Performed as Disney Princess Parade since July 2006 (and for a spell in 2003 and 2004), the parade began way back on 30th March 1998 as the centrepiece of the resort’s “Year of Disney Classics”. These were the days of Tinkerbell’s Fantasy in the Sky, Disney Classics: The Music and the Magic and Pocahontas: le Spectacle, to name but a few. It was the year after the 5th Anniversary’s “Year to Be Here”, and the park desperately needed a new sensation to sustain the crowds. Luckily, they succeeded.

Drawing floats from the popular Disney Classics Parade of 1992-1998 and several mini-parades created for the release of Walt Disney films in the 90s, the parade added 5 new floats, a giant cast of dancers, interactive show stops and one final special ingredient… A Catchy Rhythm. The rest, as they say, is history. The Wonderful World of Disney Parade became a Disneyland icon, the quintessential mix of everything which makes a Disney parade so wonderful. And, although it faced many changes along the way, its spirit was never lost due to its undying popularity with the public.

And so, the final farewell performance of a real Disney classic. With no “Farewell Season” in the style of Main Street Electrical Parade, it all came down to Friday’s big goodbye to see the show off in style. For one day only, every parade Cast Member available joined the parade filling any role possible – the cast was so large and so spectacular that even the long-gone sailor dance unit returned in front of the parade’s most memorable original float, Steamboat Willie. As a tribute to the floats of the past, characters were also present from all the films of 1998’s “Disney timeline”, including Pinocchio, The Jungle Book and Hercules.

Photos by disneylandresortparis at PBase. More here.

Once the parade reached its end at Town Square, the entire special cast of over 110 performers created a jubilant and unforgettable atmosphere as they waited for the final float – none other than Steamboat Willie, before waving goodbye and allowing the doors to close on the parade for one final time. Of course, this isn’t the first time the parade has been waved goodbye – it first ended in late 1999 to make way for the millennium’s Disney’s ImagiNations Parade. Such was the popularity of the Wonderful World, however, ImagiNations could last little more than a year on the parade route. Could the same happen once again? It’d be very, very unlikely. The parade has unfortunately, truly, finally… ended.

But, as we move ahead to a new, exciting age in the history of Disneyland Resort Paris and welcome the launch of Disney’s Once Upon a Dream Parade, it’s obvious already that the parade will never truly be gone. Both for its catchy rhythm and trademark groups of energetic dancers, the Wonderful World will always be here as a wonderful memory.

To all those Cast Members who danced a catchy rhythm day after day for all these years – congratulations, and thank you. We were always guaranteed a Disney kinda’ day when we saw your smiling faces, as you passed along the way…

For more from the parade, visit our Grand Farewell guide. Discover a photo tour of the 17 floats which played a part in its life, along with the music, history and making of the Wonderful World.

Our very first glimpse at one of the dark ride scenes inside the second portion of Crush’s Coaster (after the initial outside drop and before the spinning coaster section) comes from the French weekly weekend magazine VSD, which presents a special article dedicated to the backstage happenings of the Paris resort in commemoration of its upcoming anniversary.

Like the Dutch newspaper supplement we saw just last week, it seems Disneyland Resort Paris have been generous with the press images they supplied, giving a glimpse at attraction refurbishments, a parade waiting backstage and – of course – this first look at progress inside Crush’s Coaster.

As one of the concept creators checks plans for the colourful dark ride scene, another worker sprays paint on the detailed coral decor behind. The colour scheme is generally blue, with particular undersea plants highlighted in vibrant, saturated pinks, yellows and greens. The scene is very much reminsicent of that recently installed underwater in the Submarine Voyage lagoon of Disneyland Resort in California, though its use in a traditional dark ride design can clearly be seen.

The painted wall at the rear shows the minimal depth of the actual scenes – using advanced lighting and show design the Imagineers have been able to create very shallow scenes which, when correctly lit, appear to have the depth of the real Big Blue, allowing more space for a longer dark ride section on a comparatively small location.

The second image isn’t quite so beautiful, but is certainly a very exciting glimpse into the coaster building of the ride. With full work lights on, you can see the completed track we last saw disappear behind the concrete walls in July 2006. The large first drop can be seen middle-right, whilst turtle shell ride vehicles appear to be sitting on the brake run bottom-right, covered in protective plastic. Gantries, ladders and netting fill the roofspace, with some blue lights visible at the far end of the building.

