Many things about Paris are great. Most beautiful castle, best fantasy land, and the once masterpiece that was discovery land. They destroyed discoveryland with hyperspace mountain.
@@patrickmuhlbeyer9262 Yep they removed Space Mountain Mission 2 with Hyperspace Mountain which is Star Wars theme. Really out of context. I'll be going to DLP the next month and see the updates there
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.
I think that Disney seas only exists because Paris failed. Journey to the center of the earth and 20.000 leagues under the sea where clearly envisioned for Paris.
@@patrickmuhlbeyer9262 Nope. Disney Sea exists, because Disneyland Tokyo has beaten all expectations. Yes, several ideas from Euro Disney, Westcot, and Port Disney were integrated, but that happened independent of Euro Disney's failure (similar to how Disney copy/pastes other lands and attractions. (latest example: Frozen)
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❤
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.
Ive been to all the parks in the world. Id say it's the 2nd best, after Disney Seas in Tokyo, and before Disneys Animal Kingdom. The three of them are by far the most beautiful Disney parks that have been built.
@@christophermichaelclarence6003 what? 😅 Disneyland Paris is my Disney park, but Disney World is something completely different from anything else in the world! Oh, and I’m not French haha. I still love DLP though…
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.
French being the main language of the park doesn't help either, English is more suitable for an international park. There are some English shows/elements but usually very limited (when I went 1 or 2 shows a day were English, any pre-shows etc. were French) This might have improved, but still in the beginning English wasn't used as much (staff also had tendencies to either ignore English speaking guests or not understand/speak it)
@@Wrecker3D Disneyland Paris has the target audience families with children. But children aren't the best english speakers. Contrary to american parks have european parks the huge disadvantage of language barriers. Making the language of the park english would please the visitors from UK (The usa has its own disney parks), but would freak out the french. But what about the spanish, german and italian visitors?
@@kalzium8857 I know smaller kids might not be able to understand English, but in contrary to you might think, English is taught from very young age a schools, French is taught at later age (if at all) outside France, it was called Euro Disney , not Disney La France and if you want to cater international guests French isn't the best option.
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. www.cendradigital.com/wp-content/uploads/Falla1985-6808684c6e9b62f720409845e3ea82c8.jpg If the link doesnt work, just search in google for "falla del ayuntamiento 1985"
This is such an interesting and detailed story that I left out on purpose. It's a really amazing topic that I'll possibly make a full on video on! Thank you so much for sharing this piece of info and the link!
Honestly, I don't think that Spain would have worked. I'm from Germany and we visited dlp a lot when I was a child and I visited it many times since. I'm pretty sure that we wouldn't have done the trip to Spain. And that could be true for many people from Germany, Belgium, Netherlands, England and so on.
L’Espagne n’a été considéré par Disney que pour faire monter les enchères. Depuis le début Disney voulait venir en France, ne serait-ce que pour sa place centrale en Europe.
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.
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.
For sure. Yes TWDC was only allowed to own 49% of what was a Private-Public agreement, this was because of the entire area that EuroDisney manages, which is completely huge. What's interesting is that now TWDC owns almost 100% of all that area...
EuroDisney failed, big time, Disneyland Paris is what came after and with all the changes that happened. 10 years ago the park was still seen as a money pit, it wasn’t until some years ago that the narrative changed and now DLP is the biggest international disney park, bringing in 79% of international revenue!
Not true. They had many changes made to the park, I talk about some of these, such as the wine being sold inside the park, new attractions based on French culture, price reduction and better marketing etc. The name change itself may have done little but the it’s what it represented. With the new name, came a new era for the resort.
@@themainstreetnews It is true because those changes are made by the same people who operate it. What? Because of attraction changes and name changes that makes a Disney Theme Park a failure?
That's not what I said. EuroDisney (1992-94) was definitely a failure, no questions asked there because they didn't make one cent of profit. It wasn't until 1995 that they made their first profit, this was the same year that the name was changed. Of course it's the same resort, but you can clearly see that EuroDisney (92-95) failed, while Disneyland Paris (95) made a profit.
Yes, that’s true. Because of the agreement with the government they have to do so by 2036 or they will lose the land on which it would be built. The date was 2028, I believe, but was extended with the announcement of the 2b dollar expansion/ investment.
