News Disneyland Paris Updates & Features

How many pictures do you take on a trip to Disneyland Resort Paris? A few hundred? A couple of thousand? Well, your collection may have just been trumped.

In anticipation of the official launch of the complete 3D recreation of Disneyland Resort Paris on Google Earth, the resort has released some surprising facts and figures behind its creation. More than 85,000 pictures were taken over 20 days to create a complete virtual representation of the resort.

Impressive? Sure. But know also that no less than 2,221 of those were for Le Château de la Belle au Bois Dormant alone! From the pictures, the creators picked out 20,651 different textures to map onto a total of 1,587 three-dimensional models of the resort.

And it won’t just cover the main attractions — you’ll be able to explore all of Disneyland Park and Walt Disney Studios Park, featuring more than 50 attractions, plus the 7 Disney Hotels and Disney Village!

Here’s the official text:

For the first time ever, you can Google Disneyland® Paris… in 3D!

Live on Google Earth as of 28 March 2009

“Imagineer” a visit to Disneyland® Resort Paris on Google Earth!

Imagine a Disneyland where dreams come true. A place where you can fly like Peter Pan over Sleeping Beauty Castle, zoom down to Main Street, U.S.A.®, or board Captain Hook’s Pirate ship.

From the imagination of Disney and Google comes a 3D experience like no other. Disneyland® Resort Paris. From the sky. From the ground. From anywhere you want. It’s as big as imagination itself. All at the click of a mouse!

Every inch of Disneyland® Resort Paris

Disneyland Paris in 3D is enorMouse: 2 Disney Parks with more than 50 attractions, 7 Disney Hotels and Disney Village. Now you can explore every inch of the resort in superb Disney details! And you’ll be one of the first to get a sneak peek of Mickey’s Magical Party, starting 4 April 2009.

With the publication of the latest issue of annual passport magazine Envie de+, which we featured in our first article on this new venture, a web address on the official Disneyland Resort Paris website was given for more information. Though it has been reported and written on most fansites and forums that the link is not yet functional, it appears we’ve actually been typing the URL provided a little too perfectly.

The magazine quotes http://www.disneylandparis.fr/googleearth3d, which brings up a page error.

However, the actual address, as confirmed in the footer of the official text we’ve got hold of, should be /googleearth3D, with a capital ‘D’ in 3D. You can therefore already view the page in French here or English here.

The page currently provides a countdown to the official launch date, 28th March 2009.

Update (22:14 GMT):

Since we posted this article, the page URLs on the official website were magically updated! That means we’re back to ‘3D’ with a lower-case ‘d’ and therefore the French page can be found here, with the English page here.

What’s all this? Google Earth? 3D recreation? Let’s explain…

Google Earth, we’ll begin back here, is a like a super-duper version of the flat aerial views you might have used in Google Maps. It lets you type in a location anywhere on Earth and fly there, instantly, getting an amazingly clear aerial view of the landscape. It lets you plan routes, see your house from space or just go for a virtual fly around our planet.

In the newer versions of this free software download, though, the concept becomes almost hyper-real. In specific locations, you can now pan and tilt the viewpoint and fly right down to the ground to see computer generated images of selected landscapes and buildings. By moving the camera around, you can visit places and fly through them, seeing exactly what it’s like to actually be there.

May 2008 brought the announcement that Disney had struck a deal for Walt Disney World Resort in Florida to get its very own complete Google Earth 3D recreation. At the same time, we got a tiny snippet in most news articles simply stating: “Plans call for similar tours of Disneyland Paris to be produced”.

Even if you’ve never been to the Orlando resort, with the Walt Disney World recreation you can explore all of its’ parks as if you were there, with the Cinderella Castle, Tree of Life and almost every inch of the Imagineered landscape “popping out” of the flat Google Earth aerials.

What’s more, if you hover around one of the attractions and click a special icon, you get a special Disney-created pop-up with an excerpt from the attraction’s page on the official Walt Disney World website.

And the Disneyland Resort Paris version? We’re in luck — the latest issue of annual passport magazine Envie de+ has confirmed an official launch date: 28th March 2009!

