What’s New & Next in 2023 for Disneyland Paris 30th Anniversary
A lot is happening for the Disneyland Paris 30th Anniversary Celebration. If you’re planning a trip to Disney’s two theme parks in France, this update covers what’s new, coming soon, and next for 2023 and beyond in terms of new rides, shows, special events, and even hotels!
Before we get started, it’s worth noting that this post only covers new and changing things at Disneyland Paris and Walt Disney Studios Park. If you want something comprehensive, consult our 2023 Disneyland Paris Vacation Planning Guide. That’s over 6,000 words offering a crash course in the basics of trip prep, including everything from getting around Paris to food to touring strategy and so much more!
The point of this post isn’t really to answer the question of whether you should visit Disneyland Paris now or wait. Many of you reading this are Europeans who view DLP as your “home” resort or are already planning a trip to France and are debating whether to include Disneyland Paris. In all of those cases, go now.
If you’re a long-time Disney fan based outside of Europe who has Disneyland Paris on your bucket list and a very flexible time frame for visiting, we’d recommend waiting if this will be a once in a lifetime trip. Walt Disney Studios Park will be better in 2024 than it is today. Even then, that advice is questionable, as a lot of what’s featured in the Walt Disney Studios Park overhaul will be clones of what exists (or will exist) at Walt Disney World and Disneyland.
Speaking of which, the next big thing is the multi-year $2.5 Billion Disneyland Paris Expansion, which is partially complete as of 2023. This is essentially an overhaul of the Walt Disney Studios Park, reimagining that broken park and debuting fixes in phases in the next several years. The end result should hopefully debut in time for the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, France.
Turning to what’s on the horizon in the coming months, the Disneyland Paris 30th Anniversary celebration’s “Grand Finale” runs until September 30, 2023. Currently, the only thing we know about this finale is that it’ll feature the debut of a new stage show at Walt Disney Studios Park called “Pixar: We Belong Together” debuting in Summer 2023. Disneyland Paris has also teased more surprises and additions rolling out during the home stretch of this celebration.
With the near-term addressed, here’s what else is new, coming in 2023 or 2024, and on the more distant horizon at Disneyland Paris…
Disneyland Paris 30th Anniversary
The celebrations for the 30th Anniversary of Disneyland Paris are now underway!
Main Street, U.S.A. and the Disney characters will be decked out for the celebration. (Above is a sneak peek at Mickey Mouse’s anniversary outfit.) Disneyland Paris’ newly refurbished Sleeping Beauty Castle will serve as an incredible backdrop for a new limited time show in the Hub.
In addition, Disneyland Paris has brought back some fan favorite classic shows and parades, such as “Disney Stars on Parade” and “Disney Illuminations” for the 30th anniversary festivities. There’s a ton happening for this celebration–see it all in our Guide to Disneyland Paris 30th Anniversary: New Rides, Food, Shows, Souvenirs–and Drones!
New Attractions & Lands at Walt Disney Studios Park
Avengers Campus – Walt Disney Studios Park is home to a new Marvel-themed area called Avengers Campus, which differs slightly from the versions in Hong Kong and California. Avengers Campus is now open at Walt Disney Studios Park.
This new Marvel Land features the reimagined Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster, featuring Iron Man and Avengers. Alongside that, the Worldwide Engineering Brigade or WEB interactive Spider-Man attraction is the other main draw. Avengers Campus promises to immerse guests in action-packed adventures via attractions, heroic encounters, and new restaurants.
Kingdom of Arendelle – The Frozen fun continues in the coming years with a new themed area dedicated to this beloved story, which is part of the multi-year expansion of the Walt Disney Studios Park.
As part of the fully immersive land and seen in the new concept art above, guests will see the snow-capped mountain of Arendelle in the distance opposite a large lake, with a boat ride that will transport them to Arendelle. The area will also include character encounters, a new restaurant, and a shop.
An opening date has not yet been announced for this Frozen Land, but we’re expecting it to debut in 2024. Even that might be pushing it, as construction isn’t very far along.
However, there have been a lot of slowdowns in the last couple of years, and now the Kingdom of Arendelle appears to be a project that is fast-tracked at Disneyland Paris. Hopefully that means it’ll be ready to open its gates to the public “for the first time in forever” by the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics.
