Disneyland Paris

Development

After the success of Tokyo Disneyland in 1983. Walt Disney Imagineering began thinking about building another international destination. With the arrival of CEO Michael Eisner and President Frank Wells in 1984, it was soon decided the next resort would be in Europe. Eisner personally picked France due to it's central location and infrastructure. Work began on what was then called Euro Disneyland Resort with legendary Imagineer, Tony Baxter, by then the veteran creator of Big Thunder Mountain, The original Journey Into Imagination at EPCOT Center and Splash Mountain as creative lead. The finished park opened on April 12th 1992.

The Resort

The Disneyland Paris Resort is obviously smaller than the Walt Disney World Resort in Florida but is bigger than the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim California. It includes 2 Theme Parks, A shopping and Entertainment District known as the Disney Village a golf course and 7 different hotels. Accessing the resort from the city of Paris is very easy thanks to the Paris metro line Subway system on the RER-A line, whose final stop on the line is right outside the resort.

Disneyland Park

Entrance

The entrance to Disneyland Park is underneath the majestic Disneyland Hotel. there is a fountain and garden in the forecourt. Attraction posters line the walls of the entrance area providing previews of the adventures to come.

Main Street U.S.A

Main Street USA is an American town at the turn of the 20th Century. Show Producer, Eddie Sotto and his Imagineering team went all out decorating the street with billboards and other little touches that suggest this is a real place with a real history. There are many stores and restaurants on the street. Flanking the street on either side are two arcades The Liberty Arcade and the Discovery Arcade. During my visit I was only able to visit the Liberty Arcade. The idea behind the arcades is to give guests an alternate way to cross Main Street during parades, overcrowding and inclement weather. It really came in handy during the rainstorm that happened when I was there. The Liberty Arcade tells the story of The Statue of Liberty built by France as a gift to the United States of America.

The Discovery Arcade highlights inventions and futurism.

The Disneyland Railroad formerly the Euro Disneyland Railroad was originally designed with a logo reading EDRR. You can still see various EDRR signs on the ironwork of the railroad station. This became a point of contention for Show Producer Eddie Sotto because management assumed he had named the railroad after himself.

Frontierland

Frontierland takes guests to the wild west town of Thunder Mesa. According to the backstory gold was discovered in Big Thunder Mountain and gold baron Henry Ravenswood became head of the Big Thunder Mining Company. He used the proceeds to build himself a home later known as Phantom Manor overlooking the Mountain. The version of Big Thunder Mountain at Disneyland Paris is probably the best version of the ride. Unlike Disneyland and Walt Disney World where Big Thunder was built on either side of the Rivers Of America. Here, Big Thunder is the centerpiece of the land located on an island in the middle of the Rivers of the Far West. Phantom Manor tells the story of Melanie Ravenswood daughter of Henry Ravenswood. Melanie's suitor wishes to take her far away from Thunder Mesa which her father disapproves of. An earthquake happened on the couples wedding day. Melanie waited and waited for her groom to appear wandering the house in her wedding gown to the day of her death. The attraction has been re-tooled in recent years to make Melanie seem less of a helpless victim. If you are familiar with the Haunted Mansion in the American Parks, Phantom Manor is similar but with a more definite story which ties the whole of Frontierland together. If I were to nitpick a few things one would be that when I went they were playing tracks from The Nightmare Before Christmas soundtrack as area music. I know it's just for Halloween season but it was still odd juxtaposed with the old west vibe the land is meant to portray. Also there seemed to be an overabundance of restaurants in Frontierland. We also took a ride on the Molly Brown Boat knowing that Magic Kingdom in Florida would soon lose it's boat and the entire Rivers Of America in an idiotic move to put Cars attractions in the Magic Kingdom.

Adventureland

The centerpiece of Adventureland is Adventure Isle, a series of bridges and caves with the Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse and the pirate galleon and skull rock which were icons of Disneyland's Fantasyland until 1983 when they were removed as part of the new Fantasyland project. They were resurrected for Adventure Isle in 1992.

