Happy 30th anniversary for Disneyland Paris! The celebration started at Europe’s biggest theme park resort. We go through some of the festivities, including a review of the 30th anniversary Passholder Night. Plus, we also give you an update on Avengers Campus at the Walt Disney Studios!
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The 30th shines bright!
As usual, you can spot a decoration of the ongoing theme at the resort in Main Street U.S.A! You might not find it inviting on a picture but in real life, it’s not too bad plus the spiral moves!
After a stroll through Main Street, we spotted the all new mobiles in the Gardens of Wonder. You can find 30 of them all around the main square. Some of my favorites have to be Merida, Meeko and Kevin! Have a look and click in our gallery, do you recognize them all?
Sleeping Beauty Castle looks stunning after the big renovation. It definitely lights up the area with its beauty.
The anniversary wouldn’t be complete without a new show on the main square. “Dream…and Shine Brighter” actually combines a show and parade in one. The floats come from Main Street to the square to circle around with a bunch of characters. Quite a few of them make their debut at Disneyland Paris or can rarely be spotted. This includes Miguel from Coco, Joy from Inside Out, Nick Wilde & Judy Hopps from Zootopia and of course Mickey mouse himself with an all new outfit. Woody & Jessie from Toy Story also dance along in their renewed look.
A big dance party breaks loose with songs from several iconic Disney movies. Compared to previous shows, I like how you have the different floats moving around to make sure that you can see all the different characters. They also use the castle with the different water effects and some pyro as well. Plus, if you haven’t heard the songs yet, you definitely should. Such earworms!
Avengers Campus Construction Continues!
In the Walt Disney Studios, we spotted the ongoing construction of Avengers Campus. Set to open this summer, they have quite some work left to do. The Spider-Man dark ride facade gets new decorations every day. Also the restaurants facades continue to be constructed.
In the back, we could spot the big dome facade of the Iron Man coaster and also the Quinjet!
No small world after all?
You can ride most major rides at the park as almost all of them are open. The exception: It’s A Small World. A major update will revive the popular ride and at the moment, you can see the big overhaul of the exterior facade.
A ride that you can do however: Hyperspace Mountain! How can I not include these pictures for our fan boys Sean & Alex? But to be fair, the ride looks stunning at the moment.
Before we jump to the pass holder night event, we really enjoyed the golden hour at the park. As we looked to another performance of the new miniparade, we stood next to Sleeping Beauty Castle. A perfect spot to be especially with the setting sun, the fountains and smoke effects!
The 30th anniversary Passholder event!
We had booked tickets for the first pass holder event of the year and our last experience wasn’t the greatest. Fortunately, they learned from their mistakes and the organization of this event was a huge improvement. If you spent the day at the park, you had to exit and queue up to get back in for the event. We advise you to do this timely still, at least an hour before the event starts.
Once inside, the first show on the schedule: “Follow The Light – The Opening Ceremony.” The main square had light installations and extra pyro that made an incredible show! It definitely started with a bang!
The speed at which they removed all those extra installments for the mini parade impressed us even more. And talking about being impressed, we haven’t talked about the biggest novelty for the anniversary. Disney’s D-Light! A preshow to Illuminations that got a stand alone presentation during the event. If you haven’t seen the videos, here you can get a sneak peek of what to expect from this unique show.
Besides shows, two other activities attracted the crowds: rides and meet & greets. All the rides open had only a queue of 5 minutes or were just walk-on. A perfect time to ride Hyperspace Mountain and Big Thunder Mountain for us.
We did also two meet & greets as the queues were doable for some characters. For example with Oogie Boogie from The Nightmare Before Christmas!
Many fans hoped for the return of some classic shows and they got to enjoy those! We looked at the one on the Castle Stage. There, they brought back a classic called “Mickey and the Magic Book”. It didn’t include the giant book from the 1992 original, however it features the many characters such as Snow White and the 7 dwarfs, the mice from Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty.
To end the night, we looked at the final performance of Mickey’s Magical Souvenirs. A mixture of the several shows during the years of Disneyland Paris with the matching iconic songs. But the best part was the ending: the closing part of Disney Dreams!
What a night it was and I do have to say that the 30th anniversary definitely uplifts the resort in many ways. I didn’t have the chance to touch upon the new food as we really enjoyed our visit, we’ll return when Avengers Campus opens.
