…and that I doubt if one European in 100,000 would make any mental connection, however tenuous, between Mickey Mouse and the plague! I doubt many Europeans even know much about the plague, with the exception of some dimly remembered stuff from school, most of it probably based on urban legends (that ring o’ roses rhyme, etc). We kind of got over the plague a few hundred years ago. 
I find that hard to believe ! So you’re saying that since most of the people I know are familiar with Monty Python’s “bring out your dead” scene in “Holy Grail”, more Americans have a “more present knowledge” of the plague than europeans ?
(I don’t know how best to put it - something more than “dimly remembered stuff”)
Yep, that’s the only explanation- Eurodisney isn’t a success because Europeans are assholes for not flocking to an overpriced culturally bankrupt themepark based on American cartoon characters. Would a Tintin or Asterix themepark in the US do well? Kudos to the Europeans for not being suckers.
In Barnsley they talk of nothing else.
Yes, but as you or anyone else who has lived in Britain well knows, it’s well worth spending a thousand pounds to go somewhere warmer and sunnier for a week.
I went to EuroDisney when I was a tot (well, 10), long before I came to America and got to visit the Magic Kingdom… and they are disturbingly similar. Looking back, I’m astonished that they did make some sort of concession to their location.
At the American parks, they go out of their way to bring in foreign staff via the Disney International Program, which is why if you go into the Rose & Crown at Epcot you’ll be served a pint by some guy on his Gap year. (Do they still do those?)
The way I understood it at the time, there was an almost zero chance that Spain would be picked rather than France. The spanish alternative was apparently mostly a back-up plan in case no agreement could be reached, and anyway an existing alternative was necessary to negociate with the french authorities (“If you don’t agree with this, remember, we might buiild it in Spain, instead”).
As for the reason why France was prefered at the first place, my understanding is that it was first because France was more centrally located in western Europe, and that apparently outweighted the fairer spanish weather (it’s possible that they had in mind the already mentionned reluctance of Europeans to travel over long distances) and second because Paris is the most visited city in Europe, so they (rightly) expected that a part of those tourists would go to Eurodisney too.
Also France has a larger population, and that too could have played a part. A frenchman living in, say, Marseilles, might be more willing to go to Paris than to an actually closer location in Spain, and more willing to go than a Dutch who also lives closer to Paris. Because it’s the same country, it’s psychologically close to home. I believe they expected the local (french) public to make a very significant part of the visitors. I don’t know how it turned out.
Finally, I’m going to note something that might not be obvious for american posters. This attraction was somewhat culturally alien to europeans. The fame of Disney notwithstanding, the concept of travelling a long distance to a theme park and staying there for several days just wasn’t existing. The average american might be born with the idea that organizing a family vacation in a theme park on the other side of the country is natural, but for the european guy, a theme park is a place close to home (certainly not in a foreign country), or maybe close to the spot you happen to have picked up for your vacations, and where you bring the kids for a daytrip. Actually, it seems to still be a problem for Disneyland Paris, since people still aren’t very interested in making a trip solely for the park, and as a result, they spend less time there (less money spent) don’t indulge as much because it’s not the main goal of their trip (less money spent again) don’t stay in the hotels, or even don’t come at all if they already have visited Paris. If it were situated in the middle of nowhere, not benefiting from tourists making it a daytrip from Paris, the number of visitors would collapse.
I don’t think europeans have frequently the plague in mind. As the previous poster wrote, it’s taught in school…along many other things. On the list of remembered historical events, it’s certainly way below the reign of Charlemagne, the hundred years war or the crusades.
As for making the connection Disney = mouse, mouse = rat and rat = plague… wow! It would never have occured to me. I highly doubt the blak plague has the slighest impact on the number of visitors to Disneyland.
I think since this is GQ it should be noted that in Numbers of attendees in 2006 Disneyland Paris is the number 10 Tourist destination on Earth, number 3 in Europe and number 2 in France cite .
No one has said anything else in this thread - just reading it as a bit too heavy what a bad idea or catastrophe this site was for Disney isn’t quite the whole story, not really.
“In Europe, 100 miles is far. In America, 100 years is old.”
Do we have any proof that the European version has done poorly?
Things were a bit sketchy in the beginning- rides closed for weeks at a time, labor issues, and so on - but certainly no worse than when the American Disney parks opened.
Walt Disney World (Orlando) was a mess for a good three or four years after it opened, something they admit quite candidly during Traditions (Disney’s standard staff training program).
I’ve been thinking about taking my daughter to Disneyland Paris this summer. I hadn’t thought of the Asterix park but I am sure she would love to go there as well.
Do you have any tips on what to think of for a trip like that?
Another good European theme-park is Efteling in the Netherlands.
When I announced that I’d be driving from Cologne to Tours, all of the Europeans looked absolutely shocked at the distance. It was only about seven hours, which is absolutely nothing to this American! It was also exceptionally cheap when my full-sized diesel station wagon averaged 38 US miles per gallon!
I must be European at heart ::shudder:: I can attest that going for a long vacation and spending it all at a theme park seems like a horrible, horrible idea. Growing up, the amusement parks (Boblo Island, Cedar Point, King’s Island) were exclusively day trips, and at most an overnight hotel stay. (We spent a week at Orlando a couple of years back, and spent most of our time driving out of the area to find better things to do.)