Alain Littaye has a quick Disneyland Paris update. ED92 sources indicate that Disneyland Paris’ Frontierland area will be closing down soon for a massive and much needed renovation. Let’s hear the news from ED92 with photos from Max Fan –Rick
ED92 is reporting their latest news on Disneyland Paris renovations and their usually reliable sources have revealed renovations coming soon for Disneland Paris’ Frontierland! Photos courtesy of Max Fan (DLP Welcome).
THE THUNDER MESA INFORMER – SPECIAL EDITION
The gold rush is over! The people have abandoned the city!
That would surely be the title of the local newspaper’s front page if the town weren’t fictional.
We told you a few weeks ago that Big Thunder Mountain would close, according to predictions, next November and that management might move the closure to February due to so many problems at Disneyland Paris’ flagship attraction.
For various reasons, mainly financial, the schedule will not be advanced to February. But fear not, it is now almost official, Big Thunder Mountain will close on September 10, 2015.
The refurbishment is expected to take place in three phases:
- First, all the technical aspects and effects of the ride will be restored to working order and its (too) many operational problems will be fixed. The entire show will be reviewed and one would hope that we will see renovation of all the AAs and possibly the addition of mapping a new effect for the explosion in the last lift.
- Early 2016 will see the draining of the lake over a period of 6 months for the first big cleaning, both of the shores of the lake and the Mountain. This phase, highly sensitive, is an opportunity for inspection and repair work on the attraction’s foundations.
- Finally, the lake will be refilled during the warmer months and renovations will speed up as Big Thunder Mountain regains its original ochre color. We should be able to celebrate its return in time for the Halloween 2016 season.
That’s not all, though, otherwise we would not have spoken of “Ghost Town. According to some rumblings we have heard, another program might be added at Big Thunder Mountain during the phase 2 renovation.
As you can imagine, the view of an empty lake during the renovations will be less than “magical” and hiding this may be particularly difficult. Therefore Disneyland Paris might add other attractions to the renovation list during the first half of 2016.
- The Steam Boats will be closed (without water in the lake, this makes sense), and it will also be an opportunity to finally accomplish some renovation work on the Mark Twain (already scheduled in the provisional schedule).
- DLP Railroad would close for a deep refurbishment, especially of Main Street Station and Grand Canyon Diorama (already present in the provisional schedule with a beginning as early as September 2015)
- Phantom Manor will also shut its doors to for a “little” update (which would be a last-minute addition).
For now we have no confirmation on what is still an idea for Phantom Manor, but it’s serious enough to be considered.
So with all of its major attractions closed for much of the first half of 2016, Frontierland would virtually disappear from the map for six months. A blessing in disguise?
We’ll have more from Disneyland Paris for you tomorrow.
Pictures: copyright Max Fan – DLPWelcome
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