How Disney’s best park FAILED | History of EuroDisney

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Credits/ Sources:

Designing Disney:

ThemePark Tourist

Case Study of DLP:

Construction Video:

EuroDisney opening:

Tokyo Disneyland opening:

Background Music:

Several images/ videos by @Disney

Please note that most images used on the video are not mine and the creator should be credited, thank you.

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Video Chapters:
0:00 Introduction
0:55 Before EuroDisney
2:20 Where in Europe?
3:35 Construction begins
4:35 Cultures Collide
6:00 Resort opens
7:20 More problems
8:15 Adjustments
10:15 Thoughts and ending

[ainsleyperry]

Main Street, In 1993 into 94 an option on the table was to sell off the Hotels ( 1994, book value FF3.5 Bn) The policy that Mr. Pierre Bourguignon had put in place and "Space Mountain" had made a huge change and by 1997 the average spend per visitor was FF251. Attendance in 1997 was 12.6 million visitors. A new conference centre opened in 1997. In 1997, visitor attendance from Spain rose significently with all inclusive packages for this market. to combat Universal Studios purchase of the Adventura park in Spain. 1997 operating profit was FF880 but once all the costs, frozen financial charges, etc. were payed net profit was FF165m.Cheers, Chris Perry.

[kamandi]

If I remember correctly, the French media and intellectual class were very against this park, seeing it as a cultural invasion. Their voice was the loudest in the run up to the opening and I think the bad publicity was a part of the initial low numbers of visitors.

[SPRidley]

A lot of international videos tend to jump a ton from "it was between france and spain" and continue the story. I think the story is a pretty interesting one if you go more in depth, and the most important factor as why ultimately choosing that country was a big failure.
We have spanish politicians having talked in interviews more in depth of what happened, and we also know some design phase was started with Spain in mind, as it was the country that won first and not France. The huge problem of not building it finally in Spain was regional goverment fights. There were 3 locations for the park, somewhere near seville that was discarded soon but was the prefered one by the spanish government, somewhere near were Port Aventura is now, and Denia-Gandia near Valencia, which was the one Disney wanted. To the point that during the talks with Disney the valencian governement built a huge magic kingdom castle at the city hall square for the Fallas fesitivity of 1985.

Internal fights between spanish regional govenrments is what ultimately cancelled the project, also helped by the offer france gave finally disney, as you said in the video.
Theres a rumour going around that Eisner's and other disney directives wives also prefered Paris and that helped the decission, but i think thats just badmouthing that happened at the time when the spanish project felt apart.

Ultimately, the change was massive because of just a small thing. Spainish public would have welcomed with open arms the project, while france did not. It was also quite costly at the beginning for european families to go in droves from other parts from europe, hence the hotels were just a big burden.

I always wonder, what could had happen if eurodisney spain was the one built. Alas will never now.

Btw i leave you a link with one of the photos of the city hall falla about the magic kingdom castle, so you can see it as its not an easy thing to research when you dont speak spanish.

If the link doesnt work, just search in google for "falla del ayuntamiento 1985"

[lukegreen]

0:16 I've Been To Disneyland Paris Theme Park Near The City Of Paris In France Twice Back In September 2019 And In June 2022 And It Was Super Awesome. Thanks Mate. X❤

[kalzium]

I think disneys initial failure was not understanding the location. In the USA people go for a week to florida to visit theme parks. Disney competes with universal and other parks. To built a park nearby paris is not as crazy as it seems, but Disney tried to compete with paris with its resorts. Disneys challenge was to establish itself as a must do on a once in a life time trip to paris. DLP main competition is paris and has to compete with the louvre and the eiffel tower for a day on your paris vacation. Paris is one of the most visited cities in the world and Disney needed to learn that its park was a part of its experience.

[DiRtYLaWs]

Disneyland Paris has the best version of Big Thunder Mountain.

[LeeleeSTAR]

For me a key reason for DLP’s struggles was it’s corporate set up. If I remember right the French government originally insisted on Disney only owning 49% of the company. This saddled the park with debts, royalties had to be paid to Disney (often waived). Disney were unwilling to invest further due to their lack of ownership. When Disney wanted new rides at WDW they gave the money to the parks as a capital outlay. When they invested in DLP it was done via loans. Disney only stepped up their game when France waived the minority ownership rule.

[dansolo]

first theme park i went to as a kid, can barely remember most of it (apart from the wooden roller coaster and the entrance) but i remember being so excited for Euro Disney.

[jaydenchrist]

Im sad this park failed initially this is one of disneys most detailed parks in terms of theming. Thankfully it was able to turn its fortunes around by the way im still wishing to get Space Mountian From the Earth To the Moon back.

[AustinTexasDaddyBear]

I still think, they should have found a suitable site around Barcelona, and push hard to open it before the 1992 Barcelona Summer Olympics. Weather in Spain is way better for most of the year, and the Spanish are a very welcoming and friendly people.

[Beremote]

Disney Paris is the best disney park in my opinion. Although I go more often to Florida now.

[patrickmuhlbeyer]

It's a sad story. To this day this is one of the most beautiful parks in the world.

[djthereplay]

Disneyland Paris is Euro Disneyland by another name and is still running.
Euro Disneyland never failed. They just changed the name of it.

[pumpkinpatch]

Disneyland Paris is such an expensive poor relation. It’d be so weird going there.

[mikey]

I went to EuroDisney on the 9th of may 1992. About a month after it opened. You could see they were still finding their way how to operate the park. Loved Big Thunder mountain. Space mountain wasn't built yet, they were building that Indiana Jones rollercoaster at that time if i'm not mistaking. I went for a day and that was a too short of time because the park just opened a month and the 9th of May turned out to be a French holiday. Oh yeah and i noticed French people hate to wait in line and try to cut the line wherever possible.

[WreckerD]

I know the Dutch theme park Efteling had some influence (were asked for help) on the Eurofication of the Disney theme park(s) however I don't know when they were called in and how much their influence was...
But there's a rumor that Walt Disney and Efteling have history and that they keep a friendly competition going (both have won awards for best park etc.)

[Aerjen]

And I read somewhere else it is actually Paris that is making a profit now and is in the leads of being the best park they have currently revenue-based?

[Mr]

Really one of the most beautiful parks Disney has ever created. I was mesmerized the first time we visited it. 🤩

[JudgeGeneHunt]

I still say it should have been built in the UK, there are @ 8 million visits by French people a year and the next largest number is the Brits at @2.5 and then 1.5m from the USA. That's 11m if the 12m visits a year. The Brits have many cultural shares and Brits love Disney. There are also about 18m USA visitors to the UK every year. With those numbers combined, Disneyland UK would have been much more popular

[LuluManager]

Disney doesn’t have a choice, they have to open a new park by 2036 from what I know