OTHER European "Disneyland park" Locations

[DisneyEuros]

I have created this thread post because I am really curious to listen to other people's opinions about a completely "Different" European-country-Location for a Disneyland park to be build there, instead from Paris!

* Did you know that London(UK) was also the candidate country for the Location, to build the European Disneyland park, but Paris finally won? For me this is so Sad.

As i have read on some several news about DLP financial situations, Since the Very beginning of this park creation, Disneyland Paris always had and always will be having financial problems.
While Bob Iger will try to help and save them, by sending them some financial help from the BIG RICH DADDY (the Disney Company). Their financial situation will remain the same. After all, DLP is the poorest Disneyland Park in the World.

So i came to the following conclusions:
-> Did DLP made a mistake by building a second theme park, The Disney Studios? My answer is YES

-> Will ever, DPL expands the Original Main Park with Future New Attractions or "New Fantasyland expansion" as Magic Kingdom does? My answer is NO, Never! They simply just can't afford it.

-> Has Disney Company made the worst decision ever in history, to choose "FRANCE(Paris)" as the final location for the build of the European Disneyland park? My answer is YES. Terrible mistake!
And that's because France as a country, has a complicated Financial Management "Βureaucratic system", which is a completely failure. Greece is following the same financial "French system" and you see the results and what happened to them...
On the other hand, the English financial SYSTEM is Much more simple, efficient and powerful!

-> Is France one of the "Most Expensive" countries in Europe, not to mention, in the World? My answer is YES. So Tourists can not afford to stay longer in their extremely expensive Hotels, etc...

NOW. After all these,
MY QUESTION is this:

Which European Country in your opinion would be a great candidate for the Best European Magic Kingdom? or even, The Second European Disneyland Park ? (Take Paris Out).
List only 2 Countries.

Mine is: CYPRUS & UK

[ulak]

Poland or Czech Republic

[norhel]

My vote would have been Norway ( ) or Sweden. But due to the high cost here, that would probably just have been wish thinking.

[captain rocket]

It just seems people are choosing the countries they live in!
The obvious location, when making the original decision would have been Spain. Massive tourist destination,people travelling from their holidays for one or two days at the park and decent weather.In those days it was a no brainer in my opinion.

[mattboywonder]

Yes....not long after opening people said they should have built in Spain. The weather alone but I think Paris was a more central european position, especially for the likes of visitors from the UK and I think there were some kind of union/work force problems that put them off Spain.

[dagobert]

Some informations about the fact, why France was chosen. Thanks to leemac for the infos.

1) PM Felipe Gonzalez was struggling with their domestic economy in the mid-eighties and had to make a lot of structural changes to the economy (initial EDL discussions were just ten years after Franco's death). There was a belief that the PSOE that dominated parliament as a socialist government throughout the '80s might not be the best partners. Many folks at Disney preferred Mitterrand's approach.

2) A lot of folks try to boil down the differences between the Spanish and French bids as just about tax breaks - and that is partly true. However the French government were prepared to hand over more land and also use sales tax to develop the infrastructure.

Ultimately the pro-active support of successive French governments has made EDL a success. ED SCA published an independent report when the partnership agreement was extended and the impact of the project to the French government is astounding.

They were also thinking about the UK, Italy and Greece, but those locations were dropped very soon.

[Josh]

If northern France was warmer (and CDG airport was nicer ), it would have been the perfect location. But the south of France or a major coastal city in northern Spain may have been better. But then again, if people are willing to put up with Paris's weather, they may be willing to put up with London's too.

Disneyland Paris always had and always will be having financial problems.

That's not true. It will start making a much better profit one day. But probably near the end of this decade. :XD: They've got a big expansion plan, now, and that should bring in a lot more business.

[captain rocket]

What's wrong with CDG Josh?

