A First Look at the Walt Disney Studios Paris
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Opening Day?
There has been a huge Internet debate as to the opening day of the Studios. Some Disney enthusiasts are keen to see the park debut on the tenth anniversary of the resort on April 12. However, it does appear from statements made by the management team that the park is going to be ready to receive guests as early as the second week in March 2002. This would then give the Cast Members a several week ramp-up to the first big test, Easter weekend. The trend is certainly to open new Disney parks off-season to prepare for the larger crowds of the vacation season, with Animal Kingdom in late April 1998, DCA debuting in February 2001 and Tokyo DisneySea to open its gates officially on September 4, 2001. To date there has been no formal announcement of any festivities for the tenth anniversary, but it would be the perfect marketing tool to spearhead a campaign to bring people back to DLP and for guests to experience the new park. I suggest you watch out for new shows and a new parade to commenorate the event.

Earlier this year, DLP tugged the very successful ImagiNations parade and returned its predeccesor, the Wonderful World of Disney parade to the park with no formal notice period at all. One rumour suggests that the park is retooling the ImagiNations parade for the park’s 10th Anniversary parade. The parade was similar in design to that of WDW’s 20th birthday parade at the Magic Kingdom with parade floats towering above Main Street in the form of huge character balloons, in this case, each designed after a particular continent. My money is definitely on an April 12 opening with perhaps a soft opening or preview period for cast members and annual passholders beginning in late March 2002.

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The Future?
Due to the rapid pace of construction, there has been a great deal of speculation about the future at a level unprecedented with still over 8 months to go until show time. The hottest rumour surrounds the Tower of Terror attraction that has scared visitors witless in Florida for 7 years. People have suggested that the attraction will simultaneously be installed in DCA and the Studios in Paris. Personally, I hope that WDI returns to Michael Eisner’s original vision of the attraction being a working hotel, but that I suspect is wishful thinking. Additional construction is visible on site that cannot be attributed to anything in the original plans. The speculation is that Fantasmic! will debut early next summer in a purpose built amphitheatre. This attraction rejuvenated the Studios in Florida by encouraging park hopping and additional merchandise sales. The attraction readily fills its 12,000 seats up to 90 minutes before show time and is a huge success for a theme park that struggled to keep guests after night fall who would rather be watching SpectroMagic or IllumiNations. The show simply blows people away with the sheer scale and spectacle. Likely to be the biggest worry is the language barrier. The show is heavy of dialogue and with guests speaking many different languages, it could prove difficult to maintain the story line. A unique version to Paris is therefore a distinct possibility. Paul La France is Vice President of the Studios project and he has already begun developing future attractions. He has already alluded to the possibility of the Tower of Terror and Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin (the Tomorrowland attraction in Florida), but he is particularly keen to develop attractions that are unique to Paris. With greater numbers of Europeans now vacationing in Florida, unique attractions would be essential to encourage those guests to visit the Disneyland Paris resort.