Originally Posted By TDLFAN Had the chance to spend the whole day at DLP on Thanksgivings (a US holiday for those of you abroad) a week ago. This is what I found. - Maintenance. Still deplorable. Many areas of the park are in terrible conditions. Many props and eye candy are in such bad dirty shape that weeds are growing out of them. Most notably in the Big thunder mountain area. - Attractions. for the most part in ok shape however... IASW, many dolls broken or missing. Their Xmas overlay is a huge joke. Added a couple of props and not much else. Lighting seems to me out on some scenes. Not as fully realized as the Xmas overlay at TDL or DL. POTC. While the dueling sword fight scen was on, many other elements of props were not. Too many to state here but most notably the pull chains on the lift and the swinging pirate on the rope above our heads were inop. Indy coaster...clunky, this ride needs to be taken down totally. -Fastpass mismanagement. On Peter pan, the CM was allowing about 20 stand by guests for every 8 of them in Fastpass line. Hmmm I thought it was supposed to be the other way around. Consequently the fastpass line was way backed up. When I confronted her, she blew me off and pointed at my row number as if. Another mismanagement of the queue happened at BTMRR where the line split in two separate lines, then funneled together into one before boarding. What was the point of that dual line then? - Cleanliness.. mediocre as usual. But what can we expect from a society that thrives on graffiti everywhere in the Parisian city and suburbs? However, not all was a fiasco. Their Xmas offerings and decor is probably among the best of any Disney park in the World this year. The new Xmas tree and lighting ceremony are stunning. The Xmas cavalcade, while a small affair, it's well done and festive. I love that sound effects of storms and wind accompany the snow falls on main street USA every so often. A small but nice touch. The castle lighting and Xmas Dreams castle show are elegant and very well staged. Here are are spared of all that blah blah blah they do at the MK park for the castle lighting, allowing the visuals and fountains to take over and convey a most magical sight that the MK castle lighting show will never accomplish. So Kudos for that. As for the Walt Disney Studios park... crap. Nothing but a total revamp will make this park a better experience. Even the new rides and additions are already appearing run down and faded in color. The new Remy ride with it's elegant parician facade may be an improvement but its not enough to pull this sorry arse park into a better experience. All in all, DLP's Xmas offerings, decor and even the holiday windows on main Street are a huge plus, but the rest of the park is crying out loud for help that never seems to arrive. While HKDL, TDR and even WDW are offering the same or watered down holidays experiences... these remain better parks over Paris' on maintenance and disney standards alone. My message to EuroDisney management... it's time to realize your parks should be an escape from the reality of Paris and Europe in particular and not an expensive chance to dwell on everything that is not great. So get busy and start making the improvements needed for us to consider your resort worthy of the Disney name.
Originally Posted By tonyanton Thanks for the report...having been back since Christmas '03 and have heard mixed things about maintenance since (and it wasn't great then)...the new tree looks great in pix...glad to hear it is impressive in person.
Originally Posted By dagobert I'm not surprised by your report, but I still think it has been worse in recent years. Nevertheless I can't wait to return in January. I guess you are pleased to here, that DLP's management starts to improve the parks next year. According to Mr. Schott. ED SCA COO, DLP is investing a lot of money over the next years. They will start with MS next year followed by rebuilding Indiana Jones. Hopefully the parks will improve. I'm a little surprised that you don't rant about us bad Europeans ;-).
Originally Posted By FerretAfros >>Another mismanagement of the queue happened at BTMRR where the line split in two separate lines, then funneled together into one before boarding. What was the point of that dual line then?<< That happened to me when I was in DLP about 18 months ago, and used to be quite common at DL's Space Mountain just before the loading area (though they seem to have moved away from that in recent years). In theory, this is done so that there's always a supply of guests waiting to get assigned a boarding row, so that trains can dispatch at full capacity and on time. If one guest isn't paying attention, that won't delay the queue, since the CM can just switch sides and take guests from the other part of the queue. In reality, it really doesn't work like that and ends up just looking stupid and making guests angry that they picked the 'wrong' side of the queue
Originally Posted By Megara That is a real shame about DLP. It is supposed to be the most beautiful disneyland. Why are they so slack?
Originally Posted By FerretAfros To simplify it, it's because the resort was overbuilt when it opened, and has struggled financially ever since. It opened during an economic downturn, the second park opened in another downturn, and it's just been tough for them the whole time. It seems like the management in recent years has started to get things under control, and make a turn toward the right direction Even with the maintenance problems, it's still the most beautiful DL-style park by far, IMO
Originally Posted By TDLFAN Even TDS and DCA struggled in the beginning and I don't recall OLC or Disney letting those parks decay the way EuroDisney SCA is letting this gem of a park go. If Eisner made one mistake, that would be building a Disneyland of such grandeur which is clearly undeserving of the european crowd, just like SDL will be to the chinese.
Originally Posted By Dr Hans Reinhardt "But what can we expect from a society that thrives on graffiti everywhere in the Parisian city and suburbs?" I was following you until this.
Originally Posted By Dr Hans Reinhardt "Even TDS and DCA struggled in the beginning and I don't recall OLC or Disney letting those parks decay the way EuroDisney SCA is letting this gem of a park go." Apparently you've forgotten about the resort's ongoing debt disaster: <a target="blank" rel="nofollow" href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/apr/11/disneyland-paris-20th-birthday-debt">http://www.theguardian.com/wor...day-debt</a> DLP will always struggle because of this and isn't likely that it'll be paid off in our lifetime.
Originally Posted By Dr Hans Reinhardt Anyone else remember when this almost happened? <a target="blank" rel="nofollow" href="http://www.nytimes.com/1994/01/01/business/eisner-says-euro-disney-may-close.html">http://www.nytimes.com/1994/01...ose.html</a>
Originally Posted By Mickeyfan1 I see not much has changed since I visited for the 20th Anniversary in April of 2012. Weeds growing around the castle, auctioneer pirate's head laying on his shoulder and still that way two days later. So much rotting wood and chipped paint. It looked terrible and this in the park that was the most beautiful Disney park when it opened. Such a shame.
Originally Posted By Brad "auctioneer pirate's head laying on his shoulder" Seems par for the course, with Middle East co-owners. The auctioneer is lucky it wasn't completely cut off!