Art Nouveau Lakeside Restaurant – To access the new Kingdom of Arendelle Frozen Land, guests will walk along a promenade surrounded by lush landscapes; a combination of themed gardens and green walkways. This space will serve as the transition between the new themed areas that will surround the future lake, and will completely transform the Park’s atmosphere.
The focal point of this expansion area will be an elegant table-service restaurant comprising 250 seats on the lakefront. With its Art Nouveau design, the restaurant will offer breathtaking panoramic views across the lake along with special meet-and-greet opportunities with characters.
Disney Village Reimagining – Over the next several years, Disney Village will be reimagined with new restaurants, plus refreshed shopping and entertainment offerings. This 428,000-square-foot complex will also receive an aesthetic overhaul,
with a phased transformation of the entire area to give the district a brand-new visual identity and introduce exciting new offerings into the mix.
The reimagined Disney Village will celebrate timeless, family-friendly environments that are uniquely Disney. By day, stylish boutiques and innovative restaurants will draw guests in. By night, thousands of lights will transform the area into a bustling wonderland. When the transformation is complete, Disney Village will feature a relaxing lakeside park and boardwalk, enhanced pedestrian walkways, brand-new facades, relaxing terraces and patios, and lush landscaping. Its diverse eateries and collection of shops will expand dining and retail options for guests with innovative concepts from some of the world’s most exciting brands.
Rosalie French Brasserie – The first step in the transformation plan will be a contemporary French brasserie in place of the current Café Mickey restaurant. Groupe Bertrand, with its portfolio of renowned Parisian brasseries, has been chosen to take over the location and bring in a fresh new concept that will both elevate the culinary experience and expand dining options for guests looking for French flavors in Disney Village.
Rosalie, the new two-floor restaurant will feature 500 seats in contemporary interiors. Inspired by Parisian brasseries, it will celebrate renowned French “Art de Vivre” and classic cuisine in a modern yet elegant setting, with expanded terraces looking over Lake Disney. In addition to table service, a counter will offer French bakery-inspired options for take away like viennoiseries, pastries, sandwiches and salads, as well as a selection of products satisfying every taste and level of service.
Reimagined Resorts
Disneyland Hotel – The iconic Disneyland Hotel is currently closed for an ambitious transformation at Disneyland Paris, as it will celebrate a royal theme inspired by Disney princesses. In addition to the room reimagining, the layout of the hotel’s public spaces and equipment in the rooms will also be enhanced. Guests will benefit from a larger pool area, an expanded spa, and updated restaurants & lounges. The totality of which is aimed at earning Disneyland Hotel a five-star rating.
This complete refurbishment is the next step in an ambitious renovation plan for all Disneyland Paris hotels spanning years and more than 5,700 rooms. The ambitious transformation plan demonstrates Disneyland Paris’s ongoing commitment to continually invest in the guest experience and improving the resort ahead of the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris.
Disney’s Hotel New York — The Art of Marvel – This reimagined hotel is now open at Disneyland Paris. Disney’s Hotel New York — The Art of Marvel celebrates 80 years of Marvel storytelling in a typical New York setting, with a contemporary Art Deco style.
The hotel is inspired by a New York art gallery, paying tribute to the city that is home to many iconic Marvel characters and the artists who created them. When Disney’s Hotel New York — The Art of Marvel reopens next summer, it will be the first hotel dedicated entirely to the celebration of Marvel art, with one of the largest publicly viewable collections of Marvel artwork in the world.
Disneyland Paris collaborated with over 50 artists from Marvel Comics and Studios to create 300+ pieces of artwork, including comic book covers, posters, illustrations from films, storyboards, original sketches and more for Disney’s Hotel New York — The Art of Marvel.
As you might know, Hotel New York has been completely closed during this reimagining, which will introduced entirely redesigned guest rooms with a contemporary vibe, featuring Marvel artwork in each room and a subtle nod to the legendary Iron Man in all Empire State Club rooms. Suites will be themed to specific characters, like Avengers and Spider-Man.
Disney’s Hotel New York — The Art of Marvel is the first hotel where guests can have heroic encounters with iconic Marvel super heroes in a special location called Super Hero Station. In addition to morning meet & greets, guests can there will be unique Marvel photo locations such as the Collector’s Collection from the Guardians of the Galaxy, Thor’s hammer, and more.
While this isn’t our preferred route for the resort’s reimagining, the underlying Art Deco style looks nice, and the artwork appears tastefully integrated into the design. Plus, the previous “Big Apple” incarnation of Hotel New York was woefully dated and tired, and it desperately needed something.