Finally, a huge black diagonal tube can be seen on the left of the photo, enclosing the lift hill and providing the walls of the sunken submarine themeing inside. Bruce the shark, seen on-site just last month, can even be seen in position outside the submarine, waiting for the first guests to pounce on.

These photos are the latest in a growing series of unprecedented backstage previews from the resort, covering the breadth of its new 15th Anniversary attractions. Covering both sides of this unique attraction, they appear to prove that not only do we have a pretty thrilling coaster to look forward to, but that it has a beautiful Big Blue dark ride introduction to go with it.

Many thanks to abu on Disney Central Plaza forum for photographing these images.

Today’s edition of the newspaper included a special supplement dedicated to the 15th Anniversary of Disneyland Resort Paris. A clever publicity stunt from the resort’s Dutch sales office, it includes details of the aniversary events, articles on the history of the resort, an interview with Imagineers and countless travel offers and promotions for trips during the anniversary year. The entire supplement has thankfully been photographed by the members of Themepark.nl, including an entirely unprecedented special inclusion on page 9.

To show the impact of its new attractions on the park, a work-in-progress version of the 2007/08 Walt Disney Studios park map has been printed. As with most new attraction additions, the rough plan has been available to the international sales offices of Disneyland Resort Paris for some time. Almost never before though, has a plan such as this been released to the public. It’s a daring move from the Dutch team, and another bold attempt to really make an impression on the public as the anniversary year approaches.

Disney theme park maps always have to power to allow fans to stare away at them for hours, so a map which gives us a look 12 months into the future? Well, there’s a lot to take in…

(Nr.1) Extra plants between Disney Bros Plaza and Toon Studio, with the first appearance of the Sorcerer Mickey entrance statue! Strangely, Mickey is shown as a gold statue as in the latest concept art we’ve seen, rather than the full-colour statue generally expected. The plinth he stands on also appears to match that in the latest concept, mirroring the blue and stars of the Sorcerer Hat.

(Nr.2) The Sorcerer Hat now features golden stars, stripes and moon with its upcoming golden Disney characters also featured. Dumbo in particular can be spotted below the word “Disney”.

(Nr.3) New planting areas in front of Animagique! These were shown in an old piece of concept art which was uncovered recently (see image on WDSfans.com), but their inclusion in the final plans for the land still isn’t confirmed.

(Nr.4) The new, extended “oasis” area in front of Flying Carpets Over Agrabah.

(Nr.5) The colours of Flying Carpets Over Agrabah’s backdrop have been updated and the reverse is now purple.

(Nr.6) Crush’s Coaster. With pink rockwork, a hazy queue line (the pink path leading to nowhere) and a different design to Studio 5, this isn’t the most accurate view of the attraction but should be adequate. The logo is featured above the building to match the rest of the attractions on the map.

(Nr.7) The Toon Town backdrop and new Toon Studio area. The Toon Town hills backdrop features only limited buildings, in the exact design of the steel frames recently erected on-site, and the smiley-faced Sun from the 2007 Resort Map and early concept art doesn’t appear. Two planters are featured, and, though hard to make out, there appears to be a yellow, faux Toon Studio security booth at the “entrance gates” to the backlot – a great touch, if it becomes a reality!

(Nr.8) The ImagiNations costuming workshop is no longer featured at all on the plan, with the corner of a plain building just peeping out from behind the Toon Town backdrop. Curiously, there doesn’t appear to be a clear path between Studio Tram Tour and Toon Studio here.

(Nr.9) Cars Race Rally. The large neon “Cars” sign atop the circular entrance building is used as the main symbol of the attraction, with Flo’s V8 Café next door. The area isn’t particularly detailed – only two turntables are shown, as previously seen in the 2007 Resort Map. We’ll have to wait and see if the final version of the map brings further updates.

(Nr.10) Now we’re onto Hollywood Boulevard/Studio – probably the most interesting part of this early plan. As a sign of its work-in-progress nature, two skyscraper buildings appear to have been grafted in from Disney-MGM’s New York street sets, coloured dark red here to likely show they’re only placeholders for a custom design on the final plan.

(Nr.11) The new Studio Tram Tour tunnel entrance and Hollywood Hills backdrop is shown, but hasn’t been matched up to the rest of the plan yet (the old entrance can still be seen behind). The tunnel appears almost identical to that seen on the fresque inside Disney Studio 1.

