Disneyland Paris Marvel Annual Pass holders Soiree review

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Hey Guys!

Some of you may be aware that this year Disneyland Paris have started hosting annual pass holder soirees in the Walt Disney studios park, the events are hard ticketed and give fans a chance to experience the park through themed parties with attractions and character meets during the night as well as other surprises. Last weekend, July 7th, I attended the 2nd annual pass holder soiree which was Marvel themed and I wanted to share my thoughts and experiences of the night with you all.

Now if you've read other reviews of events I've done you'll probably have seen me say similar before but, this is only a review of my personal experience, I cannot speak for others in what they saw or experienced or how they found the night in terms of value and organisation. I was not paid to attend the event, I was not asked to review the events, and any opinions expressed are solely my own and do not represent Disneyland Paris in any way.

The Marvel soiree was first announced on April 7th shortly after the first annual pass holder night which was a Tower of Terror anniversary party. Initially, we were given very little information, the graphic was one of the standard Spider-man ones which was also being used to promote the Summer of Super-Heroes campaign and the only other real information was the price which was €39. The event this time was for both Infinity pass holder and Magic Plus holders too with the addition of up to 2 guests per pass holder, the tickets went on sale on April 19th, so guests had just under 2 weeks notice of the event before ticket sales. Tickets were limited at 4000 and these did end up selling out, sales closed on June 18th, I was slightly concerned that 4000 guests felt like it could be a lot, but actually on the night it never really felt too busy anywhere that I personally experienced, this was a really good ticket level and I would be happy to have up to 4000 at future events.

Originally I wasn't going to attend the event, having already visited in April May and June and having trips planned for September and November I wasn't sure I could justify the cost of another stay so close together. However, in early June we decided it could be quite a fun event and as a few friends were already going to be there we decided we would do it if we could make it work on a budget. We ended up driving over the morning of the party and home the day after, and we booked an off-site hotel to bring down the cost, my only regret of doing it this way was there just wasn't enough time to experience all of the Marvel offerings in our 24 hours in the parks!

The event started at 8:30pm though I think we arrived slightly later than that as we popped back to freshen up at the hotel first! Getting in was pretty straightforward, there was a short queue but it moved pretty quickly, this is where I saw my first disappointment of the evening. In Fantasia gardens 2 quests who were in costume, one as Captain America, had taken it upon themselves to sign autographs for other guests, a lot of whom were young children! This is totally unacceptable, it is against Disneyland Paris rules and allowing this to happen sets up a dangerous precedent for other events where costumes are permitted, I have no shame in saying I alerted a cast member to what was going on. I didn't stick around long enough to see if/how it was dealt with, but I'm glad I spoke up!

That aside, once we got our tickets checked the night truly started in fantastic fashion! As we were heading towards the studios gates there were cast members with tote bags, we assumed this would be where we picked up our programs for the evening but were surprised to get not just this incredibly detailed metallic program in presentation wallet, but this Marvel AP Soirée pin as well! These were given to all guests as they entered for no additional cost! This was an amazing perk and I'm truly really shocked and grateful for what we received!



We got into the park and made our way through Frontlot and through studio one as there wasn't really anything going on in either of these areas. I'm not sure if it was a case of us arriving slightly later, or if guest flow had learnt lessons from FanDaze, but this was running much smoother and they had opened up all the doors to studio one to aid guest flow which really helped! As we came out of studio one we could see there was already quite a queue at the scare floor, which meant characters from Monsters Inc would almost definitely be out. If you're not familiar with Disneyland Paris, the scare floor situation is one of my personal pet peeves, despite having a full scare floor set up with Boo's door as a perfect photo location which is out of the way and doesn't disrupt guest flow, Sulley is hardly ever out, and if he is it's usually the day after we've gone home! So despite the Monsters inc guys having nothing to do with Marvel, the character hunter part of me knew we needed to go over and meet them! As we headed over we saw the lovely Mitchell who warned us that Buzz and Woody were meeting in Toy Story Playland and would be swapping shortly with Bullseye and Jessie!

