Last weekend saw the D23 Expo take place. This massive event is where the Disney Company make major announcements about shows, films, TV programmes – and of course, their theme parks! While Disneyland Paris wasn’t the star of the show of the theme park announcements, there were some big news stories coming out of the event that we want to share with you here!

Scar coming to the Lion King attraction

That Disney Adventure World is getting a Lion King themed area and attraction is certainly not breaking news – actually it was first announced at the D23 event back in 2024. But we did get some interesting extra details about the attraction from D23 this year.

It confirmed that the new attraction is going to be following the original 1994 animated film (not the ‘live action’ version from a few years ago), and that the attraction will be following the story of the film as Simba goes from cub to king. And that includes the highs and lows of Simba’s story – including his final confrontation with Scar. And to bring that to life, Scar will be being created in audio-animatronic form! Personally I would have thought it hard to do the story without Scar making an appearance, but it was nice to get this confirmed and to see some concept art of the scene too.

Also unveiled at the event were a model of Rafiki’s tree (not sure if this is for the attraction or the land as a whole), and also a small scale scene model of young Simba with Timon and Pumbaa – probably leading into Hakuna Matata. We had seen concept art for this scene before but the model was cool. And there was a model of one of the ride vehicles. As expected this has a distinctly log themed vibe to it, not dissimilar to those used on the Tiana’s Bayou Adventure rides in the USA Disney Parks, or Splash Mountain (yup still the OG here!) in Tokyo Disneyland. It does look like the Paris version though will fit three in a row and therefore have a higher capacity than these rides, which is great as this attraction is sure to be popular!

In more information on the attraction, Disney have also said that they’re using a new technology to sense where the boats are in the attraction, and that these will be moved by a propulsion system, not the water flow – allowing Disney to precisely time how each boat moves through the scenes. This is good news as getting the timing of boats right in the Tiana’s Bayou Adventure attractions was tricky for Disney, especially when they first opened! So hopefully Disneyland Paris will be spared those headaches (although with a new tech in play there’ll probably be new headaches but hey ho!)

The press statement also confirmed some details that were already mentioned – the ride would have a 16m drop, and that the wider area will feature dining, shopping and character meets and greets. What we didn’t get was an opening timeline – and the fact this hasn’t happened suggests to me the area probably won’t open until later in 2028 at the very earliest. But then I’d be thrilled if Disney proved me wrong there!

Hyperspace Mountain is out, Space Mountain is in!

Space Mountain at Disneyland Paris has had a few iterations over the years. For some time now the ride has been Hyperspace Mountain, featuring Star Wars characters and story. But many felt that this theme didn’t fit the original steam punk, Jules Verne theming of the ride – and it seems that Disneyland Paris are listening!

Yes, Hyperspace Mountain is going back to Space Mountain. Actually it’s going back to Space Mountain: De la Terre a la Lune (From the Earth to the Moon) – the very first version of the ride that debuted back in 1995. The name is taken from an original Jules Verne story, and the ride will embody the retro-future envisioned by Jules Verne and others, as you will get to blast off to the moon in this ‘idealised version’ of space travel!

Going back to the original version of Space Mountain will bring back several aspects of the ride that haven’t been around for years. One update will be in the ride queue, which will once again allow guests waiting to see the ride vehicles in action on the ride! (To amp up the excitement, or convince you to use the ‘chicken exit’ I guess! Although side note, any guest is entitled to leave a ride queue before boarding if they wish and doing so isn’t a bad thing if it’s the best thing for you – chicken exit is the term commonly used but it is a bit uncharitable!) The original soundtrack will also be returning, but remastered. And while the ride is returning to its roots, Disney have said that they will be improving and modernising the original effects to bring them up to date (after all, technology and special effects have moved on a bit since 1995!). Disney have also said of the original effects they want to bring back, one is the Columbiad cannon that used to ‘fire’ guests up the launch – it’s not been working fully for some time now so it’ll be great if they can restore this to its former glory.

For fans of the current Hyperspace Mountain version, this will remain open throughout the majority of 2027 – Disney have said it will close at the end of 2027, so that’s likely to be towards the end of December, or at least in that general month or so (or maybe January 2028). My guess is they’ll want it open for the busy Christmas season! I’m also sure they wouldn’t close Hyperspace Mountain until Crush’s Coaster is definitely back up and running over in Disney Adventure World, as I doubt they’ll want two of their headlining rollercoasters down at the same time. They have noted that when the work takes place to return the ride to its original version, it will be closed for some months – so that’s something to note. Obviously the time frame is still to be announced, but I’d assume the ride will down at least into the summer of 2028. Although as with the time frame of the Lion King land above, I’d be more than happy if Disney surprised me by getting it done sooner!