But that’s not all. You can see how Walt Disney World looks right now by downloading Google Earth, but how would the parks and lands of Disneyland Resort Paris be imagined in Google’s 3D software? Space Mountain with the giant Columbiad cannon… Le Château de la Belle au Bois Dormant in all its extravagance… Crush’s Coaster, Indiana Jones et le Temple du Péril, Adventureland Bazaar and other unusual sights?

Fancy a preview? Envie de+ obliges, with a beautiful cover too…

A double-page introduces these 3D recreations:

And here are those preview images up-close!

Here we see what Le Château de la Belle au Bois Dormant, Crush’s Coaster and The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror will look like in the software when you’ve flown right down to the ground and tilted the camera upwards at these famous Disney landmarks. Pretty amazing, right?

Join us on 28th March 2009 to discover the rest of the magic!

It was a night of firsts, that’s for sure. For the first time ever, Walt Disney Studios Park stayed open for regular guests beyond 9pm. For the first time ever, it let guests see in the New Year within its gates. And, for the first time ever, it hosted fireworks for those same, regular guests.

But, in the process, did it surprise us all and come out on top, with the most dazzling, sky-filling show of the two? Let’s compare…

New Year’s Eve 2008/09 – Walt Disney Studios Park

Video by Kayshaman.

New Year’s Eve 2008/09 – Disneyland Park (Part 1)

New Year’s Eve 2008/09 – Disneyland Park (Part 2)

Videos by Daviddu59.

For a start, there’s one obvious downside to the Studios’ celebrations — the lack of an icon or “weenie” at the foot of the fireworks. When the New Year’s Eve celebrations were confirmed, many expected The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror to be the focal point, or Hollywood Boulevard.

However, as the clock edged toward midnight, guests were instead asked to make their way to Backlot and Place des Stars, along the “Rue Georges Méliès” of the park, with the fireworks themselves launched from the convenient base of Moteurs… Action! Stunt Show Spectacular.

This downside could also have been the park’s advantage, though — not only does the lack of a large icon make the fireworks seem bigger and more impressive in the sky, but the location may have allowed the resort a little more freedom with the bigger shells and rockets, should restrictions still be imposed on New Year’s Eve.

What’s your verdict?

Compared to the complexities of attraction sponsorship at other Disney resorts, Disneyland Resort Paris has always been far more reserved. And indeed, though its grand opening saw everything from Le Visionarium to Star Tours coupled with an official corporate partner, this decade in particular has seen many of them change — or disappear altogether.

So, it might come as no surprise to hear to hear that Disneyland Park just lost another attraction sponsor. But then again, this was perhaps the last remaining original sponsor from opening day (if we don’t count the shift of Kodak from Captain EO to Honey, I Shrunk the Audience) — France Télécom at “it’s a small world”.

When the attraction returned from its refurbishment in late November (17th to 28th), all signs of the national French telecommunications company had vanished. The most obvious, of course, being the large flag with the company’s logo in the attraction’s entrance fountain.

This was quickly switched-out for a new purple flag reading “Join the happiest cruise that ever sailed around the world”.

Source: Scrooge, Disney Magic Interactive forum.

As you walk up the hill toward the queue line, the secondary attraction logo has had its “France Télécom” footer removed and replaced with a few musical notes, which appear to be those from the attraction’s famous Sherman Brothers theme song.

Source: Scrooge, Disney Magic Interactive forum.

Though it’s the ‘World Chorus’ post-show with which France Télécom has always been synonymous, the branding of the company was never strongly present, at least in recent years, and so this land of animated video clips will continue to live on.

Now, whilst the France Télécom name may have apparently disappeared for good from the resort, that’s not to say the corporation itself has hung up completely. Besides continuing as a telecoms provider for the resort behind-the-scenes, they’ve got arguably an even more important brand somewhere else — Orange, at Studio Tram Tour: Behind the Magic.

One of the most easily-missed sponsors it may be (particularly since the Hollywood transformation of the attraction’s entrance), but for France Télécom this is a brand that doesn’t only have significance in France — you’ll find Orange in Belgium, Spain, Switzlerand, Austria and the UK to name a few.

But, for “it’s a small world”, France Télécom have made their call.

• Find more photos of “it’s a small world” at Photos Magiques.