Well, this totally changed our plans, both Sophie and I have met Sulley before, whereas Bullseye has been a big dream meet for me for a while now, and I missed him at both last years Run Disney and at Fandaze, so off we went to see if we could find him. The thing I love about having these events in the Studios park, is its compact size, everything is easy and quick to get to and there are lots of places to cut through, so if you're at the wrong end of the park when somethings going on it's pretty easy to get there quickly. We got to Toy Story Playland and Buzz and Woody were still meeting with a very short queue, we jumped in any way to make sure we had our spot for the change over, but the queue ended up moving so quickly that it was our turn before the change, we decided to let a few of the families behind us go first as we didn't mind missing Woody and Buzz in order to ensure we met Bullseye! When Bullseye came out we were 2nd in the queue, and having waited so long to get a chance at meeting him I'm happy to say it was pretty much a perfect meet, he loved my custom ears that had a portrait of him on and he was really fun and enthusiastic, I'm so glad he was out and super grateful for the tip-off!



After Bullseye we went back to the scare floor to try and get our monsters, not long after joining the queue a Cast Member called Emma came and let us know the characters would be swapping out soon back to Sulley and Boo, we were torn between doing this first or going to see Frozone in the art of animation, Emma told us Frozone would be quicker and I'm glad we took her advice as although the queue looked massive from outside, it moved really quickly! We met Frozone and then jumped back in the queue for Sulley and Boo and managed to meet them before their next switchover, which meant we'd ticked off 4 really rare characters, and 3 that were totally new to us, off in record time!





We realised by this point it was probably time to get some Marvel into our "Marvel Soiree" so headed to back lot where Black Widow was meeting in the Blockbuster Cafe, we'd met Captain America earlier in the day, and we'd already heard the queue for Thor and Loki was about 2 hours, so Black Widow was the best option for us. When we got round to the queue we realised it was going to be way longer than the half hour her sets were lasting, so decided we'd give it a miss, we're hoping to do the Marvel dinner in September anyway. However this was the one point of our night that turned a little sour, and I can't with any conscience just gloss over it.

During the event guests with Green or Orange passes weren't able to get a return time that prevented them needing to queue, this was a decision made by Disney and I couldn't possibly claim to know all the ins and outs of how or why this was decided. I was under the impression that they were going to be able to have their carer queue for them, and then join them once they were at the front, it would appear this didn't happen, though as I don't require one and wasn't attending with anyone that needed one I couldn't confirm what the conversations around this were. What I am aware of however is that there was some chain of events at the Black Widow meet where a guest with Epilepsy was left seriously unwell due to not being able to use their Access pass. This is of course not only totally unacceptable but actually quite worrying! I was not involved with the incident though I knew of the guest involved, I do hope Disneyland Paris listen to the concerns of these guests, investigate properly and implement the necessary changes to make sure this doesn't ever happen again!

After deciding to skip Black Widow we managed to ride Cars which was a walk-on, met Genie and Abu, then went back to the scare floor in time for George Sanderson and Mike. We then rode crushes coaster which couldn't have been more than a 10 min queue, this was something I was looking forward to most about the party, it's a ride I only realised I enjoy so much when I rode it during FanDaze weekend with David. The ride always has a huge wait though, even in extra magic time it quickly reaches 50+ mins, so being able to get on it with such a short wait is a huge perk of these limited number parties!





After Crush I did Slinky dog which was also a walk-on, while the guys all braved RC racer, I queued for a quick photo with Buzz and Woody who were brilliant and in a really fun mood, the thing that surprised me most was when the CM with them said they'd like a picture just with Duffy! Of course, we said yes, and I love how it turned out. It was just time for one more meet so we went back to the flying carpets where Jasmine and the Sultan were due to come out for their last set of the evening. The queue went quickly and I loved being able to see Sultan again, Jasmine was also lovely and it was a great way to finish the night.





So overall I had a brilliant time at my first Annual passholder's Soiree, the park didn't feel packed, the queues moved well, for the most part, every cast member I met was really happy and friendly and helpful. I managed to meet 12 characters, 5 of which I'd never been able to meet before, and I got on 3 rides with no more than 10-15 mins queue time total for all of them! But I do have some things about the evening I'd like to address.

