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While surfing the web I happened to find an open letter to Disney. It has some interesting pictures that I am going to show you as well. Every site that has to do with DLP brings up the subject of the park in a very bad state. How can Disney not act... NOW? Why do I post this here? So that Disney can read it and because there are a few intresting pictures that came with it. Take a look.
Here is the letter:
"Dear Disney
At the beginning of August, I visited Disneyland Paris with my girlfriend and a friend of us. This wasn't the first time, that I've been here. Back in 2005 and around 1997 I visited Paris and Disneyland. In 2003 I was at Disneyland in California and in the year 1995 was the first time I went to Disneyland (California as well). This summer I've also been to Europa Park in Germany, Blackpool Pleasure Beach in the UK and Alton Towers, which is also located in the UK. Besides that I've been various times to Universal Studios, Six Flags and many water parks. Just to give you an idea of how many times I've been to a theme park or similar attraction.
What I've seen at the beginning of August, was just one bad experience I would like to forget as fast as possible. I was truly disappointed by what the management has made of Disneyland Paris!
First of all, the park is in VERY bad shape in my opinion. There are countless places which need refurbishment. In pictures 1-7 you can see some examples. In picture 6, there is obviously something wrong with the gardening job and the various fences and handrails show, that paint jobs are desperately needed. Steel supports are rusting, everywhere. The floors are cracking open all over the place, inside and outside. Signs are in bad shape too, check out picture 8 (the one with the leg... sorry about that). What could it possibly cost to replace such a sign? It does seem to be ancient. Another example of a sign can be seen in picture 9. People are trying to peel off stickers as souvenirs. Of course this happens everywhere, but things like that need immediate replacement.
Picture 10 and 11 give an idea in what condition the studio tour ride is. Image 12 and 13 show the waiting area of one of the newer rides. Some kind of sealing gasket is coming off the ceiling (it would just take a ladder to fix that...) and the lamp that can be seen in the pictures hasn't seen cleaning in ages. There is one picture which shows that refurbishment at a building is being done, which is totally ok... but does it need to be during high season in the middle of summer??
Secondly, there are countless closed restaurants. See further attached pictures. I'd say about half of the restaurants and food stations were closed during the day. Mind you, we visited during high season on a Saturday! At some restaurants we got discounts that where valid at specific times in specific restaurants. However, you had to find one that was open.
Third and probably the most frustrating issue was the condition of the rides. Have a look at the attached screenshots of the official Disneyland Paris app which contains the ride queue times and statuses. This is just an example of how the app was looking during that day. Space Mountain for instance, was down countless times. Also the latest attraction "Ratatouille" was barely up and running. In one of the pictures you see staff sending people away. If you had equally as much technicians, maybe your rides would be in better shape.
In another picture you see an employee "posing" for me after I asked him to take a picture of him in front of a closed ride. One picture shows the empty cart of that same ride which they had to send through for an hour to test things. Fasttrack has been closed at most attractions as well during that day. We couldn't figure out a reason for that, especially since it was for attractions like "Ratatouille".
The fourth thing, which was very disappointing is, that the park has been deserted of Mickey, Minnie, Pluto and all the others. We did not see a single character in the park during our 13.5 hours (!) visit to Disneyland Paris! How is something like that possible in Disneyland? Even at Blackpool Pleasure Beach they have Sponge Bob running around and Europa Park is full of various characters!
What needs to be said as well, is, that the rides of Disneyland Paris are completely outdated and the newer ones are not enjoyable because of their technical issues. It seems over twenty years ago, there has been given a Disneyland to Europe and it has been kept in it's "original shape" ever since, minus the much needed refurbishment.
My impression of Disney and the whole feeling I had about Disneyland has been totally destroyed. The Walt Disney Company should consider of taking away the Disney label from that park and park management should just continue running an amusement park, but this is NOT a Disneyland. It's a disgrace to all that is and especially ever has been, Disney.
Last but not least it needs mentioning, that you get all this at a price of €88 whereas for example the Europa Park (which is a far superior experience) costs €41.
