We need to talk about something that snuck up on us this week.
Today, March 16, 2026, is Walt Disney Studios Park’s 24th birthday. The park opened on this exact date in 2002, welcomed its first guests with Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster and The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, and has been part of the Disneyland Paris landscape ever since. Twenty-four years. And in thirteen days, it is gone.
Not gone gone. The rides are staying. The cast members are staying. The park is staying. But Walt Disney Studios Park as a name, as an identity, as the thing it has been since March 16, 2002 — that is ending on March 29 when it reopens as Disney Adventure World.
And here is the part that hit us: the signs are already up. Jeff Gordon, who posts as Gordongrubs on X, shared a photo of the Disney Adventure World signage already installed at the park entrance this week and captioned it: “Studios park what studios park.” Disney commentator Adam put it simply: “It’s March which means Disney Adventure World is officially opening this month.”
We knew this was coming. We have been covering it for months. And somehow seeing the photo of those signs already up still felt like something. So today, on what is genuinely the last birthday this park will ever have, we want to give it a proper sendoff — and talk about everything that is coming next.
Let’s Be Honest About What This Park Actually Was
Walt Disney Studios Park did not have the easiest life. It opened in 2002 with a behind-the-scenes Hollywood studio concept that European guests never really connected with, and it spent years absorbing criticism for an attraction lineup that felt thin compared to the original Disneyland Park right next door. That criticism was not entirely unfair.
But the park grew. Genuinely and meaningfully. Ratatouille: The Adventure is a Disneyland Paris exclusive that does not exist in quite the same form anywhere else in the Disney system, and if you have been on it you know it is one of the most charming dark rides Disney has ever built. The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror here runs three different storylines — a format that exists at no other Disney park on the planet. Avengers Campus opened in 2022 and brought the kind of energy the park had been missing for years.
By 2026, Walt Disney Studios Park had become a genuinely good theme park. Not perfect, not without its gaps, but a destination worth visiting on its own merits. Disney decided to take it further anyway. The €2 billion transformation that is becoming Disney Adventure World touches more than 90 percent of the original park’s footprint. That is not a renovation. That is a statement.
Happy birthday to a park that deserved better early days and spent two decades earning them.
About Those Preview Days Though
Okay so here is where we have to be real with you, because we would not be doing our job if we only posted the sentimental stuff.
Annual Passholder previews for World of Frozen and the incoming Disney Adventure World kicked off this week, and the first day was rough. Denis at Mousesteps was there and shared it on X in real time: “I have been in line to get in for World of Frozen for almost a half hour, behind like 10 people at AP preview. The line has not moved and has gotten very big. I just wanted to buy a few more postcards. Nobody has given information, but a guest in front of me asked about it…”
Half an hour. Ten people ahead of him. No movement. No communication from anyone in a Disney costume or a name tag. Then park reporter ED92 shared a photo of what guests found after they finally cleared that first queue: “Once you enter there is another queue to get to World of Frozen.”
So: a queue to get in, and then another queue once you are in. On a controlled-capacity Passholder preview. And then — because apparently the universe had more to say about it — Frozen Ever After broke down and was evacuated.
The flagship ride of the entire expansion. Down. On day one of previews.
We are not catastrophizing. Preview periods exist specifically to find these problems before March 29. Cast Members ran internal Test and Learn sessions from February 28 through March 12, which is nearly three weeks of preparation before any outside guests came through. Real people in a real land will always surface things that rehearsals miss. That is the whole point of a preview period.
But it was a rough day, and Passholders who showed up having waited years for this moment deserved better. The remaining preview dates for all Passholders are March 18, 23, 24, and 25 before the public opening on March 29. Here is hoping those days run smoother.
Here Is What Is Actually Opening on March 29 and It Is A Lot
World of Frozen is the centerpiece and it looks genuinely spectacular. The land brings Arendelle to life with Nordic architecture, the 118-foot North Mountain, and a narrative framework called the Snowflower Festival that was created specifically for Disneyland Paris — meaning this is not a copy of another park’s Frozen experience. It has its own identity.
Frozen Ever After, when it is running, takes guests through scenes with Anna, Elsa, Olaf, Sven, and Kristoff using Audio-Animatronics and immersive projection systems. Anna and Elsa are available for character meets inside Arendelle Castle. A 15-minute daytime show on Viking longships features new music written for this park exclusively by Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez — the people who wrote “Let It Go” and the rest of the Frozen catalogue. And there is a next-generation robotic Olaf that Walt Disney Imagineering developed specifically for this land, capable of interacting with guests in ways that go beyond anything traditional Audio-Animatronics has done before.
Adventure Way, the new park promenade, opens with 14 — fourteen — new dining and beverage locations. We mention this specifically because we cover food and that number is genuinely significant. The Regal View Restaurant and Lounge is among the new venues, and it is the first bar inside either Disneyland Paris park. Raiponce Tangled Spin opens on Adventure Way as well, themed to Tangled. The nighttime spectacular “Disney Cascade of Lights” over Adventure Bay uses 379 aerial drones, aquatic drones, water screens, fountains, and a 90-piece orchestra. A Lion King land is already under construction for a future opening.
Everything that was already in the park — Crush’s Coaster, Cars ROAD TRIP, Avengers Assemble: Flight Force, and the multi-storyline Twilight Zone Tower of Terror — stays in the lineup. Disney Adventure World opens with real depth.
What This Means for Your Disneyland Paris Trip
If a Disneyland Paris visit has been sitting on your someday list, 2026 is the year to move it off that list. World of Frozen is brand new and exists nowhere else. Fourteen new dining locations open simultaneously. A brand-new nighttime show launches March 29. The Disneyland Hotel is now a five-star flagship. A Lion King land is actively taking shape right now on Adventure Bay.
Given the preview day reports, our honest advice is to plan multiple attempts at Frozen Ever After rather than treating it as a one-shot must-do on your first morning. Early operational weeks at new Disney lands involve adjustment, and this week’s previews showed that Disney Adventure World is still working through some of that. If you can visit a week or two after March 29 rather than on opening weekend itself, the experience will likely be smoother.
But go. Walt Disney Studios Park turns 24 today and it will never see 25. What is rising in its place is something worth being there for. Check availability, make your reservations, and we will see you in Arendelle.
We will also absolutely be reporting on every single one of those 14 new dining spots. You know us.