Another new-ish development includes the reimagined Newport Bay Club Hotel, which we recently stayed at and reviewed.
New and expanded seasonal events have also been big, as these have acted as a stop-gap prior to the opening of the new expansions.
Recently Added
Mickey’s Dazzling Christmas Parade – Disneyland Paris teams secretly developed this new parade and debuted it for last Christmas. Mickey’s Dazzling Christmas Parade is composed of five gigantic floats, featuring Mickey & Friends, Disney Princesses, Santa Claus & Tinker Bell, and more characters.
Each of these floats in Mickey’s Dazzling Christmas Parade represents an idyllic Christmas scene with traditional decorations and parade performers will be dressed in luminous costumes specially designed for the occasion. (If you missed it, expect to see Mickey’s Dazzling Christmas Parade in 2023, too.)
Frozen: A Musical Invitation — This new interactive adventure transports guests to the Kingdom of Arendelle within the Animation Celebration in Walt Disney Studios Park.
During Frozen: A Musical Invitation, guests interact with their favorite characters over multiple stages. In the first room, guests sing and learn to dance with Anna, Kristoff, and Sven. In the second room, guests will step into the ice palace and sing in unison the key song Let It Go with Elsa.
Studio D — Another addition to Walt Disney Studios Park is Studio D. Here, children and their families are welcomed at a brand-new interactive show in the company of Mickey, Minnie and their friends from Disney Junior.
Studio D is a small-scale production–like a dance party for small children, who will have the chance to sing and dance alongside their favorite Disney characters.
Over at Disneyland Paris, the latest undertaking is Project Sparkle, which was a resort-wide enhancement project meant to bring the parks back to Disney standards.
This occurred a few years ago alongside the Walt Disney Company’s purchase of all outstanding shares in Disneyland Paris, making the company full owners and operators. The latter is one of the big impetuses behind the aforementioned $2.5 billion investment.
Project Sparkle brought about extended refurbishments and enhancements to Phantom Manor, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, Star Tours, Pirates of the Caribbean, Space Mountain, ‘it’s a small world’, and more.
Overall, there’s a lot on the horizon for Walt Disney Studios Park and Disneyland Paris. In the near future, there’s a slew of seasonal events intended to tide guests over until the big things start debuting between now and 2024. As noted above, (parts of) Avengers Campus will be first to debut, and that’s expected to be followed by the Frozen Land, and finally, a version of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge. It’ll be interesting to watch Disney’s resort complex in France continue to grow and evolve, and we’re excited about its future!
For the basics of planning a visit to Disneyland Paris, check out our Disneyland Paris Trip Planning Guide. Find the best place to stay in Disneyland Paris Hotel Reviews. Check out 101 Disneyland Paris Tips for some (101, to be exact) of our best random tips for doing DLP like a pro. See Disney Park Tickets Tips & Tricks for ways to save on tickets. For where to eat, check out our Disneyland Restaurant Reviews. For unique ideas of things that’ll improve your trip, check out What to Pack for Disney. Finally, for advice beyond Disney, check out our Ultimate Travel Guide to Paris, France.
YOUR THOUGHTS
Excited for the upcoming additions and seasonal events at Disneyland Paris in 2023? What are your thoughts on this huge Disneyland Paris expansion? Are you looking forward to visiting Disneyland Paris and Walt Disney Studios Park once this is finished, or would you rather stick to other Disney Parks? Anything with which you disagree in this post? Any questions? Hearing your feedback about your experiences is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts or questions below in the comments!
There’s no question about keeping hotels up-to-date in terms of service and room experience. An area where the DLP hotels were lagging behind for a couple of years now (*cough* bathrooms i.e.).
I’m pretty sure they’ll do a wonderful job with the Disneyland hotel that felt quite mumsy and nowhere near the price category. The inclusion of the royal princess themeing is in light of the hotel’s adjacency to the park understandable and that rendering looks quite tasteful. (Although I’d wish that Tangled mirror shown on an other site would be more of a interpretation in the style of the victorian theme)
But (big!) the transformation of Hotel New York is still a big bummer to me. The redesign and Avengers theme does not enrich the experience – it devalues the complex as an architectural Gesamtkunstwerk by Michael Graves. Especially since Postmodernism has been appreciated as a valid art form in its own right for a couple of years now, it’s appaling how the work of one of it’s main architects has been rendered into something completely generic. The building itself may be untouched in its general configuration, but without the original interiors, the meaning is lost. In true Postmodern fashion, there was a striking balance between the literal and the abstract. Architectural form and decor went hand in hand.
