Disney Adventure World: the second park rebranded in 2026

The second park at Disneyland Paris, Disney Adventure World sits in Marne-la-Vallée, part of the Val d’Europe area of Seine-et-Marne.

Opening day was March 16, 2002, ten years after Disneyland Park, and back then it was called Walt Disney Studios Park. It became Disney Adventure World on March 29, 2026, the day the World of Frozen land opened.

The idea of a second park dates back to the mid-1990s. Its first incarnation, meant to open in 1996 as Disney-MGM Studios Europe, got canceled when Euro Disney ran into financial trouble. The project came back to life in 1997, downsized, and borrowed its concept from Disney’s Hollywood Studios at Walt Disney World Resort. On opening day in 2002, guests found only nine attractions spread over about 50 hectares, half the size of Disneyland Park. Among the earliest European designers on the project was Rémy Julienne, the French stuntman.

On February 27, 2018, Robert Iger announced at the Élysée Palace a €2 billion investment in Disneyland Paris, which included doubling the size of the park with three themed areas. Thanks to this expansion, the park now covers about 50 hectares. Today it has 13 attractions, 19 restaurants, and 11 stores.

The park is laid out in several lands. World Premiere Plaza is the entrance area, a makeover of the Front Lot and Studio 1, with Place des Frères Lumière and its fountain of Mickey as the sorcerer’s apprentice. Adventure Way is an Art Nouveau style walkway leading to Adventure Bay, a man-made lake covering nearly 3 hectares. Worlds of Pixar, created in 2021 out of Toon Studio, brings together the Pixar rides, including Crush’s Coaster, Cars Quatre Roues Rallye, Cars Road Trip, Ratatouille : L’Aventure Totalement Toquée de Rémy, and the Toy Story Playland area (RC Racer, Toy Soldiers Parachute Drop, Slinky Dog Zig-Zag Spin). Marvel Avengers Campus, which opened on July 20, 2022, in place of the Backlot, offers Avengers Assemble: Flight Force (a reworked Rock ’n’ Roller Coaster) and Spider-Man W.E.B. Adventure. World of Frozen, open since March 29, 2026, takes its inspiration from Arendelle and features a mountain nearly 40 meters tall and Elsa’s castle.

The headline rides include The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, which opened in 2007 in the Hollywood Boulevard area, with its elevator drop from the 13th floor. The park also has several shows: Mickey and the Magician since 2016, TOGETHER: A Pixar Musical Adventure since summer 2023, Stitch Live, and Minnie’s Dream Factory. The Disney Cascade of Lights nighttime show plays every evening on Adventure Bay lake, and has since March 29, 2026.

In 2023, the park welcomed 5.7 million visitors, making it 3rd in Europe and 20th in the world. A ride themed to Up and a future Lion King land are under construction right now.

The park is designed as a journey through Disney’s big franchises, laid out around Adventure Bay lake, which now shapes how you move through it. From the entrance at World Premiere Plaza, guests make their way from one land to the next, each one built around a single franchise. The guiding idea of the park rebranded in 2026: turn guests into adventurers themselves, with every land offering a mission or a story to take part in, a complete break from the original concept of movie studios watched from a distance.

Sustainability. The park keeps a close eye on its footprint: the big lake is fed by rainwater, the green spaces are watered with recycled water and managed with irrigation sensors, heat from the refrigeration units is reused for hot water, and heating relies on a geothermal network and a thermo-refrigerating heat pump (heating and cooling at the same time).

The park by the numbers, pulled together from across the site for a super quick visual summary.

The second park at Disneyland Paris opened on March 16, 2002 as Walt Disney Studios Park, themed around Hollywood movie studios. Modeled on Disney’s Hollywood Studios in Orlando (1989), it was meant to make guests stay longer at the resort by giving them a second park in Marne-la-Vallée.

Criticized from day one for how few rides it had, the park was expanded in several waves: Crush’s Coaster and Cars Quatre Roues Rallye in 2007, Tower of Terror in December 2007, Toy Story Playland in 2010, and Ratatouille in 2014. In February 2018, Disneyland Paris unveiled a huge expansion plan with three new lands based on Frozen, Marvel, and Star Wars.

On March 29, 2026, the park was renamed Disney Adventure World. That day the new World of Frozen land opened around Adventure Bay lake, alongside the growth of Marvel Avengers Campus (open since 2022), Worlds of Pixar, and Adventure Way (Tangled). This new direction is a clean break from the original studio theme.

Back in 2002, when it opened as Walt Disney Studios, the park took its cue from Orlando’s Disney’s Hollywood Studios (1989). World of Frozen, new in 2026, is the French version of the land with that name at Hong Kong Disneyland (2023). As for the makeover around a central lake, it calls to mind Tokyo DisneySea (2001) a bit.

If you’re spending several days at the resort, save Disney Adventure World for day 2, once you’ve explored Disneyland Park. From day 3 on, you can switch between the two parks however you like: by then you’ll know them well enough to find your way around easily. If you want to do both parks in a single day, spend mid-afternoon and early evening here instead, then end with the nighttime show at whichever park you prefer.