Over 35 years ago, the trajectory of Disney Parks’ history changed forever when one of Disney’s most ambitious theme parks projects initially crashed and burned.
While the Disneyland Paris Resort – – originally known as EuroDisney – – first opened in 1992, initial plans for a European Disney resort were first floated during the 1960s, with sites in Frankfurt, Paris, London, and Milan under consideration. This was before the company shifted focus to Walt Disney World and the initial E.P.C.O.T. project. Two decades later, after the successful opening of both Walt Disney World and Tokyo Disneyland, the company began exploring a European location yet again. From an initial list of 1200 potential sites, Disney eventually narrowed things down to four; two in France and two in Spain. While the latter were thought to have the advantage during to their subtropical climates, eventually a site in the rural town of Marne-la-Vallée was chosen, mainly because of its proximity to Paris and its central location in Western Europe. Disney CEO Michael Eisner signed an initial agreement with the French government in 1985… and things began going wrong almost immediately.
From pretty much the moment that the EuroDisney project was announced, it met with resistance from somw quarters of French culture who lambasted it as an invasion of cultural imperialism. Well-known French stage director Ariane Mnouchkine even famously referred to the development as a “cultural Chernobyl.” In addition, Disney’s policies that required English to be spoken at meetings and prohibitions on makeup, facial hair, tattoos, jewelry, and other appearance issues led to strife with French labor unions.
Despite these issues, Disney had total confidence that the park was going to be an immediate smash hit upon its opening, and supported the resort with seven hotels that collectively featured 5,800 rooms as well as an entertainment district. However, that overabundance of hotel rooms would eventually become an albatross.
EuroDisney’s opening day was marred by a transit strike, and alleged bomb threats, and so many visitors staying away because they thought the crowds would be large that the actual opening day crowd was estimated to be under 25,000 — well below expectations. That would prove to be harbinger of things to come, as attendance at the park — which it should be noted is one of the most beautiful parks ever crafted by Disney, with Imagineer Tony Baxter leading the creative charge in designing the park many consider the ultimate execution of the “castle park” concept — continued to flatline, leading to massive financial losses for Disney and necessitating a reduction of the work force as well as the closure of some of the resort’s hotels.
While EuroDisney (which would be renamed Disneyland Paris after Disney discovered that the word Euro left a negative financial connotation) would eventually become a success and become one of Europe’s busiest tourist attractions (mainly thanks to the success of the park’s unique version of Space Mountain), its initial failure had a long-lasting effect on the Walt Disney Company.
Once seen as a centerpiece of Michael Eisner’s planned “Disney Decade”, the financial disaster that was the park’s opening led to many of the company’s future plans being either canceled or reduced considerably. Projects including WestCOT, Disney’s America, and Tomorrowland 2055 at Disneyland were axed all-together, while others like Animal Kingdom saw budgets cut considerably (goodbye Beastly Kingdom).
Furthermore, even as the years have passed, the specter of EuroDisney’s initial failure has hung over the company. Look no further than the other international resorts that have been built since — Hong Kong and Shanghai — both of which opened at a much smaller scale than the initial massive Parisian project.
The initial failure of EuroDisney was not only one of the biggest failures in Disney history at theme, but it also had ramifications that reverberate throughout he company to this day. Stay tuned to AllEars for more on Disney history!
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Have you ever been to Disneyland Paris? Let us know in the comments below.
I’ve been about 15 times and stayed at all hotels except Santa Fe and Davy Crockett campground. The first time was July 1992 just after it opened. The article said that some of the hotels closed. Some have been rethemed but I don’t think any have closed down. I like the parks better since Disney have taken over as originally it was a franchise and many of the cast members were ignorant and rude in the way they dealt with guests. (Many were excellent and I don’t want to take this away from them, but 0% of CMs should be rude.) There are certain nationalities that don’t queue in the same way as others so some people thought nothing of pushing to the front to meet a character. Disney has now introduced proper queuing systems to avoid this. Some of the best attractions have been in Paris, such as Cinemagique and Ratatouille. Others have been better than in the USA, such as Thundermesa and Pirates of the Caribbean. Food is generally very good especially dessert. The 3pm parade is often at 5pm when it’s not so hot. (Please WDW!) Though this may be because the main meal is in the middle of the day not the evening in France. Expect to sit for 2 hours at table service restaurants. The horticulture is also very good. I’ve done a behind the scenes tour and as it rains a lot, we learnt how Disney built into the park from day 1, a way to get round the whole park without getting wet. (Again, WDW please!) Over the years I have grumbled about the park but I really enjoy it too.