That’s a good question. Compared to what Disney and Eisner were expecting, it was a major failure. This lead to the cancellation of many projects for the resort. It took several years until it was a profitable business and today it’s become very profitable for Disney.
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?
That’s right! I touch on that at the end of the video, but Paris has been the best international park when it comes to revenue in the last years. Last quarter it accounted for, I believe, 17% of the Disney Parks revenue.
This could be due to the fact that the prices at Disney Paris are excessively excessive. Let's see how long people can still afford and want to pay as much money for a weekend in the theme park as elsewhere for a whole week of vacation...
Disney is seen as a premium destination, unfortunately for us that means premium prices. On the other hand, more revenue may also mean new attractions and expansions!
@@themainstreetnews Disney may be a premium product, but they then have to have a premium product. Currently that's not the case. By this I mean that Disneyland Paris doesn't do anything better than the Efteling, Phantasialand or Europa-Park. All are cheaper to visit, AND they build more new rides that are of "Disney quality". What Disney has going for it is the IP. If they also had build more rides over the years then they would be justified in asking the entry price they do.
@@EspenSGX I never said that the product that they offer should be considered as premium. The fact is that it is, and therefore it’s priced accordingly. Even with this prices, DLP completely beats every single European park/ resort out of the water in number of guests…
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.
In fact, the 4 locations I mentioned in the video were, 2 in Paris, 1 in Madrid and 1 in Barcelona (where PortAventura is now). I do think that location wise Paris makes more sense as it’s in the middle of Europe and is one of the top 3 most visited cities in the world!
@@themainstreetnews Yes, but the park gets less busy in the winter, as most of the tourist visit during the warmer months. Spain, would have year round weather. Plus Brits love Spain much more than Paris. So if the park was close to a beach area, it would be perfect. Plus, it has always been well known that the French are luke warm to American culture, so the initial reaction the French had is not surprising, where most Spanish love American culture. Its great that the parks are starting to do well, but I truly believe if they opened the park in Spain, and marketed it with the Olympics, which Barcelona 92 is still regarded as one of the most successful olympics in modern history, the resort would have been successful from the start.
I personally don’t think it would have the attendance that Paris brings. It could be successful, for sure, but couldn’t be as big. Either way, the creation of DLP made it so that PortAventura was built, so it was a win win for us, fans!
That's a good point,but I,as a Port Aventura fan I'm, I think DLP should have been built in the Côte d'Azur (south of France,around Marseille,Nice maybe?) It would have been a French PortAventura for the weather,which is almost the same as we have here in Barcelona-Tarragona Thanks to Port Aventura,the theme park industry got into Spain,in 1997 Isla Mágica opened (in a part of the terrains for the 1992 Sevilla Expo),later came Terra Mítica in 2000 (which is definitely a failure,it is almost closed for the last few years,the only Spanish park that has not opened since the pandemic) and the then called Warner Bros Movie World Madrid in 2002,as a response to Port Aventura,which then was owned by Univesal Studios
I’m very familiar with the Spanish theme parks, seeing that I’m Portuguese and we’re neighbours 😉. Spain does have a great theme park lineup, which is awesome. While a Disney in nice or Marseille could maybe join the best of both worlds, I still think there’s nothing quite Paris… it’s one of the major cities in Europe and the most visited, that’s not easy to beat…
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.
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
I'd have loved it here in the UK but I think it would have struggled more overall - Brits can easily drive/fly/take the train to Paris, along with the Belgians, Dutch, Germans, Swiss etc, whereas all those countries couldn't have as easily got to the park if it were near London for example
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.)
@@WouterTV Disney & Eftelings connection: Efteling has a good relationship with the Disney theme parks. Disneyland Paris consulted Efteling during its construction and design phase, to adapt the American park to European tastes. As a token of appreciation, the Disney Company gave Efteling a small statue. Ton van de Ven, who designed many of Efteling's attractions, was also a good friend of Disney's Tony Baxter (senior vice president of Walt Disney Imagineering). The relationship between the two parks was emphasized when Efteling won the 2004 Thea Classic Award, the highest honor awarded by the Themed Entertainment Association: Efteling had, as it turned out, been nominated by Tony Baxter. Also, a popular legend further links Disney and Efteling. For years, rumors have circulated that Walt Disney derived his inspiration for Disneyland (which opened in 1955), from Efteling (which opened in 1952). According to the legend, in the early 1950s, Walt Disney traveled to Europe a few times and visited several tourist attractions. Reportedly, a brochure from the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions even states that Disney "spent a great deal of time studying Pieck's work at Efteling before beginning his own park." However, the rumor was later discredited by Efteling. An off-hand remark by a PR person for Efteling during a presentation for a group of reporters further extend the legend's longevity. Disney likely never actually visited Efteling, though he did visit Madurodam and Tivoli Gardens in Copenhagen. The latter actually did provide some inspiration for Disneyland. Examples Efteling logo seen from Pagode Haunted Castle The Piraña Villa Volta The Python Entrance to Raveleijn, Park Show Fairytale Tree in Fairytale Forest Source: disneyparksfanon.fandom.com/wiki/Efteling
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.