New parade coming to Disneyland Park

This announcement felt like a bit of an afterthought at D23 as it wasn’t announced as part of the big Disney Experiences panel. But it was confirmed over the course of the weekend that Disneyland Park is going to be getting a new parade.

Details are a little bit thin on the ground on this one, although Disney have said that it will feature ‘elegant, state of the art floats’ that will honour the power of Disney magic and dreams. (As someone who has been visiting Disneyland Paris for a looooong time that description sounds reminiscent of the Just Like I Dreamed It parade they used to have!). The full range of floats is to be confirmed but Disney have said that it will open with Mickey and pals which makes sense, as Mickey and Minnie with the classic characters open the current parade. Other stories featured include Aladdin, Princess and the Frog, Tangled and Coco. We did get some concept art for the Coco and Aladdin floats which looks fab – and which looks like Jasmine will end up pretty exposed on the flying carpet on the front of the Aladdin float! It’ll be interesting to see what that looks like in the final constructed version.

Another piece of good news is that it does sound like Disney have been working hard on the designs with over 10,000 hours of research and technical development, and nearly 225 sketches of wigs, makeup and costumes.

As the mention of sketches of costumes and research may suggest, planning still seems to be in the early stages for this one – and Disney have said that the new parade is coming in 2028. The timing is interesting here, because Disneyland Paris in the past have tended to introduce new parades at anniversaries – the current Stars on Parade debuted in 2017 for the 25th anniversary, and the previous Just Like We Dreamed It parade (I don’t think that’s what it was called but that was the theme song!) debuted for the 15th anniversary. So I think a lot of people thought that a new parade might debut in 2027 for the 35th. I wonder if the move to 2028 is for it to have some tie in with Mickey and Minnie’s centenary that year? The only people who know for sure are Disney of course. It might be that it’ll be 2028 because they don’t want to rush the planning of the parade, which is probably a good thing. While I think some will be sad to see the current Stars on Parade go, it’ll be exciting to see something new coming.

‘New Magic’

‘New Magic’ didn’t get any fanfare or big announcements at D23. Actually its only mention was in the press statement for Space Mountain! But I found this interesting enough that I wanted to talk about it separately here.

In the statement for Space Mountain, Disneyland Paris said that this was part of the ‘New Magic’ initiative recently launched for the parks. In their words,

“This ambitious program aims at improving the guest experience and refreshing its classic attractions to surprise and delight all generations of guests.”

The statement also mentioned that another example of the initiative was the recent addition of new scenes to the Rivers of the Far West, as seen from the Molly Brown Riverboat. It also mentioned that several other projects will be announced in phases – so we can look ahead to more of the classic attractions getting updates and tweaks.

The good thing about this announcement is that it shows that Disney want to maintain and improve the current attractions at Disneyland Paris, not just focus on new things which has felt like the main impetus recently with the work over at Disney Adventure World (and don’t get me wrong, that park needed it). There are some areas of Disneyland Park that could use some TLC for sure. The caves part of Adventure Isle got a recent update with the Pirates Scavenger Hunt addition (and I do wonder if that was part of this same programme) – but the side of the island near the Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse is looking pretty worn and could use some love. So could the Jolly Roger Pirate ship, which is looking pretty dilapidated too. It’ll be interesting to see if the work includes attractions like Phantom Manor, Pirates of the Caribbean or It’s a Small World, although all of these have had some major updates in the last 8 years or so.

Other possibilities? Well the Legends of the Wild West attraction in Frontierland that has been closed for ages has recently had walls go up around it so maybe the work is extending here, and maybe we’ll also see all four of the Disneyland Railroad train stations brought back into commission. If the project does extend over to Disney Adventure World I’d love them to put something animation based back in the animation building, now the the Frozen show has moved out – they’re doing something similar over in Disney’s Hollywood Studios in Florida which is being well received, and it’d be lovely to see something like this in Paris.

In all honesty I don’t know exactly what Disney will do for this, but it’ll be interesting to see the updates roll out. Considering that they said that the work will take place in phases, I think this will likely be something that’ll be happening for quite a few years to come – watch this space!

So those were the announcements – nothing too groundbreaking, but some fun for sure. Quite a few folks thought that it was a bit disappointing for Disneyland Paris, and I’ve got a video coming to our YouTube channel on that tomorrow, so look out for that! But while Paris may not have got the same amount of fanfare as its USA cousins, at least we did still get some updates for the parks we love. And with the 35th anniversary next year, more announcements may be coming!

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