On March 16, 2002, the Walt Disney Studios Park opened its doors to the public. At 27 hectares, it is a continuation on an earlier, never realized concept; the Disney-MGM Studios Europe.
The April 2007 issue of trade magazine Park World reported the following attendance estimates for 2006 compiled by Economic Research Associates in partnership with TEA (formerly the Themed Entertainment Association):
· Disneyland Park, 10.6 million visits (No. 5 worldwide);
· Walt Disney Studios, 2.2 million visits.
Other recreation
Main articles: Disney Village and Golf Disneyland
The Disney Village entertainment district contains a variety of restaurants, bars, shops and other venues and stays open after the parks close.
Golf Disneyland features 9-hole and 18-hole courses.
Hotels
The complex features seven Disneyland Resort Paris hotels. The Disneyland Hotel is located over the entrance of the Disneyland Park and is marketed as the most prestigious hotel on property. A body of water known as Lake Disney is surrounded by Disney's Hotel New York, Disney's Newport Bay Club and Disney's Sequoia Lodge. Disney's Hotel Cheyenne and Disney's Hotel Santa Fe are located near Lake Disney, Disney's Davy Crockett Ranch is located in a woodland area outside the resort perimeter.
Disneyland Resort Paris includes six Associated Hotels which are not managed by Euro Disney S.C.A. but provide free shuttle buses to the parks: Marriott's Village d'lle-de-France, Radisson SAS Hotel, a Holiday Inn Hotel, Vienna International Dream Castle Hotel, MyTravel's Explorers Hotel and a Kyriad Hotel.
Transport
A railway station, Marne-la-Vallйe - Chessy, with connection to the suburban RER network and the TGV high-speed rail network is located between the theme parks and Disney Village. Thalys no longer operates from Marne-la-Valle train station, but there are daily services from London on the Eurostar. On June 10, 2007, a new TGV line, LGV Est, began service between Paris and Strasbourg.
Free shuttle buses provide transport to all Disney hotels (except Disney's Davy Crockett Ranch) and Associated Hotels.
The background...
When, under Michael Eisner, the Disney CEO and miracle worker who is generally credited with having turned Disney around in the early 80s, Disney was looking for a European site the choice was between Spain and France. Spain had everything going for it - established tourist industry, the weather, sympathetic government, the weather, good air links, the weather...
Paris, however, had two major points in its favour; an extremely good position- almost in the centre of Europe and a large expanse of flat, featureless land. Disney has never wanted people to be drawn away from its parks by beautiful countryside neither has it wanted anything to interfere with the theme park experience. Also, the French government was willing to 'make it worthwhile' for Disney to build in Marne la Valee. For a more detailed account of the first ten years of the resort's fortunes,
But why should you choose Paris Disney?
Basically, it's a better theme park than the Magic Kingdom in Florida. Disney has learnt from Disneyland, WDW's Magic Kingdom and Tokyo Disneyland and have created something rather special in Disneyland Paris. Besides being physically the largest Park of the four, it has a number of intimate little paths and hidden corners on much the same lines as those which imbue the Californian park with such charm. The rides are, of course, technologically more recent (Pirates of the Caribbean is much superior to its WDW cousin) and, owing to the different safety legislation in France, you don't have the illusion in the 'darker' rides spoilt by seeing little red 'Exit' signs! It's also achieved a European flavor, has fewer controls than the States (probably because the Paris natives don't listen to anyone!) and is a more up to date, intimate park than Florida overall. Besides which, if you hate long flights in economy class, then it's only an hour away!
The most compelling reason, however, has to be the addition of the Walt Disney Studios, making Disneyland Paris the first Disney theme park in the World (outside of the States) to have a second theme Park (unfortunately, Disneyland in Anaheim beat Paris by seven months, but their second park isn't in the same league as the new Studios). The WD Studios is fairly small at the moment, but plans are afoot to bring some of the world's greatest attractions to the Studios in the near future. One ride many have wanted to see there is the Tower of Terror, the astonishingly designed freefall lift (or elevator for the Americans) ride which currently features as the biggest draw in Florida's theme parks, The other excellent reason has to be the Val d'Europe shopping complex.
From the outset, you need to be aware that Disney is very much about control. From the moment you get up in your hotel to the moment you turn out the lights at the end of the day, Disney will attempt to control your every experience. Sounds sinister? Well, not really. What they offer is a total experience and they believe they can't achieve the level of experience they want without the degree of control they exert.
All Disney Cast members have to be trained in and adhere to a four point system: Safety, Courtesy, Efficiency and Show. Everything they do is governed by the order of those points. If you know how the system works, then you have some hope of using it to your advantage. For instance, be assured that if something infringes the safety of another guest (or even your own!) everything else comes second - including the legendary courtesy. However, if it's not endangering someone, then the courtesy element is their next point and you can often achieve your aim. However, they do not control people with the same degree of firmness as in the States. The parades are a typical example.
