As Disneyland Paris approaches its 30th anniversary, we look back to how it was 30 years ago. It was an ambitious project. Not only was it the first and only Disney park in Europe, but it was the largest Magic Kingdom-style park in the world until Shanghai surpassed it in 2016. Even though the announcement that France would get a Disneyland was negatively received, Micheal Eisner believed that they could do it and worked hard for many years to get the park open. Then, in 1992, after many years of hard work, Disneyland Paris (then known as the EuroDisneyland) was opened.
It should've been a big time of celebration, but it wasn't. The resort had a lukewarm reception from the French people, who criticized it for being focused more on Europe and not their homeland of France. Not to mention, the park's name, EuroDisney, was a bad name. Although Disney thought that it would mean "European Disney," the Europeans mistook it for something else since Euro is their money source. The park and its surrounding resort was a financial disaster. In the wake of this, many theme parks, including WESTcot and Disneysea, U.S.A, were cancelled, and budget cuts had to be made on the parks in development, resulting in Animal Kingdom scrapping Beastly Kingdom and Prehistoria and instead building Camp Minnie-Mickey and Dinoland, U.S.A. The park destroyed the company's confidence in big parks, and from that time forward, they tried to build smaller parks.
(To be honest, I've never seen Disneyland Paris as a failure. I've seen it more as a mixed success. Sure, it didn't have the best reception and its financial performance was really bad, but I think that Micheal Eisner and Frank Wells tried their hardest and they really don't get much respect for it. When it first opened, it was the biggest park, and arguably the most beautiful. Not to mention, they had creative new twists for European people (Phantom Manor, Discoveryland, the Arcades) and today, it is the most-visited theme park in Europe. They have to get some credit for that. It was also the last theme park that Frank Wells helped with before his death, which meant that it had to have some significance.)
Now, the resort has worked through its problems over the last few decades and is better accepted by the French, and as they prepare to celebrate their 30th, we can only imagine what would've happened had the park been an initial success. What if Disney played their cards better and made sure that the park and its surrounding resort would better appeal to the French? What if they had come up with a better name (or location) for their first European theme park? What if the financial catastrophe that came with the resort did not happen?
What if.......?
It should've been a big time of celebration, but it wasn't. The resort had a lukewarm reception from the French people, who criticized it for being focused more on Europe and not their homeland of France. Not to mention, the park's name, EuroDisney, was a bad name. Although Disney thought that it would mean "European Disney," the Europeans mistook it for something else since Euro is their money source. The park and its surrounding resort was a financial disaster. In the wake of this, many theme parks, including WESTcot and Disneysea, U.S.A, were cancelled, and budget cuts had to be made on the parks in development, resulting in Animal Kingdom scrapping Beastly Kingdom and Prehistoria and instead building Camp Minnie-Mickey and Dinoland, U.S.A. The park destroyed the company's confidence in big parks, and from that time forward, they tried to build smaller parks.
(To be honest, I've never seen Disneyland Paris as a failure. I've seen it more as a mixed success. Sure, it didn't have the best reception and its financial performance was really bad, but I think that Micheal Eisner and Frank Wells tried their hardest and they really don't get much respect for it. When it first opened, it was the biggest park, and arguably the most beautiful. Not to mention, they had creative new twists for European people (Phantom Manor, Discoveryland, the Arcades) and today, it is the most-visited theme park in Europe. They have to get some credit for that. It was also the last theme park that Frank Wells helped with before his death, which meant that it had to have some significance.)
Now, the resort has worked through its problems over the last few decades and is better accepted by the French, and as they prepare to celebrate their 30th, we can only imagine what would've happened had the park been an initial success. What if Disney played their cards better and made sure that the park and its surrounding resort would better appeal to the French? What if they had come up with a better name (or location) for their first European theme park? What if the financial catastrophe that came with the resort did not happen?
What if.......?
