By Lauren Taylor

“I can see Elsa’s palace!” my five-year-old exclaims with pure joy, the first time it comes into view at Disneyland Paris.

On the other side of a lake is a realistic-looking, snowy mountain, on which Elsa’s Ice Palace is perched.

The World of Frozen – an immersive experience based on the popular film franchise inside Disney Adventure World (formerly Walt Disney Studios Park) – is now open to the public, and we are among the first to access this huge new section of the park.

Inaugurated on March 28 by Disney’s new CEO, Josh D’Amaro, the Paris version is almost an exact copy of the World of Frozen opened in Hong Kong in late 2023, minus one Wandering Oaken’s Sliding Sleighs roller coaster.

There is nothing quite like seeing Disney for the first time through the eyes of a child. My daughter, Seren, in her carefully chosen Anna dress, takes off towards the village square of Arendelle, the film’s main setting and home of characters Anna and Elsa, the sisters torn apart by Elsa’s chilly powers.