Firstly and probably most importantly, this was meant to be a Marvel night, and although I was incredibly happy with the non-Marvel things on offer, a lot of people bought tickets and made the trip especially for the Marvel theme. The thing that made this all the more frustrating for me is having seen the live stream of the Marvel press weekend just a few weeks earlier we saw members of the invited press/celebrities and social media influencers get to meet characters like Black Panther, who wasn't out on the night. Characters like Gamora and Star Lord are also present at Disneyland Paris, so it was a real shame to know these characters are there but cannot be met, especially when it is a special night with a specific focus on Marvel.

Secondly out of the 3 marvel themed shows being performed throughout the season, only one - the "Guardians of the Galaxy Awesome Dance Off" was being performed on the night, and even then it only had one showing. This meant that at an event specifically themed to celebrate the world of Marvel inside Disneyland Paris, there was actually less Marvel entertainment on than on a normal day. Studio theater was instead used to hold a conference which ran 3 times during the evening, I decided not to attend as the subject matter didn't grab me enough, but from what I've heard this was little more than a showreel of existing Marvel attractions with little information on how they were developed or what we might see in the future. I can understand from this perspective why Marvel fans were upset, at times it just felt like a Summer Annual Passholders evening, with Marvel tacked on as an afterthought.



In the run-up to the event further details came out about what guests could expect from some of there favourite rides, with both Rock n Roller and Tower of Terror set to receive a heroic twist the fan community went into meltdown! Would we finally get something to rival Mission Breakout? Well, the official release notes certainly made it seem that way, with a direct reference to the collector's fortress and Rocket Raccoon it didn't seem all too far-fetched. I didn't ride Tower of Terror during the evening, it's a ride that still terrifies me to the core, but from what I understand, other than a projection mapping on the front of the tower, there were no additional guardians touches, and further to that the ride actually went with no sound, no intro video, and for some the shutters didn't even open at the top. Another huge blow to Marvel fans who were ready for so much, and got so little in return!



The other thing that disappointed me on the night was the lack of Photo Pass photographers. I am a huge advocate for Photo Pass+, I truly believe in the product and it is something I frequently recommend to guests. As an Infinity passholder one of the perks is that my annual pass price includes an annual Photo Pass+, as this event was specifically for Infinity and Magic Plus holders and their guests I don't think it would be unreasonable to assume that a large percentage of those in attendance would own a PhotoPass+. So imagine my surprise when it transpires that it is only the Marvel character spots that have photographers present! FanDaze and RunDisney have both proved that Disneyland Paris does have the staff available and can get this right, so why at an event with such well themed meets with rare characters against good backdrops were there no photographers? I'm genuinely disappointed by this and would like to be able to have a discussion with Disneyland Paris at some point to understand their challenges around Photopass and also put forward my views as a guest as to what I'd like to see from this service going forward.

Overall I really enjoyed the night, I feel like the event was organized well on the whole in terms of guest flow, the spread of locations and generally in terms of numbers and queue sizes. I cannot however help but feel this event was totally mislabeled. This wasn't a Marvel evening, or at least it wasn't the dedicated Marvel evening it was being sold as! I loved the extra touches and as you can see I didn't really end up doing anything Marvel that evening, and although that was fine for me, I can 100% appreciate why fans who travelled specifically for a one-off marvel experience feel let down so badly. Going forward I'm not sure if we'll see such specifically themed nights, or if the scope will become broader, but Disney really need to look at how they name these events and what ratio of themed content they are able to provide for the future if they want to avoid many of the unhappy guests I encountered on the night!

Did you go to the soiree? What did you think and would you go again? Drop me a comment I'd love to know your thoughts!

Hoodsie xx

2 comments:

  1. Really enjoyed this! I hope I become an AP next year but not sure I would have gone to this event.

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  2. We really didn’t think we would go and I’m so glad I changed my mind at the last min, despite everything we had a really really good time and met some characters I never dreamed possible!

    Thanks for reading XX

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