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Disneyland Paris: General Discussion
- Thread starter Maelstrom
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Benjsh
TS Member
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- Steel Vengeance
I am lucky that I only visited back when the parks were very new and then didn't go back for a good 15 years or so returning last year for the anniversary where we had a fabulous time. So I missed all those years in between where the parks fell into a sorry state.
The spruce up of the main park has been good and the star attractions are probably better than their Florida counterparts which is quite the coup for a smaller Disney Park. BTM, Pirates & (Hyper) Space Mountain are all brilliant attractions.
The Studios Park now badly needs similar TLC.
The spruce up of the main park has been good and the star attractions are probably better than their Florida counterparts which is quite the coup for a smaller Disney Park. BTM, Pirates & (Hyper) Space Mountain are all brilliant attractions.
The Studios Park now badly needs similar TLC.
Dave
TS Founding Member
I don’t think Disney care that much about the French audience anymore, it was an idiotic idea putting the resort in Paris in the first place.
Olivus Prime
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The review below makes a good point somewhere along the line about the parks not really catering to either tourist audience. For the French, it's a resort that plonks a bunch of American IPs and cultural elements into the middle of their country, for the average Brit or Murican, it's a resort that's mostly unintelligible.
http://www.rollercoasterphilosophy.com/2010/disneyland-paris-1/
http://www.rollercoasterphilosophy.com/2010/disneyland-paris-1/
evilcod
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That review makes no good points. What a bunch of whining rubbish.
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EuroSatch
TS Member
The idea that the French hate DLP is ridiculous conjecture. The hotels may be mostly filled with Brits, but just wandering around a large majority of the people are French. And it’s still got the highest attendance in Europe, so it’s not that hated!
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Benjsh
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It was about 80-90% French when we went last year. We did go in UK term time to be fair so that obviously tipped the balance.
I don't think I could ever visit in peak school holidays though. It was busy enough for me and it was a quiet off peak day.
Olivus Prime
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I don't think it's a case of the French "hating" the parks - I'm sure they don't. Moreover, the parks do very little to celebrate French/European culture outside of what Disney has already shaped into their own IPs.
I'm not hating on the resort or anything (I love the place), it's just a cultural observation that interests me.
Ben
TS Founding Member
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But surely the same could be said of most UK parks - Whats Thorpe pushing this year: Walking Dead (USA), its got Saw (USA) and the 2 recent british based IPs - Darren Brown and Im a Celebrity have died on their arses.
Towers has Cbeebies, but thats no different to any park choosing a strong kids IP to utilise.
Of course any Disneyland park is going to be based on the American ideology and basis, its essentially a large part of it.
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Anyway my main reason to drop in here is to say how gorgeous the parks have looked in the snow, and in a really unusually DLP style the staff have literally gone above and beyond - spending nights moving snow, getting out half a parade rather than none, running alternative nighttime shows rather than none. I applaud their effort this week - also huge respect to Cathering Powell - who has apparently been on resort pretty much all the time, encouraging staff and allegedly spotted shifting snow.
This is the way to manage a park! Good on her.
Towers has Cbeebies, but thats no different to any park choosing a strong kids IP to utilise.
Of course any Disneyland park is going to be based on the American ideology and basis, its essentially a large part of it.
--
Anyway my main reason to drop in here is to say how gorgeous the parks have looked in the snow, and in a really unusually DLP style the staff have literally gone above and beyond - spending nights moving snow, getting out half a parade rather than none, running alternative nighttime shows rather than none. I applaud their effort this week - also huge respect to Cathering Powell - who has apparently been on resort pretty much all the time, encouraging staff and allegedly spotted shifting snow.
This is the way to manage a park! Good on her.
Olivus Prime
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I get your point, but that's a whole other discussion. UK parks have had a cultural identity before and some still do - take a look at Blackpool's pride in their British seaside history. Most of the US IPs that Merlin push are for major investments and are thus employed for their global marketability, rather than for how representative they could be of British popular or national culture.
EuroSatch
TS Member
I may be on my own here, but I’ve never had the impression that a theme park should celebrate the local cultures/traditions as you say, because a) it’s a theme park, and b) you live in the local cultures & traditions already!
I get the impression that the French would rather Disney didn’t go down that route in Paris, as they’d only get it wrong. Ratatouille is a bit of an outlier as they’ve recreated a fictional area of Paris 10km down the road from actual Paris. It’s done well (the area, not the ride), but oddly placed
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I get the impression that the French would rather Disney didn’t go down that route in Paris, as they’d only get it wrong. Ratatouille is a bit of an outlier as they’ve recreated a fictional area of Paris 10km down the road from actual Paris. It’s done well (the area, not the ride), but oddly placed
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Benjsh
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The Ratatouille ride system is fantastic. It's badly let down for me by poor quality visuals. I went on expecting the visuals to be as good as the ride hardware and it was sorely lacking. However that could be fixed in the future without breaking the bank I imagine.
Benjsh
TS Member
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Wasn't it the prototype though? First of its kind.
I know they've perfected it since and they do make more use of the system (to be expected) however my gripe was the blurry visuals. I didn't think the 3D was cutting edge at all. In fact I think the ride would have been better without 3D and more actual physical theming and set pieces
EuroSatch
TS Member
And Mystic Manor, where POVs alone show the potential of the ride system.
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Rojo
TS Member
It's pretty in the snow to look at but it's way too cold to be standing still in queues . Luckily most of the queues at DLP are covered. Even the BTM queue line provided adequate cover from the wind.
What was impressive about the clear up on Main street, was that they had one team with shovels to shift the snow, one with brushes and another with squeegees pushing the excess water down the drain. The only thing that surprised me is the wet floor signs they put out didn't have Mickey ears. A missed opportunity there.
Luckily we left before the bulk of the snow hit but got some nice pics of the castle, BTM, the skull rock and Hyperspace mountain in the snow