@@themainstreetnews I grew up with Disneyland Paris for over than 25 years. I've had really good memories. Although the resort is American vibe, le me tell you I really like it
WHAT IF DISNEY WORLD RELOCATED THAT WOULD BE COOL COOL COOL COOL COOL WHO WOULD WANT THAT THAT THAT THAT THAT THAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Disneyland Paris has the best version of Big Thunder Mountain.
Many things about Paris are great. Most beautiful castle, best fantasy land, and the once masterpiece that was discovery land. They destroyed discoveryland with hyperspace mountain.
@@patrickmuhlbeyer9262 I agree, I’m a huge Star Wars fan, but theming Space Mountain to Star Wars was a bad idea :)
@@patrickmuhlbeyer9262 Yep they removed Space Mountain Mission 2 with Hyperspace Mountain which is Star Wars theme. Really out of context.
I'll be going to DLP the next month and see the updates there
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.
For sure. They saw this almost as an American invasion of their country. This didn’t help the numbers 😅
As beautiful as the Paris Disney castle park is; today, DisneySea is Disney's best park
That may be true, though up until that point (1992) DLP was the best 😉
Disney sea looks like garbage
I think that Disney seas only exists because Paris failed. Journey to the center of the earth and 20.000 leagues under the sea where clearly envisioned for Paris.
@@patrickmuhlbeyer9262 Nope. Disney Sea exists, because Disneyland Tokyo has beaten all expectations.
Yes, several ideas from Euro Disney, Westcot, and Port Disney were integrated, but that happened independent of Euro Disney's failure (similar to how Disney copy/pastes other lands and attractions. (latest example: Frozen)
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❤
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.
Disney Paris is the best disney park in my opinion. Although I go more often to Florida now.
Disney World is a completely different beast. It’s different from anything else!
I agree
Ive been to all the parks in the world. Id say it's the 2nd best, after Disney Seas in Tokyo, and before Disneys Animal Kingdom. The three of them are by far the most beautiful Disney parks that have been built.
@@themainstreetnews As French. Really not nice of you
@@christophermichaelclarence6003 what? 😅 Disneyland Paris is my Disney park, but Disney World is something completely different from anything else in the world! Oh, and I’m not French haha. I still love DLP though…
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.
French being the main language of the park doesn't help either, English is more suitable for an international park. There are some English shows/elements but usually very limited (when I went 1 or 2 shows a day were English, any pre-shows etc. were French) This might have improved, but still in the beginning English wasn't used as much (staff also had tendencies to either ignore English speaking guests or not understand/speak it)
@@Wrecker3D Disneyland Paris has the target audience families with children. But children aren't the best english speakers. Contrary to american parks have european parks the huge disadvantage of language barriers. Making the language of the park english would please the visitors from UK (The usa has its own disney parks), but would freak out the french. But what about the spanish, german and italian visitors?
@@kalzium8857 I know smaller kids might not be able to understand English, but in contrary to you might think, English is taught from very young age a schools, French is taught at later age (if at all) outside France, it was called Euro Disney , not Disney La France and if you want to cater international guests French isn't the best option.
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.
www.cendradigital.com/wp-content/uploads/Falla1985-6808684c6e9b62f720409845e3ea82c8.jpg
If the link doesnt work, just search in google for "falla del ayuntamiento 1985"
This is such an interesting and detailed story that I left out on purpose. It's a really amazing topic that I'll possibly make a full on video on! Thank you so much for sharing this piece of info and the link!
