It’s finally happened! Walt Disney Studios Park is no more, replaced by the new and improved Disney Adventure World. Over the weekend of March 28-29 we got the chance to attend the media event for the park’s grand opening – let’s take a look at the festivities!
Media Room & Conferences
It all started with credential collection in the media room at Disney Hotel New York – The Art of Marvel – I was a little obsessed with these balloons.
As often, this is a time when we’re given a lot of paper. This (French) media kit was particularly interesting as it focused on the financial and regional impact of the project.
We also got these collectible cards which were apparently not ready to be given out on opening day.
New tickets, new stickers, new shopping bags – everything is being updated.
Over the weekend we were also given a preview copy of the new book “Adventure Has a New Name”, a hefty 400 pager that retraces the story of the park, from its beginning as Walt Disney Studios Park in 2022 to the rebranding to Disney Adventure World.
And that’s not all, this World Of Frozen book box contained a limited edition metal poster and a whole bunch of small collectibles in a lovely setup. The box it appears is also for sale as an extra to Disney Hotels guests reservations.
A step and repeat was setup at Studio Theater- unclear really what this one was used for.
Two conferences were held, one on Saturday and one of Sunday. On Saturday we heard from creatives behind the Disney Adventure World expansion including Mathieu Robin who is creating the Princess Cavalcade that will run starting this July around Adventure Bay.
On Sunday the focus was on World Of Frozen with creatives and executives who worked on the project in Paris and other Resorts, including Michel Den Dulk, and the Lopez who created some of the music for the World Of Frozen show “A Celebration in Arendelle”.
Dedication Ceremony
In the evening, the Disney Adventure World opened up again with a confetti moment to let event guests into the staged area around Adventure Bay where Disneyland Paris Natacha Rafalski, DPEP President Thomas Mazloum and The Walt Disney Company CEO Josh D’Amaro delivered inspired speeches and congratulations. The speeches also highlighted in many parts the collaboration with the French government, a key part of this whole operation.
After the speeches we were treated to a lovely Tangled medley with live singing and a medley of songs from the Frozen franchise by French pop artist Santa.
The next part of the experience was about what were were all here for: the Disney Adventure World and World Of Frozen experience. We got to mingle with top Disney executives like Josh D’Amaro…
Newly crowned Disneyland Resort President Jill Estorino..
And of course Disneyland Paris President Natacha Rafalski.
As part of the day’s event we also for the chance to meet with Kristen-Anderson Lopez and Robert Lopez – the Frozen songwriters – who were absolutely fantastic to chat with and my new favorite people.
Also in attendance was Frozen director Jennifer Lee and director Trent Correy.
It was really fun (and a bit surreal) to be so close to these incredible talents all evening – you never know when you’ll be in Arendelle Boutique and see Jennifer Lee rushing through the doors to buy a Bruni shoulder plush!
And that’s not all – if you’re a long time Disneyland Paris fan you will for sure remember the iconic former COO Daniel Delcourt, who was also in attendance.
The evening of course ended with a performance of the technically impressive new nighttime show Disney Cascade of Lights.
Opening Day
It was a very early morning for everyone, worn security gates opening around 7:15am amidst long queues outside the Resort. Guest flow was overall pretty well managed and délire cast member yelling do not run – people were running – but that’s part of the excitement of a day like this.
Upon arrival to the gates, the Disney Adventure World logo had been unveiled, including the medallion inside the main gate.
In Front Lot, we got to see the final section of an opening day video with Spiderman ripping off the tarp with a fading Walt Disney Studios Park logo to reveal the new Disney Adventure World logo. A pretty cool stunt even though it went by really fast.
After another confetti moment, the gates finally opened for everyone. We were greeted by Cast Members from all around Disney Adventure World (old and new) including the Walt Disney Imagineering teams.
Disney Friends from all the stories in the park were also on hand to welcome everyone.
The end goal for most guests was of course World Of Frozen which quickly filled up and tacked up a long queue to get in, but overall, for a launch day, it wasn’t so bad.
For Guests that weren’t in World Of Frozen, the focus was on discovering the character and food offerings around Adventure Bay, and of course “Raiponce Tangled Spin”.
Another new addition to discover was the Regal View Restaurant (which is surprisingly bigger than you’d think), and we got the chance to have lunch there..
With, of course the Disney Princesses (a special shout out to Merida!)
A really wonderful couple days that felt likeThe beginning of a new chapter for this park, and the Resort as a whole. Congratulations to the creative and executive teams, and of course all the Cast Members who make it all come to life.
The Morning After
One of the first real test was to see how crowds flow on a semi regular day. On Monday, World Of Frozen filled up quickly in the morning, racking up a high wait time to even get in, but these times went down as quickly as they went up after a couple hours of operations.
As a one attraction land however, World Of Frozen will gridlock very quickly if Frozen Ever After breaks down, which unfortunately tend to happen too often. Hopefully the teams can improve reliability so that guests continue to flow in and out of the land smoothly.
During the weekend we also released the second edition of our pin series, themed of course to Disney Adventure World and World Of Frozen. We give it away for free, and we will organize more chances for everyone to grab one so stay tuned!