The Hotels
Very important:
Disney sometimes operates an early entry policy for its hotel guests. Any advantage you might gain by following this guide will be destroyed if the hotel guests have early entry privileges on the day you visit so be sure to telephone the park the day before you plan to come to ascertain which days, if any, Disney Hotel guests have that privilege and avoid those days like the plague!!
On the other hand, if you're actually staying at a Disney Hotel (by far the best idea, anyway) you will be given a hotel ID card. This unprepossessing little card is very important. Besides being able to charge absolutely anything you buy back to your hotel room one exceptionally useful function of the card is to allow you to enter the Disneyland hotel grounds early in the morning while they're still shut to day trippers (these grounds act as the entrance to the park as well as the hotel grounds). Disney makes the day trippers and non-hotel guests line up at these imposing gates. You can walk through simply by brandishing your ID card and shouting "Excuse moi" or something equally inane.
There are six hotels on the site and one camping ground, three miles away. All hotel rooms sleep 4 people in two double beds and the Newport Bay, New York and Disneyland Hotels offer some rooms that sleep five. All the hotels except Hotel Cheyenne and Santa Fe also have suites. Tea and coffee making facilities are not provided and Cheyenne and Santa Fe don't have a swimming pool. Guests staying there used to be able to use the Sequoia Lodge pool, but that has now been discontinued.
Staying at any of the hotels is quite an experience because of the attention to detail Disney lavishes on everything. Disney would maintain that quality of service (as opposed to levels of service) are all equal; some, however, are more equal than others. Click on the highlighted links to learn more.
Santa Fe
Basic, small, cheap and not recommended. The main areas can be noisy as well in our experience, although we've started get emails from people who say that the Santa Fe has improved considerably. Their only restaurant is La Cantina
Hotel Cheyenne.
Fantastic themed hotel, about 17 minutes walk from the park. First one we stayed in. Small rooms (with bunks for the kids), cheap but a great experience. Disney have reintroduced the ubiquitous hotel charge card facility to both the Cheyenne and the Santa Fe, a very good move, as the charge card facility is excellent. Eating is in the decorously named Chuck Wagon
Sequoia Lodge
Lakeside hunter's lodge type hotel. A nasty fire a few years ago caused it to smell a lot for about three months but they've rectified that now. Make sure you get a room in the main building. It can be a nuisance hauling yourself in from one of the lodges in bad weather. Excellent swimming pool and some very good rooms on the front with stunning views. Beaver Creek Tavern and Hunters Grill provide comestibles.
Newport Bay
Absolutely huge, nautically themed, hotel on the lakeside again. Best hotel shop, great swimming pool and three floors of extra services if you pay. Cape Cod and Yacht Club delight the palette.
New York
Good for business people, not a lot for the kids. Expensive but a little too sterile for our tastes. Parkside Diner and the classy Manhattan Restaurant keep body and soul together
Disneyland Hotel
The best. Judged 'European Hotel of the Year' by the British Travel Agents Association. Expensive, pink and right at the entrance to the park, a first for any Disney park in the world. By itself, this is a great hotel, especially in winter, when you can leave the blizzards and wind outside and pop back to your room for a quick chocolate. However, the Castle Club, a 50 room boutique hotel within the Disneyland is amazing. If you can afford it, try it. A week of decadent fawning and unrestrained hedonism can be yours! Inventions, the California Grill and the Piano Bar provide sustenance.
All of the hotels are frequented by Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Pluto and Goofy at certain times but the Disneyland Hotel is the most visited. Meeting the characters in your hotel has the advantage that you don't waste valuable riding time in the park standing in a queue with your offspring hoping to have the autograph book signed.
Davy Crockett Ranch
About three miles from the park is the campsite at the Davy Crockett Ranch. An excellent swimming pool and great log cabin type accommodation make it a good place for the kids. The withdrawal of the bus service between the site and the main park has been something of a blow, however, and staying at the Campsite is only practical if you have your own transport.
The complex
The theme park’s 138 acres are divided into five theme Lands: Main Street USA, Frontier land, Adventure land, Fantasyland and Discovery land. Disney, however, has ensured that nothing is left to chance. From the smallest detail in planning to the largest construction, everything tells a story.
MAIN STREET USA
Main Street is Walt Disney’s idealized idea of a small-town, Victorian America. The Main Street traffic includes horse-drawn rail cars, old double-decker buses, an antique fire engine, a Keystone-cop style paddy wagon and a vintage car which together tell the story of the evolution of transport. These form part of a working transport system which moves visitors between the Town Square and the central hub of the park near Sleeping Beauty’s Castle, beneath which a Dragon lurks. Here is the Central Plaza, the point from which paths radiate to the other four lands. The Castle itself acts as a landmark throughout the park, enabling guests to find where they are when Aunty Edna has just walked off with the only copy of the map. The Park's pathways are an adventure in them and offer both dry and open routes between Frontier land, Adventure land and Fantasyland. Some of these are rarely discovered by the guests, so intent are they on getting to the castle but they can save a great deal of time. Watch out for the path that runs from the main entrance to Fort Comstock, past the toilets and towards Adventure land. This route offers cover and a fabulous example of the imaginers’' best work, where they imperceptibly change from Frontier America construction to Arabian and Central African thatching.