In 2002, Euro Disney S.C.A. learnt the hard way not to spread itself too thinly too soon. After the costly opening of Walt Disney Studios Park, it was hit by a general downturn in tourism which led to its 2001 profit of €30.5m plunging to a loss of €33.1m the next year. In 2008, after two very positive years and great leaps in attendance and occupancy, the resort has proudly posted its first net profit since the opening of that second gate.

The key points of the 2008 Annual Report were as follows:

• Net profit of €2m, third consecutive year of growth
• EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization) increased 21% to €249m
• Park attendance up 0.8m to 15.3m
• Hotel room occupancy up 1.6ppt to 90.9%

The net profit of €1.7m cements a growth trend which saw losses shrink from €88.6m in 2006 to €41.6m in 2007, showing steady growth for three years running. Some reports suggest that the operating group would have achieved a far greater profit still, but wisely chose to move €30m directly into paying off its long-standing debt of over €2bn rather than take this as (subsequently tax-deducted) profit.

In the Theme Parks segment, revenues were up 8.7% to €715.8m, primarily reflecting the increased attendance and a 3% increase in average spending per guest, to €46.3. The increase in Theme Parks attendance was driven by higher guest visitation from the Netherlands, France and the United Kingdom.

Park attendance of 15.3 million guests is by far the highest in the resort’s history, the previous record being 14.5 million last year, for the first time marking an entry in the kind of attendance levels hoped for during the original construction of the resort and again during the construction of Walt Disney Studios Park. This comes in the same year that the resort celebrated welcoming its 200,000,000th (two hundred millionth) park guest.

Hotels & Disney Village saw its segment revenues rise 6.7% to €515.6m, reflecting the increase in room occupancy and a 7% increase in average guest spending per room to €211.4m. The increase in occupancy represented an extra 37,000 room nights compared to Fiscal Year 2007, driven mostly by more visitors from the United Kingdom and Spain.

Commenting on the results, new CEO Philippe Gas said:

“We reached an important milestone in 2008 by achieving profitability. Our revenues, theme parks attendance and hotel occupancy contributed to our performance which is noteworthy given the economic environment.

The popularity of Disneyland Resort Paris, Europe’s number one tourist destination, continued to grow as guests discovered our new attractions including the iconic Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, Cars Race Rally, Crush’s Coaster, the interactive experience Stitch Live! and the High School Musical shows inspired by the popular Disney franchise.

We are convinced that our development strategy, together with the commitment of our cast members and the strength of the Disney brand, position us well for long-term growth.”

The report also contained an update of upcoming events:

“In line with our ongoing development strategy, in the Walt Disney Studios Park, Playhouse Disney – Live on Stage!, will provide the opportunity for our younger guests to join friends from the Disney Channel in an immersive entertainment experience, for the launch of the summer season. The park will also debut Disney’s Stars ‘n’ Cars, a new Hollywood-style show starring characters from Toy Story, Snow White, Monsters Inc., Mulan, The Little Mermaid, and more.”

— You can download the full Annual Report here (PDF).

Replacing Karl Holz, who announced his departure eight months ago, Philippe Gas has effectively assumed the position of “president” of Disneyland Resort Paris, alongside Ed Grier of Disneyland Resort in California, Meg Crofton of Walt Disney World Resort in Florida, Toshio Kagami of Tokyo Disney Resort and Bill Ernest of Hong Kong Disneyland. Holz is now president of New Vacation Operations at Walt Disney Parks & Resorts.

The operating company, known more casually amongst fans as simply “Euro Disney SCA” or “Euro Disney”, to avoid the lengthy exposition of the group’s complicated structure seen above, released a quick biography of our new CEO:

Philippe, 45, is the first CEO of Disneyland Resort Paris who was a member of the opening team. As a 17-year Disney veteran, Philippe has extensive experience with both Euro Disney and Walt Disney Parks & Resorts worldwide. After having completed his law studies at the University of Paris Assas, he joined the Disney organization in 1991 as Finance Controller and held a variety of positions at the Resort over the next six years. In 1997, he was promoted to Director, Corporate Compensation and moved to The Walt Disney Company headquarters in Burbank, California. In 2000, he served as Regional Vice President, Human Resources, The Walt Disney Company Asia-Pacific, overseeing the HR strategy in 13 countries in Asia – first based in Tokyo and then in Hong Kong.