(Nr.12) The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror itself. The design appears to have been copied over exactly from the Disney’s California Adventure plan.

(Nr.13) A new street now runs diagonally from Place des Stars to Studio Tram Tour, right past The Hollywood Tower Hotel. The Hotel therefore looks likely to have more of an on-street inner-town feel like Tower of Terror at Tokyo DisneySea, rather than the abandoned hillside location of the Florida version. The iconic fountain has retained its position from California, therefore appearing to make the Production Courtyard side the main entrance to the new attraction.

(Nr.14) And finally, most fascinating of all – their current plans for La Terrasse. It appears there will only be a minimal path through to the Tower from Hollywood Boulevard, with the entire current La Terrasse building now surrounded by the new Mediterranean/Pueblo Deco building described previously, creating a new area surrounded by trees and what appears to be a fountain. An outdoor terrace seating area appears to be featured behind the sets, looking across the street to Tower of Terror. Across the boulevard, the Gone Hollywood storefront can be seen.

The Walt Disney Television Studios and Rendez-Vous des Stars/Backlot Express buildings have also been shrunk compared to the current map, and extra plants and details have yet to be added to Production Courtyard and Toon Studio.

And there we have it. Disney theme park maps are never the most accurate of plans, but this certainly gives a fascinating look at the bare minimum of additions and improvements currently being worked on.

Imagine… in just 12 months’ time this won’t be work-in-progress, this will be Walt Disney Studios Park. Now, that really is a Studio of dreams…

Many thanks to Pantagor and the members of Themepark.nl for sharing this plan!

Is this an anniversary “just like we dreamed it” ? Surely, it has to be even better! Not only are four new attractions due to open in the next 12 months, but half of the park is currently being transformed with new themeing to form Toon Studio and Hollywood Studio. And if that wasn’t enough, perhaps the one remaining disappointing corner of the park has finally received the final nail in its coffin…

Just last week, our partner site WDSFans.com reported that the final closure date for Walt Disney Television Studios (the Television Production Tour) has now been confirmed to Cast Members. The attraction, which was never a great success (and became a source of both humour and embarrassment for fans), will officially close for good on 16th April 2007 to allow preparations for Stitch Encounter to begin. Farewell Julie… may your glorious singing and unforgettable hairstyles bring great joy to all in Yester-WDS!

For months now, the opening date of Crush’s Coaster and Cars Race Rally has been thrown around all over, from an originally confirmed 10th June opening to the more recent rumours of a 17th June opening, as Disneyland Resort Paris sat quietly in the corner and laughed… But perhaps there was a reason – since today, on the 5th birthday of the park, they have finally broken the wall of silence and announced a final, confirmed opening date… 9th June 2007!

The announcement comes from the official anniversary website, Disneyland15.com, though it appears the previously confirmed press event of 16th/17th June 2007 will still go ahead. The reason for this week delay is perhaps the grand opening of TGV Est on 10th June 2007, a new high-speed line to Eastern France that will open up many new destinations to both Paris and the resort itself. To ensure maximum possible coverage for these two incredibly important new attractions, then, the press will have to wait a week longer than guests for their grand premiere.

So – birthday popcorn all-round! This production is finally coming together, and with all the style and grace you’d expect from a tribute to the magic of the movies.

For several weeks, preparations have been underway to welcome the fifteen new golden creations to the spires of Le Château, including the much-noticed early removal of one of its spires (see photo). The first characters arrived on Monday – Donald, Daisy and Jiminy Crickett, followed by five more yesterday – Goofy, Pluto, Chip n Dale, Pinocchio & Figaro and Dumbo & Timothy. The statues are small and understated yet perfectly detailed, each one holding an intricate candle and standing on a jeweled, “15”-encrusted crown.

Whilst a January article in newspaper Le Parisien revealed the statues would be gold rather than full-colour, the characters are infact all tinted with particular colours each, such as pink for Daisy’s dress or blue for Donald’s sailor hat. Their eyes, noses and mouths (see Chip n Dale in particular) have also been picked out in full-colour paint, creating a unique decoration and a more “awake” cast of characters.

The “scuffle” comes from exactly those you’d expect it. We found out last October that Winnie the Pooh had been replaced by Pinocchio & Figaro, and just late last month that Buzz Lightyear had joined the makeover, but now it seems Chip n Dale have beaten Hewey, Dewey & Lewey to a more prominent spot the Castle’s lower-right spire, when compared to the original visuals.

