At only 62 acres, the Walt Disney Studios park is a small one.
THE smallest one.
It’s the smallest Disney theme park in the world.

See Disney Theme Parks by size

• 500 acres – 🐘 Animal Kingdom (Walt Disney World)
• 300 acres – 🪩 Epcot (Walt Disney World)
• 154 acres – 🎥 Hollywood Studios (Walt Disney World)
• 126 acres – 🏰 Disneyland Paris
• 126 acres – 🏰 Tokyo Disneyland
• 123 acres – 🏰 Hong Kong Disneyland
• 122 acres – 🌊 Tokyo DisneySea
• 107 acres – 🏰 Magic Kingdom (Walt Disney World)
• 85 acres –  🏰 Disneyland
• 72 acres –  🎡 Disney’s California Adventure (Disneyland)
• 62 acres – 🎬 Walt Disney Studios Paris

Park sizes according to Disney day by day

Without going too much in to the history, this was the park that Disney didn’t want to build, especially as EuroDisney was struggling financially after opening, but had to due to contractual obligations with the French Government. As a result, Disney spent as little money as possible on it to get it open on a budget, and by their own admission it left a lot to be desired!

But recently things have been looking up!
Over the past few years there has been several million euros invested in to the Studios park, Ratatouille and Marvel Avengers Campus have been open for a while now, the new Frozen land is well under construction, and this year a new announcement was made promising to take the park even further, with a total of 2 billion euros invested in to transforming and re-branding the park to Disney Adventure World, doubling the park’s footprint.

But that’s not ready yet… It’s all still under construction.
So with all this building work going on, what’s it like to visit the Studios park in 2024?

Visiting Walt Disney Studios in June 2024 – a theme park under construction

A hot and humid Thursday in mid June – but not a normal Thursday, this was a Disney Day! The 2nd of 3 in a row, having done Disneyland Park the previous day.

Time to step back in to Walt Disney Studios – a theme park undergoing a major transformation.

First impressions

The first impressions of the plaza area surrounding the turnstiles are actually very impressive! It’s a large, open area with fountains, statues and shops on either side. It’s all very clean and polished, as you’d expect from a Disney park.

Studio 1, the large building housing the shops and restaurants (and the original “mainstreet” sort of situation for this park) is currently closed for a full and badly-needed refurbishment, and on passing through the turnstiles you’re now funnelled down a path to the left of Studio 1.

This temporary path is quite narrow, with construction happening either side of the tall wooden temporary fences. This fenced-off path continues down the left side of Studio 1 until you reach a ‘t-junction’, where you can either turn left towards the Place Des Stars, or right towards Crush’s Coaster. Each direction is also flanked by these temporary fences, blocking any views of the construction and buildings either side.

The ‘entrance experience’ is a big Disney parks ‘thing’, and unfortunately due to the construction taking place it’s absolutely absent from Walt Disney Studios at the moment. it will of course however be worth it when the construction is complete.

The big attractions

For such a small park, Walt Disney Studios does have a number of ‘big attractions’ which are very high quality.

Avengers Flight Force, for me at least, was the standout attraction at Walt Disney Studios. The rollercoaster itself has been there for years, previously as Aerosmith’s Rock n Rollercoaster, but the new Avengers Flight Force overlay really levels this ride up. It’s fast, well themed and really intense. a must-do when you’re visiting the studios. This is probably Disneyland Paris’ best rollercoaster to be honest.

Spiderman WEB adventure is “the other new ride” sat next to Flight Force in the new Avengers Campus area. It’s an interactive screen-based ride where you sling webs at the ‘bad guys’ and score points. Unfortunately this has a painfully slow-moving queue and the ‘ride’ experience just isn’t worth the wait.

Tower of Terror – the classic. You just can’t go wrong with Tower of Terror can you. It’s big, impressive, scary, exhilarating, creepy and looks incredible towering above the park. A must-do, and really the headliner for the park in my opinion.

Ratatouille – A very cute and fun little trackless dark ride! I absolutely love this film, and the ride does a great job of transporting you in to Remy’s world, riding on the back of a rat! the ride cars even move and dart around the rooms like rats would – it’s so impressive! The surrounding area truly does feel like central Paris as well. Very well done and definitely worth doing!

Crush’s Coaster, the park’s indoor spinning rollercoaster, is so out of place and totally out of its depth at a Disney park. I actually really like spinning coasters, however even at smaller regional theme parks like Alton Towers or Chessington, these rides are inappropriate as they just can’t process enough riders to eat the queues fast enough. Crush’s Coaster is a nice idea, but seems to have been cheaply done. The warehouse is also incredibly ugly and wildly out of place in a Disney park. A hang over from the park’s past I think!

Things for the little ones

One thing the Walt Disney Studios park lacks is things to do for the smaller kids.

I’m hoping that this will all be resolved when the ongoing construction is complete, but until then there’s very little to do, and to be honest it was a struggle to cater for our 2 year old in this park.

One thing to note is the lack of a playground in this park. Most theme parks have some sort of play park to let the little ones roam freely in and blow off some steam while other members of the group ride the bigger rides, but there really wasn’t anywhere ‘toddler safe’ where they can be let loose to roam free.

As for the attractions however;

Slinky Dog Zigzag Spin is a small fairground-style round ride in the rough-and-ready, and very run down, Toy Story area.

Cars Roadtrip, the very-much stripped back, shortened and hurriedly re-themed Studio Tram Tour, is a fun little thing for the kids to do. It’s by no means a high quality attraction, bit it’s something to do. It also feels like it’s a long walk from the rest of the park weirdly. I can’t imagine this attraction will be here to stay.

Cars Quatre Roues Rallye is a fairground-style round ride which is fun for the little ones.

Flying Carpets Over Agrabah – another round ride, a little like Dumbo, was unfortunately closed during our trip.

Food and drink

Food and drink was something I had expected to be an issue.

I’d had multiple emails and app notifications telling me that Studio 1, the building housing all the restaurants, is closed for refurbishment, and the official advice was to make use of the Disney Village outside.

Apart from the premium (and busy… and expensive) Pym Kitchen and Bistrot Chez Rémy (which I can’t wait to go to one day), and the more moderately price quick service Stark Factory, really there are no other eateries in the park at the moment.

However, there were multiple ‘kiosks’ around the park selling hot dogs, chips, pretzels etc.

I particularly enjoyed some of the kiosks in the France area, where they offer reasonably priced beer, chips and churros, and there were shaded areas between them to sit and relax.

Overall?

Overall I have to say that, despite the small number of rides and amount of construction going on, Walt Disney Studios is still a good park with plenty to do.

The park definitely lacks those magical Disney photo moments offered in the other Disney parks around the world, at least for now until they build the boulevard, lake and Frozen castle. It’s also patchy, with some areas boasting world-class theming and attractions, sat next door to some very tired and almost fairground-like attractions from the park’s past. Having said that however, many of the rides and areas that are there are truly excellent, with Avengers Flight Force, Ratatouille and Tower of Terror being world class, next do a very sad looking Toy Story area and dire Crush’s Coaster.

As a standalone park, the Walt Disney Studios would struggle I think. Although there are a reasonable number of attractions for a park of its tiny size, the park really is small and can be done in a few hours on quieter days. However since it’s part of the larger Disneyland Paris resort, I think it’s a good second gate and offers a nice change with something different to do between days in the far superior Disneyland Park.

I’m excited for the changes that are coming to this park, and if the recent additions are a sign of things to come, then Walt Disney Studios (or Disney Adventure World as it will soon be known) will finally become the incredible (and complete) second gate park that the incredibly Disneyland Paris resort deserves.