Paris, Tuesday, 4 November 2025.
Disney announced yesterday that construction will start later this year on two IP-led attractions at Disneyland Paris: a musical Lion King water ride with audio‑animatronics and a family‑friendly Up spinning ‘bird’s‑eye’ ride. These additions sit inside the park’s broader €2 billion reinvention and are designed as mid‑scale, high‑throughput experiences to spread attendance across the calendar without a full new land. For retail and food & beverage planners the most intriguing fact is the clear emphasis on integrating proven franchises to drive dwell time and per‑capita spend while keeping capital intensity moderate. Operationally expect sharper seasonal peaks, new merchandising clusters tied to Pride Lands and Up themes, and opportunities for targeted F&B activations and cross‑property campaigns. Retail teams should prioritise SKU curation, modular POS setups and scalable staffing plans to capture incremental spend and support lifecycle refreshes of legacy retail footprints as the resort shifts toward story‑led, family‑centric experiences.
Disneyland Paris publicly confirmed yesterday that two new intellectual-property-led attractions will enter construction later this year: a musical Lion King water ride featuring special effects and audio‑animatronics, and a family‑friendly Up aerial spinner described as a bird’s‑eye, spinning carousel-style experience [1]. The announcement frames both additions inside the resort’s long-running €2 billion reinvention programme for Walt Disney Studios Park and related areas, a multi-year plan to reimagine large parts of the resort’s offerings [1].
What the new attractions are designed to achieve
Disney’s public materials and trade reporting position these projects as mid-scale, IP‑driven investments intended to refresh guest offerings and increase throughput without the capital scale of a full new land. The Lion King ride is described as a musical journey through the Pride Lands using audio‑animatronics and special effects, while the Up attraction is framed as a family spinning ride giving aerial views of the park—both formats that typically support high capacity and repeat ridership [1].
Retail and F&B strategy implications
For retail and food & beverage planners, the decision to deploy proven franchises such as The Lion King and Up signals a deliberate push to drive dwell time and per‑capita spend through story-led merchandising and themed F&B offers anchored to recognisable IP. Mid-scale attractions normally permit clustered retail footprints and modular F&B activations adjacent to queue exits or plaza spaces, enabling rapid SKU rollouts and seasonal product cycles tied to the films’ characters and music motifs [1].
Operational planning and capacity effects
Operational teams should expect shifted attendance patterns and sharper seasonal peaks as family‑centric IP attractions tend to concentrate demand on school holidays and weekend periods. The announced timetable — with construction due to begin in the Autumn — implies planning windows for staff training, merchandise sourcing and testing of guest flow that operations must absorb before openings connected to the broader Adventure World transformation [1][alert! ‘construction timetable referenced in the source included a “DEADLINE CHECK” note; final opening dates and intermediate milestones were not specified, so schedule details may change’].
Merchandising, SKU curation and point‑of‑sale design
Retail teams should prioritise SKU curation that balances evergreen IP (character plush, apparel) with limited‑run seasonal items and experiential merchandise (interactive toys, music‑linked products) to maximise per‑capita spend around the new ride precincts. Modular, scalable POS installations will allow teams to expand or contract retail footprint based on demand signals during the launch period and in subsequent seasonal peaks, a strategy consistent with mid‑scale attraction deployments that aim to raise spend without the overhead of permanent, large‑format stores [1].
Cross‑property and lifecycle opportunities
Because the new attractions are part of the resort-wide reinvention, retail and F&B teams can leverage cross‑property campaigns—linking new Pride Lands merchandise with park-wide promotions or positioning Up-themed F&B as part of family bundles across hotels and parks—to drive incremental revenue and dispersal. The €2 billion programme explicitly aims to reimagine the resort’s footprint and offerings, creating recurring opportunities to refresh legacy retail lines as surrounding lands are reworked [1].
On‑site construction signals and practical readiness
Independent construction trackers reported visible site progress at locations designated for the Up attraction, including ground preparation and early infrastructure testing, which corroborates the public announcement that work will begin imminently and suggests retail planners should finalise supplier timelines now to meet fit‑out windows [2][1].
Timing and context within Adventure World transformation
The Lion King and Up projects are presented as components of the wider plan to convert Walt Disney Studios Park into Disney Adventure World by 2026, part of a multi‑year reinvention programme that Disney has used to phase investment while keeping the resort open and commercially active [1]. This phasing approach creates incremental merchandising opportunities tied to each delivery tranche but requires careful staging of inventory and staff to align with successive attraction openings [1].
Practical checklist for retail and F&B teams
Recommended immediate actions include: (1) finalise SKU assortments with emphasis on IP core items and limited editions; (2) design modular POP and POS that can scale during launch peaks; (3) coordinate with operations on anticipated queue egress points to site retail and mobile F&B; (4) align cross‑property promotions with hotel packages and entertainment schedules; and (5) prepare contingency staffing plans for sharper seasonal peaks tied to family demand windows noted around IP attractions [1][2].
Bronnen