News / Disneyland Paris Ambassadors

Sonia Demay and Romina Grochow will be the Disneyland Paris Ambassadors for 2015 and 2016, as announced during a special public ceremony at Videopolis Theatre on Friday. Chosen from ten semi-finalists by means of a democratic vote, they saw off competition from fellow finalists Anthony Houdinet and Rut Sospedra, in the programme which awards Ambassador roles to high-achieving Cast Members from across the resort. Read More…

Antonella and Jonathan are about to hand over to a new pair of Disney “ambassadors”. The Disneyland Paris Ambassador Team for 2015-2016 will be announced on 3rd October 2014 at a public ceremony in Videopolis Theatre, Discoveryland at 11am.

No less than ten semi-finalists have been selected from those who applied for the roles, pictured below, chosen from all corners of the resort to represent Disneyland Paris Cast Members on the public stage for events and promotions.

The 2013-2014 team, Antonella Giallombardo and Jonathan Rabeute, will continue as ambassadors until the end of the year, when the new recruits will take over.

This year marks a special milestone for the Disney Ambassador Program as it records its 50th Anniversary, to be celebrated at the ceremony next month, having begun in 1964 at the hands of master Disneyland marketeer Jack Lindquist.

At Disneyland Paris, the visibility of the programme has improved noticeably in recent years, not least thanks to the use of social media, and helped by a run of enthusiastic and knowledgeable representatives, each truly raising the bar (tip: great Cast Members who also happen to be real fans make perfect ambassadors).

Originally just seeing a single candidate elected, the Disneyland Paris programme now elects two Ambassadors to represent the resort for two years.

• Photos — Every Disneyland Paris Ambassador in pictures

• Ambassadors in action — Ratatouille: The Adventure opening day ceremony

While Osvaldo and Régis got to enjoy the 20th Anniversary and Antonella and Jonathan excelled at the Ratatouille grand opening events, we don’t yet know what our next two ambassadors could be cutting the ribbon on in the next two years… but we wish all semi-finalists, and the selected ambassadors, the very best of luck.

Update — The finalists of the 2015-2016 Disneyland Paris Ambassador selection have been announced today; they are: Sonia Demay, Romina Grochow, Anthony Houdinet and Rut Sospedra.

It’s open! Today was the day, 10th July 2014, that La Place de Rémy and its key attraction, Ratatouille: L’Aventure Totalement Toquée de Rémy, officially opened to the public following several weeks of previews with a special inauguration ceremony shortly after 10am.

Hosted by the Disneyland Paris Ambassadors, Jonathan and Antonella, the opening ceremony welcomed Fleur Pellerin, Secretary of Commerce, of Tourism Promotion and of the French abroad, to Disneyland Paris.

The resort’s new chief operating officer Daniel Delcourt also took to the stage, while several elements of the earlier Grand Opening ceremonies for the press made a return to Walt Disney Studios Park, including that gingham ribbon, Rémy himself and even a surprise reappearance by the real-life Linguini.

Once opened, lines quickly reached blockbuster levels with guests filling the exterior queue, a roped extension area in front of the Fastpass distribution, and lining the full length of Rue Auguste Gusteau, with the queue beginning somewhere back in Toon Studio. Good thing today was also the first day the park remained open until 9pm, extending its operating day by a whole two hours, a milestone in itself.

A 120 minute wait time was posted on the park’s electronic tips board, which now lists the attraction, simply calling it “Ratatouille”. However, at one point temporary signage advised guests that, from the entrance to La Place de Rémy next to Toy Story Playland, a wait time of 190 minutes was possible.

Wait times for other popular Studios attractions appeared unaffected, particularly Crush’s Coaster which continued to offer up to an 80 minute wait. Of course, as much as Ratatouille could draw guests away from those attractions, it will (hopefully) be bringing more people to the park altogether, unfortunately mitigating any dramatic change.

But here’s the important fact: those lines aren’t due to bad planning, at least with this attraction. Ratatouille actually (just about) has the capacity to cope with its popularity on a normal day. It’s not quite a Pirates of the Caribbean juggernaut, but the packs of Ratmobiles were thankfully specced pretty well in their ability to cycle guests through.

As we concluded on Twitter, Ratatouille is officially a “blockbuster” attraction for Walt Disney Studios Park, and that’s down to quality, not poor capacity.

Seeing guests queueing round the block, clamouring to experience La Place de Rémy for themselves, says a lot about the demand for investments of this scale or, perhaps even more so, the rest of the park which those guests are turning their back on.

Complete video: Ratatouille Opening Day Inauguration Ceremony

Fun facts from today’s opening day press release

• Including the attraction, restaurant and upcoming boutique, the new Ratatouille area has created 200 new and permanent jobs.
• The project required the skills of more than 4000 craftspeople, 80% of which were French. A total of 44 French companies helped to create the attraction, including 34 from Île-de-France and 11 from Seine-et-Marne.
• A special ultrasonic cleaning system was developed for the attraction by Fisa, a company based in Essonne, which allows 22,000 pairs of 3D glasses to be cleaned in five hours.
• With 370 seats, Bistrot Chez Rémy is the largest table-service restaurant at Disneyland Paris. 80% of the produce used is of French origin, and the meat is sourced from within Europe (Scotland or France).
• Disneyland Paris has generated more than 55,000 direct, indirect and induced jobs since its opening. In 2014, the group signed 8000 employment contracts, of which 1000 are permanent. Almost 15,000 people are currently employed at Disneyland Paris.
• Disneyland Paris contributes on average 6.2% of the French tourism industry’s foreign currency revenues and contributes €50 billion in added value for the French economy.
• Disneyland Paris is Europe’s number one tourist destination, with more than 275 million visits since its opening. Within a tourist sector elevated to the ranks of “national priority”, according to François Hollande during the Tourism Forum in June 2014, Disneyland Paris takes pride of place.
• Over the past five years, investments centred on maintaining and developing Disneyland Paris have amounted to €510 million.

