Disneyland Resort Paris
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| Disneyland Resort Paris |
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| Resort hotels |
Disneyland Resort Paris is a holiday and recreation resort in Marne-la-Vallée, in the suburbs of Paris, France, featuring two Disney theme parks, Disneyland Park and Walt Disney Studios Park. It was the second Disney resort to open outside the USA (the first was Tokyo Disney Resort). With 12.4 million visitors in 2004 [1], it is one of Europe's main tourist destinations. It is owned and operated by the French company Euro Disney SCA, a public corporation of which 39.781% of the stock is held by The Walt Disney Company, 10% is held by the Saudi Prince Alwaleed and other shareholders hold 50.22%. The park is run by Chairman and CEO Karl Holz.
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[edit] History
Following the success of Disneyland in Anaheim, California, and Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida, in the United States, plans to build a similar European theme park started out around 1975. Initially, France, the United Kingdom, Italy, and Spain were considered as possible locations. However, both the UK and Italy were quickly dropped from the list because they both lacked a sufficiently large expanse of flat land suited for the resort.
| "Monsieur Mickey or Señor Miqui?: Disney Seeks a European Site." Business Week, July 15, 1985 |
The Alicante area in Spain was thought to be good site, as it had a similar climate to that of Florida for most of the year. On the other hand, this area is also considerably affected by the strong Mediterranean Mistral winds. In the end, it was the French location that won out, and a site was picked at Marne-la-Vallée because of its close proximity to Paris and its central location within Western Europe. This location would put the park within 4 hours of driving for 68 million people and within two hours of flight for a further 300 million or so.
Michael Eisner, Disney's CEO at the time, signed the first letter of agreement with the French government for the 20 square kilometre site in December 1985, and the first financial contracts were drawn up during the following spring. Construction began in August 1988, and in December 1990 an information center named Espace Euro Disney was opened to show the public what was being constructed. Then, in September 1991, the casting center was opened to start recruiting the hundreds of cast members that would be required to operate the park's attractions. Plans for a showbusiness theme park next to Euro Disneyland, Disney-MGM Studios Paris, went into fast tracked development, for opening in 1996.
The resort officially opened as Euro Disney Resort and the first theme park as Euro Disneyland on April 12, 1992, but attendance was disappointingly low. Five hundred thousand guests were expected on opening day, but only a fraction of this number turned out, and the numbers fell further after the first three months. Some believe the park was built larger than it should have been for opening day, and the project carried too much debt. Additionally, the park failed to plan for certain cultural issues such as initially not offering wine in its restaurants and trying to offer more French food on its menus to visitors who were more interested in distinctly American cuisine. High entrance fees were also blamed for the lack of visitors. Furthermore, the theme park faced protests by commentators who thought a Disney park in France would harm French culture with its American influence; some went as far as to call the project a "cultural Chernobyl." Plans for the Disney-MGM Studios Paris were scrapped, although many years later the idea was revived and became the Walt Disney Studios.
On October 1, 1994, Euro Disneyland and Euro Disney Resort changed their name to Disneyland Paris (after the opening of the Walt Disney Studios Park in 2002, Disneyland Paris was given its current name, Disneyland Park, and the entire Resort became known as Disneyland Resort Paris). As a result of the name change, the addition of more attractions, and the retooling of the entire Theme Park complex to better appeal to European tastes, Disneyland Resort Paris finally turned a profit in 1995. But profits for the park have been small, when it has been profitable at all.
On 16 March 2002, Disneyland Resort Paris introduced its second theme park, Walt Disney Studios Park. The tenth Disney theme park in the world, Walt Disney Studios Park opened with the aim of keeping visitors to the resort on property for more days, but the park was criticized for not having enough attractions and having very minimal theming. The park is also the smallest Disney theme park in the world. With the expansion of the resort, four new hotels, not managed by Euro Disney SCA, opened in Marne-la-Vallée. These hotels are connected to the RER/TGV station with a free shuttle service operated by PEP'S.