In 2004, he returned to Disneyland Resort Paris as Senior Vice President, Human Resources, where he was responsible for all HR Operations for its more than 12,300 cast members. In 2005 he was appointed Senior Vice President, International Human Resources, Walt Disney Parks and Resorts and in 2006, he was promoted to his current position as Executive Vice President, Human Resources, Diversity & Inclusion for Walt Disney Parks & Resorts worldwide. In this role, he was responsible for the Human Resources strategy and services for nearly 100,000 Cast Members.

The official corporate website also posted an interview with Philippe, with comments from Gas about his recent work for Disney, his priorities at Disneyland Resort Paris and — most exciting of all — his plans for the future:

Question: You have returned to Disneyland® Resort Paris after working several years abroad for Disney. What is it like?

Philippe Gas: I am proud to return to Disneyland Resort Paris, the place where it all started for me. I joined the Disney organization in 1991 and was a member of the opening team at Disneyland Resort Paris. In Paris, the United States and Asia, I have held a variety of positions, notably in defining global human resource strategies. I have learned a lot from my international experience, but Disneyland Resort Paris has always held a special place in my heart. I am happy to be back and to see how much the Resort and its more than 13,000 Cast Members have developed over the years. It is our Cast Members who provide the service and ensure the high quality experience for which Disney is known. I am glad to lead our efforts in building the Resort’s future.

Question: Disneyland Resort Paris is the #1 tourist destination in Europe. What are your priorities in the next years?

Philippe Gas: It is a particularly exciting time for Disneyland Resort Paris, optimistic and dynamic. I am grateful to join such a great international team. Together, we are committed to the company’s long-term strategy and growth as Europe’s top tourist destination. We will keep working on driving results towards profitability, providing a high-quality guest experience, and investing in the personal and professional development of our Cast Members. I have had the chance to grow within this company and I hope this will inspire others.

Question: What are your future projects?

Philippe Gas: Imagining, creating, developing and growing is, and always will be, top of mind for us. We have already served, entertained and touched the hearts of more than 200 million visitors. We intend to continue exceeding expectations to remain Europe’s most-visited tourist destination. We would like to welcome more and more families, by continuing to grow and provide the quality and creativity that only Disney can create. That’s why we are always innovating and working on future development. We are studying a variety of projects – some would enhance exciting assets, while others are on a grander scale. For example, we are interested in increasing the Resort’s hotel capacity, adding to our convention facilities, or enhancing the Disney® Village. We work and plan all the time – today, tomorrow, and for the years to come.

The thoughts of increasing hotel capacity, enhancing Disney Village and adding to convention facilities are all expertly-worded in order to give an impression of the company’s priorities yet not officially announce a single thing. “Increasing” hotel capacity, for example, may not technically mean new hotels, nor might “enhancing” Disney Village mean constructing new buildings.

The years of Karl Holz brought the resort huge prosperity and several brilliant new attractions, with a quite remarkable return to the kind of Disney quality and service we remembered from earlier years.

However, the resort and its parks are not quite in the home straight just yet. And, as we head into 2009 with the two-year 15th Anniversary coming to a close and the impending challenge of a successful follow-up to contend with, we can only wish Philippe Gas the best of luck — and hope, beyond the business ability, he has the same dream in his heart as we do…

— The official statement from the company can be found here (PDF).

It’s the most wonderful time of the year and, for several years now, the busiest for Disneyland Resort Paris. As the success of the resort’s Christmas season has gone from strength to strength, it has truly replaced the Summer season as the key high season for the two Disney Parks.

However, all this festive cheer has a downside. Because, though Christmas Season runs for effectively the same length as Christmas, the core holiday period when families can visit is mostly condensed into just two weeks either side of Christmas Day itself. This weekend, between the 20th and 22nd December, is therefore the most hectic of all, not least in a record-breaking term where the resort is attracting over 15 million guests per year.

