After years of watching the construction, from up on Toy Story Soldiers parachute drop, and trying to peek thorugh the walls that were surround the construction, we finally got to experience the expansion of Walt Disney Studios now known as Disney Adventure World at Disneyland Paris and wow it certainly was worth waiting for.
When you first enter into Disney Adventure world you walk through what was called the Studio 1 building which is now called World Plaza which has under gone a huge transformation and is the gateway into the park. At the far end is a stunning neon entrance which leads outside where you will find in its new location the traditional park partners statue of Walt and Mickey Mouse facing out onto adventure way,
You get your first taste of how much has changed the moment you start to look down Adventure Way, the main path that takes you from the Studios side down into the new expansion. I was surprised at just how big this new footpath was, beautifully, plenty of places to just stop sit and people watch and once the trees have grown there will be lots of shade for on warm Summer days.
Welcome to Arendelle
This is the third World of Frozen lands to be built in a Disney Park, the others being Tokyo and Hong Kong, and although I have not been to either of those(yet) it seems that with each build they are improving the details more and more. The theming is lovely. really lovely. They've put the detail in, the effort is visible. As we stepped into Arrendelle I admit I did get goose bumps. There again Im a big Frozen fan, and the fact that I can now walk in Arendelle in person has been something I realy have been looking forward to doing, and it was well worth the wait. The whole area is so well themed with lots of details and small nods to the films. Nestled up on the north mountain towards the back of Frozen behind the ride - which I will get to in a minute, sits Elsa's Ice Palace. It looks stunning .
Frozen Ever After
The new Frozen Ever After ride was something I'd been really looking forward to going on. I really like the one they have in the Norway Pavilion at Epcot, so I was keen to see whether this version was going to be the same. Unlike the other World of Frozens in Tokyo and Hong Kong there is only one ride in the areal.
What did we think? It was certainly well worth the long wait for this to be built. The animatronics of Anna, Kristoff, Sven and Elsa are noticeably better. The lighting is better too — there are more fibre optics which are just so pretty. I also found the whole ride was a lot smoother than the version in Epcot, and if I'm honest, I think I prefer it. Mr Disney enjoyed it as well — in total we rode it three times while we were there, and we can't wait to go back and ride it again.
I was also realy excited that we got to meet Mossie the cute troll puppet who can sometimes be found with her guardian wandering around Arrendelle. The interaction with her was just such fun and so cute at the same time. She is very chatty as well - a video of our little meet with Mossie can be found here https://youtube.com/shorts/yUvYYq6RM9w
Before leaving Arrendelle we went to have some food from the New Nordic Tavern quick service dining restaurent within Arrendelle. I had heard mixed reviews of tis restaurent before we went and tried to keep and open mind. Mr Disney has done a review video on Nordic tavern which can be found here https://youtu.be/1psWG6vm_As
Rapunzel Tangled Spin ride
Leaving Arrendelle behind we headed back around the Adventure bay towards the New Rapunzel Tangled spin ride. It's a nice little ride based on a teacup style attraction you sit in little boats and above you are the floating lanterns. Its realy pretty, I enjoyed it, even though Mr Disney's spin attempts were clearly designed to make me regret my lunch. It's not a headline attraction but it's charming and fits the area well.
Walking around the lake is genuinely lovely. There are two food spots on either side of the water plus some additional food kiosks — because apparently one of the early pieces of feedback from opening was that there wasn't enough food in the area. They've listened.
Our initial thoughts
I won't pretend we did everything, because we didn't. Time beat us on this one. We missed the Arendelle show mainly as the area it is performed in is so small that we were unable to get a spot to see thow. Also we didn't get to see the Cascade of Light nighttime spectacular on the lake due to the weather on the day we had planned to, and most disappointing for me personally we didn't get to meet the new anamatronic wondering Olaf. World of Frozen is a proper addition to Disneyland Paris. Long overdue, beautifully done, and and this is the one that matters most it has turned what was a half-day park into a full day park again. That's significant. That's the difference between DLP feeling like a bonus and feeling like a destination in its own right.
There's more to come and we do have another trip planned for later in the year where we will go back and do the things we missed this time
There is still more to come to adventure bay, at the moment there are at least two more areas under construction as I we speak - on Adventure way you have an attraction dedicated to UP, and next to World of Frozen they are building a whole pride lands and Lion King area, both of which look exciting and we will be monitoring their progress over coming trips
What do we about about what's here right now It's good. Really good. We both realy liked it
To see our full video review pop over to our You Tube channel
Please note I am not being paid for this review — this is my own open and honest opinion.
