News / Annual Passports

Registration pages for both programmes are now open, with Annual Passholders able to enjoy the film on either 9th or 16th January 2010 and Shareholders invited to their own screening on 23rd January 2010.

The film will be screened inside CinéMagique, presumably using its digital projection technology. For Shareholders, the film begins at 8.45pm, whilst for Annual Passholders it’s an 8.30pm start. All screenings are in French only.

Prior registration is required, which can be completed here for Annual Passholders and here for Shareholders. A hotel offer will also be available for Shareholders.

The Princess and the Frog, directed by the unbeatable duo of Ron Clements and John Musker (The Little Mermaid, Aladdin) sees the Walt Disney Animation Studios finally return to traditional animation for the first time since the studio’s hand drawn output was virtually shut down for good in 2004, following belief that it was the medium, nothing else, too blame for falling box office.

Despite its release in the USA last week generating much positive press and word of mouth around it world, it does not open in France until 27th January 2010, and not in the UK, Netherlands, Spain, Portugal or Belgium until the start of February. Germany has been unusually lucky, able to see it since 10th December — technically a day before most US audiences.

Even so, this still leaves a gap of several months before Princess Tiana and Prince Naveen themselves are due to officially arrive at Disneyland Paris as part of the New Generation Festival, which begins on 2nd April 2010.

It’s the most wonderful time of the year and, for several years now, the busiest for Disneyland Resort Paris. As the success of the resort’s Christmas season has gone from strength to strength, it has truly replaced the Summer season as the key high season for the two Disney Parks.

However, all this festive cheer has a downside. Because, though Christmas Season runs for effectively the same length as Christmas, the core holiday period when families can visit is mostly condensed into just two weeks either side of Christmas Day itself. This weekend, between the 20th and 22nd December, is therefore the most hectic of all, not least in a record-breaking term where the resort is attracting over 15 million guests per year.

So, what are the preparations? On Tuesday, we spread word that the resort was taking the unprecedented step of advising visitors without hotel packages or dated tickets against visiting. However, as was pointed out, the warning was only posted on the ticket pages of the French official website — and furthermore, vanished a few hours after our article was published.

The warning was true enough, and the placement only on the French website was actually entirely intentional — trying to dissuade French visitors with cheap offer tickets from visiting at the busiest time of the year. Everyone is, of course, welcome to visit the resort this weekend, but you may well have to contend with some horribly busy parks.

Annual Passport holders were also given the warning, via an email sent out to the entire mailing list, suggesting visits would be better saved for another day.

Now, the Events Calendar pages of the official website have a different, additional warning in place:

Conseil Malin pour venir à Disneyland Resort Paris

Si vous désirez vous rendre à Disneyland Resort Paris avec votre véhicule, nous vous conseillons de planifier votre arrivée avant 9h30 ou après 11h30 afin d’éviter les ralentissements.

Nous vous conseillons également d’utiliser les transports en commun en empruntant le RER A, terminus « Marne la Vallée Chessy » ou les lignes de bus.

This is again an announcement we’ve never known from Disneyland Resort Paris — if you’re going to be arriving by car at the resort, you’re recommended to try to plan your arrival either before 9:30am or after 11:30am, to avoid tailbacks on the A4 autoroute and access roads. Or, an even better option — use the public transport options such as the RER A line or local bus services.

This warning comes after the huge traffic levels seen around the resort on recent weekends.

Finally, once all these guests are at Disneyland Resort Paris, they’re now being given a special Christmas treat to help cope with the huge visitor levels: extended opening hours at Walt Disney Studios Park!

Originally scheduled to open only from 10:00am to 7:00pm, the longest regular hours the park usually sees, an exception has been made to keep the gates of the Studios open right up until 9:00pm on Saturday and Sunday, likely to prevent Disneyland Park seeing an evening overflow of too many extra guests.

— You can find the updated opening hours on the relaunched DLRP Magic! Calendar.

