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Disneyland Paris at Christmas (Photos)

I had the luck of having a work trip in Paris, and I was able to sneak off to Disneyland Paris for a day. Below are a few photos, but if you want to see more (including a full trip report) you can find that on my personal blog. ( apologize that some of the photos are lower quality; my camera died and I had to use my iPad.)

I think this little boy thought I was taking his picture. He saw me with my camera (trying to take a picture) and stopped for a few moments. I snapped one, and then walked ahead of him to take more. But I just live this picture so much! (More below the jump)Read More »Disneyland Paris at Christmas (Photos)

Castle Topping – Disneyland Paris

A similar video made the rounds a few years ago, but it’s always fun to watch how Imagineering makes the magic. In this case it’s the “Castle Topping” ceremony when the highest spire of The Chateau de la Belle au Bois Dormant (Sleeping Beauty Castle)… Read More »Castle Topping – Disneyland Paris

Disneyland Paris Reports Improved Revenue

After accounting for a one time real estate deal, the finances at Euro-Disney SCA, the operating company for Disneyland Paris, are still looking relatively rosy. Revenues for the 3rd quarter of 2011 grew 6.7% over last year. The parks and hotels segments both improved driving… Read More »Disneyland Paris Reports Improved Revenue

Promotions Shake Up Disney Parks & Resorts under Tom Staggs

In a long internal memo today, Tom Staggs made official the organizational shakeup everyone knew was coming after Staggs took over the Walt Disney Parks and Resorts division. It’s nothing earth shattering, but it does flatten some of the levels of hierarchy that were said to have frustrated Staggs since he took over.

In short, current WDW president Meg Crofton expands to oversee all the domestic parks and the two parks in France. Karl Holtz, who a few years ago was rumored to be leaving Disney, is instead adding DVC to his DCL and Adventures by Disney responsibilities. Leslie Ferraro becomes executive vice president, Global Marketing and Sales combining those two closely related departments and Erin Wallace, executive vice president, Operations Integration also adds revenue management to her desk. The move also creates a new executive council under Staggs.

While Staggs’ reorganization did not cut any of the deadwood certain segments of Disney fans wanted to see go, I believe the general movement here is a good one. It will allow for efficiencies where they need to exist and independence, with oversight, as required for the parks. Combining marketing and sales is a no-duh in my book, they are both measured by the same final metrics (butts in beds and asses through the gates), so unifying them is good. The only move that looks questionable to me is giving the extra power of revenue management to operations. However, they are the yin and the yang of theme park operations. Having one person keep a close eye via her myriad of spreadsheets and minions (and I mean that in the nicest possible way), could be very positive.

Let’s keep a watch on this for the next 3-year planning cycle and see if there really is any improvement. Meanwhile, the pressure is kicked up a notch for these people to get things done or they too could be reorganized right out of a job.

The full text of Tom Staggs’ announcement is below the jump:

Read More »Promotions Shake Up Disney Parks & Resorts under Tom Staggs

The Big Thunder Mountain Defense works in Court

“Thunder Mountain is a very fast, frightening roller coaster ride. After being on there Ramplin was terrified and worried there was going to be an accident and all of a sudden memories of the accident when he was ten came flooding back.” With those words… Read More »The Big Thunder Mountain Defense works in Court

TEA Theme Park Attendance Report Released

The Themed Entertainment Association(TEA) and Economics at AECOM have released their joint publication, the TEA/AECOM 2010 Theme Index today. The chief statistics are the estimated attendance numbers for the major theme parks world wide. 2010 was generally a good year with many of the destination theme parks experiencing strong growth. Disney theme park attendance was a mixed bag in 2010, however.

There were some notable exceptions to the growth. Magic Kingdom, Disney’s Hollywood Studios, and EPCOT all declined slightly. Only Disney’s Animal Kingdom showed any growth continuing it’s trend from last year when it passed DHS for the first time for third place among Disney’s four Orlando parks.

The two Tokyo Disney parks had great years in 2010, but that will no doubt be offset by the quake caused problems in 2011. We wish them luck!

