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[Anthony]

A new "experiment" current going on in the resort to take some of the crowd pressure off Disney Village at this busy time of year has meant that the Place des Freres Lumieres and Studio 1 have been specially opened, for free, from after the closure of Disneyland Park until 10pm.

Several announcements play in Disneyland Park after Disney's Fantillusion has finished, informing guests of the special free opening.

Last year they allowed guests to continue shopping in Main Street until 9.30pm, so this seems to be this year's solution.  I think the problem is that they have a lot of people in Disneyland Park, and because it closes at 8pm they're still looking for something extra to do after it closes, so they all head for Disney Village, causing a huge crowd and massive queues at restaurants.

So now they open up the huge studio gates and invite everyone in to shop in Walt Disney Studios Store and Legends of Hollywood, and get something to eat from Restaurant En Coulisses.

I'm not sure how well it's working so far, has anyone experienced it for themselves?  Hopefully Raptor and flor can tell us how well it worked when they get back soon...  :wink:

[Anthony]

Apparently there's absolutely no Characters around (or basically anything like that which you only get by paying to get into the parks), and there are also some ice sculptures in front of the entrance to Disney Studio 1.  Possibly the same ice sculptures which are usually in Disney Village...

It really does sound like this is the resort's cheapo way to extend Disney Village, until they have enough money to do it for real...  

Thanks to posters on Disney Central Plaza forum and DLRP Magazine form for all this info!

[Kristof]

There were hardly any people inside the park...  There was some "Streetmosphere" like they sometimes have in the Village.

Although it was very cool to enter the Studios through the huge gate.