[Lead image: www.photosmagiques.com]

For weeks already, dates have been thrown around, rumoured and even “confirmed”. Running a news service dedicated to Disneyland Resort Paris becomes a bit of a challenge during times like this — to report the date, or not? But now, we give in. The rumours have become deafening, the rumoured dates narrowed down to one single day, the confirmations coming from all angles (such as here on our own magicforum).

It’s Saturday, 22nd December 2007. Yes, 22nd December 2007. Say it again — maybe a few more times — because, in years to come, this date will be just as special as 12th April 1992 and 16th March 2002.

Have Disneyland Resort Paris confirmed the date? Well, not exactly. But when was the last time they did something as helpful as that? It’s far more fun to keep the fans guessing! The most obvious semi-confirmation comes from the Pin Trading department, who — just a few weeks ago — published an announcement (below) for a Pin Event in December on the worldwide Pin Trading website.

Not just any Pin Event though — oh no. Even if you’re one of those Disney park fans who loaths everything about Pin Trading, you really might want to give this a look. Scheduled for the night of 22nd December 2007 (there’s the clue!), the event at Walt Disney Studios Park is set to include exclusive pins and pre-releases, entertainments and competitions, a buffet in Disney Studio 1 and… wait for it… privatised access to the attraction.

The reservations hotline opened on 19th October: +33 825 30 60 30. Prices are €33 for Adults, €30 for Children, or just €29 if you’re a shareholder or Fantasy/Dream passholder.

So, with lucky Pin Traders (and no doubt a few Pin Haters) getting the chance to ride The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror on the night of 22nd December 2007, we can be pretty sure it’ll be ready and open for the public by this date. The completion date of Hollywood Boulevard area is still undetermined, with work possibly continuing beyond the 22nd December unless this next month-and-a-half sees a continued push for the finish.

The press events for the attraction will take place in the first week of April 2008, allowing the resort to extend the lifetime of the initial 15th Anniversary offerings and make a maximum impact with their most important attraction launch for over ten years. This will also coincide with the opening of Stitch Live and the return of High School Musical On Tour.

As confirmed previously, the Tower has been testing on a daily basis for some time. However, a period of Soft Openings (tests with guests in the park invited to try the ride) will still likely take place before the 22nd December 2007, not least because this represents the start of the full high-season and an incredible influx of visitors to the two parks. Straying back into pure “rumour” territory now, we can suggest the weekend of 8th December 2007 is now looking most likely to begin these, running for brief periods across for two weeks as with the Toon Studio rides. The first weekend could also serve as the Shareholder and Annual Passport previews. As yet, however, this should be taken as speculation only.

The opening date of “January 2008” is still to be used in all official public publications, but this now simply means anybody already visiting over the key Christmas season will have a rather nice (or rather nasty) surprise waiting for them in the Studios… depending on their thrill level!

Since around the release of Chicken Little in 2005, Disneyland Resort Paris finally got back into some good cross-promotion with Disney’s movie releases. No doubt many fans’ earliest memories of “EuroDisney” come from the countless advertisements placed before films on Disney’s VHS releases of the early ’90s, and now a whole new generation is discovering the resort at its 15th Anniversary with Pixar’s latest smash-hit CGI tale.

Ratatouille is, according to Disney, “the best reviewed film of the Summer”. That’s not just marketing talk – on reviews database Rotten Tomatoes, it currently counts 158 positive reviews against just 6 negative, giving an overall score of 96% fresh and right up there with the best of Pixar’s greats.

“The characters are irresistible, the animation is astonishing and the film, a fantasy version of a foodie rhapsody, sustains a level of joyous invention that hasn’t been seen in family entertainment since The Incredibles,” says the Wall Street Journal.

“In this Michelin-starred confection, Brad Bird deserves an Oscar,” raves The Observer. Luckily for Disney (and the $ 7.4 billion hole in their pocket), it appears the studio may never make a bad film.