DLP's version of Pirates Of The Caribbean was designed to be a reverse of the Disneyland version. I say "Was" because of recent changes I will address later. The queue is EXTREMELY dark with only George Bruns' Scare-Me Music to orient yourself with. The Ride itself begins by passing the Blue Lagoon restaurant in a manner similar to the Blue Bayou at Disneyland. Okay, for film synergy the restaurant has been re-named Captain Jacks' a few years ago but I still like Blue Lagoon better. after this you go up a lift hill where the "Marketing Mist" of Davy Jones and Blackbeard which was recently removed from the American parks is still there.

Afterwards, you sail through the flooded fort which incorporates the famous Jail Scene. You then splash down into a battle where the Blackbeard- inspired Captain of the Wicked Wench pirate ship orders his crew to fire on the fort. The captain was replaced by the Movie Franchises Barbossa character in the American parks. Barbossa will appear later in the ride here. The Pirates still dunk the mayor to divulge the location of the town treasure. In the American parks they are more concerned about Captain Jack Sparrow. Sparrow appears twice in the ride though, the first time hiding in a barrel in the always evolving Chase Scene. The Auction Scene's recent re-tooling is better handled in Paris than in the American Parks. After the burning Town Scene going under the hairy-legged pirate the boat goes down another drop into an exploding arsenal. Captain Barbossa transforms from a flesh and blood pirate into a skeleton and waves his sword at you. this new effect unfortunately detracts from the iconic vignette of the skeleton behind the wheel of a ship. More upsetting is the insertion of a drunk Captain Jack Sparrow and parrot into the treasure cave which undercuts the original message that Show Producer Chris Tietz and his Imagineering team meant for the attraction that crime doesn't pay.

Indiana Jones And The Temple Of Peril was not open during my visit.

Fantasyland

I did not spend as much time in Fantasyland as I would have liked. It's a Small World has a similar facade to the Disneyland version and the attraction is marginally different. I didn't do any of the Fantasyland dark rides but figure they are similar enough to their American counterparts for it not to matter.

In Sleeping Beauty Castle there are beautiful stained glass windows of the story of Sleeping Beauty by Paul Chapman. The Dragons Lair was sadly closed during my visit so I can't comment on that.

Discoveryland

Discoveryland was conceived by Show Producer Tim Delaney as a land of timeless futurism to combat the tendency in the existing parks of Tomorrowland becoming outdated. The reason it works here and did not work when exported back to the American parks in the disastrous Toomorrowland 1998 at Disneyland is that the land was conceived by scratch to be this way rather than being retrofitted onto existing buildings.

Star Wars Hyperspace Mountain was built on the bones of Space Mountain: From The Earth To The Moon based on the Jules Verne novel about the Baltimore Gun Club shooting a projectile to carry man to the moon. Forcing a Star Wars conceit onto the Jules Verne theme just seems awkward and hope the original returns in the near future.

Star Tours: The Adventures Continue is virtually the same as the American versions just in French. I stupidly forgot about Le Mysteries Du Nautilus so can't comment on that.

Initial Reception and problems

When the park opened in 1992 there were several issues which arose. Initially the parks served no alcoholic beverages as was the policy at Castle Parks at the time. Michael Eisner also had too many hotels built to feed demand that simply was not there. The park faced financial problems until it was arguably saved by the opening of Space Mountain in 1995.

Michael Eisner became afraid of spending lavishly on theme parks and the result of the following era of cost cutting led to such duds as the original Disney's California Adventure and the second Paris Park, Walt Disney Studios Paris.

Walt Disney Studios Paris

When I visited Walt Disney Studios Paris I already knew it was lauded as the worst Disney park ever built. When I went most of the park was walls. They will be building a World of Frozen in the near future and re-naming the park the rather bland "Disney Adventure World" The only attraction worth doing and the only one I did was the Twilight Zone Tower Of Terror which is pretty much a carbon copy of the Disney California Adventure version before it was basterdized into Guardians Of The Galaxy: Mission Breakout.

Conclusion

Disneyland Park is indeed a beautiful park and was a pleasure to visit. One thing that surprised me on the way out of the park. I heard an instrumental version of Zip-A-Dee-Do-Dah which is ironic considering Disney's recent efforts to remove anything associated with Song Of The South and it's creative offspring Splash Mountain. Fortunately for Disneyland Paris in retrospect Splash Mountain was never built there. Also due to it's financial problems it hasn't received as much investment as the American Parks and thus less of a chance to have it's theme messed up. I hope nothing but the best for Disneyland Paris in the future.