On the positive side, this has motivated me to go to the United States in 2015 to experience the real Disney again and not this sorry excuse of what this place has become.
Kind regards
a loyal Swiss Disney customer"
Here is the letter:
"Dear Disney
At the beginning of August, I visited Disneyland Paris with my girlfriend and a friend of us. This wasn't the first time, that I've been here. Back in 2005 and around 1997 I visited Paris and Disneyland. In 2003 I was at Disneyland in California and in the year 1995 was the first time I went to Disneyland (California as well). This summer I've also been to Europa Park in Germany, Blackpool Pleasure Beach in the UK and Alton Towers, which is also located in the UK. Besides that I've been various times to Universal Studios, Six Flags and many water parks. Just to give you an idea of how many times I've been to a theme park or similar attraction.
What I've seen at the beginning of August, was just one bad experience I would like to forget as fast as possible. I was truly disappointed by what the management has made of Disneyland Paris!
First of all, the park is in VERY bad shape in my opinion. There are countless places which need refurbishment. In pictures 1-7 you can see some examples. In picture 6, there is obviously something wrong with the gardening job and the various fences and handrails show, that paint jobs are desperately needed. Steel supports are rusting, everywhere. The floors are cracking open all over the place, inside and outside. Signs are in bad shape too, check out picture 8 (the one with the leg... sorry about that). What could it possibly cost to replace such a sign? It does seem to be ancient. Another example of a sign can be seen in picture 9. People are trying to peel off stickers as souvenirs. Of course this happens everywhere, but things like that need immediate replacement.
Picture 10 and 11 give an idea in what condition the studio tour ride is. Image 12 and 13 show the waiting area of one of the newer rides. Some kind of sealing gasket is coming off the ceiling (it would just take a ladder to fix that...) and the lamp that can be seen in the pictures hasn't seen cleaning in ages. There is one picture which shows that refurbishment at a building is being done, which is totally ok... but does it need to be during high season in the middle of summer??
Secondly, there are countless closed restaurants. See further attached pictures. I'd say about half of the restaurants and food stations were closed during the day. Mind you, we visited during high season on a Saturday! At some restaurants we got discounts that where valid at specific times in specific restaurants. However, you had to find one that was open.
Third and probably the most frustrating issue was the condition of the rides. Have a look at the attached screenshots of the official Disneyland Paris app which contains the ride queue times and statuses. This is just an example of how the app was looking during that day. Space Mountain for instance, was down countless times. Also the latest attraction "Ratatouille" was barely up and running. In one of the pictures you see staff sending people away. If you had equally as much technicians, maybe your rides would be in better shape.
In another picture you see an employee "posing" for me after I asked him to take a picture of him in front of a closed ride. One picture shows the empty cart of that same ride which they had to send through for an hour to test things. Fasttrack has been closed at most attractions as well during that day. We couldn't figure out a reason for that, especially since it was for attractions like "Ratatouille".
The fourth thing, which was very disappointing is, that the park has been deserted of Mickey, Minnie, Pluto and all the others. We did not see a single character in the park during our 13.5 hours (!) visit to Disneyland Paris! How is something like that possible in Disneyland? Even at Blackpool Pleasure Beach they have Sponge Bob running around and Europa Park is full of various characters!
What needs to be said as well, is, that the rides of Disneyland Paris are completely outdated and the newer ones are not enjoyable because of their technical issues. It seems over twenty years ago, there has been given a Disneyland to Europe and it has been kept in it's "original shape" ever since, minus the much needed refurbishment.
My impression of Disney and the whole feeling I had about Disneyland has been totally destroyed. The Walt Disney Company should consider of taking away the Disney label from that park and park management should just continue running an amusement park, but this is NOT a Disneyland. It's a disgrace to all that is and especially ever has been, Disney.
Last but not least it needs mentioning, that you get all this at a price of €88 whereas for example the Europa Park (which is a far superior experience) costs €41.
On the positive side, this has motivated me to go to the United States in 2015 to experience the real Disney again and not this sorry excuse of what this place has become.
Kind regards
a loyal Swiss Disney customer"
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