Rumours have been few and far between this month after Disneyland Paris finally gave official announcement of the ten refurbishment projects which it will be working on in the run up to the resort’s 25th Anniversary. Of course, details were scarce in this announcement – so the rumour mill won’t have slowed for too long.
Space Mountain: Mission 3?
I feel like I’ve written that sub-heading enough times in my life already. With Space Mountain: Mission 2 reopening after its long refurbishment project next month, one would imagine that rumours about this attraction would have subsided – but no! The official announcement confirmed that in early 2017 Space Mountain will enter a second phase of refurbishment; cue speculation, particularly since this concept drawing was released…
If you look closely, there’s a little “3” just above the artist’s index finger on the train. Considering that on the current trains, this is where the Mission 2 logo resides, it’s not a far flung suggestion that this means a Space Mountain: Mission 3. There isn’t a lot to learn from the image; I can’t personally work out whether the circles on the train are futuristic gauges or steampunk cogs, so we remain none the wiser on what setting Mission 3 might take. Many fans will of course wish to see the original Jules Verne “From the Earth to the Moon” theme return far more prominently.
Can we believe that a Mission 3 is on its way when the second phases of the refurbishment is planned to be shorter even than the current one? Well, yes, actually. ED92 suggested this would be the case at the start of the year, claiming that most of the work would be done in phase one, with phase two then receiving the new trains and activation of changes to the attraction’s story. Keep your eyes peeled – we’ll have many more rumours about phase two coming shortly…
Big Thunder Mountain Railroad
For what is, undisputed, the most popular attraction in the resort, it is remarkable that Big Thunder Mountain Railroad receives so few rumours. Maybe it’s because people think it’s quite perfect already? Whatever the case, Big Thunder Mountain will be in refurbishment from September 2015 for around a year. In this time we are expecting to see the Rivers of the West drained and cleaned – hopefully with the geysers being fixed too – and Thunder Messa itself getting a bit of TLC. As for the attraction, well, there are some very plausible suggestions. And there are some less plausible suggestions.
The most plausible suggestions are that the third chain lift hill (where there is currently an earthquake and a gold seam) will receive the same update as has been seen in both American parks, whereby the flickering of flames is seen at the tunnel sides before a large smokey explosion of TNT occurs just as you pass over the crest of the hill. Concept art seen on French sites also seems to confirm this. Furthermore, it’s quite probable that the queuing system will receive the new interactive elements that have also been seen in the American parks. However, its rumoured that Peter Pan’s Flight won’t be getting any new interactive queue elements which its sister attractions have, so maybe Big Thunder Mountain won’t either.
A slightly more bold refurbishment plan is suggested by ED92. They state that to expand capacity each train will have an additional carriage added. This sounds great, but it would necessitate an extension of the entire station building – which would cost a lot of money. They also suggest that the bend before the third lift hill will be enlarged to allow a longer run-up into the new show elements – but again this would be at huge cost, so I would take the possibility of this with a pinch of salt. I’ve no doubt that Disneyland Paris will have considered this idea, and perhaps are still considering it, but I am doubtful of it making the transition from great idea to reality.
Not too many rumours this month, but what do you think of them? Let us know in the comments below, on Facebook, or on Twitter @MagicalDLP !