Honestly, I don't think that Spain would have worked. I'm from Germany and we visited dlp a lot when I was a child and I visited it many times since. I'm pretty sure that we wouldn't have done the trip to Spain. And that could be true for many people from Germany, Belgium, Netherlands, England and so on.
L’Espagne n’a été considéré par Disney que pour faire monter les enchères.
Depuis le début Disney voulait venir en France, ne serait-ce que pour sa place centrale en Europe.
It's a sad story. To this day this is one of the most beautiful parks in the world.
It really is! I love that the resort has been getting some very much needed work in these last few years, and there's no sign of stopping!
Our DLP is the most beautiful Disney Resort
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.
I was going to make a one v one video on why Tokyo Disneyland worked where Disneyland Paris failed!
It’s not the best park
Up until then, it definitely was, in my book. You can have a different opinion of course…
Disneyland Paris is such an expensive poor relation. It’d be so weird going there.
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.
For sure. Yes TWDC was only allowed to own 49% of what was a Private-Public agreement, this was because of the entire area that EuroDisney manages, which is completely huge. What's interesting is that now TWDC owns almost 100% of all that area...
Disneyland Paris is Euro Disneyland by another name and is still running.
Euro Disneyland never failed. They just changed the name of it.
EuroDisney failed, big time, Disneyland Paris is what came after and with all the changes that happened. 10 years ago the park was still seen as a money pit, it wasn’t until some years ago that the narrative changed and now DLP is the biggest international disney park, bringing in 79% of international revenue!
@@themainstreetnews
Again, they only changed the name of it.
Not true. They had many changes made to the park, I talk about some of these, such as the wine being sold inside the park, new attractions based on French culture, price reduction and better marketing etc. The name change itself may have done little but the it’s what it represented. With the new name, came a new era for the resort.
@@themainstreetnews
It is true because those changes are made by the same people who operate it.
What? Because of attraction changes and name changes that makes a Disney Theme Park a failure?
That's not what I said. EuroDisney (1992-94) was definitely a failure, no questions asked there because they didn't make one cent of profit. It wasn't until 1995 that they made their first profit, this was the same year that the name was changed. Of course it's the same resort, but you can clearly see that EuroDisney (92-95) failed, while Disneyland Paris (95) made a profit.
Really one of the most beautiful parks Disney has ever created. I was mesmerized the first time we visited it. 🤩
It’s such a beautiful park! I’m proud to call it my home park!
@@themainstreetnews 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
Disney doesn’t have a choice, they have to open a new park by 2036 from what I know
Yes, that’s true. Because of the agreement with the government they have to do so by 2036 or they will lose the land on which it would be built. The date was 2028, I believe, but was extended with the announcement of the 2b dollar expansion/ investment.
Relationsip?? Hahahaha
If it really failed then how come it is still in operation 32 years later?
That’s a good question. Compared to what Disney and Eisner were expecting, it was a major failure. This lead to the cancellation of many projects for the resort. It took several years until it was a profitable business and today it’s become very profitable for Disney.
When the business goes green, while the products what created a mixed risk. - Economy staff.
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?
That’s right! I touch on that at the end of the video, but Paris has been the best international park when it comes to revenue in the last years. Last quarter it accounted for, I believe, 17% of the Disney Parks revenue.
This could be due to the fact that the prices at Disney Paris are excessively excessive. Let's see how long people can still afford and want to pay as much money for a weekend in the theme park as elsewhere for a whole week of vacation...
Disney is seen as a premium destination, unfortunately for us that means premium prices. On the other hand, more revenue may also mean new attractions and expansions!
@@themainstreetnews Disney may be a premium product, but they then have to have a premium product. Currently that's not the case. By this I mean that Disneyland Paris doesn't do anything better than the Efteling, Phantasialand or Europa-Park. All are cheaper to visit, AND they build more new rides that are of "Disney quality". What Disney has going for it is the IP. If they also had build more rides over the years then they would be justified in asking the entry price they do.
@@EspenSGX I never said that the product that they offer should be considered as premium. The fact is that it is, and therefore it’s priced accordingly. Even with this prices, DLP completely beats every single European park/ resort out of the water in number of guests…
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.
In fact, the 4 locations I mentioned in the video were, 2 in Paris, 1 in Madrid and 1 in Barcelona (where PortAventura is now). I do think that location wise Paris makes more sense as it’s in the middle of Europe and is one of the top 3 most visited cities in the world!