We know the two lead characters – Rémy and Émile – have been frequenting Toon Studio since late June, and now Disneyland Resort Paris have cooked up some promotion to make the most of the characters — afterall, where else on this continent can you meet the Pixar stars? No doubt the film’s location of a glowing, saccharine Paris will also play well to draw more eyes to the Disneyland just a few miles East…

On the official website, you can now find a special page with a surprising amount of photos (something Crush’s Coaster and Cars Race Rally still lack) showing the furry pair of rats in front of their new photo location in Toon Studio. Of the international websites for the Ratatouille movie itself, the Dutch and English versions provide partner links to this page on Disneylandparis.com, as has been the case for recent releases such as Cars. The Dutch link, however, is unfortunately presenting a page error. Still, it’s an effort.

The characters themselves, despite being completely Pixar-produced, are 100% Disney. This is actually the first time Pixar have produced furry, hugable animal characters, and no doubt these two will be around for years to come…

What other treats, beyond a hug from Rémy and Émile? Well, if you’re a Shareholder or an Annual Passport Dream holder, you’re invited to a special, free screening of the film in Walt Disney Studios Park‘s CinéMagique theatre!

As has become the norm for every big animated Disney release, the park’s Disney Studio 2 will opens its doors after-hours for a private screening of the new film. The Annual Passport Dream showing takes place on 25th August 2007, though no doubt this will come as news to almost every passholder unless they’ve stopped by the Bureau Passeport Annuel recently and spotted the form. Apparently you’re not alone if you never received any notification via email or through the post.

Registration closes on 6th August, so if you’d like to fill one of the limited spaces available for the single screening (the theatre’s capacity is 1,100), you’d better… well, we’re not sure. They don’t seem to want anyone to go. The only spotting of the registration form is thanks to a member on Disney Central Plaza.

More successful, as always, is the Shareholders Club. Here you’ll find a proper online sign-up (click here) ready and waiting for your membership details and seat reservation for one of two screenings — Saturday 8th September 2007 or Sunday 9th September 2007, both beginning at 7pm. However, unlike several film screenings in the past, Ratatouille will be presented exclusively in French.

“We invite you to improve your French thanks to a screening in French version only (without any subtitles),” they boast. Well then, throw away your phrasebook!

Ratatouille is now showing in cinemas across France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Spain and Austria since today. After a little time to mature, the fine French delicacy à la Pixar will arrive in Germany on 3rd October and the UK on 12th October.

Images © Disney/Pixar; by Photos Magiques and by Minnie Mouse on DCP.

To enjoy the evening Extra Magic Hours, you just need to head to Main Street Station anytime after 5pm, show your ‘Disney Hotel EasyPass’ (formerly known as ‘Resort ID’) or Annual Passport Dream and then grab a flourescent wristband from the guest flow Cast Members. For the first night of Extra Magic Hours on 2nd April 2007, a whole army of guest flow positioned themselves underneath Main Street Station, forming a well-organised system which saw guests funneled down the disused walkways of lockers to pick up their wristband and exit quickly.

In the days before, a new flyer had appeared across all reception desks of Disney Hotels, providing an excellent and well-designed guide to the exact times and dates as well as which attractions and restaurants will be operating:

For morning Extra Magic Hours, guests just need to show their Disney Hotel EasyPass or Annual Passport Dream to enter the park early, then show it again at the entrance to Fantasyland or Discoveryland – where all the early-morning Extra Magic Hours attractions are based.

The first nighttime ‘Heures de Magie en Plus’ was bustling compared to the deserted trial runs of April 2006, showing the resort has advertised and introduced the scheme well, but still quiet enough to enjoy an “exclusive” extra two hours in Disneyland Park after dark. Disneyland Resort Paris is the only Disney Resort besides Walt Disney World Resort in Florida (where the scheme originates from) to offer this privilage on such a scale, hoping that the temptation of 2 extra hours in Disneyland Park will win higher occupancy at its seven Disney Hotels – and more satisfied guests.

After all, what’s more magical than Disneyland by night?