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Disneyland Paris: General Discussion

The reviews for Avengers Assemble do indeed appear to be dreadful!

Disney, master of theming and design once again foist rubbish onto the runt of the litter.

Another BLUNDER after Cars Road Trip and all the rest.

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WDS should be getting hugely accelerated investment to a high level.

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Thameslink Rail said:

Eurostar axes direct London to Disneyland Paris trains from 2023 after 27 years​

Not sure I'm surprised with Eurostar in financial difficulty and the cost of living crisis putting people off foreign holidays. I must say I wish more UK parks had direct rail services from London.
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Yeah isn't it crazy that France's biggest theme park has a direct train link but the UK's two three biggest don't? Completely silly.
 
JAperson said:
Yeah isn't it crazy that France's biggest theme park has a direct train link but the UK's two three biggest don't? Completely silly.
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In fairness, DLP is a somewhat different ball game to Alton, Thorpe et al. Their annual visitor figures exceed 10 million, while even Alton’s are only about 2.5 million.
 
It is a shame to see them scrap the direct to Disney route, however not all is lost.

There are still services where one can change to get to Disney from London. Failing that lots of flights from London based airports go to Paris CDG, where TGV and (cheaper) RER services are available.

It certainly won’t be the same, but DLRP still remains one of the easier parks to get to without a car and probably isn’t too much harder to get to compared to somewhere like Towers.

I haven’t done this park in years now.
 
Matt N said:
In fairness, DLP is a somewhat different ball game to Alton, Thorpe et al. Their annual visitor figures exceed 10 million, while even Alton’s are only about 2.5 million.
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Yes but it’s not excuse alton towers is one of the largest visitor attraction or resort in the whole of the UK . It should have a train station. Also alton towers has and probably will in the future reach somewhere near 3 million visitors a year.
 
JAperson said:
Yes but it’s not excuse alton towers is one of the largest visitor attraction or resort in the whole of the UK . It should have a train station. Also alton towers has and probably will in the future reach somewhere near 3 million visitors a year.
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Even if they reopened the line to the village of Alton it wouldn’t actually be very accessible, it was always a branch line and the speed limit would be quite low.

There is a train station not that far away in Uttoxer but even with a regular bus it wouldn’t be a popular option for lots of people to get to the park as it’s not a mainline.
 
Dave said:
Even if they reopened the line to the village of Alton it wouldn’t actually be very accessible, it was always a branch line and the speed limit would be quite low.

There is a train station not that far away in Uttoxer but even with a regular bus it wouldn’t be a popular option for lots of people to get to the park as it’s not a mainline.
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Build a new station then, there is no excuse for Alton Towers not to have a train station.
 
JAperson said:
Build a new station then, there is no excuse for Alton Towers not to have a train station.
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1) The land is now in private ownership or form rights of way.

2) The line wouldn’t take even moderate speed trains (if the line wasn’t part of network rail and under private ownership like some of it is now then I think it’s limited to 20mph by law), I believe the line was never directly connected to the main line so always required a change at Stoke.

3) A bus from stoke would actually be quicker than the train

Towers need a bus service that functions, not a train service.

Anyway this is waaaaaaaaay off topic.
 
It's been on the cards for ages and remember it's all political. The French government basically own Eurostar and we did not bail it out during covid. They have closed both stations in Kent for another 3 years as of this week to save money. Yet no regional stations in France are closed. It's political and financial but it really annoying I now have to spend an additional £50 to go back on myself and waste 2 additional hours from Ashford. Eurostar lost my money.
 
So this is what Liz Truss meant about not being sure if Macron is a friend or foe.

Wasn't there only like 1 or 2 actually direct services a day for years? For a long time the only option was to change at Lille if you didn't want to go into centre of Paris (which I'd understandable). Which is still a pain (especially if you go back to the same platform you arrived on) for those travelling mind.

Brexit wins again.
 
Tbh, i understand point about since brexit the cost involved. They wouldn't previously needed border officials based at Disney. And paying for them to be there for the odd train here and there probably costs a fair bit. As it now is technically a border into France.
 
The railways as a network make a massive loss, always have, always will.
Governments can't afford to subsidise them to the same degree at the moment, further cuts on non profitable lines will continue, in a downward spiral for public transport users.
 
Benzin said:
So this is what Liz Truss meant about not being sure if Macron is a friend or foe.
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I don’t think Macron is spending his day making operational decisions about a train service that runs a couple of times a week.

I think this all comes down to money (doesn’t everything?), the station at DLP isn’t well designed for international travel and so the passport control area has always been a mess, factor in the extra checks that are needed post Brexit and the queues etc were even worse.

Since the train only runs a couple of times a week for most of the year it isn’t economically viable for them to spend money amending the station and employing more passport control officers etc. They might as well concentrate their resources on Paris itself.
 
Matt N said:
In fairness, DLP is a somewhat different ball game to Alton, Thorpe et al. Their annual visitor figures exceed 10 million, while even Alton’s are only about 2.5 million.
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I think it’s a bit chicken and egg, if the park is easier to get it it might attract more guests.
SuperMuscleMan said:
It's been on the cards for ages and remember it's all political. The French government basically own Eurostar and we did not bail it out during covid. They have closed both stations in Kent for another 3 years as of this week to save money. Yet no regional stations in France are closed. It's political and financial but it really annoying I now have to spend an additional £50 to go back on myself and waste 2 additional hours from Ashford. Eurostar lost my money.
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I think it’s more to do with the need following Brexit to have more thorough border checks as everyone now needs their passport stamped to enter France whereas previously when the UK was in the EU we could move freely. Eurostar was designed to work with the UK within the EU.
 
Loosing this train link is only really a lose in terms of an experience. It is a really neat experience to board a train at the very grand St. Pancras Station and disembark right outside Disneyland. No transfers to break the immersion. A moder Hogwarts express you could say.

But in practical terms with only 1 or 2 trains a day it locked you into arriving and leaving at very specific times. Also getting a train to Paris and then the Metro out to Disneyland barley takes any longer (as myself, Islander and Dave Pritchard once found out).

Unfortunately rather than being an example to other Theme Parks it's actually more of a warning. Unless the park is on-route between two mainline destinations there's only limited and very time dependent usage the station will get.
If Alton was ever to get a train link again it would have to be as a special uncharged experience like Galaxy's Edge. As that line really has no where else to go.
 
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