@@themainstreetnews Yes, but the park gets less busy in the winter, as most of the tourist visit during the warmer months. Spain, would have year round weather. Plus Brits love Spain much more than Paris. So if the park was close to a beach area, it would be perfect. Plus, it has always been well known that the French are luke warm to American culture, so the initial reaction the French had is not surprising, where most Spanish love American culture. Its great that the parks are starting to do well, but I truly believe if they opened the park in Spain, and marketed it with the Olympics, which Barcelona 92 is still regarded as one of the most successful olympics in modern history, the resort would have been successful from the start.
I personally don’t think it would have the attendance that Paris brings. It could be successful, for sure, but couldn’t be as big. Either way, the creation of DLP made it so that PortAventura was built, so it was a win win for us, fans!
That's a good point,but I,as a Port Aventura fan I'm, I think DLP should have been built in the Côte d'Azur (south of France,around Marseille,Nice maybe?) It would have been a French PortAventura for the weather,which is almost the same as we have here in Barcelona-Tarragona
Thanks to Port Aventura,the theme park industry got into Spain,in 1997 Isla Mágica opened (in a part of the terrains for the 1992 Sevilla Expo),later came Terra Mítica in 2000 (which is definitely a failure,it is almost closed for the last few years,the only Spanish park that has not opened since the pandemic) and the then called Warner Bros Movie World Madrid in 2002,as a response to Port Aventura,which then was owned by Univesal Studios
I’m very familiar with the Spanish theme parks, seeing that I’m Portuguese and we’re neighbours 😉. Spain does have a great theme park lineup, which is awesome. While a Disney in nice or Marseille could maybe join the best of both worlds, I still think there’s nothing quite Paris… it’s one of the major cities in Europe and the most visited, that’s not easy to beat…
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.
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
I'd have loved it here in the UK but I think it would have struggled more overall - Brits can easily drive/fly/take the train to Paris, along with the Belgians, Dutch, Germans, Swiss etc, whereas all those countries couldn't have as easily got to the park if it were near London for example
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.)
That's very interesting. Efteling is such a staple of European theme parks that it makes a lot of sense!
Don't know how much of what you are saying is true. Don't think Efteling had any to do with Disney.
@@WouterTV
Disney & Eftelings connection:
Efteling has a good relationship with the Disney theme parks. Disneyland Paris consulted Efteling during its construction and design phase, to adapt the American park to European tastes. As a token of appreciation, the Disney Company gave Efteling a small statue. Ton van de Ven, who designed many of Efteling's attractions, was also a good friend of Disney's Tony Baxter (senior vice president of Walt Disney Imagineering). The relationship between the two parks was emphasized when Efteling won the 2004 Thea Classic Award, the highest honor awarded by the Themed Entertainment Association: Efteling had, as it turned out, been nominated by Tony Baxter.
Also, a popular legend further links Disney and Efteling. For years, rumors have circulated that Walt Disney derived his inspiration for Disneyland (which opened in 1955), from Efteling (which opened in 1952). According to the legend, in the early 1950s, Walt Disney traveled to Europe a few times and visited several tourist attractions. Reportedly, a brochure from the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions even states that Disney "spent a great deal of time studying Pieck's work at Efteling before beginning his own park." However, the rumor was later discredited by Efteling. An off-hand remark by a PR person for Efteling during a presentation for a group of reporters further extend the legend's longevity. Disney likely never actually visited Efteling, though he did visit Madurodam and Tivoli Gardens in Copenhagen. The latter actually did provide some inspiration for Disneyland.
Examples
Efteling logo seen from Pagode
Haunted Castle
The Piraña
Villa Volta
The Python
Entrance to Raveleijn, Park Show
Fairytale Tree in Fairytale Forest
Source: disneyparksfanon.fandom.com/wiki/Efteling
@@WouterTV Yes they did!
@@SuperDutchjohn they didn't. Efteling based their rides of Disney
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.
That's an amazing story you have there. Have you visited anytime since? The park itself hasn't changed too much but the resort sure has!
@@themainstreetnews I grew up with Disneyland Paris for over than 25 years. I've had really good memories.
Although the resort is American vibe, le me tell you I really like it
WHAT IF DISNEY WORLD RELOCATED THAT WOULD BE COOL COOL COOL COOL COOL WHO WOULD WANT THAT THAT THAT THAT THAT THAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!