CHESSY, France (AP) — The kingdom of Arendelle in Disney’s “Frozen” now has a permanent address just east of Paris, complete with a lagoon, a wooden Nordic village and a robotic snowman that talks back to children.
Walt Disney Studios Park officially becomes Disney Adventure World on Sunday with the opening of “World of Frozen,” a centerpiece in a 2 billion euro ($2.18 billion) expansion reshaping Europe’s most-visited theme park.
The enchanted land at Disneyland Paris features the Frozen Ever After boat ride and character encounters with Anna and Elsa.
The broader relaunch adds a vast central lake, a “Tangled” attraction, 15 new dining locations and a nighttime spectacular using what Disney calls the world’s first combined aquatic and aerial drone system.
More than 90% of the second park will have been redesigned since it opened in 2002.
It is no coincidence that “Frozen” and “Tangled” anchor the new lineup at Europe’s sole Disney resort.
Both are rooted in European folklore — “Frozen” loosely in Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Snow Queen,” and “Tangled” in the Brothers Grimm’s Rapunzel — and Disney is leaning into that heritage.
“‘Frozen’ has its roots in European storytelling,” said Michel den Dulk, vice president and creative director at Walt Disney Imagineering. “To have a northern European, charming wooden little village here in Disneyland Paris just made sense.”
The park opened in 1992 as Euro Disney to withering criticism. French intellectuals at the time called it a “cultural Chernobyl.”
Now Disney says the resort has drawn 445 million visits and supports 70,000 jobs.
The Paris investment is reportedly one piece of a roughly $60 billion global expansion of Disney’s parks and experiences business, which generated 57% of the company’s segment operating income in fiscal 2025.
French President Emmanuel Macron called the resort “the leading tourist destination in Europe” during a visit to the park Friday and said the expansion would create 1,000 direct jobs.
