connecting Disney’s Hotel Cheyenne and Disney’s Hotel Santa Fe has disappeared behind scaffolding.
Photos by InsideDLParis
Another morning – another quick update from the construction of the first Earl of Sandwich restaurant in continental Europe (check out yesterday’s update for the background why it is only the first in continental Europe). Today InsideDLParis shows us some new progress on the decorative turret / “hat” element sitting on top of the building’s roof at it’s front corner. The steel skeleton of the two top levels of the element (looking a bit like the structure of a layered / multi-level cake) has now been covered receiving it’s finalized look (judged based on the concept artwork), while the third and lowest level still shows the bare steel skeleton.
Photo by InsideDLParis
Following our report from Tuesday here is already another update of the construction at the first European first Earl of Sandwich restaurant in continental Europe - thanks to InsideDLParis. Taken on Wednesday from the elevated position (at the Café Mickey) it becomes visible that the construction crews are already preparing the floor surrounding the future restaurant. While the resort decided to switch from concrete floor to pavements laid of stones inside Fantasyland for the parade route, the floor in Disney Village is kept a concrete floor. The design of the concrete floor in front of the Earl of Sandwich continues the patterns already in place for the surrounding concrete floor of the Disney Village.
In addition to the work on the flooring the photo also shows, that the staircase leading up to the terrace in front of the facade facing toward Lake Disney has yet to be installed. Only the massive concrete base for the upper part is already in place. It can be seen at the far end of the facade. Once the staircase is installed someone at the vintage point from which this photo was taken would look right onto the staircase.
UPDATE:
As Park Paradise pointed out in its comment the upcoming Earl of Sandwich is NOT the first Earl of Sandwich restaurant in Europe. The chain opened a restaurant in London, near St. Paul’s, on April 18, 2011 – as detailed on it’s official UK website - which did beat the location in Disney Village by a month and a half (based on the currently scheduled opening). However, the official French website still calls the Disney Village location the chain’s first European restaurant (“Earl of Sandwich ouvre sa première Sandwicherie haut de gamme en Europe” which translates as “Earl off Sandwich opens its first top-of-the-range Sandwicherie in Europe”). This should more correctly now read “first … in continental Europe”.
Photo by InsideDLParis
Finally once again some visible progress at the outside of the future Earl of Sandwich restaurant. Yesterday, Monday May 9, 2011, the light-up letters “Earl of Sandwich” appeared in the glass facade facing toward Lake Disney.
There is more work to be done to the exterior of the restaurant as well – so there should be more visible progress in the next days. For example the low row of covered panels between the ground floor windows and the first floor windows is still to be finished. Furthermore, the roof still sports a construction railing just as the outdoor terrace to the left of the main building in the photo above – note that the outdoor terrace is actually on the level of the first floor, with the stairs leading up outside the the building right in front of it.
The photo by InsideDLParis also shows that the beige construction fence blocking off the view onto the bridge across the small side arm of Lake Disney were taken down. The bride is still blocked off … but this should change soon, after all Disneyland Paris on it’s official twitter account already confirmed June 1st as the grand opening date for the Earl of Sandwich.
With the same tweet the resort also shared a photo taken inside the restaurant and even allowed to put it on other websites via twitpic – so here it is! The photo was tweeted past Friday, May 6, 2011 but it is not stated when it was taken, It shows still some work to do as the stairs leading up to the first floor are still missing any railing. However, the fake library front covering the large backwall of the restaurant looks nearly finished.
As the Earl of Sandwich come June 1st should look all new and shiny the Rainforest Cafe next door is trying to improve its exterior at least a little bit. After getting the upper (unthemed) part of its facade facing toward Lake Disney freshly painted in a light blue now the rockwork of the crocodile pool next to the restaurant’s main entrance got a fresh coat of paint (as can be seen in the photo on the left). Unfortunately the fake rockwork covering the lower level of the building now looks even more washed out…
Exterior photos by InsideDLParis; interior photo tweeted by the official twitter account of the resort in English
The Earl of Sandwich restaurant in the Disney Village, the first of Earl of Sandwich in France, is moving closer to the anticipated June 1st opening date. As can be seen in the photo taken on Easter weekend there is progress inside and outside to be noted. Inside the progress is hard to see through the glass windows, but the ceiling of the top floor seems to have made some progress. However, the sheets seen throiugh the window indicate that there is still some work going on.
