News / Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster starring Aerosmith

The first detailed look at part of the multi-year Walt Disney Studios Park expansion has been revealed, as Disneyland Paris tease a new concept image for the Marvel reworking of the park’s existing Backlot.

Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster starring Aerosmith at Walt Disney Studios Park will close to become a “completely new Marvel-themed attraction,” Disneyland Paris has announced today. Read More…

When it reopens on 17th June 2016 after an almost four-month refurbishment, Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster starring Aerosmith will present few new marvels to any but the most observant visitor. In a post on its official Disneyland Paris News blog, the resort has revealed the works mostly involve upgrades to the ride’s launch and control systems, along with general maintenance and repainting. Read More…

Meet Spider-Man, the “temporary” character opportunity in Backlot at Walt Disney Studios Park, is set to continue beyond its original 14th July end date until at least the end of August.

Positioned next to Disney Blockbuster Café at the very back of the park, the meet ‘n’ greet experience has been a huge success since opening on 19th April.

Primarily said to be funded as part of Sony Pictures’ European marketing of The Amazing Spider-Man 2, it has nevertheless been keenly marketed by Disneyland Paris themselves, including on the front of the Studios’ weekly Programme guide. Disneyland Paris is the first and only Disney resort to feature the character.

Despite the off-route location, queues have been steady and strong to meet the masked Marvel hero. Inside, guests themselves surrounded by giant newspaper pages reporting his victories, before literally stepping into the front page of the Daily Bugle to pose with Spidey themselves. It’s a light but very polished experience which has at last breathed life into Backlot, perhaps the most characterless Disney theme park area in history.

Many had therefore hoped Peter Parker’s alter ego would extend his stay, and several sources report there is now no currently confirmed end date with Spidey definitely sticking around until 31st August.

• Previously — Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone visit Walt Disney Studios Park during the movie’s European promotional tour

Besides the current movie release, this integration of Spider-Man into the land chimes perfectly with longstanding rumours for a Marvel makeover of Backlot. Much grander than a simple meet ‘n’ greet room, most rumours point to a complete re-theming of the area’s three attractions to Marvel themes, with street sets and building façades (perhaps depicting New York or similar) finally providing a story between them.

Just last week rumours surfaced of a minor Marvel-themed extension to Hollywood Land at Disney California Adventure, Disney’s second Californian park. MiceAge suggests a series of modest walk-through exhibits and meet ‘n’ greet opportunities are in the works, expanding on the current Marvel tie-ins at Disneyland’s Innoventions.

In Paris, the Marvel redevelopment could be rather more ambitious, with three genuine (and already reasonably strong) attractions to work with. Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster setting your Spidey senses tingling? Marvel superheroes in the Moteurs Stunt Show arena? Perhaps they just need to sell a few more souvenir character meet ‘n’ greet photos to fund it…

Disney PhotoPass has made its way fully across the Atlantic! The popular, longstanding online photo service offered by Disneyland Resort in California and Walt Disney World Resort in Florida launches this weekend at Disneyland Paris, bringing the latest features of PhotoPass+ and an all-new, exclusive mobile app.

In brief, PhotoPass allows you to link all your official souvenir photos taken by photographers in the parks onto one card, and then access them online when you return home. You can then purchase high quality downloadable versions, or order prints or an array of souvenir applications from mugs to photobooks.

Disneyland Paris already offered this service to a point, but it lacked the online element — you had to go to one of the park’s boutiques to inspect your photos and purchase souvenir prints there and then. It wasn’t ideal.

Now, visitors can go to www.disneyphotopass.eu to register their card and see the memories from the comfort of their own home. Prices for prints and souvenirs supplied by Fujifilm are surprisingly reasonable, although shipping charges are likely to sting.

And there’s more: a brand new mobile app, Disneyland Paris PhotoPass (iOS) (also on Android), will let you see your PhotoPass account on your phone and — here’s the coolest feature — add an on-ride attraction photo by scanning a new QR code now displayed on the photo screens at the exit of rides, or by entering the photo ID. This means for the first time you can save your photo for later, to download or buy prints later.

Like the American resorts, Paris will too offer a special upfront Disney PhotoPass+ package, retailing at €49.99, which lets you view, download and share without limit all the photos you want to collect during your time in the parks (up to 10 days). It includes a special PhotoPass lanyard card plus two extra mini cards, which you show to photographers at character locations. You can also hand them over at attraction photo sales locations to link on-ride photos to your account, if you don’t have access to the QR-scanning app.

Unlike the American packages, however, you won’t get a CD-Rom containing your photos, but aren’t downloads better these days anyway?

Our friends at Mickey Land blog were first to share this press release:

New photo services pack for unforgettable souvenirs.
Disney PhotoPass+: photos taken in the Disney Parks available in HD from this summer!

From 21 June this year, Disneyland® Paris presents Disney PhotoPass+, a new service for accessing photo-souvenir taken in the Parks in HD. Guests will have access to a photo services pack to view, download and share all photos taken with Disney characters or on rides that take ride photos.

From July 2014, Disney PhotoPass+ will allow guests to access all their photo-souvenirs taken on rides or with Disney characters by Park photographers at photo locations in high definition. Guests will be able to access a dedicated website or a mobile app to view, download and share their photos on social networks or to purchase personalized photo products (mugs, calendars, etc.).

The Disney PhotoPass+ service will be on offer at the price of €49.99. Guests will receive a box containing an exclusive lanyard card holder, a main card and two mini cards to use throughout their visit to the Disneyland Paris Parks to link their photos to the service.