Apart from that, I enjoyed the hotal as more “adult” space and preferred to stay there. Well… that was…
It is good to hear that some attention is being lavished on Disneyland Paris and further attractions being added. I’ve been three times, once when there was just one park, and twice with both parks, the last trip was a little dull, because some rides were being refurbed and there was little new there. Whilst it’s highly unlikely I will ever do Disney again because it’s somewhat out of my price league these days. I do hope the site continues to thrive under full Disney ownership. Had it been built in the UK I would no doubt be a semi regular, but sadly not for me in France, just too costly. Whilst I accept it can be done on the cheap, why would you go and not stay in a Disney hotel? One thing that did put me off as well was the removal of breakfast being included in the hotel cost, when was that, back in 2017/18? An expensive add on now, particularly if you’re a large family.
I have done Disneyworld back in the mid-2000s, and I’ve always felt that was a better value visit for 2 weeks, vs. Disneyland Paris for maybe 4 days.
Hi, Art of Marvel opened last summer, we stayed in one of the Club rooms, it was an extraordinary experience.
Hello Tom. Thank you for all the infos and updates ! We are AP holders from Paris and we have a huge problem with ticket reservations. Nothing during the weekends or the holidays (we have Infinity passes)! And there are still tickets for sale at those same dates of course… Any idea about how long this should last ?? We were not abble to go for our daughter’s birthday and probably won’t be abble to go either for Christmas
i love the parks you been creating specially the frozen musical and land is my favorite and of course star wars as well because i would like to be there for the events and birthdays please let me know about the events and birthdays
p.s i would like to be there again please let me know
yours truly Hayley Bramwell
Is there any word on the release of the new DLP Keys? The Ratatouille “Gusteaus” key, Le Visionarium (TimeKeeper), 20,000 Leagues, and Space Mountain. There was an article on this last year, but no updates. These are a continuation of keys released in 2019.
I am from the UK and my family will be traveling this april 3?is it safe to travel now that COVID 19 is on going?.
Worried Mom
Hi Yesterday i was about to book a stay in Disneyland Hotel for 2021. They Said it wasnt possible as it was closed by then for a refurb. Im not sure if the restaurants Will be closed, but as for Room booking it is closed. They recommend the Marvel hotel instead if wanting to stay near park.
I’ve been to DLP about 5 times now (I live in London) and have been at differing times and seasons. The first time I went it was the 20th anniversary so was very nice. The next few were always enjoyable but you could see the park not being kept as well as you would expect with the passage of time. Agree with Tom that the 25th anniversary and concerted effort by Disney to improve made the parks much nicer. We stated at Newport Bay last year and have to say I was impressed with the hotel. Rooms were nice and the food in the restaurant was good. Previously, we had stayed at the NY and Disneyland Hotel (twice each).
Looking forward to the new additions over the coming years. Was pleasantly surprised to hear about the expansion. As it’s such a big development, I thought it would only be for the bigger US parks.
I live in London and tend to visit DLP once a year for 1-2 days. My first trip as an ‘adult’ (quote marks are definatley needed!) was in 2014 – and it was a bummer. The park was in a real state and it looked so dated.
Since then it really has got better with every visit – the park itself, the attractions, merch, food, cast members – literally everything! So that said, i’m optimistic about these changes because i don’t think there’s anything to gain at DLP from holding-on to the good ol’ days, the way we can feel about changes at DLR and WDW… because the old days at DLP weren’t so good! It’s nothing but good news for the Paris parks to continue to be updated, especially the Studios park which is sometimes not much better than wandering around a giant car park. Next visit is June 2020, can’t wait to see the refreshed Phantom Manor!
I would like to see DLP someday to see their version of the castle park but none of these additions have any appeal to me since I have zero interest in anything Marvel. If I ever make it to DLP, I refuse to stay at Hotel New York because of the mixing of dreaded urban theme of NYC with Marvel.
I’m excited to see all of this. I’d love to get back there, but our travel schedule is very tight for the next year or two at least!
met come next year for my birthday surprise go by eruo star going with my of career in steveange love from nataliexx