The change was, however, included in the latest concept art we saw last month, with Hewey, Dewey & Lewey now resting precariously on the spire to the right of the main balcony.

The work is taking place overnight, using the same means (a huge crane) as the installation of the Christmas Enchanted Fairytale lights – most of which have, infact, also made an early return to the park. These thousands of small LED lights, wrapped on cages which sit atop the spires, likely provide the electrical supply for the fifteen new candle illuminations themselves.

The candles, to be lit during Candleabration, appear to be opaque glass bulbs sprayed lightly with gold paint, though we’ve no indication yet what kind of lighting effect they will give. It is unlikely the Enchanted Fairytale lights will be used during the ceremony (until Christmas), though it has been suggested the “pixiedust” effect (created by the larger, white lights dotted across the turrets) will be used during Candleabration.

The spiraling trail of pixie dust around the top of the Castle is already in place for Tinker Bell, who is due to join the Seven Dwarfs, Buzz Lightyear, Lumière, Hewey, Dewey & Lewey, Cheshire Cat, Mickey & Minnie and the giant “15” window to complete the makeover shortly.

Thanks to Mateo for all photos above, posted on Disney Central Plaza forum.

It all began with a photo frame… and then the onslaught began! With less than 18 days to go until the 15th officially gets underway, they aren’t taking any chances in the merchandise department. You want pens, postcards, placemats, playing cards? They’re all covered. And you forgot to bring enough clothes for your anniversary dream? Don’t worry – you can practically get a whole new, 15th Anniversary wardrobe.

It’s no secret that Disney anniversary merchandise is a guaranteed sell – products from the 5th Anniversary were some of the best selling in the resort’s history, and even the limited items for the 10th flew off the shelves before the year was out. For the 50th Anniversary of Disneyland celebrations in California, fans waited in line hours for first-pick at exclusive merchandise. After being on an offensive to increase guest spending in the last two years, Disneyland Resort Paris is going for the big one. Soon, you might be able to live entirely off of products emblazoned with the number “15” – the merchandise line is truly that big.

Whilst Walt Disney Studios is still reported to be fairly dry, Disneyland Park has been met with a tidal wave of new products in recent days, many of which Scrooge from DisneyMagicInteractive.com captured on camera…

Left-right/top-bottom: Photo frame, mouse ears hat, cola sweets, cake/sweets tin, mug and cup, photo album, table placemat, A3 poster, adult t-shirt, girls’ top, kids’ sweatshirt, white kids’ t-shirt, blue kids’ t-shirt, pen, autograph and scrapbook, notebook and pen.

And just a couple of days later, Scrooge adds even more to the collection:

Left-right/top-bottom: Postcard, bookmark, keychain, wallet, magnet, colouring book and pens, packaging close-up, playing cards, mobile accessory, tin, shoulder bag, baseball caps, light-up necklace, photo frame magnet, mini snowglobes, colouring pencils, plastic folder.

It’s true that many of the items here are lower-value products, and so far there appears to be little for the dedicated fan. As the countdown continues, though, more and more products appear. Aside from the limited editions of the Pin Trading line, there have even been rumours of such top-line merchandise as snowglobes based on the floats of Disney’s Once Upon a Dream Parade.

The boutiques themselves are also gearing up the big launch, hoping that, at this very moment in just 18 days’ time, all these items will be flying off the shelves faster than they can say “just like we dreamed it!”.

As usual, it’s the old-fashioned stores of Main Street USA that are first to receive their new anniversary overlay. After a sweeping series of refurbishments and remodelling to almost all of the street’s boutiques in recent years, the stores are more ready than ever for an extra influx of merchandise hunters.

Special decorations and point-of-sale locations starring Lumière have already arrived at The Storybook Store and elsewhere, whilst the last-chance Plaza East & West Boutiques were first to receive their 15th Anniversary-themeing for clothing rails, shelves and more. All the branding is in a more enchanting and less modern style to the general 15th marketing – one that fits more than comfortably with that of the land itself, which bodes well for the similarly-styled banners and decorations due to arrive in the street itself soon.

Photos from Joel’s latest Photo Hunt show that the Emporium is now home to countless miniature banners amongst the old banknote-carrying system in the ceiling, hung on special, ornate gold frames and each decorated with a small golden tassel. But it’s not only the big Main Street stores ready for the April anniversary guests – the merchandise line has now reached smaller boutiques such as La Girafe Curieuse, seen above, where it is all on prominent display outside the store.

