Last month, we announced the debut of Disney’s Fantillusion parade on July 5 on the LP message boards. This has now been confirmed by DLRP, who are excited about the first new night time entertainment offering at the Disneyland park since its own opening in April 1992.

At the Jungle Book Carnival event, Disney Entertainment managers were coy about plans for the parade, but were noticeably excitable at the mention of Fantillusion. The parade was much beloved by the visitors to Tokyo Disneyland until its retirement, to make way for the Dreamlights spectacle. However, the cast members at the Oriental Land Company did not prepare the floats for the appropriately 5,000 mile trek to the Parisian park. The floats arrived damaged, incomplete and in need of drastic rewiring and maintenance. DLRP engineers have been working for months to prepare the parade for its European premiere.

The parade will feature almost ninety cast members, but will not be shown in its original entirety. Although parades are exceptionally popular at the Disneyland park, they cause major congestion issues for those guests wanting to experience the attractions during the parades. Many Japanese guests will patiently wait hours for parades at the Chiba prefecture park and experience no other attractions. Therefore, TDL often offers more than one daytime parade to meet the demand. European guests may visit Disneyland for its thrill attractions, like the looping indoor Space Mountain coaster and the Indiana Jones: Backwards coaster. Therefore, DLRP opted for a slightly shorter procession to minimise the disruption to other guests. Disney Entertainment promised us that the storyline is to remain intact and that the major elements have been retained for Disney’s Fantillusion.

Laughingplace.com will be there to cover the inauguration of a new classic at Disneyland Resort Paris.

The Disney Village transformation is virtually complete. Greater volumes of guests are travelling from Paris to delve into the various offerings. The recent renovation of Annette’s Diner, the expansion of the Steakhouse and the debut of Café Mickey are the final chapters in the rejuvenation of the dining, retail and entertainment complex. They will shortly be joined by a German restaurant, which is replacing Rock ‘n’ Roll America.

EuroDisneyland Imagineering has conceived, designed and executed the restaurant with the close cooperation of Prince Luitpold of Bavaria, owner of the famous Chateau de Kaltenberg brasserie. Scheduled to open in May 2003, the restaurant will seat 280 and serve German products and specialties as well as international dishes. Guests will dine in a décor inspired by the throne room at Neuschwanstein castle.

Despite exceeding most attendance targets, the number of German guests has never reached the original expectations in the resort’s eleven-year history. DLRP is attempting to attract German guests with a new official hotel, whose operators are German-based and this new restaurant. Unfortunately, the timing is inappropriate, with unemployment running at over 11% and most of Germany plunged into a steep recession. However, DLRP is hoping that German tourists opt for the continental European vacations, instead of their usual long-haul options.

The performance corridor at the Walt Disney Studios is home to a unique outdoor exhibition of 56 photographs. These images form part of the “Stars en Liberte - Les plus Belles photos de Tournage�?, a collection from the archives of Paris Match magazine, which capture the immortal moments behind the scenes during film shoots. Family is a recurring theme amongst the images, as some of the most famous faces in the mition picture industry were snapped away from filming. The showcase is a blend of both Hollywood legends, such as Marilyn Monroe, Charlie Chaplin and Jack Nicholson and the biggest names in French cinema, like Catherine Deneuve, Alain Delon and Jean Gabin. There was also a shot of Walt with a puppet of Pinocchio.

Photographs from Paris Match decorate the Parade poles
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The Studios searchlights
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Roy Disney's handprint
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