It is time for another update on the progress of the large construction side at the front of the Disney Village, right next to the Gaumont multiplex cinema – the future World of Disney Store that is to open during the resort’s 20th anniversary season. In the meantime the large scale reliefs above the shop windows on both side of the store building have been revealed as the scaffolding has come down.

One of the panels facing toward the main street of the Disney Village features the Eiffel Tower with a second relief to the right showing Peter Pan soaring in the sky. On the side facing toward the Walt Disney Studios Park panels include one showing Buzz Light Year, another one with Mickey riding in a cabriolet as well as Ariel sitting on a rock in the open sea with a classic steamliner (one of the Disney Cruise Liners ?) in the back.

While the glass of the shop windows have been installed the doors of the main entrance (which can be expected to be glass doors as well) are not yet in place. Speaking of glass elements to be installed. The photos from the past weekend show the steel framework of the grand cupola above the rotunda of the store’s main entrance in place. In the meantime (during the past two days) the first glass panels have been installed onto that steel framework.

Construction continues at the far end of Fantasyland where the Fantasy Festival Stage underneath the Fantasyland Station of the Disneyland Railroad is still blocked off with construction walls and has scaffolding around it. Only a small path to the side of the construction area remains open to allow access to the train station.

Interestingly this is the first major exterior rehab of a building inside the Disneyland Park in a long time that happens out in the open, without being hidden behind tarps with special designs (e.g. a recreation of the building’s facade) printed on. On the other hand this allows us to see the progress at least of the exterior part of the work. So far the building has received a new color scheme and the “Fantasy Festival Stage” sign has been taken down.

However, the more interesting part of the construction happens behind the walls of the former theater as it is transformed into a permanent Meet’n'Greet location for Mickey to open later this year as part of the 20th Anniversary celebration. Recent reports indicate that the opening will delayed and not happen in time for the kick-off of the celebrations on April 1st, though.

What’s going on at the Castle Stage? That is the question that has been popping up over the last couple of days in many discussions among fans of Disneyland Paris.

Earlier word had spread that the entertainment department was looking into finally utilizing the stage once again for a production after a Halloween spectacular on the stage proofed popular with guests – especially the younger ones thanks to its interactivity with most of guests standing right in front of the stage (a necessity since the majority of the benches that formed the original auditorium have been removed when the floors was repaved).

Then another rumor popped up: supposedly one of the water screens for the nightly spectacular “DREAMS” for the 20th anniversary might be placed right behind the stage transforming the space in front of it into another main viewing area for the show. However, the projectors for the central projections have been placed on top of the Main Street buildings, so would not cover this side of the castle.

While neither the first nor the second rumor have been official debunked or confirmed suddenly another construction project has popped up at the Castle Stage recently. Or to be more correct: on respectively in the stage. At the back of the stage, right in the middle a rectangular hole was cut into the stage floor. In the meantime a temporary tent has been erected over this construction site as well to allow the work crews to continue their job despite the punishing temperatures. However, this still leaves the question open what is going on there … is it connected to “DREAMS”? Or maybe to a different entertainment production??

As detailed in the last days already the resort’s cast members and work crews keep pushing ahead with their preparations for the upcoming 20th anniversary season despite the punishing cold temperatures that kept the resort under their reign during the past two weeks.

Already the nightly spectacular “DREAMS” is shaping up to the be the highlight of the season, marrying projections, illuminations and fireworks on respectively above the castle with a symphonic soundtrack – plus water fountains and water screens shooting up from the castle’s moat.

Since the director’s cabin for this spectacular (complete with its own little garden in the style of the Main Street) has already been installed during the fall of 2011 (and can be seen in our yesterday’s news coverage), the current construction work for the spectacular concentrates mostly on the water fountains.

For their installation the castle moat had to be drained once again (after being drained already during the castle rehab in the last year temporarily. However, the installation of the fountain seems to move ahead quite well. As on Central Plaza some tents (even so much smaller here) have been placed over the section the work crews are working right now.

However, in addition to the work on the fountains there is also some working going concerning the lights illuminating the castle. While they are worked on not all of the regular lights are available at night. Therefore, during the past couple of nights the castle was only illuminated from its right side. And even on that side not the regular lights were used but a very limited number of extra strong ones – as can be seen in the photo.

We already talked last evening about the impact that the current cold spell has on the Disneyland Park – and how it pressed on with the preparations for its 20th anniversary nevertheless.

As widely reported the stage at the center of Central Plaza was dismantled after the end of the past Christmas Season to open up the area once again for guests and thus also create extra standing room for the nighttime spectacular “DREAMS” that will entertain guests nightly starting April 1st around the castle.

However, the cold spell certainly impacts any ground work. With the tight schedules till April 1st the resort had to find a way to cotniue work on the Central Plaza despite the temperatures. The solution? Cover the workers and the ground from the cold … by erecting tents above them.

Considering the size of the work going on at Central Plaza this certainly is not possible without the tents becoming visible to guests from rather far away (on the Main Street as well as from the walkways around the castle, as seen in the photo on the right). But then this is only a temporary measure…

By the way, the building seen in the big photo at the top of this article at the left corner of the shot is the all new director’s cabin for “DREAMS”.