Ptch: Disneyland Paris!
I know it sounds strange that with only two days in Paris, we choose to spend one of them in Disneyland Paris, but let me remind you of a couple things. 1) We’re Disney people. See exhibit A. 2) Have you heard me rave about the quality of materials and services at Disney? 3) I’d rather support us exporting fun, fairy tales, being a kid, and happy silly stuff than a lot of the stuff we export. All that being said, if you’re not a Disney fan, go ahead and skip to the next blog.
The reason I bring this up is that there was a lot of controversy that surrounded the opening of Disneyland Paris those twenty years ago. Following the opening of Disney World in 1972 and Tokyo Disneyland in 1983, both of which were hugely successful, Disney went after the European market, looking at locations both in France and in Spain, and finally signed off on the location just outside Paris. The major critics at the time were concerned not so much with the park or the economic revenue that it would be bringing in, but the exportation of American consumerism, the reliance on English, and the suppression of French individualism that park appearance codes would put on the work force.
Disney saved themselves in Europe with three things: 1) rebranding themselves from Euro Disney, which people associated with commerce {think what would happen if a park called Dollar Disney opened?} to Disneyland Paris, which has a more romantic connotation, 2) opening their most ambitious, most nausea inducing, fastest Space Mountain anywhere, and 3) making it a requirement for the employees to speak French and one other European language, not necessarily English, instead of relying on English to get everything done. As far as the appearance regulations, those are in place in every Disney park, but they’re critical for the brand. What kind of impression would it give you about the brand if you were greeted by a Snow White with facial tattoos, lip piercings, and heavy makeup, or if you saw wholesome Bert from Mary Poppins taking a smoke break?
Ironically, none of these were an issue in the Tokyo market, but Tokyo Disneyland isn’t owned and operated by the Disney corporation itself – it’s operated by the Oriental Land Company who licensed the name and theme from Disney and operate it as an import, rather than Disney operating it as an export. Subtle differences, but they can make a major difference in perception. Hong Kong Disneyland opened in 2007 with relatively little controversy, and was specifically designed with the help of local architects to put it in compliance with feng shui. The largest criticisms for that park have been overcrowding, thanks to its current relatively small capacity. I’m curious to see how Disneyland Shanghai will do when it opens in December 2015.
From an analytical perspective as well as a marketing perspective, I love looking at how Disney does business. The Walt Disney Company is the largest media conglomerate in the world right now, and their management of the parks, the studios, the media, the online business, and the rest of it is absolutely amazing. And from a personal perspective, it’s just fun.
Okay, lesson and lecture over! Here’s a little view into Disneyland Paris!
Our visit to Disneyland Paris coincided with the one day out of our trip that it decided to rain. With the beautiful weather we had throughout our trip and all the trouble it would have caused us other days if it had rained, I wasn’t going to complain! Scott and I brought rain jackets, being weather skeptics, but Karen and Sabrina elected to get the, er, fashionable Disneyland Paris ponchos.
All around the front entrance lie compass roses pointing with direction and distance to the other Disney parks. Scott and I stopped at the one for Orlando – we’re a long way from our Disney!
Sleeping Beauty’s castle lies in the very center of the park. It’s a larger version of the Sleeping Beauty’s castle in the Anaheim park, but so far, out of the three parks we’ve visited, it’s my favorite castle. I love the design, the shops and the stained glass and the tapestries inside, and the fact that there’s a dragon in the basement. Check out Karen’s ptch to see it.
It was fun exploring the park to see which of our favorites had been recreated there, and which ones were different. The Star Tours ride was the same as the Disney original, which meant it had all those lack of syncs that made me green. I thought I handled it well, but it made it a lot harder to go through all the cannon shots, inversions, super speed, and everything else that I encountered in Space Mountain. Space Mountain was the biggest difference. It’s a tame roller coaster at the American parks. In this one…chee-hoo! Did I just pass my g-force test for NASA?
We stopped for lunch outside the Pirates of the Caribbean ride {I think this one is even better than the others} at the Blue Lagoon, their version of my parents’ favorite, the Blue Bayou. The food here was fabulous! I had their surf and turf, which is a salsa and crab stuffed lobster tail, beef medallions, and wonderfully grilled veggies. Yum!
One of the other major differences was the Phantom Manor, Paris’s version of the Haunted Mansion. This version contained a number of scenes familiar to those who know the Anaheim and Orlando rides, but has its own twist. The Anaheim mansion is in the French Quarter and is a New Orleans mansion, the Orlando one is a little more Gothic, and this one is a clapperboard house set in the Wild West. Go figure!
Adjacent to Disneyland Paris is Disney Studios, which mimics Orlando’s Hollywood Studios park, except there aren’t a whole lot of rides. It’s mostly shows and shops. We went in, poked around, sat through a show, and then called it a day. The park was starting to get really crowded and we really weren’t sold on Disney Studios. We would love to come back – Scott’s sold on Paris and wants to take a trip out to Versailles and up to Normandy Beach to see the World War II memorials, and we always want more Disney – but we’ll skip the Studios next time. It’s the way I feel about the Hollywood Studios park anyway. If not for Star Tours and the Indiana Jones stunt show, I don’t think we’d ever go there.
All in all, Disneyland Paris was a lot of fun! We had a chance to see how our favorites had been adapted to include elements of other cultures and other audiences, and it was great to see how audiences from all over the world were enjoying the things we’d enjoyed as kids. And we wrapped up with enough time to get back for dinner, pack up our things, and get ready for our criminally early flight out of Charles de Gaulle.
This wraps up the tours for the time being, folks! Tomorrow, you’ll get to see a recap of our anniversary weekend in Florida and after that, it’s business as usual around here. Meaning I have no idea what I’m going to be writing about. Hope you enjoyed, and if you have any suggestions for places we need to see or things we need to do on our next trip out here, I’d love to hear from you!
KCS
Want to see more things we discovered in Paris? Try:
A Macaron Class | A Whirlwind Day in the City of Lights | Disneyland Paris