[Josh]

It's just with easyJet in terminal 2. The other terminals are probably really nice. The building is really ugly and the only facilities there in easyJet's section are a cafe and about four shops. We also got stranded there, once, due to a thunderstorm and had to stay in an Ibis hotel, but we've hated the place even before that incident. XD

[captain rocket]

I suppose it's a case of getting what you pay for! I hate the Easyjet departure area, there is always a queue for security check and the facilities air side are totally hopeless! I fly from Bristol and usually use Air France, their part of terminal two is brilliant! The fares are higher, but they have three flights a day so I, get a better choice! Still have to get a bus to the aircraft though!
I am going Wednesday night for just Thursday in the parks to get my photo's of Christmas and am giving Easyjet another go as they now allocate seats, that should reduce the crowding around the gate situation! Cheap fare as well!

[ed-uk]

Well I'm very glad that I can take the EuroStar from St. Pancras station and don't have to bother with the airports, living in Greater London it's about 3 hours from my home to the parks. I don't like flying much, and this is the main reason I'm glad that they built Disneyland in Paris, it's easy to get there by plane, car, coach or train depending on how you like to travel. About the weather, DLP need to build more rides under a roof to keep the rain off and put more shows on in their theatres.
I'm not convinced that more people would have gone to Disneyland in Spain because of the weather, as some people would probably rather go to WDW anyway, where the weather is better and there are more theme parks.

[captain rocket]

I like Eurostar as well, but living in Cornwall means an overnight hotel or a drive that takes over 4 hours which destroys the advantage of the convenience. The last time we travelled to Disney (Halloween) we were questioned by Police at Ashford as we were two "mature" males travelling together, and I found that annoying. You would not believe the look on their faces when we told them that many adults travel without children! They obviously did not believe us!
As a PS we travelled by Leisure select and if anyone is considering paying extra for it, don't bother! too expensive for what you get.

[ed-uk]

I don't like the rigmarole when travelling abroad, come to think of it I would have liked Disneyland better in London. There's not much difference in the weather between London and Paris, and also there would be less smoking in the parks, it seems to be worst over there.

[Thaliel]

What's wrong with CDG Josh?

Well it is with good reasons CDG keeps landing on varuous "worst airports worldwide" lists
like here
http://travel.usatoday.com/flights/story/2012-01-16/Travel-guide-ranks-best-worst-airport-terminals/52602176/1

Its look is bad
its infrastructure is bad
It tends to loose or mispack baggage
Its offers to buses just unloading passengers is horrible
etc. etc. etc.
I have been there 3 times, once on a trip to DLP by plane, once being dropped off there by the bus in order to go to DLP and once while changing planes on my way to the US

and each time was really hard on my nerves, you have to walk great distances, you often do not know where you are supposed to go, and on the flight to US, our bagagge got into a different plane, leaving us with only what we were wearing druing the flight and our handbags

[DisneyEuros]

Poland or Czech Republic

Ulak: (sorry for my bad english, thank You!)
Me: Your English is very good. Do you think my English is Better?
By the way, i like your (scrooge mcduck) Profile Photo!

[DisneyEuros]

My vote would have been Norway ( ) or Sweden. But due to the high cost here, that would probably just have been wish thinking.

Sweden is a good idea somehow, and the reason i agree with that, its because most of the people speak English there too.

by the way, I like France as a country very much, but i hate French language AND their system.
*We probably must take this Very Important thing into our consideration. (European Countries that have English as their First or Second Language) . And not like in France, who they think french is the Best language in the world.. They have a big ego pride on their Language, and i don't like this.
After all, French is not in Fashion anymore. Thank God!
Most of the Disneyland attractions in Paris are in French Only. and this is very uncool thing for the Tourists!
Also the same thinking applies to TOKYO Disneyland, about their language. Tourists treatments must be of first place. Which of course they are the main vital reason for the park!
* The second point we must consider is the Country to be Far from France! This is very important too.
Sweeden is good for the Language, but is Next to France, which this is not good.