On the other hand the exterior progress is rather obvious. The gaps between the galss elements / windows have now been covered with metal elements. This should be the finished look in so far. Also the small high rising element to the right of the main room / the glass elements has now its raw concrete covered with some white plates. At the same time work continues on the roof as the construction railings up there indicate. Also note the blue wall to the right on the photo. This is part of the building housing the adjacent Rainforest Cafe. Original this wall above the fake rocks of the Rainforest Cafe was all white but it now got re-painted in the blue color seen here. This new color has been applied to the complete wall above the fake rocks (which only cover the height up to the top of the ground floor)Â facing toward Lake Disney.
For those who want to compare the progress to the expected outcome: one of the latest artworks depicting the look of the restaurant building can be found on the official website for the restaurant. On the same website (currently consisting of one page only) the restaurant is also offering jobs and asking for applications (via e-mail only).
With the expansion of the Walt Disney Studios in particular with the Tower of Terror, Crush’s Coaster and then Toy Story Playland in the summer of 2010 the “small” park has long grown into a full day experience for first time guests. With the popular attractions also the number of guests has significantly increased. This in turn resulted in rather long lines at the gates each morning.
Solution: adding more entrance gates to the Walt Disney Studios. Over the course of the past winter two more turnstiles were added to the right of the original entrance gates, where originally a planter (with a fence certainly) separated the entrance structure from the ticketing & guest services building. As can be seen in the photos the two new turnstiles are placed under a glass covered pergola. However, two turnstiles is good … but not good enough.
Therefore the construction crew earlier this year moved across the plaza to the other side of the current entrance structure and is adding more entrance gates / turnstiles there as well. Construction fences now for several weeks already block off the planter and fence that connected the original entrance structure on this side with the home of the Studio Store.
As a keen eye will be able to see in the photo of this construction on the right already the tops of at least two columns can be seen stretching just a bit over the top of the construction fence. So it seems safe to expect that on this side of the original entrance structure a similar or even identical pergola structure with two turnstiles will be added as already in use on the other end of the plaza. This would also keep the overall entrance structure symetric as it was before.
The castle rehab project is gathering up speed … faster and faster. Take a look at the photos accompanying this report. They were taken last weekend and still show all of the tarps up on the front facade of the castle. As of yesterday, Thursday April 28, 2011, these tarps have started coming down on the front facade of the main part of the castle.
Already gone by yesterday evening was the tarp surrounding the facade around the actual gate into the castle. I.e. we are talking about the printed on tarps as seen in the photo on the right, not the white tarps covering the arcade leading from the main body of the castle to the right (behind the Castle Stage). Also visible again was the waterfall to the left of the castle, which received a rehab as well (but certainly was still turned off as the scaffolding was still in place.
While the scaffolding was still up after the tarps came down, expect the scaffolding to follow soon. Also the entrance walkway from Central Plaza to the Dragon’s cave under the castle has been blocked with a green construction wall to park a large crane behind that is used in the current phase of the construction.
However, the tarps on the front facade weren’t the only things that came down. Also down is the golden / blue color on selected roofs of the castle’s turrets. As of Wednesday the complete roof of the highest turret was all white as it was prepped to receive its new paint job.
To see photos of the latest progress, including the revealed, rehabed waterfalls, the tarps taken down and the turret’s white roof check out the tweets by InsideDLParis (Matthew Burggraeve) or head straight to his twitpic account!
It’s a non stop work in progress. When one area is done, the next one is prepared. Fantasyland (and in particular its walkways) is seeing a lot of work done in 2011 to prepare for next year’s 20th anniversary. As the repaving of the parade route in Fantasyland has been finished and work in front of the Castle stage is underway now new construction fences have gone up in front of the Fantasy Festival Stage. (more…)
In the Disney Village work on both construction sites continues – for the Earl of Sandwich restaurant as well as at the one for the World of Disney Store. The more progress currently is visible at the latter – which is not surprising, since the World of Disney Store is still in the phase of the initial vertical construction of the buildings outer walls. …[more] >>
