Is it time for Disneyland Paris to get an extreme theme park makeover? Parcorama makes a strong case for it.
Last week I spent a couple of days at Disneyland Paris. Just before the summer season, when the resort state and program usually is at its best. Well this year probably I wouldn’t put it this way. Have a look at the situation:
Captain EO : closed
Indiana Jones : closed for refurbishment – it happens
Tarzan show : canceled this year
Night time parade Fantillusion : canceled this year
Lion King show : no show since 2010
Théatre du Château : desperately empty for years
In addition to that, ride breakdowns are already common under normal circumstances but I’ve never seen so many of them. In just three days, Big Thunder Mountain broke down every day including a half a day breakdown ; Space Mountain broke down an entire evening from 7PM to park closing (11PM) and the same happened on Pirates of the Caribbean as well.
As to who should pay for fixing this mess, the trail leads back to one place – Burbank
How long before the people in charge do their job and solve the DLP problem? How many breakdowns, closed attractions, bad experiences, unhappy guests? What I don’t get is after all these painful, struggling years, The Walt Disney Company (owner of 40% of EuroDisney) hasn’t do anything to change the structure of EuroDisney’s financial montage, which was created by TWDC and based on wrongly optimistic previsions. It’s TWDC’s mistake, it belongs to them so solve it….
It’s commonly known that Disneyland Paris recently joined the ‘Walt Disney Parks and Resorts Operations, United States and France‘ division, and rumor has that several managers from the US parks have been joining DLP offices for the last few months. In addition to that, back in last September, TWDC engaged a first step by extending credit in order for EuroDisney to pay its famous debt to the many banks who blocked any new investment (mainly the Ratatouile attraction). However, Eurodisney still needs to pay back this amount of money to The Walt Disney Company, while continuing to pay disproportionate royalties as well as overcharged attractions to Walt Disney Imagineering, a branch of TWDC that can bill (crazy) amounts of money since they’re the only contractor allowed to sell rides or any other addition to the Disney parks.
I had heard things were miserable across the pond, but this report makes it look pretty bad. Significantly worse than how Disneyland got under the mid to late 90s neglect of Paul Pressler. That sad situation resulted in the unnecessary death of a guest and several severe injuries. We’ve already seen injuries at DLP, let’s fix this before it gets worse. Do you agree it’s TWDC who should step in and fix this mess?
Read the whole report at Le Parcorama!
(photo courtesy Sean MacEntee via Flickr CC-License)
Having been 3 times in the last couple of years there is obviously a lot at the park that needs fixing – however there has also been lots of work done to repair some of the now 20 year old Disneyland Park without causing too much disruption. Autopia and teh Orbitron for example desperately need a paint refresh. What needs to happen is a series of rolling closures (unfortunately) to refresh (or replace) many of the original rides. But if some of the rumors on Alain’s Disney and More site are true then Captian Eo is closed to allow that side of the park to be refreshed into a Star Wars land. I had a similar day last summer when Phantom manor, Pirates and Big Thunder all suffered closures within a few hours of one another, but then nother broke the other 8 days I was there.
The closure this year of bothe the big theatres is a big mistake – those are big highlights, but I suspect have high cost due to the number of performers and cutting them reduces the cost with minimal complaint.
Great the story is being picked up in the US!
I do agree the DLP Resort is in need of some TLC in different areas. And yes, TWDC should step in!
Maintanance has been improving in the last years, but it is all a little bit here and there. No great master plan it seems.
Dreams is great, but costs so much, that almost all other entertainment has been cancelled.
No real new attraction in DLP for years. WDS has seen some new attractions, but again no master plan like at DCA.
We European fans love DLP and want it to get better!
The worse thing they did was open in Paris. Spain would have been better. It is so expensive even only travelling from UK. Service was poor. Such a let down.
“The worse thing they did was open in Paris. Spain would have been better.”
Oh really? Ever been to PortAventura in the last years? THIS is a huge let down. The service is awful, so many “cast members” don’t speak english at all, the shows went from “stunning and classy” to “cheesy shit”, the maintenance of the ride is also quite disappointing (SeaOdyssey is gone!), even more than in Paris right now. This first 5-8 years were absolutely great – but since Universal’s withdrawal, the park got worse – even the magnificent coaster Shambhala can’t wipe all those mistakes made by the management. I don’t think that Spain would have been a better choice for Disney…
Im going in October, I went in 2005 and we had a great time now after a few years and some new features we decided it would be nice to go.
but hasn’t the night time parade been replaced by the dreams show?
refurbishments do happen but are annoying
lion king show my GF will be sad but looking at the interactive map videoplois (where the lion king should of been) doesn’t have a function anyway did the 2013 map actually have it down as the lion king show? if so then that surely falls under false advertising…
TWDC wont do anything as they only owned 40% of it however that may have changed as I’m sure I read somewhere recently that TWDC gave ED a loan when it seemed to be struggling. I think it would cost TWDC too much to buy controlling shares (because the price of shares go up when TWDC are involved) maybe the loan was given in return of controlling shares and thats why we now see a world of Disney store in the parks (you’d of thought that would of happened a long time ago and not 20 years later)
there are a number of refurbs in September maybe with there 20th anniversary blow out this is signs of euro Disney changing for the better with the guiding hand off TWDC
(these are my opinions and could be completely wrong but makes sense)
My family and I went to Paris, France last year (June 2012 and I’m 19 now). We stayed in the Val D’Europe district of Paris where Disneyland Paris was located. What you may have seen in shows such as America’s Most Funniest Videos or other shows, only gives viewers the so-called “good stuff” of Disneyland Paris. We (the family and I) never set foot in the park, but I can tell you this: Outside of Disneyland the service to foreigners is just as bad! Our 1st night at the hotel, we wanted to wash our clothes (we flew in from London) and the hotel front desk person was over worked and became rude with us (she snapped in frustration). All we did was ask for change for the washer and dryer down stairs. Plus, the 3 star “resort” was disgusting! I won’t go into details about that, but overall, there needs to be a huge revamp for Disneyland Paris altogether.
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