As you enter Main St, you pass beneath Main St Station from where you can ride a nineteenth century ‘steam’ engine around the park. En route, you pass through a Grand Canyon Diorama, a visual depiction of the Canyon from dawn to dusk. The train also stops in each of the other lands from where you can explore. Trains run every ten minutes but boarding in the lands is sometimes prohibited before midday. Beneath the station are lockers where, for 10 ff, you can store valuables and bags. (Currently suspended owing to the security risks)
FRONTIERLAND
From the Central Plaza, this is the first land you encounter, a musical, visual and live action recreation of America’s Wild West. Entry is through Fort Comstock’s imposing wooden gate and fort grounds, in which children can pretend they’re winning the West all over again, mainly by dropping their sticky lollipops on the heads of unsuspecting passers by.
Rides:
Big Thunder Mountain
Phantom manor
Shows:
Chaparral theatre
ADVENTURELAND
Inspired by tales of swashbuckling Pirates and Daring Adventurers in Exotic Places, in Adventure land you can experience wild rides and amazing audioanimatronic productions and then explore the mysteries of Adventure island, an experience all of its own. Watch out for the wobbly barrel, the fantastic rope suspension bridge and the maze of dimly lit caves!
Rides:
Pirates of the Caribbean
Indiana Jones
Adventure isle
FANTASYLAND
It’s an unusual person who doesn’t immediately feel a sense of warmth and security in this, the most magical of the lands. With their usual impeccable sense of design, the Imaginers have modeled the buildings (including the castle) on the animated features in the Disney stable. If you have very young offspring, let them try their hand at removing the Sword in the Stone, between the castle and the Gallopers.
Rides:
It's a small World
Les Pirouettes du Vieux Moulin (The bucket ride)
Peter Pan's Flight
Casey Junior
Story book ride
Alice's Curious Labyrinth
Mad Hatter's tea cups
Snow White and the seven Dwarfs
The adventures of Pinocchio
The Lancelot Carrousel
Dumbo
Shows:
Castle Theatre (seasonal
The Train station theatre (seasonal)
DISCOVERYLAND
Dedicated to man’s technological achievements and dreams, the entrance to Discovery land appears to thrust its way upwards from the earth. Here the theme is travel through Space and Time and, in the process, the dreams, ideas and works of Jules Verne are celebrated, as are those of Leonardo DeVinci and HG Wells. Video polis, the Park's largest cafe, also hosts the best shows.
Rides:
Buzz Lightyear
Star Tours
Space Mountain
Autopia
Orbitron
Nautilus
Le Visionarium
Honey, I shrunk the Audience!
Shows:
Video polis
Walt Disney STUDIOS
You will be able to see what the Studios have to offer in a day, but this will mean a little planning. When you arrive, be sure to stop at Studio Services - on the right as you enter the Studios and before you enter Studio 1 - and pick up a timetable. This is essential as many of the Studio attractions are shows and occur at certain times. The following shows are timetabled:
The Parade - 1.30 and 6.00 (in peak times)
Cinemagique - every 45 minutes
Motors - Action! - 5 or 6 times a day
Sister Act - about twice a day
The following shows are continuous loaders:
The Art of Disney Animation
Television Production Tour
And Armageddon, The Rock 'n Roller Coaster, Studio Tram Tour and Flying Carpets are essentially rides.
The Current visitor patterns for the Walt Disney Studios suggest about a 1:4 guest ratio in favor of the Disneyland Park (Magic Kingdom). Although that might imply a relatively quiet day in the Studios, there are fewer attractions and therefore less to do and so the actual attractions may well be as busy. Other factors which have a major impact on the queue lengths include the timing of the Stunt show (when it ends, 4000 people pour out, just looking for something to ride!) and the various other shows' endings, such as Cinemagique and Animagique.
However, in late July 2003, the numbers in the Studio were such that queues were few throughout the day and entering the attractions generally stress-free. The proximity of the two parks also allows for mass migrations at certain times, notably about half an hour before the Main Street Electrical Parade in the Disneyland Park (Magic Kingdom) and shortly after the Studios close for the evening - in peak times at about 8.30 pm. The signs are that the Studios has not yet found its rhythm in terms of visitor movements but expect this to start happening in the next few months as repeat visitors arrive, armed with the knowledge of what they want to do, and when. For now, our advice is to visit the Disneyland Park (Magic Kingdom) first and the Studios in the mid to late afternoon.