I have chosen Cyprus and UK, because in Cyprus we have English as our second language!
And everywhere you look is written in English and sometimes other languages for our Tourists. (despite the fact that we speak Greek, we are not like Greece that they have only Greek Language everywhere).
And of course we are on the other side of Europe. To far from France!

Thank you very much for your comment!

[DisneyEuros]

It just seems people are choosing the countries they live in!
The obvious location, when making the original decision would have been Spain. Massive tourist destination,people travelling from their holidays for one or two days at the park and decent weather.In those days it was a no brainer in my opinion.

Nice! Yes, Spain is another good destination idea too.
for the weather and the Language. Spanish are very popular around the world. And i like it as language. It is a very understandable language.
But i don't know how they are doing with English...
As for the Language is good, but the bad thing on this subject, it must be far from France.
It can be 2 countries close to each other and have the same park..

Thank you for your comment

[DisneyEuros]

Yes....not long after opening people said they should have built in Spain. The weather alone but I think Paris was a more central european position, especially for the likes of visitors from the UK and I think there were some kind of union/work force problems that put them off Spain.

Hm! very nice and informative comment.
Thank you for sharing your knowledge on that.

[DisneyEuros]

Some informations about the fact, why France was chosen. Thanks to leemac for the infos.

1) PM Felipe Gonzalez was struggling with their domestic economy in the mid-eighties and had to make a lot of structural changes to the economy (initial EDL discussions were just ten years after Franco's death). There was a belief that the PSOE that dominated parliament as a socialist government throughout the '80s might not be the best partners. Many folks at Disney preferred Mitterrand's approach.

2) A lot of folks try to boil down the differences between the Spanish and French bids as just about tax breaks - and that is partly true. However the French government were prepared to hand over more land and also use sales tax to develop the infrastructure.

Ultimately the pro-active support of successive French governments has made EDL a success. ED SCA published an independent report when the partnership agreement was extended and the impact of the project to the French government is astounding.

They were also thinking about the UK, Italy and Greece, but those locations were dropped very soon.

Oh! Thank you very much for sharing this interesting information!

[DisneyEuros]

If northern France was warmer (and CDG airport was nicer ), it would have been the perfect location. But the south of France or a major coastal city in northern Spain may have been better. But then again, if people are willing to put up with Paris's weather, they may be willing to put up with London's too.

Disneyland Paris always had and always will be having financial problems.

That's not true. It will start making a much better profit one day. But probably near the end of this decade. :XD: They've got a big expansion plan, now, and that should bring in a lot more business.

Nice comment, i somehow agree about the weather. if you like the sunny weather Cyprus has almost all the year round sunny weather! Only 3 to 4 months has a little cold winter, and most Uk tourists think we still have summer. Hehehe
But the weather is not a problem. It's not only this. It is the Language the Most important!

For me it's not a good feeling to travel to Disneyland Paris and all i see and hear is French...
London's weather is almost the same as France's but their Language is English! and English is the most well known and Universal language in the world. While you listen to the English language, your trip is much more enjoyable, rather than in french. Also France is very expensive as a country. Except from that, French are cold people. They are not hospital as other countries.

I respect and thank you very much for sharing your opinion about the expansion plan.
But let's face reality... Most of European countries, Not all, are in crisis now. Those are the countries with the "BUREAUCRATIC" financial management system, as France and Greece has. those countries are affected more by the Crisis. The English financial system is much more simple and successful. So, they will never have serious financial problems.
In Cyprus we follow the English system. Thank God we don't follow the French most complicated system as Greece does.
Anyway, they surely have an expansion plan, but what this plan consists of? Because they try to fix their problem, what is this that will help them fix it? Hotels, Restaurants and shops of Course. But Not the ATTRACTIONS. Attractions don't bring them money. You understand what i mean? Do you consider this as a Disneyland expansion? Hotels and restaurants can be found everywhere...
They haven't got out of their financial problems since the day they were open. 20 years have passed since then. Will they be Financially free now? I don't think so.

Thank you for your comment. It was very interesting!