Explore all DLP Today’s Ratatouille: The Adventure content and features:

• Complete Grand Opening Day Report – with 80+ photos from the press preview
• Grand Opening LIVE Roundups – 100+ live Twitter photos rounded up day by day
• Video: Ratatouille Full Ridethrough Tour (Onride)
• Video: Ratatouille Walkthrough Tour (No onride)
• Video: Ratatouille Grand Opening Ceremony with Bob Iger
• Video: La Place de Rémy
• Video: Bistrot Chez Rémy
• Minisite: Ratatouille guides and information on DLP Guide
• News: Six years’ worth of news and rumours dating back to 2008

Disneyland Paris formally unveiled the new Cast Member costumes for Ratatouille: The Adventure last week, resplendent with a rich style to make them perhaps the most luxurious in the whole of Walt Disney Studios Park.

Naturally, considering the theme of Ratatouille: L’Aventure Totalement Toquée de Rémy, the costumes of the Toon Studio attraction are closely matched to those of its adjoining restaurant, Bistrot Chez Rémy, with sumptuous gold and burgundy colours, bow ties and short-cut jackets for both ride operators and restaurant waiters alike.

Despite taking inspiration from swanky Parisian restaurant uniforms, the designs retain an important touch of whimsy with the cut of the jackets, the eccentric placement of buttons and those fun bow ties around everyone’s neck — a hint to the shape of Rémy’s whiskers, perhaps?

Disneyland Paris Ambassadors Antonella and Jonathan joined fellow Cast Members to model the new outfits.

One final fun detail, even here on the costumes: Ratatouille buttons!

VIA @Disney_ParisEN (Twitter)

World of Disney has now completed its first full week of regular opening. The new Disneyland Paris flagship store, at the entrance to Disney Village, was inaugurated on 12th July 2012 with a special ceremony hosted by resort ambassadors Régis Alart and Osvaldo del Mistero.

Just as the colourful globe and Imagineering-designed architecture of the building itself has finally brought a true “Disney” touch to the resort hub, the ceremony saw the rare sight of Mickey, Minnie and Disney pomp in view of the RER and TGV station.

A modest but dedicated crowd of VIPs and visitors awaited the opening ceremony at 3pm, as the ambassadors, joined by Mickey and Minnie Mouse, introduced Joe Schott, Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, and Pierre Monzani, Préfet of the local Seine-et-Marne area. The pair of officials, Joe Schott in less fluent but admirable French, then officially inaugurated the new store by cutting the ribbon as Régis and Osvaldo declared “World of Disney is now officially open!”.

As confetti rained down, the heavens opened in perfect Marne-la-Vallée timing, coating the “World of Disney” marquee, statues and globe in a spray of golden dust. DLRP Today.com reader Maarten was there to capture the events — more photos from inside the store will follow.

Disneyland Paris also released a selection of official photos from both inside and outside the new location, showing off its sumptuous interior and beautiful nighttime illumination. The red marble-effect “World of Disney” signage truly does create a real, unique beauty of a marquee. Quintessentially American but European influenced, as all the best things at Disneyland Paris are.

Video of the inauguration by sebichou92i (YouTube) follows… Read More…

Videopolis Theatre in Discoveryland saw a packed house at 10.45am on 12th April 2012, as the Disneyland Paris Ambassadors welcomed legendary Imagineer Tony Baxter to the stage for a one hour discussion of its history, creation and progress “from concept to reality”. From broader points about the challenges his team faced in bringing a Disney park to Europe, he went on to discuss his favourite hidden details in the park, anecdotes of meeting Walt Disney, and even shares his very own version of the contested Phantom Manor storyline…

Couldn’t make it there yourself? We’re proud to present our own, exclusive video of the entire event for you now, above — including the special appearance of all the worldwide Disney Ambassadors from every resort to pose questions to Tony himself.

Disneyland Paris president Philippe Gas, the Disney Characters, two thousand Cast Members and even the French Air Force stunt display team came together at 9.45am on Thursday, 12th April 2012 to celebrate exactly 20 years to the day that Disneyland Park — then Euro Disneyland — opened its gates to the public. Experience the whole event, including the welcome speech, the spectacular flashmob dance to “Magic Everywhere!” and the truly epic walk along the purple carpet, cheered along by Cast Members from every department, as if you were there with our exclusive original video.

• More videos, reports surprises from 12th April 2012 to come, including Tony Baxter’s ‘Disneyland Paris: From Concept to Reality’ discussion at Videopolis!

Disneyland Paris president Philippe Gas, the Disney Characters, two thousand Cast Members and even the French Air Force stunt display team came together at 9.45am on Thursday, 12th April 2012 to celebrate exactly 20 years to the day that Disneyland Park — then Euro Disneyland — opened its gates to the public. Experience the whole event, including the welcome speech, the spectacular flashmob dance to “Magic Everywhere!” and the truly epic walk along the purple carpet, cheered along by Cast Members from every department, as if you were there with our exclusive original video.

• More videos, reports surprises from 12th April 2012 to come, including Tony Baxter’s ‘Disneyland Paris: From Concept to Reality’ discussion at Videopolis!