2018 has been a mammoth year for Disneyland Paris. We’ve had a €2 billion expansion of the Walt Disney Studios Park announced, the inaugural Marvel Summer of Super Heroes season and the unexpected success of the Festival of Pirates and Princesses. Let’s take a look back at the year in the 2018 DLP Town Square year in review.
The Force returned in the second edition of Star Wars: Season of the Force. This year saw the addition of new characters including Rey, it also saw the addition of an all-new celebration of the vehicles of Star Wars in a large exhibition that took place throughout the Walt Disney Studios Park.
Snow filled the resort for much of February 2018, but as the resort transformed into a Winter Wonderland, a bigger transformation was being announced. The €2 billion Walt Disney Studios expansion project was announced by Bob Iger and, French President, Emmanuel Macron at the Elysée Palace. The expansion will see Paris’ second gate double in size with attractions based on Star Wars, Frozen and Marvel.
The first ever Annual Pass party took place in the Walt Disney Studios Park; the event, exclusive to the Infinity Annual Pass, was entered around the 10th anniversary of The Twilight Zone: Tower of Terror.
Disneyland Paris also celebrated International Women’s Day with special events scattered throughout the park.
The Festival of Pirates and Princesses was taking the Disneyland Paris world by storm. But also enjoyed during this month was an all-new pre-show to Disney Illuminations inspired by the Disney Nature film: Blue, this pre-show was performed before Illuminations each night throughout the month.
The new InsidEars platform was launched to Disneyland Paris influencers during a special event entitled ‘InsidEars Ready! 2018’. Throughout the night a number of announcements were made including the arrival of Mickey’s Philharmagic and the vital refurbishment of Ratatouille: l’aventure totalement toquée de Rémy (later cancelled).
June was perhaps the most exciting month of 2018 for in-park events. Disneyland Paris launched the Marvel Summer of Super Heroes to the press, and to guests.
The Disney FanDaze inaugural party also took place in June and was live-streamed across the world.
Another busy summer month for Disneyland Paris as the resort hosts Electroland, the Ant-Man and the Wasp premiere, the second Annual Pass party entered around the Marvel Universe (or, that was the intention…).
The ever-popular food festival, the Rendez-Vous Gourmand made its return to the resort in a new expanded form with foods and drinks from across Europe.
The long Summer season continued, August saw for the second annual Disney PhotoPass day. PhotoPass Day is a day that now features more PhotoPass photographers across the park, many of whom are accompanied by special rare characters.
The 25th anniversary came to an end with a spectacular Annual Pass party held in the Walt Disney Studios Park. The resort also hosted special guided tours that highlighted the resort’s heritage in the Journées de Patrimoine.
Later in the month the Disneyland Paris Magic Run Weekend returned with 3 special races themed around the Disney Villains. To round out the month, the very first Disney Loves Jazz party took place in the Walt Disney Studios Park, the night featured a spectacular concert with big name Jazz stars.
October 1st 2018 was a big day in Disneyland Paris: Halloween started, but so did the Mickey 90 festivities and Mickey’s Philharmagic.
Philharmagic replaced the former Star Wars: Path of the Jedi (and previously, Captain EO) in the Discoveryland Theatre and has been a moderate hit with guests.
The giant cupcakes came to life with the Cupcake Sisters, one for each land for Mickey Mouse’s 90th birthday.
The Mickey 90 festivities ramped up in November with exclusive merchandise making an appearance. The day itself (November 18th) was marked by a number of special items on the shelves, but no festivities in the park (or button badge).
Christmas 2018 was launched to much fanfare, this year the season is boosted with more magic in shows like Mickey’s Christmas Big Band and Goofy’s Incredible Christmas.
The new Disneyland Paris TV spot was launched on Christmas Day on TV sets across Europe – and the world’s hearts melted as we fell in love with a duckling meeting his hero in Disneyland Paris.
The Mickey 90 Annual Pass event also took place with special shows and character meet and greet opportunities.
2018 was the year of the hard ticket event at Disneyland Paris. But that’s not to say that those who didn’t book tickets to these festivities were not entertained, there was a boosted entertainment presence across the resort – something we’ve been needing for years. The 25th Anniversary has now been and gone, in its place are new original shows and experiences and the park is very much all the better for them.
For attraction fans, our prayers have indeed been answered with a large investment which will fix the Walt Disney Studios Park, whilst we may need to have a lot of patience yet, it is coming and it is promising to be spectacular!