So, what are the preparations? On Tuesday, we spread word that the resort was taking the unprecedented step of advising visitors without hotel packages or dated tickets against visiting. However, as was pointed out, the warning was only posted on the ticket pages of the French official website — and furthermore, vanished a few hours after our article was published.

The warning was true enough, and the placement only on the French website was actually entirely intentional — trying to dissuade French visitors with cheap offer tickets from visiting at the busiest time of the year. Everyone is, of course, welcome to visit the resort this weekend, but you may well have to contend with some horribly busy parks.

Annual Passport holders were also given the warning, via an email sent out to the entire mailing list, suggesting visits would be better saved for another day.

Now, the Events Calendar pages of the official website have a different, additional warning in place:

Conseil Malin pour venir à Disneyland Resort Paris

Si vous désirez vous rendre à Disneyland Resort Paris avec votre véhicule, nous vous conseillons de planifier votre arrivée avant 9h30 ou après 11h30 afin d’éviter les ralentissements.

Nous vous conseillons également d’utiliser les transports en commun en empruntant le RER A, terminus « Marne la Vallée Chessy » ou les lignes de bus.

This is again an announcement we’ve never known from Disneyland Resort Paris — if you’re going to be arriving by car at the resort, you’re recommended to try to plan your arrival either before 9:30am or after 11:30am, to avoid tailbacks on the A4 autoroute and access roads. Or, an even better option — use the public transport options such as the RER A line or local bus services.

This warning comes after the huge traffic levels seen around the resort on recent weekends.

Finally, once all these guests are at Disneyland Resort Paris, they’re now being given a special Christmas treat to help cope with the huge visitor levels: extended opening hours at Walt Disney Studios Park!

Originally scheduled to open only from 10:00am to 7:00pm, the longest regular hours the park usually sees, an exception has been made to keep the gates of the Studios open right up until 9:00pm on Saturday and Sunday, likely to prevent Disneyland Park seeing an evening overflow of too many extra guests.

— You can find the updated opening hours on the relaunched DLRP Magic! Calendar.

[Lead image: www.photosmagiques.com]

It’s not the kind of message you expect to read on the Disneyland website, but for this Sunday, 21st December 2008, the official line really is: don’t visit today.

The urgent notice has only been posted on the ticket pages of the French official website. It reads:

• Attention: Le 21 Décembre nos parcs vont subir une très forte affluence.
• Nos billets ne sont plus disponibles à cette date.
• Il est fortement recommandé aux personnes non munies d’un billet ou munies d’un billet non daté de décaler leur visite sur notre site à une autre date.

Roughly translated, this warning announces that, on 21st December, the Disney Parks will have very high attendance levels. Tickets can no longer be purchased for this date, and it is strongly recommended that people without a ticket or without a dated entrance ticket for this day reschedule their visit for another day.

If you’re staying at a Disney Hotel or you’ve booked a package including tickets at one of the partner hotels, your tickets will be dated and you will be guaranteed access — but do prepare for a very, very busy Disneyland Park, with waiting times in excess of 2 hours at most major attractions.

Image: Yao, Disney Central Plaza forum

This announcement comes just a week after Disneyland Park officially reached its capicity and the gates had to be closed. On Saturday, 6th December 2008, guests arriving late would have been faced with the sudden appearance of a “PARC DISNEYLAND – COMPLET/FULL” sign on the resort hub, with only the choice to visit Walt Disney Studios Park for the day instead.

Visitors on this day described long queues on the resort’s access roads and A4 motorway, with guests being allowed to park for free in a bid to ease the congestion. Disneyland Park’s official capacity is believed to be around 85,000 guests.

Image: Nicholas-c, magicforum

Though parks reaching capacity can be quite common at other Disney resorts, particularly Disneyland Resort in California, where the original Disneyland park regularly has to close its gates on exceptionally busy dates, this is a very new thing for Disneyland Resort Paris. Clearly, with now more than 16 million visitors wanting to experience the parks each year, their popularity is becoming too much to handle.

Whilst these kind of attendance levels are obviously incredibly bad for visitors on the day, they do highlight the need for further expansion and make it ever more likely. Notably at Walt Disney Studios Park, which still does not apparently present enough of a draw to sufficiently take pressure off its older cousin.