The Disneyland Paris parks continue to struggle. Struggles with the union, reports of poor maintenance in the parks, and depressed economies in Europe are no doubt to blame. Meanwhile Hong Kong Disneyland showed that if you invest, they will come. Hopefully that’s a good trend for the future.

Speaking of investment in attractions, the Original Disneyland, with no new attractions, saw only minor growth, but California Adventure saw a decent improvement. That’s odd considering the park was undergoing a lot of construction at the time and lost its parades. However, the night time is the right time as ElecTRONica and World of Color draws them in after dark. So that growth probably included a lot of park hoppers.

The two SeaWorld parks both lost big. A lot of SeaWorld Florida’s decrease can be attributed to guests heading to Universal Orlando to catch the boy wonder. However, there was also the bad press received when a killer whale trainer was killed in an accident and the parks were still transitioning away from being a ‘Free as in Beer’ property to a Conservation based property. They seemed to be sleep walking through much of 2009 and 2010. Thankfully, the parks appear to have come out of that slumber recently. And Busch Gardens Tampa did show some strength.

The real winner, of course, was Universal Studios. Islands of Adventure showed 30%+ growth for the year and Harry Potter was only open for about 2/3rds of it. The boy wizard also lifted Universal Studios Florida. In Hollywood King Kong 360 3-D opened, but I’m not sure that explains the huge growth. I have to wonder if they got a little boost from the boy wizard too. That must have made for some disappointed tourists.

Attendance in M, Growth or Loss in Percentage, Name, Location
16.97 M -1.5% Magic Kingdom, Orlando, FL
15.98 M +0.5% Disneyland, Anaheim, CA
14.45 M +5.9% Tokyo Disneyland, Tokyo, Japan
12.66 M +5.5% Tokyo DisneySea, Tokyo, Japan
10.83 M -1.5% EPCOT, Orlando, FL
10.50 M -2.6% Disneyland Paris, Marne-la-Vallee, Fran ce
9.87 M +1.0% Disney’s Animal Kingdom, Kissimmee, FL
9.60 M -1.0% Disney’s Hollywood Studios, Orlando, FL
8.16 M +2.0% Universal Studios Japan, Osaka, Japan
6.88 M +11.6% Everland, South Korea
6.29 M +3.0% Disney California Adventure, Anaheim, CA
5.95 M +30.2% Islands of Adventure, Orlando FL
5.93 M +6.1% Universal Studios, Orlando FL
5.55 M +22.4% Lotte World, Seoul, South Korea
5.20 M +13.0% Hong Kong Disneyland, Hong Kong
5.10 M -12.1% SeaWorld Florida, Orlando, FL
5.10 M +6.3% Ocean Park, Hong Kong
5.04 M +26.0% Universal Studios Hollywood, Universal City, CA
4.50 M -2.6% Walt Disney Studios, Marne-la-Vallee, France
4.47 M -5.0% Nagashima Spa Land, Kuwana Japan
4.25 M 0.0 Europa Park, Rust Germany
4.20 M +2.4% Busch Gardens Tampa Bay, Tampa FL
4.02 M -6.0% Yokohama Sea Paradise, Japan
4.00 M 0.0% De Efteling, The Netherlands
3.80 M -9.5% SeaWorld California, San Diego, CA

The full press release is below the jump:

Read More »TEA Theme Park Attendance Report Released

Disneyland Paris in Sand Sculpture Festival Opening Ceremony

The always excellent Andy De Maertelaere of the MouseKingdom Blog was lucky enough to attend the opening ceremony of the Disneyland Paris Sand Sculpture exhibit I blogged about here the other day. The opening ceremony started with a small introduction about the project. The idea… Read More »Disneyland Paris in Sand Sculpture Festival Opening Ceremony

Giant Sandsculpture Recreates Disneyland Paris

When I was a child I loved to build sandcastles down at the beach. I even entered in a sandsculpture contest or two. I was never that good, but there were many contestants who were. Some of those projects were quite involved. Giant dragons, huge… Read More »Giant Sandsculpture Recreates Disneyland Paris