Merchandise photos by Scrooge on the forum of DisneyMagicInteractive.com
Final two photos by Joel.

In the UK, the eye-catching red carpet scene leads with the tagline “You’re Invited”, calling out to the audience and attempting to highlight that this is a truly special, VIP event. The text at the bottom reads “Dream like you’ve never dreamt before, with all the characters, a new parade and new attractions”, whilst the “hook” of the advertisement is – as with all the 15th promotion so far – the fairly substantial “Kids Under 7 Stay and Play Free” offer.

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The double-page magazine advertisement has already been spotted in this week’s Radio Times, a very widely circulated tv listings guide, along with several of the Sunday newspaper magazines. Single page versions have already even been seen in such obscure publications as the Cineworld/UGC free film preview magazine, “Unlimited”.

In France, the advertisement leads with “C’est l’année de tous les rêves” (roughly “It’s the year of every dream”), with a longer piece of text at the bottom describing package prices and room rates. The “Séjour gratuit pour les moins de 7 ans” text is also silver, and more “sparkly”, compared to its British cousin.

Photo by mickey3101, DCP forum.

It’s this same key advertising visual that will soon be appearing not just in magazine advertisements but all over Paris and beyond. Disneyland Resort Paris plan to fill the billboards of Paris with over 6000 of these posters, including one in particular which will allow a child’s photo to be uploaded to it, appearing for a select period of time with a phrase such as “Charlotte dreams of becoming Cinderella”. A unique “first” and a great bit of fun for the children lucky enough to receive their 15 minutes of fame.

Other “red carpet” billboards will interact with their surroundings, showing the red carpet continue beyond the poster to wrap itself around the entire building. There will also be advertisements on 22 buses, and in particular 4 completely decorated Paris sightseeing coaches, plus special, full “red carpet” makeovers of selected Métro stations.

The size and scope of this campaign and the entire year has exploded beyond anything that could have been expected one year, or even six months, ago. After such a successful and widespread launch, it all looks good for the effect of that sparkling red carpet on the resort’s most important year.

We saw previews of the very professional TV advertising campaign from the February Shareholders’ AGM, but seeing these exciting TV spots in your own home is quite an event! The magicforum topic for the celebration has logged several pages of sightings and discussion, with fans in almost all of the key European markets of the resort spotting the commercials already.

With the commercials now in the public domain, we can get a better look at some of the beautiful visuals, created in California to Disneyland Resort Paris’ specifications… (see Lumière hiding in the back there?)

The commercials are shown in several formats and differ slightly depending on the country they’re being shown. Both 40 second and 20 second versions have been created, with the latter skipping over the shots of Cars Race Rally and Crush’s Coaster to instead focus on the events available from April 2007.

And now, if you’ve not been able to catch one of the commercials yet, or if you’re in a territory which doesn’t receive Disneyland Resort Paris advertising, here it is!

English Version (40s)

The commercials form the key part of the resort’s massive 15th Anniversary advertising campaign, without doubt the largest and most ambitious ever.

In France, the campaign was launched with specially-created break-bumpers (quick clips played before a channel goes to commercials) on TF1, showing the red carpet flying through the sky with the TF1 logo and “Pub” (Adverts) text, wrapping the entire channel in some beautiful CGI advertising visuals for the 15th Anniversary.

A special series of short programmes are also scheduled for the channel over the next fifteen days, as revealed on the official French Anniversary Blog. Entitled “On a tous nos rêves” (We all have our dreams), the series of featurettes presents fifteen French celebrities discussing their own childhood dreams in honour of the anniversary, though it’s unlikely many of the names will be familiar outside of France: Yannick Noah, Christine Scott-Thomas, Axelle Red, José Garcia, Laurent Voulzy, Marc Lavoine, Karl Lagerfeld, Ornella Muti, Grégory Coupet, Emilie Dequenne, Laeticia Hallyday, Hélène Ségara, Mimie Mathy, Virginie Ledoyen et Isabella Rossellini. The programmes run every night on TF1 for fifteen days from today.

The commericals themselves are scheduled to continue showing right through March across Europe, and have already created quite a stir amongst the general public. Crucially, they are getting across the message that this is an important year, a year with many special events, and that it’s all happening “Là où les rêves deviennent réalité” – in Paris.