It’s been just over a week since D23 and the Walt Disney Parks and Resorts Conference. There was a lot of anticipation, a lot of hope and a heightened amount of expectancy from fans of Disneyland Paris, me included. Much of this was due to the very recent buyout of the remaining shares of the Euro Disney Company, meaning it is now solely owned by the Walt Disney Company (TWDC). Every loss the park makes now impacts it’s bottom line.
The Disappointment
After all the build up there was just one announcement. Much like all the others this had already been leaked, the refurbishment of the Hotel New York into the Hotel New York Art of Marvel. No new rides and no new shows, despite Cinemagique closing, that was it. Unless you want to include the Park losing it’s exclusivity of the Ratatouille ride, now announced for Epcot.
D23 Conclusions
D23 has never offered much in the way of announcements for parks outside of America. In 2015 the Hong Kong and Tokyo expansions were given some time but these had already been announced. The one difference here though is that TWDC owns less than 50% of Hong Kong and none of Tokyo. What we can probably take from this is that Paris won’t see much time at D23 for the foreseeable future. The fact that this conference wasn’t available to stream online, where the video game one was, suggests the focus is very much on the locals attending rather than worldwide followers.
Construction
Everything announced this year looks set to start construction before the next D23 in 2019, this includes Paris. Hotel New York’s work is rumoured to have been delayed but only until January 2019. That all the announced construction work appears to have leaked weeks or months before D23 also indicates that TWDC have announced everything they had to announce. It’s one thing for rumours to be around but once walls go up around parks and cranes start appearing the game is up and the eventual announcements become disappointing. What this probably means for Paris is that no new construction will start before summer 2019. That also lines up with rumours over the last few years.
Disneyland Paris Announcements
Disneyland Paris doesn’t have a great history with its announcements. Permanent closures are announced very last minute with little fanfare, like Cinemagique. Project Sparkle, which has seen refurbishments and updates to rides, seemed to feed out through fan sites and blogs rather than anything official. Pirates of the Caribbean has now reopened with new character effects and animatronics, this made it on to the official Parks Blog but the cynic in me thinks this was only because of the red-head scene has been changed. A change the post announced will come to Orlando and California.
While posts keep appearing around Halloween and Christmas plans for the American parks, details for Paris are non-existent. The official website still sends you to look back at 2016 yet last week we were seeing Christmas projections being tested on the Tower of Terror.
Paris seems to want to keep announcements until as late as possible. Maybe this is an impacted of the changes to the Tram Tour which were due for the 25th but now appear to be on hiatus. They could also have seen what happen with Rivers of Light at Animal Kingdom in Florida last year. It was announced and had previews but in the end was delayed by a year despite all official sites saying 2016.
2017 – 2019
What can we expect to see? A Marvel stunt show is still rumoured to come to Cinemagique. Phantom Manor is closing for 9 months (that’s longer than Pirates of the Caribbean was closed for) next year with rumours of a new scene being added. A Lion King show has been rumoured for Chaparral Theatre in time for the new live action film. The current Season of the Force page references Rogue One which could suggest an update to the shows. As with Disney Dreams we can most likely expect scenes to be replaced in Disney Illuminations, Moana being the most likely to be added.
What follows will most likely be hinted at by what they don’t do. The more they leave something untouched, the more likely it will be replaced post 2019. Armageddon is the most likely but the regular filler used in the Discoveryland Theatre also suggests it can expect a complete change of use.
A lack of news at D23 can almost be news in itself, just not what most of us would have hoped for. There is reason for hope (which I will cover soon) as shareholder documents, conferences and other rumours suggest what we can expect overt the next 10 years.
My Speil 
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