That same year, Euro Disney S.C.A. and the Walt Disney Company announced another annual profit for Disneyland Resort Paris. But it has incurred a net loss in the three years following, and the park is still about US$2 billion in debt. Disneyland Resort Paris has plans to expand over the next few years with addition of several new rides: Buzz Lightyear Laser Blast opened at Disneyland Park in April 2006; a new land, Toon Studios, will open at Walt Disney Studios Park in 2007; and finally The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror will open at Walt Disney Studios Park in late 2007 / early 2008. These new rides are in addition to The Legend Of The Lion King Show that began in 2004 and Space Mountain: Mission 2, a 2005 re-theming of the popular roller coaster. In 2005, the Walt Disney Company agreed to write-off all debt to the Walt Disney Company made by Euro Disney S.C.A., to improve the financial performance of the resort.
Disneyland Resort Paris now rivals the Eiffel Tower as Paris' most popular tourist hot-spot and is visited by more than 12 million visitors per year, with more than 150 million since its opening.
[edit] The Resort
- Disneyland Park - A Magic Kingdom-style park; Europe's most visited theme park.
- Walt Disney Studios Park - A Hollywood studios-based park.
- Disney Village - similar to Downtown Disney and the Ikspiari; a shopping, dining and entertainment complex.
- The Disneyland Resort Paris hotels:
- Disneyland Hotel and Disney's Hotel New York (four-star hotels)
- Disney's Newport Bay Club and Disney's Sequoia Lodge (three-star hotels)
- Disney's Hotel Cheyenne, Disney's Hotel Santa Fe, and Disney's Davy Crockett Ranch (two-star hotels)
- Golf Disneyland - 9-hole and 18-hole courses.
- Six resort hotels not managed by Euro Disney SCA:
- Marriott's Village d'lle-de-France and Radisson SAS Hotel(five-star hotels)
- Holiday Inn Hotel, Vienna International Dream Castle Hotel(four-star hotels)
- MyTravel's Explorers Hotel (three-star hotel)
- Kyriad Hotel (two-star hotel)
[edit] Timeline
- March 24, 1987 - The French government and The Walt Disney Company sign an agreement for the creation of Euro Disney Resort.
- March 31, 1992 - The Marne-la-Vallée/Chessy RER station is inaugurated.
- April 12, 1992 - Euro Disneyland and the Euro Disney Resort are officially inaugurated.
- May 19, 1994 - The Marne-la-Vallée/Chessy TGV station is inaugurated.
- October 01, 1994 - The Euro Disney Resort is renamed Disneyland Paris.
- May 31, 1995 - Space Mountain: From The Earth To The Moon opens at the theme park.
- April 12, 1997 - Disneyland Paris celebrates its 5th anniversary.
- May 1997 - A Gaumont multiplex movie theatre is opened at Disney Village.
- March 28, 1999 - Honey I Shrunk The Audience opens at the theme park.
- October 24, 2000 - The Val d'Europe international shopping centre opens for business.
- January 10, 2001 - Disneyland Paris receives its 100 millionth guest.
- March 16, 2002 - The Walt Disney Studios Park officially opens its doors, its sister park is renamed Disneyland Park and the resort is renamed Disneyland Resort Paris.
- April 12, 2002 - Disneyland Park celebrates its 10th anniversary.
- July 5, 2003 - Fantillusion, from Tokyo Disneyland, begins running at Disneyland Park.
- June 24, 2004 - The Legend of the Lion King show opens at Disneyland Park.
- April 09, 2005 - Space Mountain: Mission 2 opens at Disneyland Park.
- April 2005 - Disney Village expands with the addition of an IMAX theater and PanoraMagique, the world's largest tethered balloon.
- April 08, 2006 - Buzz Lightyear Laser Blast opens at Disneyland Park.
 Main Street, U.S.A. |
 X-Wing fighter from Star Wars |
 Internal shot of Buzz Lightyear Laser Blast |
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 The downtown area of Disneyland Resort Paris |
[edit] External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: |
- Disneyland Resort Paris (official site)
- Euro Disney S.C.A., operating company of Disneyland Resort Paris (official site)
- DLRP Magic! - Disneyland Resort Paris at the click of a mouse!
- DLRP Wiki - A special Wiki dedicated to DLRP
- How Euro Disney was financially funded
- Photos Magiques (fan photos website)
- WDSfans (fan site dedicated to the Walt Disney Studios Park)
- Studio One Photos - Disneyland Resort Paris Through A Lens (fan photos website)
- dlrp.co.uk - Your magical guide to Disneyland Resort Paris
- Hotels near the magic
- Disneyland Resort Paris (fan website in spanish)
- Everything you need to know about Disneyland Resort Paris
