A Tower Tale.

June 13, 2023

The Walt Disney Studios Paris theme park opened at the Disneyland Paris Resort on March 16, 2002.  Named the Disney MGM Studios Theme Park when it was first announced, it intended to open a few years after the opening of Euro Disneyland and would feature several major attractions in a richly detailed environment.  For reasons that have been reported previously, the park was at first delayed and then revised, finally opening ten years after the opening of EDL.  Fronting a different name, the new park opened with just three rides.  This resulted in a poor guest reception and work to expand DSP began.

The Anaheim version of Tower of Terror, built from steel.

Among the expansion goals was to erase the guest opinion that DSP was just a half day park.  So, as a result of the decision to expand a version of the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror was targeted to open in 2007.

The Tower toilets built before Disney Studios Paris opened.

What was to open at DSP would be a slightly different version to Tower of Terror with various tweaks and additions caused by considerations of location and French culture.  As since Tower of Terror was intended to be added to the Disney Studios Paris the area development surrounding the future attraction site, including toilets were built prior to the park’s opening.

The work begins on Tower of Terror at DSP.

Among the revisions to the French version was the method of construction.  Whereas the Anaheim version of Tower of Terror was built in steel, the version located in Marne-la-Vallee would be built in concrete.  Employing slip form concrete, or continuous pour is a construction method in which concrete is poured into a continuously moving form.  This method means that the poured concrete for tall horizontal structures allowing tower in Paris to rise far faster than its Anaheim counterpart.  Slip form is a conventional technique for construction in Europe, however it is uncommon in the U. S. 

A view from the Backlot Tram Tour station of the Tower construction.

Construction that uses this method calls for big equipment, such as the claw designed to remove vast amounts of ground material.  During my time overseeing the construction of Toon Studios, I’d take breaks to watch the claw burrow its way into the muddy ground of the site.

A view of the construction with the Stunt Show arena in the background.

The building form rose quickly and in 2007 Tower of Terror opened officially, although the ride had opened months previously to guests.  The Disney Studios Paris continued to grow after the opening of this ride, but I consider Tower of Terror to be the down payment on fixing Paris’s second Disney theme park.

A view of Tower of Terror topped off.