From the first activation of the pack, guests could associate unlimited photo souvenirs to the service PhotoPass+ by presenting their card to photographers of Disney PhotoPass, or to the photo desk in the attractions equipped with an image capture system or by flashing the QR code directly from the monitors located at the exit of the attractions.

The photos will be available in high definition at www.disneyphotopass.eu or on the new mobile app. The “Disneyland Paris PhotoPass” app, a first for Disney Parks, is available to download on Apple and Android platforms.

The introduction of the full PhotoPass system is the latest in a series of positive developments for Disneyland Paris, continuing to bring it more closely in line with the American resorts.

Clearly, there is still much to discover about how the system will work at Disneyland Paris and many questions left to answer. Luckily, DLP Today and other fan reporters invited to this weekend’s Ratatouille: The Adventure event will be getting a special preview PhotoPass+ package to test out for ourselves in the parks — so join us soon for a full review to read much more about the service and follow us LIVE to see it in action this weekend!

The new “light show” at Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster starring Aerosmith has gone live with state-of-the-art equipment, but it’s actually light shows — plural — that we get to experience on the Backlot attraction: five of them, one for each “SoundTracker” train. Now, brought to our attention by Alan, another has hit YouTube courtesy of Deanrell and is even more impressive to behold than the multicoloured affair we previously saw for SoundTracker 3’s “Love in an Elevator” and “Walk this Way”. This show, for SoundTracker 1’s soundtrack of “Back in the Saddle” and “Dude Looks Like a Lady”, uses a blue and green theme and adds a particularly cool new effect, pictured above.

Now we know what the Imagineers meant when they told us to look out for “surprises” on the trusses the ride swoops around: When SoundTracker 1 nears the huge circular truss, a circle of 12 manoeuvrable lights form a ring like a camera shutter which “opens” just in time for the train to fly through! All through the ride, from start to finish, the lights are blinding, disorientating… and seriously rocking. It’s the rock comeback we’ve all been waiting for.

Video by Deanrell on YouTube follows… Read More…

It’s Love on a Roller Coaster all over again. One of the best surprises when Disneyland Paris unveiled its 2011 Refurbishments Programme to us in March this year was the announcement of a brand new light show for Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster starring Aerosmith. Ever since, the Backlot coaster’s many passionate fans have followed the progress of lights disappearing and reappearing, not to mention the tribulations of the legendary smoke effect, more fervently than ever. Now, as you can see from the excellent on-ride video attached below, the first of the brighter lights have officially gone “live”!

Smoke fans will notice the soundstage still has a fog-free outlook at this point, but this is still said to be a “work in progress” for the next few weeks. We were promised two “ultra-efficient” and “eco-friendly” new fog machines, pumping out “a special type of fog” to be installed as part of the improvements. All the work is being carried out after-hours — a progressive replacement of lights and effects throughout the ride, with no closure — and “new technologies in moving lighting design” were also promised, including some surprises with the truss lighting that riders fly past at all angles. Utilising LED technology, the new show is promised to be far more reliable — and energy efficient — than the 2002 version. Walt Disney Imagineering Paris modelled the new light shows in 3D using a CGI model of the ride before installation and programming began. There are five different light shows and five different Aerosmith rock soundtracks, one for each of the SoundTracker trains.

Unlike its Florida cousin which sends riders flying past 2D cut-outs of Hollywood landmarks, the Walt Disney Studios Park version of the thrill ride relies on a genuine synchronised stage lighting system to give life to the black void inside studios 8 and 9. In May this year, Gibson Guitar Corporation of Nashville, Tennessee officially put its name to the attraction in becoming its official sponsor; a more fitting “presented by” than most, giving additional, genuine rock cred to the ride.

On-ride HD video by Gilleke12 on YouTube follows… Read More…

We reported last week that, for three weekends in late November and early December, both parks would be opening at 9am rather than 10am, as has been custom since the introduction of those two Extra Magic Hours (EMH) at Disneyland Park.

Better than that, there were hints of those extra hours making their way to Walt Disney Studios Park for the first time. Hints that are now… confirmed! From the official Disneyland Paris website:

NEW
Walt Disney Studios will be exceptionnally opened from 8am to 9am for Extra Magic Hours on November 28th and 29th, and on December 5th, 6th, 12th and 13th, 2009.

So, if you’re visiting on those six dates (and qualify for EMH), you’ll get to enjoy a world-premiere: one hour of exclusive ride time in the Studios, from 8am to 9am, before other guests.

Coming soon to a Studios near us?

The attractions to be opened for the trial haven’t been publicly announced anywhere, but it appears generally agreed upon that they’ll be the most prominent ride-based favourites: The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster starring Aerosmith, Flying Carpets Over Agrabah and of course, Crush’s Coaster.

Riding the EAC may no longer take an hour or more of queueing, but it remains to be seen what effect this has on regular, non-EMH-qualifying guests. Since it became the norm to run straight to Crush as soon as the park opens, how will these regular visitors feel if they arrive only to find the Crush’s Coaster queue already populated by more privileged ride fans?

Finally, park hours for the rest of December have now been published. Though they’re not as generous as these three weekends, we do see the opening time at Disneyland Park giving way slightly to regular guests — now set at 9.30am, rather than 10am, making EMH a still-respectable hour and half window. This is the first time in almost 10 years we’ve seen park hours go into half-hours, and the flexibility is very welcome indeed.

• Check the December 2009 park hours
• Find out more about Extra Magic Hours